Jim Millar

Leaders Debate

2010-04-16T08:49:00.001+01:00

I don't think that this event was ever going to live up to the media hype that preceded it, and in the end it was something of a disappointment.

Many, myself included were looking for a clear and decisive winner, but it simply didn’t happen. The event also failed to deliver the kind of political ‘cut and thrust’ of PMQ’s that many members of the public might have expected.

The format was so rigidly restricted that it effectively stifled spontaneity and the debate limped along at a pedestrian pace that made for very dull television, even for the most dedicated political anoraks.

This debate did very little to change the perception of many that there is not much to choose between the parties, and the amount of time spent on issues that were devolved to Scotland, and therefore irrelevant to us only made things worse.

Gordon Brown was predictably clumsy at times, and his ‘witty asides’ to Cameron were clearly well rehearsed and thrown in at the first available opportunity.

Having heard David Cameron address a relatively hostile audience once before, I’m surprised that he didn’t come across better than he did.

Of the three participants, I’d have to say that Nick Clegg came across as fairly open and sincere, and the polls seem to agree with this.

For all the great sense of anticipation, the idea that history was in the making and that whoever won the debate would win the election, this debate failed to engage with the audience, and more will have changed channels, than were persuaded to change their voting intention.

Alex Salmond & The Crazies

2010-04-15T09:11:00.002+01:00

Hats off to the photographer who got this gem.

Threatening Behaviour II

2010-04-13T21:43:00.000+01:00

A while ago I posted on an incident at my home. You can read about it here.

The incident, where some character came to my house and effectively threatened me over the intercom, did not bother me for my own sake, but I was concerned that an individual might behave this way towards my fiancee if she was staying at my house and I wasn't there. It is worth noting that not only did the 'man' concerned decline to be named in his original letter to the press, he declined to name himself over the intercom, and indeed effectively ran away.

Now technically, there is little to connect the letter in the press with the incident at my home. The only way that it could be proved if the person actually admitted that it was him.

Now, nobody would be that stupid surely? Au contraire. Helpfully, the fellow concerned wrote another letter to the press condemning me for living behind a high wall with electric gates. I understand that the letter pointed out that I should be aware that 'anyone can get to me'.

The local paper passed the letter to the police, who now intend to charge him with breach of the peace when he next enters the country.

There are times when you really couldn't make things up, and this is one of those times. I'll say again what I said in the paper, everyone is entitled to a view, but when an individual chooses to expound views that are arguably narrow minded or verging on the offensive, then they should not be allowed to voice such views in the paper whilst cowering behind the shield of anonymity.

Shakespeare in Govt Consultation

2010-04-01T18:04:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Govt has really got into the way of dishing out consultations. Personally, I think it's a good thing, although some weighty tomes have sallied forth from the ivory towers recently.

As is my wont, I do tend to take an interest in these things, although they can make for rather dull reading. I was a tad surprised, when reading the 'Consultation Paper on Long Leases (Scotland) Bill' (I need to get out more I think) to see a quote from Shakespeare thrown in at the end.

Just under the heading 'Chapter 8 - Conclusion' someone wag has put "Parting is such sweet sorrow. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet." I can't help but wonder if the Civil Servant responsible takes his or her audience for being profoundly ill read and felt obliged to state the source of the quote.

I also can't help but wonder if someone will get their backside metaphorically kicked over this. Not for putting a literary quote in a consultation paper, but given the nature of the Scottish Government, for using Shakespeare instead of Burns...........

Statement By Anne Moffat..............

2010-03-23T17:06:00.000Z

This statement has just been released by Anne Moffat. I wonder how long it will take the First Minister to slip any of this into his response at FMQ's?

I am deeply saddened that my service to East Lothian Constituency has come to an end in such distressing and appalling circumstances.
Firstly, may I say that it has been a privilege and a pleasure to serve this constituency and to be in a position to know that through my work and the work of my office team we have been able to help so many individuals who have sought assistance.
Regrettably, the manner in which I have been treated by so called comrades and labour party activists leaves me with a sense of disbelief that such conduct is prevalent in a democratic socialist party.

I want to take this opportunity to publicly put on record my absolute conviction that I have been the victim of systematic and sustained bullying at all levels of the Labour Party. I have never been asked to provide any evidence of this behaviour but I can assure everyone that I have never claimed anything which I could not evidence and substantiate. A bullying culture exists at all levels within the Labour Party. By simple example on Tuesday morning the NEC endorsed the decision taken to remove me as candidate. Immediately the NEC position was declared, I was contacted by representatives of the media to ask for my comments on the decision.
Unbelievably, at the time of this press release I have yet to be formally notified of the NEC decision.
The meeting last Friday was shameful to the Labour movement. The contributions of individuals during the meeting were vicious and slanderous.

Sadly there are no politics left within East Lothian Labour Party, only personal spites and divisions. I wish Iain Gray had the strength to unite the Party but I doubt it. My sympathy lies with the voters of East Lothian who now have only two choices….. a bitter and divided Labour Party or the Tories?

Edinburgh Trams - The Debacle Continues

2010-03-10T16:48:00.000Z

I drive in Edinburgh a lot, and like everyone else, I'm fed up with the tram works. Today Edinburgh Trams Board issued this press release:

Edinburgh Trams Board Updates City on negotiations

This update follows a meeting of the Edinburgh Trams Board today.

The Board noted formally its profound disappointment with the lack of progress by the consortium (with the exclusion of CAF the contractor responsible for the manufacture and delivery of the vehicles) against the expected progress.

The Board also expressed deep concern that the latest revised programme provided by the contractor Bilfinger Berger proposes an additional delay to the original programme which would extend this by a further 30 months from now to a completion date of January 2014. This was deemed to be entirely unacceptable by the Board, as was an unqualified increase in cost.

At the meeting, the Board reviewed options in order to achieve the delivery of the trams. The Chairman acknowledged the frustration being experienced by the many stakeholders across the City:

“My concerns and those of my fellow directors are for the people of Edinburgh who have continued to suffer from these seemingly endless delays. I am genuinely not in a position to talk in detail about the confidential aspects of today’s meeting – this is for reasons of commercial sense. However I can say that today we have been presented with a series of options by the management team. We have had a full and constructive discussion around these options and have a clear sense of what we need to do to achieve the best possible outcome. We have also been reassured that the basis on which we intend to move forward is fully justified and that the enhanced rigour requested by the Board earlier this year has been followed to the letter.

At the meeting the Board reviewed our legal and commercial advice and the findings from a set of specially commissioned audits on the consortium’s progress. The meeting addressed the key issues in detail and concluded with an instruction to the management team to continue to apply rigorously the legal terms of the contract to the contractor including and taking into account fully their actions to date. While the board will continue to seek a reasonable negotiated outcome to all matters in dispute, the clients’ rights will be strenuously safeguarded.

Our stakeholders are entirely unified in the resolution to apply the full terms of the contract.

“As soon as there is more to say publicly, we will provide that information. Our priority, and that of our partners, remains the delivery of a 21st Century integrated public transport system, that represents good value and which Scotland’s Capital City deserves. This we will do.”

Leaders Debate

2010-03-04T17:23:00.000Z

The SNP have threatened to review their broadcasting policy after it was announced that Alex Salmond would not be taking part in the General Election leaders debates.

Who cares?

Minimum Pricing Fail?

2010-03-04T16:12:00.000Z

In what could prove to be a fatal blow to the SNP's flagship minimum pricing, the European Court of Justice has ruled today that the minimum pricing of tobacco in Austria, Ireland, and France violates EU law.

Obviously, this refers to tobacco and not alcohol, but I'd suggest that a similar result would be forthcoming if a similar case was brought for alcohol.

The opinion on this does seem to have ebbed and flowed, but this may well be the final straw.

Labour Poster

2010-02-27T13:34:00.000Z

I wonder if spoof political posters will be the hallmark of this election?

(HT to My Labour Poster)

Sturgeon Statement

2010-02-24T16:03:00.000Z

I'm not going to go into the nuts and bolts of the Nicola Sturgeon's statement.

Suffice to say it was a strong, confident performance that struck the right tone. Arguably, she bested Iain Gray, though some contend it was a close run thing. Perhaps the person coming off the worst in this is now Alex Salmond after his almost absurdly vocal defence of her just a couple of weeks before.

I never thought this was a resigning issue, but it did underline the apparent emnity between Labour and the SNP.

Back to the drawing board for Labour I think, but we may see more scalp hunting in the not too distant future.

The knee jerk 'resign/apologise' mantra really isn't kidding anyone anymore.

Grumpy Gordon

2010-02-23T16:13:00.000Z

A BAD tempered turtle has been named Grumpy Gordy and moved into solitary confinement, after bullying other aquatic lifeforms at Scotland's largest sanctuary for marine animals.

Staff at the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary near Oban had to isolate their new Snapper Turtle for bullying behaviour almost as soon as he arrived there on Monday so immediately named him after Gordon Brown, according to centre spokeswoman Ellie Cowley.

Ms Cowley said: "Bullies are said to have a hard outer shell, and the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary's newest resident is no exception.

"Grumpy Gordy was immediately confined to the 'naughty' tank after his snapping tantrums shocked Sea Life staff into deciding he would be a danger to the other turtles."
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary Manager Alex Blackman said: "We had to confine Gordy to his own tank. Snapper Turtles have a razor sharp beak which could easily take off a finger, so he could really have done his tank-mates some damage.
"Staff helping to move him had to go and get extra thick gloves to move him into his tank, and started calling him Grumpy Gordy after Gordon Brown as a joke and the name has stuck.

" I don't think it helps that, as a more mature Snapper Turtle, Gordy has quite a jowly chin and a grumpy face."

Gordy was moved to the Oban sanctuary to ease an overcrowding problem at a turtle sanctuary in Scarborough.

Mr Blackman added: "With a shell spanning 17 inches square Gordy is a hefty size for a Common Snapper Turtle. He weighs more than 30lbs so is a force to be reckoned with."
Living up to 40 years and growing up to 40lbs, the Snapper Turtle is the largest species of Freshwater Turtle to be found in the United States.

Whereas the Snapper Turtle's gentler cousins retreat into their shells when in danger, the 'dinosauresque' Snapper is an aggressive fighter with exceptionally sharp claws and beak, and will strike out at animals that threaten it in a similar fashion to snakes.

You've Been Glasgowed

2010-02-23T14:42:00.000Z

Excellent article in Holyrood magazine about programmes in Cincinnati and Boston which seek to tackle gang violence.

Strathclyde Police's Chief Inspector had gone to the USA to see how their programme worked. It was a balanced piece, highly informative and well worth a read. You can find it here.

One American police officer told the Chief Inspector that they called a stabbing a 'Glasgow'.

As a result, one SNP MSP has decided to lodge the motion below in the Scottish Parliament:
S3M-05795 Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow) (Scottish National Party): Condemning the Phrase, Someone Has Been Glasgowed— That the Parliament condemns the phrase, someone has been Glasgowed, which is reported to be used by the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) in Ohio in the United States of America, when referring to stabbing incidents; notes its absolute disapproval of the practice of portraying Glasgow as a city of the blade; recognises the issue of knife crime in Glasgow and across the country; considers that the Scottish Government takes knife crime very seriously and has introduced a serious of measures that have resulted in the reduction of this type of crime across the city of Glasgow as a whole by over 17% in the last two years, prime examples being in Baillieston, Shettleston and Eastern Glasgow, where knife crime rates were highest but have been reduced by over 39% in the same time period; considers that the people of Glasgow are best known for their hospitality, culture and good humour; encourages officials from the CPD to come and experience these measures and Glasgow hospitality first hand, and calls on the CPD to ensure that this derogatory term is no longer used when referring to someone having been stabbed.

Dubai Assassination Tape

2010-02-20T16:09:00.001Z

A lot of news coverage of this has surrounded the use of British passports.

However, this compilation of CCTV footage has been released, and it's incredibly interesting.

Threatening Behaviour

2010-02-18T15:19:00.000Z

A while ago, I blogged on the possibility of the 'Lion of Scotland' sculpture being brought on loan to Arbroath. It currently sits near Holyrood Palace and the Parliament, but has to be moved by the end of April. You can read the original post and see a 'mock up' of what it would look like here.

The subject went quite quiet for a while, but with time moving on, an Arbroath resident sought to gather support for the move to the town, and spoke to the local paper about it.

In next weeks edition, a letter was printed in response to the story. Written in Scots, it poured scorn on the idea for various reasons, largely however, because the resident had only been living in Arbroath for 18 months (having moved up from England), and, by implication, was therefore less entitled to an opinion. He then inferred she should take it 'back to her own town'. The letter went on in the same, rather aggressive vein for some time, before ending with the fact he would be back in Arbroath for a very brief visit and would 'fight his corner with anybody' over the subject. Manfully, he then signed off as an 'Ex Pat'.

I was somewhat offended by the tone of this letter and wrote back. I pointed out that in my view, Arbroath belonged as much to those who had moved into the area as those of us who were born and bred here.

I asked how the ex pat would feel if the locals in his adopted home declined to give due weight to his opinions simply because he was not from there.

The fact that he offered to 'fight his corner' over the subject whilst declining to have his name and address published was something that I was particularly critical of.

This was published on Friday, and on Monday, the intercom at my home 'buzzed'. I answered it, and was met with vague threats etc as he stated "you've been saying things about me to the paper". More than once he also stated I should watch myself. He declined to give his name. It went silent, and I ran to the window and looked out. There was no one there. I put my shoes on, and went down the stairs and outside, there was no sign of our 'hero'.

I gave it some thought for a day or two and e-mailed the police on the basis that when the 'visitor' arrived, my fiance had not long left, and I wonder how this fellow might have spoken to her if she was alone in the property. The police were concerned and are now investigating.

I have now found out the name of the anonymous letter writer, and although he definitely is an 'ex pat', he, and his political views remain well known.

I'll be providing updates on this as they occur.

Happy Valentines Day

2010-02-14T10:39:00.000Z

One of the highlights of Valentine's Day for me is not the flower sending etc, it's the amount of coverage /comment it generates.

Inevitably, there are the 'History of Valentines Day' articles, with Classics Professor Noel Lenski from the University of Colorado pointing out in the National Geographic, that in ancient Rome, the 13, 14, 15 February was a fertility festival celebrated in a rather unusual way.

Toby Young, writing for the Telegraph claims Valentines Day is 'strictly for the birds' and calls for a suitable 'male equivalent'. It's quite funny, and you can read it here.

One primary school in England has attempted to ban any celebrations, and you can read about it here.

Innovative PR people also manage to utilise the day for their causes. The British Lung Foundation is offering Valentines Day sex tips, whilst over in America the 'Center of Biological Diversity' is celebrating Valentines Day by distributing 100,000 condoms to help increase awareness of the impact of human overpopulation over endangered species. They have used some classy slogans to go with it including "Wrap with care, save the Polar Bear" and "Hump smarter, save the snail darter". I'm guessing they didn't hire Saatchi & Saatchi to come up with that, but if you are interested in learning more, it can be found here.

The Guardian's Emma Laurence points out the worst Valentines Day gift ideas in quite an amusing article here. Take a look, there's some belters.

I've been a bit disorganised this year, but the flowers are on their way, the card is bought, and if I can just find a restaurant that isn't fully booked, I'll be fine. Shouldn't be too hard should it?

Hoon to Go

2010-02-11T12:32:00.001Z

News currently breaking is that Geoff Hoon is to stand down at the election. Frankly, I'm delighted to see the back of him.

Represent or not?

2010-02-11T07:21:00.000Z

The Deputy First Minister has got herself into a bit of bother after writing to a Sheriff claiming that a fraudster (who had already served time for stealing almost £60k) had made a 'mistake'in defrauding the taxpayer (you and me that is) of £80k. She asked him to 'consider alternatives to a custodial sentence'.

You can read the Scotsman report on it here.

Labour MP Tom Harris has given his view of the case here, and the opposition parties are going to town on it in general.

Ms Sturgeon declined to appear on Newsnight last night, but did send Shona Robison as a ~~sacrifical lamb~~ representative for the SNP. It was a frankly dreadful performance which you can watch in glorious Technicolor here.

Inevitably, judgements have been called into question, and links (somewhat bizarely) have been made with 'lunchgate'.

So what will happen? Apart from the fact that it highlights once again the SNP's almost pathalogical aversion to jailing criminals, nothing at all. It's an incident that allows epic scale political posturing, but in reality it's a 'five day wonder' that won't even last that long.

Funeral Pyres

2010-02-10T12:30:00.000Z

A Hindu spiritual healer has won the right to be cremated on a traditional funeral pyre after the Court of Appeal ruled that his last wishes can be carried out within existing legislation.

Davender Ghai, 71, who believes that a pyre is essential to "a good death" and the release of his spirit into the afterlife, was refused permission to be cremated according to his Hindu beliefs by Newcastle City Council and lost a challenge to that decision at the High Court in London in May last year.

But the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, who headed a panel of three appeal judges, said before delivering the court's ruling: "Contrary to what everyone seems to have assumed below, and I am not saying it is anyone's fault, it seems to us that Mr Ghai's religious and personal beliefs as to how his remains should be cremated once he dies can be accommodated within current cremation legislation."

But not, it would seem in Scotland. According to the Scottish Government's 'Consultation Paper on Death Certification, Burial & Cremation' (Which is actually an interesting read)

106. At present home cremation is not legal, however, to prevent any dispute or legal challenge the Review Group has recommended that any future legislation should specifically state that open air / home cremation is not legal. The Scottish Government is in agreement with this recommendation and will incorporate such a clause in any future relevant legislation.

I wonder if any new legislation in Scotland will be tight enough to fend off any legal challenge for a 'home cremation'? Alternatively, should provision be made for this kind of funeral?

Probation Orders

2010-02-09T16:20:00.000Z

It's not exactly encouraging news that significant rises in Probation Order and Drug Treatment & Testing Order breaches have been recorded:

- Of the 6,437 Community Service Orders this year (4% increase on 2007/08) 2,113 breach applications were made to the court. That is a decrease of 2% compared with 2007/08 but an increase of 41% in the last 5 years.

- Around 31% of orders terminated resulted in a breach.

- 6,744 Community Service Orders were terminated in 2008/09 – 65% were successfully completed.

- Of the 9,072 Probation Orders (including probation orders with a requirement of unpaid work) this year (an increase of 4% compared to last year) 5,698 breach applications were made to the court, that is an increase of 23% since last year.

- About 63% of these orders resulted in a breach.

- 7,364 Probation Orders were terminated in 2008/09 – 46% were successful completed this is a decrease from last year (2006/7 58% were successful completed).

- Of the 4,306 Supervised Attendance Orders imposed, 2,208 breach applications were made to the courts.

- Breach Applications for Supervised Attendance Orders have increased by 68% from 2008/09.

- 3,936 Supervised Attendance Orders were terminated in 2008/09 – 61% were successfully completed.

- A total of 752 Drug Treatment and Testing Orders were made in 2008/09, an increase of 25% since 2007/08

- Of the 752 Drug Treatment and Testing Orders, 218 had a breach application, that is 29%.

- 542 DTTOs were terminated in 2008/09 only 40% were due to successful completion.

This really does not bode well for the SNP's grand plan of 'tough community sentences'. The First Minister certainly scored some points when he highlighted the fact that criminals were out shovelling snow when they would otherwise be in a nice warm cell with three meals a day. Perhaps he had a point. But the figures quoted above would make anyone uneasy as to just how effective these community sentences will be.

It's not just about deterring, punishing and rehabilitating criminals in my view, it's about giving the community, especially the victims of crime, confidence that the justice system works appropriately.

Right now, I don't think that's the case, and I suspect it will get worse.

Polls

2010-02-08T10:26:00.002Z

TNS-BRMB Poll released today: (amended to include the Lib Dems, thank to Jeff)

Holyrood Constituency:

SNP 35 (-5)
Lab 37 (+5)
Con 13 (=)
LD 12 (+1)
Others 3 (-2)

Holyrood Regional

SNP 30 (-7)
Lab 37 (+8)
Con 12 (=)
LD 12 (=)
Green 5 (+1)
Others 3 (-3)

Figures in brackets are from the last TNS-BRMB in October 2009

Guest Post By Alex Johnstone MSP

2010-01-15T15:32:00.000Z

I'm delighted that Alex Johnstone MSP has agreed to do guest post on the blog. Alex has chosen to discuss the NHS.

David Cameron this week launched the Conservative Party's draft health manifesto. This is the culmination of three years of work in which he has consistently made the NHS his priority and during which, as political parties compete with each other to threaten draconian cuts in public expenditure, he alone has held firm that the NHS budget will be protected. He has consistently fought to protect the values the NHS stands for and has campaigned to defend the NHS from cuts and reorganisations.

I remember the irony some years ago when the Labour Party were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the creation of the NHS, while conveniently turning a blind eye to the fact that, of these 50 years, all but 15 had passed under a Conservative government and that, during the limited tenure of Labour, in the late 1970's, the service was brought to its knees by, of all things, a fight between a Labour Prime Minister and the trade union movement. As the facts bear out, the Conservatives are the party of the NHS and committed to the idea at its heart – that healthcare in this country is free at the point of use and available to everyone based on need, not ability to pay. Labour promised to save the NHS but today, despite the massive increase in spending, the gap in health outcomes between the UK and the rest of Europe has actually widened.

Here in Scotland, control and responsibility for the NHS is devolved and lies with the government in Edinburgh. Nevertheless, as it has in England and Wales, the service has suffered a decade in which top-down bureaucratic mismanagement has consistently undermined the professionalism and motivation of NHS staff and skewed NHS priorities away from patient care, creating a culture where ticking boxes is more important than giving patients the treatment they need. We can’t go on with an NHS that puts targets before patients.

Conservatives understand the pressures the NHS faces. In recognition of its special place in our society, we are committed to protecting health spending in real terms – we will not make the sick pay for Labour’s Debt Crisis. That does not mean however, that the NHS should not change. When you’re more likely to die of cancer in Britain than most other countries in Europe – and when the number of managers in the NHS is rising almost three times as fast as the number of nurses – the question isn’t whether the NHS should change, it’s how the NHS should change.

Health expenditure per person in Scotland has traditionally been higher than it is in the rest of Britain. This is partly because we have some greater health problems and a disproportionate number of areas of deprivation, so the costs could be expected to be greater. This historical anomaly has resulted in a safety margin in the Scottish budget which has allowed for a limited squeeze without too much funding pain. Alas, this luxury may no longer available.

While NHS spending in Scotland is decided by the Scottish government, the money to pay for it comes from the Scottish block grant which comes from Westminster and is calculated using the Barnett formula. This means that if the NHS budget for England and Wales is protected, the same level of protection will be applied to the element of the block grant which covers health expenditure in Scotland. The decision as to how that money is spent however, lies with Alex Salmond's government in Edinburgh. While the Conservatives have made their commitment to protect the funding for the NHS, no such commitment has yet emerged from Scottish National Party.

The NHS in Scotland is something which we should all be proud of. As the pressures of funding begin to bite, things will not be easy for the men and women who provide health care in our hospitals and our communities. A new Conservative government will do every thing in its power to protect the health service, but in Scotland, an equal level of commitment will be required from the Scottish Government. The Conservatives will not turn health care into a political football – we must hear that same commitment from the Government in Edinburgh.

This commitment will also need to extend beyond the allocation of funds. In order to get the best for everyone in these difficult times, some reform of the structures to provide better efficiency, ensuring that much more of the resources reach the front line and much less goes into bureaucracy, will be necessary. David Cameron's reform plan, detailed in his Draft Manifesto, is based on the methods of the post-bureaucratic age – decentralisation, accountability and transparency. These lessons must also be learned in Scotland.

Detention For Blair II

2010-01-15T02:17:00.000Z

Further to my earlier post on Bill Wilson's parliamentary motion calling for the detention and indictment of Tony Blair, the ever dependable Lord Foulkes has chipped in with this amendment (the original motion is below that):

S3W-5525.1: As an amendment to motion S3M-5525 in the name of Bill Wilson (The Illegality of the Invasion of Iraq and the Detention of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair), leave out from "welcomes" to end and insert "recalls delegations of Kurds and Marsh Arabs who visited the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s describing the torture, murder and genocide of their people by Saddam Hussein and their calls on British politicians to take action to help them; further recalls the feeling of impotence at Britain's inability to help, and therefore believes that the action taken by the UK Government led by Tony Blair and supported by a vote in the House of Commons was not only justified by the UN resolution and convention on genocide but was morally right in ridding the world of one of its bloodiest dictators and giving the Iraqi people the opportunity to elect their own government and move towards peace and prosperity.

S3M-05525 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): The Illegality of the Invasion of Iraq and the Detention of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair: That the Parliament welcomes the finding of an independent Dutch commission that UN Security Council Resolution 1441 "cannot reasonably be interpreted as authorising individual member states to use military force to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council’s resolutions, without authorization from the Security Council"; notes that data gathered by Opinion Research Business indicated that, in September 2007, approximately one million Iraqi citizens had died as a result of the invasion of that country; further notes that, according to media reports, Hans Blix considers that the invasion was illegal and believes that the former UK Prime Minister and former US President misled the public; acknowledges that, according to the High Court of Justiciary in Lord Advocate’s Reference No.1 of 2000, "a rule of customary international law is a rule of Scots law" and considers that, this being the case, the appropriate Scottish law enforcement agencies have the power to investigate the conclusions of the Dutch commission and the role of the former UK Prime Minister, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, in waging a war of aggression, and looks forward to his detention and indictment.

Parliament Running Costs

2010-01-14T23:33:00.000Z

It has been revealed that the running costs of the Scottish Parliament in the past year amounted to £72 million.

For the financial year ending on 31 March 2009, the total revenue expenditure of the Scottish Parliament was £72 million. This figure is made up of:
• administration and property running costs for the Parliament of £19.3 million
• parliamentary staff salaries of £24.7 million
• MSP salaries of £10.4 million
• Members' costs (which enable the MSPs to obtain staff and accommodation to help them carry out their parliamentary duties) of £10.5 million.
• funding for the salaries and running costs of the Commissioners and Ombudsman of £7.1 million.

Good Put Down

2010-01-14T12:48:00.000Z

I did one of the 'personality tests' on Facebook.

Seeing the supposed description of me, I got some 'you're having a laugh' e-mails from a colleague. I protested that it was in fact completely accurate.

She of course was having none of it, and it went back and forth in this vein for some time until she ended the banter with the killer line "I laughed so much at that I thought I'd have to borrow a Tena Lady from Doris (*)"

Not much you can say to that really.

(*)The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Coming Soon - Guest Posts

2010-01-14T11:40:00.000Z

Three guest posts will feature on the blog soon. Tory MSP Derek Brownlee will post his thoughts on the budget, Alex Johnstone MSP will be doing a post on a subject yet to be decided and Labour activist Yousuf over at 'Yapping Yousuf' will also do a guest post, possibly next week.

Detention for Blair?

2010-01-13T16:48:00.000Z

Bill Wilson MSP lodged the motion below in the Scottish Parliament today.

You may wish to pay particular attention this bit: " “a rule of customary international law is a rule of Scots law” and considers that, this being the case, the appropriate Scottish law enforcement agencies have the power to investigate the conclusions of the Dutch commission and the role of the former UK Prime Minister, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, in waging a war of aggression, and looks forward to his detention and indictment."

So, I presume then, that he is advocating that Scots police nip over the border, or to whichever country Tony Blair is gracing with presence, arrests him and brings him back to Scotland for a fair trial?

If the SNP are reluctant to jail anyone in the first place, and then releases an already convicted mass murderer, then what would be the point of trying to put Blair on trial?

S3M-05525 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament
welcomes the finding of an independent Dutch commission that UN Security Council Resolution 1441 “cannot reasonably be interpreted as authorising individual member states to use military force to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council’s resolutions, without authorization from the Security Council”; notes that data gathered by Opinion Research Business indicated that, in September 2007, approximately one million Iraqi citizens had died as a result of the invasion of that country; further notes that, according to media reports, Hans Blix considers that the invasion was illegal and believes that the former UK Prime Minister and former US President misled the public; acknowledges that, according to the High Court of Justiciary in Lord Advocate’s Reference No.1 of 2000, “a rule of customary international law is a rule of Scots law” and considers that, this being the case, the appropriate Scottish law enforcement agencies have the power to investigate the conclusions of the Dutch commission and the role of the former UK Prime Minister, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, in waging a war of aggression, and looks forward to his detention and indictment.

Another report on the perils of drink

2010-01-13T12:04:00.000Z

Interesting article from the Press and Journal:

Another report on the perils of drink

NOT a day seems to go by without the minority Scottish administration berating the public with another damning report on the perils of drink.

We are bombarded with statistic after statistic, report after report; some cynics might suspect a desperate propaganda war was being waged to avoid another embarrassing SNP humiliation on a key party policy.

Alcohol abuse is a drain on NHS resources, but we can only guess at how much this orchestrated political spin-doctoring is costing the taxpayer. The latest alcohol figures seized on by ministers Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney were so relentlessly mind-boggling that there is a danger their audience will simply switch off.

Where are these figures plucked from and how are they worked out? We never seem to find out. It would be interesting to see how much cash for the NHS and to generate profit and jobs in retail and the drinks industry comes from the vast majority of responsible drinkers.

A huge proportion of patients are admitted to hospital with a range of self-inflicted conditions every day, from drink, obesity, drugs and recklessness on the roads to self-inflicted industrial and DIY accidents. Shall we tax them all?

Penalising the majority with a catch-all pricing policy is not the magic bullet. People will switch brands for a cheaper alternative. Ingrained cultural behaviour has to change. A sustained zero-tolerance crackdown by police, courts and the drinks industry on drunken public behaviour would be a starting point, but it’s quick and easy to raise prices and the minority administration cannot afford a bruising defeat so close to its biggest challenge of all – delivering a referendum on independence.

E-mail from a constituent

2010-01-12T09:48:00.000Z

I sometimes get e-mails from people commenting on current affairs either locally or nationally.

With the senders permission, I have published one I received last night:

Jim

Had to laugh. Just saw something on the news saying that the government is going to hand out something like 170,000 FREE laptop computers & broadband packages to 'low income families'.

I don't mean to sound cynical, but couldn't possibly be a desperate attempt to win the 'chav vote' at the up-coming general election could it, hehehe?

I don't think they've really thought this through:

1/ I spoke to one of the BT Broadband engineers today, he said the local exchange can barely cope with the demand for broadband in Arbroath, & it grinds to a halt during really busy times. Shouldn't someone suggest to the powers that be that they should sort out the internet infrastructure first? In the UK about the fastest internet we have is about 20 meg, in Seoul South Korea the government invested in broadband internet early on, & everyone has FREE broadband delivering something like 40,000 meg download speeds. For the equivolent of around £10 a month you get 100,000 meg download speeds! At Brechin Road we get 4 meg on a good day.

2/ Most of the 'low income families' already have cheap laptops, x-boxes, playstations, psp's, etc etc etc!

3/ I don't want the fekin money I paid in taxes to buy Charlie McChav a bloody laptop & free broadband!!!!!

So the next time you're in parliament, please walk up to someone from Labour, punch them REALLY hard in the face & tell them that it was from me, hehe:o)

Take care

Mark

Not a fan of Thomas Cook then?

2010-01-07T10:56:00.000Z

This somewhat hard hitting Parliamentary motion was lodged by Cunninghame North MSP Kenneth Gibson, who is clearly not a fan of travel company Thomas Cook.........

Book it, Just Don't Thomas Cook it!

That the Parliament notes the recently published report in Which? Holiday that pointed out that Thomas Cook had one of the lowest customer approval ratings of any holiday company, with complaints including poor-quality hotel rooms and unhelpful staff as well as accusations that the tour operator’s brochures exaggerated standards on offer; believes that, if the views of the 139 passengers who had the misfortune to be booked on flight TCX841L on 26 December 2009 had been included, the report would have been even more critical of Thomas Cook; understands that this flight from Las Palmas to Glasgow was cancelled without notice, that passengers were given no information for hours on end and that the flight eventually left more than 13 hours late, that passengers were told that booking conditions meant that Thomas Cook was obliged to take them only to the United Kingdom not to Glasgow and that if they did not board the flight provided to take them to East Midlands Airport they could find their own way home; recognises that the exhausted passengers included people who were ill, very young, very elderly and heavily pregnant who were apparently told untruths throughout their journey and arrived in Glasgow 20 hours late after having been bussed from East Midlands Airport to Glasgow Airport, and considers that treating customers in such a cavalier take-it-or-leave-it fashion without so much as an apology will do as much to damage the reputation of Thomas Cook as any report and that Thomas Cook needs to spend less on advertising and more on looking after its customers if it is to retain its reputation as a trustworthy company.

Hewitt, Hoon and Clarke should all face secret ballots

2010-01-07T09:16:00.001Z

John Prescot's view of the new Tory poster, and the Hewitt/Hoon debacle.................

Re-arranging the Titanic Deckchairs..........

2010-01-06T22:33:00.000Z

In a somewhat dramatic knee jerk reaction to the letter from Hoon and Hewitt (Hoon of course will always be remembered for sending troops to war without adequate, or even appropriate equipment), Labourlist has called for a show of unity.

I can't help but think that when it gets to that stage in politics, then you really are in the brown stuff (did you see what I did there).

There's some classic stuff in the text:

"We must not resort to negative attacks on the basis of class war" (bit late for that is it not)

"It means that Labour must be willing to accept not everything it has done in government has been perfect" (Ya think???)

"we don’t doubt that the next four months will be difficult" (No shit Sherlock)

"We are dismayed" (Just like the rest of us then.....)

"focus on bringing about a better future for the people of Britain." (just how many terms will it take to undo the damage you have visited on the UK)

Some commentators feel that this will blow over soon enough, though even if it does, I suspect it will cause residual damage to Labour's prospects at the next election.

The next few days will be interesting I think.

Letter From Geoff Hoon & Patricia Hewitt

2010-01-06T13:52:00.002Z

The following is a letter from Geoff Hoon & Patrician Hewitt calling for a secret ballot.........

Dear Colleague,
As we move towards a General Election it remains the case that the Parliamentary Labour Party is deeply divided over the question of the leadership. Many colleagues have expressed their frustration at the way in which this question is affecting our political performance. We have therefore come to the conclusion that the only way to resolve this issue would be to allow every member to express their view in a secret ballot.

This could be done quickly and with minimum disruption to the work of MPs and the Government. Whatever the outcome the whole of the party could then go forward, knowing that this matter had been sorted out once and for all.

Strong supporters of the Prime Minister should have no difficulty in backing this approach. There is a risk otherwise that the persistent background briefing and grumbling could continue up to and possibly through the election campaign, affecting our ability to concentrate all of our energies on getting our real message across.
Equally those who want change, should they lose such a vote, would be expected by the majority of the PLP to devote all of their efforts to winning the election. The implications of such a vote would be clear – everyone would be bound to support the result.

This is a clear opportunity to finally lay this matter to rest. The continued speculation and uncertainty is allowing our opponents to portray us as dispirited and disunited. It is damaging our ability to set out our strong case to the electorate. It is giving our political opponents an easy target.

In what will inevitably be a difficult and demanding election campaign, we must have a determined and united parliamentary party. It is our job to lead the fight against our political opponents. We can only do that if we resolve these distractions. We hope that you will support this proposal.

Yours fraternally,
Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt

Time to Reform Local Govt?

2010-01-06T06:43:00.002Z

Further to yesterday's post where I made reference to calls for reforming local government, this letter is in today's Courier:

Sir,—I refer to John D. Thomson’s letter in which he advocates re-forming the old regional author-ities. I spent my entire working life in local authority employment, from office junior to departmental head, and I completely agree with him.

Prior to the constitution of the regions in 1975, Scottish local government was in an unsustainable mess. With the institution of the regions, sanity was restored, despite the lingering parochialism which tacked on the district authorities, when it would have been much better for the regions to have been all-purpose.

When the regions were abandoned for political reasons and replaced with yet another plethora of under-sized authorities, all with their administrative superstructures, we were once again back to something resembling the pre-1975 situation.

Now we find authorities are having to look at sharing services, lending proof to the argument there are too many local authorities for each to be self-sustaining in the provision of at least some services.

This may not be the time for a complete reform of local government but, at the next opportunity, the regions should be restored as your correspondent suggests, with a suitable division of what was Strathclyde Regional Council, as it was too big and required so many empowered sub-regions as to make them almost separate authorities.

Yet, having said that, and without giving examples, Strathclyde provided services for some parts of the region which surpassed by miles what had passed for local government before that huge region took over.

Such local government reorganisation would require yet another upheaval and might well be accompanied by other reforms in numbers, function and qualification of councillors, the need for chief executives, and other areas which could stand investigation, but local government is still very important, despite the powers and reach of the Scottish Government.

It is, therefore, time that some body or other was set up to have a thorough look at the whole system.

The correspondent makes some interesting and valid points. There does seem to be an appetite for change in order to achieve economies of scale. There is merit in this argument, although I'm not convinced that the savings will be as much as some would predict.

Questioning the need for council Chief Executives is also something that has been raised before, as well as the the qualification of councillors. The latter particularly interests me.

As Convener of a department that includes housing, I decided to go back to university to learn more about it. I was surprised to find that I'm the first Councillor ever to do the housing course, and yet what I've learned so far has been extremely useful.

As Councillors are now salaried, there may well be a case for more qualifications/training or 'continuing personal development' for elected members. Though if that would be the case at local level, is there a need for this in members of national government?

Perhaps it is time to examine the role of local government. It would be a difficult and ambitious task no doubt, but the historically high levels of local authority funding are unlikely to return, so focussing solely on delivering core services and shedding a lot of the things that have gradually been 'bolted on' to councils by central government over the years might make sense.

Time will tell.

'Cooncillor' Pay Freeze

2010-01-04T22:04:00.002Z

A two year pay freeze for Councillors has been mooted, with some even going so far as to suggest that responsibility allowances are cut by 20%.

Personally, I'm pretty relaxed at the possibility of a pay freeze, and I suspect that it is going to happen whether anyone complains or not.

There is no question that money is extremely tight and hard choices will have to be made.

That said, any savings made by freezing the pay of local councillors may well count for nothing if senior (and I stress senior, as opposed to those on the more modest end of the coluncil pay ladder) are awarded a pay rise.

Iain Macwhirter states that over 800 public sector employees now earn more than the Prime Minister and comments on his blog: "Pen pushing bureaucrats in dowdy council offices, many of them virtually unemployable, are now strutting around like Fred Goodwin shooting their cuffs and demanding bonuses to give them an ‘incentive’."

Having been threatened with a visit from the Standards Commissioner for publicly criticising two council officers previously, I'll make no comment on Mr Macwhirter's thoughts.

The honorary secretary of the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives (ALACE) has hit back stating that the poor dears were becoming the 'whipping boys' of some sections of the media and politics.

She further added that the message sent by a pay freeze was that bosses were 'less valued' than their staff. "It's not about the money, it's the principle" she added.

Elsewhere, a threat to cap council pensions follows claims that some long serving staff have accumulated £150,000 per year pension entitlements through the final salary-linked Local Govt pension scheme.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. A look through the job section of the 'MJ' magazine 'the management journal for local authority business' shows some fairly high salaries, up to almost £200k in one example. It is debatable whether the public sector can sustain high salary levels in the face of such economic hardship, although previously, it has been argued that generous salaries were required to attract talented individuals from the private sector. I don't know how succesful this strategy has been however.

It may be that those who feel that now would be a good time re-organise local government in Scotland are right. It has been suggested that merging local authorities would bring economies of scale and substantial savings to the public purse. It's a debate that I think we are edging towards, and we may need to have it sooner rather than later.

Justice?

2009-12-28T00:33:00.000Z

In a judgement so utterly out of touch with either public opinion or expectation, that it can only be a matter of time before the judge is offered a job by Kenny MacAskill, Mr Munir Hussain has been jailed for two and a half years for assaulting a burglar with a cricket bat.

Mr Hussain and his family were tied up and beaten by three knife wielding thugs. He and his brother escaped and beat up one of the robbers (who had more than 50 previous convictions). The robber received a 'supervision order'.

Politicians have expressed 'disquiet' over the case and the tories have been lambasted by the liberal left for promising to review the law where householders defend their property.

I can see the point of those who are concerned that allowing greater use of force for the public to defend against 'home invasions'. The argument being that this could lead to an escalation of violence on the part of burglars. However, burglars are invariably 'tooled up' in some way in order to break into a property in the first place, so it's an argument I don't think holds too much water.

Personally, I think it is entirely appropriate for a person defend themselves, their family and their property when someone breaks in and threatens them with violence.

I'm not sure however, that the law really appreciates or defines 'reasonable force'in these situations. In the cold light of day in the courtroom, I suspect it is incredibly difficult to express the full horror of such an event, or to articulate a persons reaction to it.

This concerns me considerably. We have all heard of the 'fight or flight' mechanism that the body uses in times of danger, but fewer people have heard of the 'adrenaline dump' that accompanies it (bear with me on this).

The adrenaline dump has several effects, the heart and breathing rates increase, the blood flows towards the major organs and the body can start to tremble.

The person develops 'tunnel vision' as they focus on the threat and hearing is impaired, sometimes to the point of being totally deaf, and events appear to occur in slow motion. Fine motor functions are lost (putting a key in a lock for example could well nigh be impossible for some) and gross motor functions become enhanced.

So where am I going with this? Well, the body also becomes temporarily dulled to pain, and crucially, self control can pretty much go out the window meaning that a person can be extremely aggressive in their response to a situation as they lose their 'self awareness'.

It is an extremely disorientating experience if you are not used to/aware of it. I have only experienced it once to a great degree, around 20 years ago, and it is difficult, if not impossible to actually describe the full effect of it, or the feeling of confusion that follows it.

Effectively, a person defending themselves, their family and home, might well commit acts of violence that they would not otherwise think themselves capable of.

So is this taken into account when cases such as Mr Hussain's are dealt with? I'd hope so, but I doubt it. If the law is changed as the tories propose (although this would not affect Scotland), then it is important to acknowledge that where a person is acting in self defence, the level of violence used might not be considered by some to be reasonable, but it might also not be entirely the defenders fault.

At the end of the day, who is the criminal, the person seeking to protect him or herself, or the person who has broken into their home to harm them and steal their possessions?

An Open Letter to Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP

2009-12-03T15:23:00.000Z

Dear Ms Somerville MSP,

Recently, the Scottish Conservatives used their debating time to oppose the minimum pricing of alcohol in the Scottish Parliament.

I listened to the debate with interest and I picked up at the mention of my name when you said the following:

"Even some Tories have seen the light, from Boris Johnson—it is not often that I quote him in a speech—to Councillor Jim Millar, chairman of the Angus licensing board, who recently said:

"I was amazed at how much alcohol ten pounds bought. This is the type of drink that seems to be favoured by underage drinkers which is a contributory factor in the anti social behaviour that is making the lives of so many people a misery."

He went on to say:

"The main cause of complaints to us as councillors continues to be young people indulging in anti social behaviour which is invariably fuelled by alcohol that can be bought for next to nothing. This is a situation that has to be brought under control".

I could not agree more with Councillor Millar on that."

Whilst I am flattered to be mentioned in the same breath as Boris Johnson, and with reference to your last remark, it’s always nice to encounter a fan, I must say that to take something I have said completely out of context and infer that it shows support for your own position is either charmingly naive or disturbingly disingenuous. Personally, I’d opt for the latter.

I have clearly stated my opposition to your Government’s minimum pricing policy on more occasions than I care to recall. Here are two pertinent examples:

“I don't believe it is prices or age limits that need to be raised. I think it is our awareness of alcohol and its effects that needs to raised and our attitude towards it that needs changed. There is no quick solution, and certainly no simple one.”

“Personally, I'm concerned that the extra cost of buying drink will be taken from other household budgets. In the case of those with modest incomes, most likely food or heating.”
You will appreciate I’m sure, if you were not aware already, that I do not, in any way support your Government’s proposals on this, and a wide variety of other matters, and I would be grateful if you refrained from misrepresenting my views in future.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Jim Millar

And so it continues.......

2009-12-02T15:24:00.000Z

It has been a turbulent couple of weeks on the blogosphere with the demise of two SNP blogs. Throw in the fact that online comments have been banned on any article by a well known journalist, and now some cybernat commentators have suggested that the Education Secretary was sacked because a conspiracy by non snp councils have colluded to sacrifice the education of young people, in order to show the Scottish Government in a bad light.

Today, Lord Foulkes made comments which resulted in this press release from the SNP:

GRAY MUST ORDER FOULKES TO APOLOGISE

MUSSOLINI REMARK “TASTELESS AND SILLY” – FABIANI

The SNP are challenging Iain Gray to order George Foulkes to apologise after comparing Scotland’s First Minister to “Il Duce” – otherwise known as Mussolini.

Lord Foulkes made the tasteless remark in a meeting of the Parliament’s Audit Committee discussing the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games saying: "And I take it Il Duce - I mean the First Minister - will be going."

SNP MSP Linda Fabiani, who has been honoured by the Italian Government for her work promoting Italy overseas, condemned Lord Foulkes’ remark and called for an apology.
Ms Fabiani said:

“Lord Foulkes may be a figure of fun who regularly embarrasses the Labour Party, but he has overstepped the line with this very silly and tasteless remark.

“As someone of Italian origin, I am appalled that a member of Scotland’s Parliament thinks that is an acceptable way to behave.

“Lord Foulkes owes the First Minister, the Committee and the Parliament an apology.
" And if he won’t apologise, Iain Gray must order him to. These remarks are a disgrace.
"Lord Foulkes has long been the SNP's best recruiting sergeant, as people turn away from the kind of Labour Party and negative politics he represents. No wonder the SNP are ahead in the polls for both Westminster and Holyrood.”

Inadvertantly, it would seem, one SNP staffer circulated the above to all MSP's staff with this addition:

Talking about Il Duce, it reminds me - The No Berlusconi Day is taking place on Saturday at 1pm outside the Italian Consulate, Melville Street. The event is being held in over 50 cities across the globe and hundreds across Italy.

If you're up for a good protest, Italian style, then come along - no Italian origins required! (just dont wear a black shirt).

http://www.noberlusconiday.org/

Toni

I sent my apologies, stating that despite having Italian relatives myself, I was unable to attend........

Political Correctness

2009-10-24T23:30:00.000+01:00

I'm back at university doing post grad work in housing studies in what is euphamistically called my spare time. I'm quite enjoying it and picking up a lot of useful stuff.

The year started with a 'residential week', which in reality could have been compressed into a couple of days. We were assigned into small groups, there's only two men in my group and we're both called Jim. Ironically, the other Jim is an active member of the Scottish Socialist Party, so politically we are at opposite ends of the spectrum, but get along very well.

The rest of the group, to differentiate between us when we are all online, decided to call the other Jim 'Trot Boy' and to call me 'Tory Boy'. This worked rather well, and ensured no-one mistook me for being the kind of fellow who is against evictions and indulges in 'direct action' action against supermarkets etc (I'm not sure what 'direct action' is in reality, but Trot Boy spoke highly of it as a past-time.

In week six I got a call at home from the university. Some academic had been reviewing our posts and felt it was not appropriate for me to be called Tory Boy. I pointed out that I was in no way offended, actually found it quite amusing, and the two nicknames worked well.

The 'Thought Police' were having none of it and said it 'blurred lines'. I really don't know what that means, and didn't ask as it sounded like some 'right on' social worker crap that I wouldn't understand anyway.

Was there really any need for this intervention? I'd say no. Our group gets on really well, and we have some good and constructive arguments. I'm 42 years old, been called far worse than 'Tory Boy' and don't really need the protection of some well meaning, lentil eating clown I've never met.

If I'd been offended, I'd have said so. I wasn't, and neither was Trot Boy, so why the fuss? It really is a complete load of guff and having this type of PC garbage forced on us is a joke.

Glum Councillors

2009-10-13T09:55:00.000+01:00

I found this exceptionally amusing blog which "will doggedly collate images of councillors looking glum whilst pointing at holes in the road, wearing hard hats or presenting oversized cheques. Lets celebrate the work of our local elected representatives!"

Good effort who ever you are!

Tracey Emin to leave the UK

2009-10-11T18:05:00.000+01:00

So, 'Britart' exponent Tracey Emin is threatening to leave the UK because of the tax regime. She tells us that France is far better in the way it treats artists.

She has previously come up with some 'masterpieces' including this one:

Yup, what looks like an average bedroom, is in fact a piece of 'art'. I often wonder just how much of 'the emperors new clothes' comes into play when modern artists make it big these days.

Personally, I think her 'work' is utter crap. So good riddance then, and don't forget to take that rubbish tent thing you did either.

When Yobs Attack..........

2009-10-10T08:29:00.001+01:00

I saw this item on the news the other night, and of course, whilst I would never condone violence, there is something of an irony when two yobs attack two people on the street and come off much worse for the experience.

It turns out that the two people they attacked were cage fighters in drag heading to a stag party..................

A week's a long time in .......Paris

2009-10-04T23:13:00.000+01:00

So, I'm back from a week in Paris. We had a great time, although it was painfully expensive.

I proposed to Girlfriend whilst I was there, and am delighted she said yes.

The Louvre was a fantastic experience and well worth spending more than one day there. I had forgotten one of my favourite paintings by Caravaggio (a portrait of the Grandmaster of the Knights of Malta) was there and it was great to see it first hand.

The crowd gathered round the Mona Lisa was huge (what on earth is it about that painting? I just don't get it). We did the usual touristy things and it was a great holiday.

A couple of things I noticed though, was how clean the streets were. It wasn't necessarily because the streets were cleaned so frequently, people just didn't drop litter, even though huge amounts of them were eating lunch as they went about their business.

Litter is something that I get a lot of complaints about, and fair enough. But there wouldn't be so much litter if people didn't just drop stuff on the street, even though a bin can be a couple of yards away.

Another thing I noticed was how few drunk people I saw. Going out at night to bars and bistro's, the vast majority of the people were drinking coffee or soft drinks. It wasn't because alcohol was much more expensive, as the price was comparable with coffee or coke. People just weren't drinking to excess, and most weren't drinking alcohol at all. This makes me wonder even more just how effective Mr MacAskill's plan to introduce minimum pricing on alcohol would be.

There was a also a high number of police around, more than I've ever seen before. On top of that, small squads of soldiers were sometimes out on foot patrol looking very professional (apart from one guy at the back who was busy texting one time).

Apart from two noteable exceptions the service was usually pretty indifferent at best, which is quite galling (did you see what I did there?) given the prices that were being charged (£26 for a mixed grill in a small restaurant).

Waiting at the airport for a flight home early in the morning, four Americans (resplendent in their new 'Paris' T shirts) sat down and loudly proclaimed that the French would make a fortune if they sold MacDonald's breakfasts. Yup, because clearly there's little profit to be made by charging £16 for two croissants and two thimble sized cups of coffee.

Ironically, it has now been announced that MacDonalds is opening a 'restaurant' in the Louvre, which is upsetting the French no end, though they haven't started rioting in the streets over it yet.

Anyhoo, it's good to be back and we got the ring here. It's a great shop on George St in Edinburgh, with some fantastic items. I've bought a few things from there in the past few years, and it's well worth a visit.

Parliament is back and it's been good to get in and catch up. I have also started a post graduate course in housing at Stirling University, which I'm finding really interesting and useful.

All in all, it has been an interesting time really, and I suppose the wedding plans will have to start soon. Boss has kindly agreed to be my best man, and Fiance has got her bridesmaids lined up too.

I will endeavour not to put up too many posts on the wedding preparations. A colleague in Parliament would come in and give extremely lengthy and detailed updates on her wedding over the course of the two years it took to organise and there really can't be anything more boring.

Tesco Discriminates Against Jedi

2009-09-23T16:28:00.000+01:00

I read this in the Guardian when I was in Paris (will blog about that later), and thought it was hilarious. The Tesco response is superb........

Jedi religion founder accuses Tesco of discrimination over rules on hoods

Daniel Jones says he was humiliated and victimised for his beliefs following incident at store in Wales

Tesco has been accused of religious discrimination after the company ordered the founder of a Jedi religion to remove his hood or leave a branch of the supermarket in north Wales.
Daniel Jones, founder of the religion inspired by the Star Wars films, says he was humiliated and victimised for his beliefs following the incident at a Tesco store in Bangor.
The 23-year-old, who founded the International Church of Jediism, which has 500,000 followers worldwide, was told the hood flouted store rules.
But the grocery empire struck back, claiming that the three best known Jedi Knights in the Star Wars movies – Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker – all appeared in public without their hoods. Jones, from Holyhead, who is known by the Jedi name Morda Hehol, said his religion dictated that he should wear the hood in public places and is considering legal action against the chain.
"It states in our Jedi doctrination that I can wear headwear. It just covers the back of my head," he said.
"You have a choice of wearing headwear in your home or at work but you have to wear a cover for your head when you are in public."
He said he'd gone to the store to buy something to eat during his lunch break when staff approached him and ordered him to the checkout where they explained he would have to remove the offending hood or leave the store.
"They said: 'Take it off', and I said: 'No, its part of my religion. It's part of my religious right.' I gave them a Jedi church business card.
"They weren't listening to me and were rude. They had three people around me. It was intimidating." Jones, who has made an official complaint to Tesco, is considering a boycott of the store and is seeking legal advice.
Tesco said: "He hasn't been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.
"If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they'll miss lots of special offers."

Scottish star trek

2009-09-21T22:27:00.001+01:00

And in the same vein, but from a Scottish angle.......

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

2009-09-21T22:23:00.001+01:00

Hat tip to the lovely Fox in Detox for finding this.

Homeless Statistics

2009-09-06T14:21:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Government has published statistics on the 'Operation of the Homeless Persons Legislation in Scotland 2008-2009.

Some of the papers have reported on them, but they have basically looked at the overall progress as we move toward the target of providing homes for the unintentionally homeless by 2012.

I haven't seen any reporting on one table contained in the report however. Table 7 shows the number of 'homeless household by type of support need identified'.It makes for fairly alarming reading.

Of the 41,670 households who are, or potentially, homeless, a staggering 13,733 households were identified as having one or more support needs.

Over 10% of the total number lacked basing housing management/independent living skills, and 10% had a drug or alcohol dependancy. What this means, is that 10% of applicants can be given a home, but have no idea how to manage it. This can mean they don't know how to pay bills or work the washing machine. Eventually, this can lead to an inability to sustain their tenancy.

The same can often be said of those with drug or alcohol dependencies.

Often, the above issues manifest themselves in prolonged bouts of anti-social behaviour and chaotic lifestyles. Which means the immediate community suffers too. There is help and support available to those who find themselves with problems, and rightly so, but they are in no way obliged to accept it, so find themselves in a vicious behavioural cycle that is detrimental to them and their neighbours.

It's an issue that few politicians or professionals seem willing to acknowledge. There seems to be a feeling that it is politically incorrect to raise it, but we can't stick our heads in the sand forever.

The Scottish Government has stated it will publish a Housing Bill this term. Although there is quite a lot in it, the majority of the scrutiny it has received is mostly concerned with ending 'right to buy'. Personally, I would argue that this bill would be the ideal opportunity to address the issues above (and more besides).

The unfortunate thing is, any Government who sought to tackle this via legislation, may find themselves in a difficult position at the hands of opportunistic opposition MSP's who would wish to make political capital out of what could be portrayed as draconian measures. Friends in the Civil Service have suggested that this is a cause for concern.

Yet, there is no question that every MSP or Councillor from every party (or none) has been approached by constituents who are suffering at the hands of anti-social neighbours. It certainly makes up the vast majority of my caseload, and it is a similar situation among my colleagues.

The Housing Bill should not be a wasted opportunity, and it certainly shouldn't be a political football either. An acknowledgement from all sides of the scale of the problem, and a willingness to constructively work together to address it, would very much be a step in the right direction

Licensing Board

2009-08-27T23:12:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the last licensing board before the Licensing Act comes into force on the 1st September.

We had gradually increased the number of meetings until we were convening every week to beat the deadline.

Profits for lawyers and architects must have gone through the roof in the past year or so as all the licensees sought to comply with the legislation. It has been an expensive process for them, and I can only sympathise as the trade does not have its troubles to seek just now.

The board is a quasi judicial body, so it's not quite a court, but not quite a council meeting either.

It lasted six hours and was particularly difficult by the end. Some of the lawyers representing licensees can be quite good humoured, others can be nothing short of a pain in the backside. Sometimes you get the impression that the odd one thinks he is in an episode of 'Murder One' or something.

One exchange between me and a licensee has already done the rounds of the council though:

Licensee: "I have brought no paperwork with me, but you may ask me questions if you want."

Me: "Ok, what's the top speed of a cheetah?"

Licensee: "Errr........"

Suppose you had to be there, but it was funny at the time.

I'll get my coat......

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

2009-08-26T08:15:00.001+01:00

This is brilliant! Let it put a smile on your face. (HT to Rannoch Donald)

Right To Buy

2009-08-23T10:15:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Government has issued a consultation on its proposed Housing (Scotland) Bill.

Despite everything contained in the Bill, the one thing that has grabbed all the headlines has been the proposal to end the rights of new tenants to buy their council home at a discount.

'Right to Buy' (RTB) was a flagship Conservative policy, and it is interesting to note that looking back at the tory manifesto of the time, more attention was devoted to housing than any other subject, and some critics have subsequently pointed out that it did nothing to address homelessness, but simply promoted home ownership as the best housing tenure.

It is a policy that certainly has its detractors, and it polarises political opinion with alarming speed, especially in Scotland.

Housing pressure group 'Shelter' has blamed RTB for a shortage of social housing. To be fair, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith's policy think-tank has also mooted this as a reason for the shortage too.

Personally, I think this view is rather simplistic. What people forget is the fact that those entitled to buy their homes were long term tenants anyway, and it seems likely that they would have continued to stay there whether they bought it or not. So it is unlikely that these properties would have become available to others, even in the medium term.

Of course, it could be argued that where a tenant died, then the property would go to the next person on the housing list, but this is not the case either as the tenancy can be inherited, so the waiting list would be no shorter.

We should also bear in mind that former council houses generally attract a lower price than its private sector equivalent. What this means is that a family who otherwise might be be forced into the social housing sector because of high property prices, might be able to afford the lower price of a former council house.

What the arch critics of RTB invariably fail to comment on, is the fact that council house sales have funded immense rolling programmes of investment in the remaining stock, such as new bathrooms, kitchens, double glazing and the like. Improvements that would have been extremely difficult to fund without the capital receipts of house sales.

Current thinking is now promoting 'mixed tenure' housing developments as the best way to promote sustainable communities, so that each development would have homes for sale, rent, and perhaps shared equity homes contained in it.

Seems like a fair argument to me, but one that would largely fall by the wayside if RTB was scrapped altogether on what seems to be purely ideological grounds.

If my sources in the Scottish Government are correct then the First Minister is playing the numbers game and is pushing for as many houses to be built as possible. Sounds great doesn't it?

Let's take a closer look at this though. Affordable social housing has to be paid for, and with severe financial constraints, this money is hard to come by. If local authorities are obliged to undertake prudential borrowing (as has been mooted), to pay for it, then this will have severe consequences on rent levels, making a mockery of affordable rents.

In areas where family income is predominantly low, then these increases could well drive people either into poverty, or onto benefits. In turn, the benefits bill, which is already rising, will be burdened even further. It is unlikely in these times of economic hardship, that housing benefit levels will continue to go unchecked in the longer term, and may not cover the higher rents required to service the debt of building the houses in the first place.

To maximise the use of available land for house building, there may also be a temptation to build as many properties as possible onto it. We have seen this in already in the private sector, with developers throwing up huge numbers of flats for the would be 'buy to let' sector. To do so however, would be simply making the mistakes of the past, and bear in mind, the cost of demolishing these previous mistakes can now cost as much as constructing them at the time.

So where am I going with this? Well, I would argue that the investment we make in housing today, needs to be done with a long term view. We should not simply build houses as cheaply as possible to make up the numbers. We must take a more holistic view on housing in general and acknowledge the positive effect that good housing standards have on health and communities.

As for RTB, well the Tories in the Scottish Parliament are arguing simply for its retention. Personally, I think the argument needs to be a bit more sophisticated than that though. RTB should be retained, but the discount element should be scrapped. Where a social housing development is built, we could look at only a percentage of them being available for purchase by tenants. We could also look at a replacement policy, so that the capital receipt of a council house sale is used to fund the building of a new council house for rent.

Promoting ideological policy on the back of simplistic arguments for or against RTB will ultimately do our communities a grave disservice.

Japanese Drummers

2009-08-23T08:58:00.001+01:00

Saw these guys at the Festival, they are absolutely amazing

Dr Starkey on Politics

2009-04-26T14:27:00.001+01:00

Nice to see it's not just small countries who face the ire of Dr Starkey

David Starkey on Question Time

2009-04-25T12:23:00.001+01:00

I wasn't going to comment on this, but as it was aired on the news last night, I might as well.

Dr Starkey, an expert on the Tudors, has managed to carve himself a niche as a celebrity historian. He has supplemented this income by being deliberately inflammatory on a number of subjects, but often about Scotland, Wales and Ireland on current affairs programmes. We should perhaps not take these comments in isolation however. He has expressed strong views on politics and politicians in much the same way that he spoke about Scotland.

The unfortunate thing for Dr Starkey, is the more he does it, the more he becomes a caricature of himself. Although many have been predictably outraged by his comments, personally, I find them rather dull. In reality, if this kind of thing, combined with his periodically subjective telling of history, is all that he has to offer, then the media should seriously consider whether he deserves the platform that he appears to enjoy so much.

It is perhaps a shame for Dr Starkey that he is forced to occupy the 21st century instead of the Tudor era that so fixates him, although if he behaved the way then, as he does now, I doubt he'd last long.

In reality, Dr Starkey is an opinionated little man with little to offer us but his condescension. His comments do nothing to diminish Scotland, or us as Scots. The dynasty that he admires so much gave little to the world. The same cannot be said of Scotland.

Brown's Tantrums

2009-04-24T14:55:00.000+01:00

Interesting article from Bloomberg that alleges the PM has something of temper. I appreciate the man has a tough job to do, but the fact is he is now living with the mistakes he made as Chancellor. And we are paying for them.

An excerpt reads:

The strain shows, say current and former Brown aides: Among other things, it has inflamed a temper that has always been the subject of gallows humor among those who work with him, they say.
The prime minister, 58, has hurled pens and even a stapler at aides, according to one; he says he once saw the leader of Britain’s 61 million people shove a laser printer off a desk in a rage. Another aide was warned to watch out for “flying Nokias” when he joined Brown’s team.
The ‘News Sandwich’
One staffer says a colleague developed a technique called a “news sandwich” -- first telling the prime minister about a recent piece of good coverage before delivering bad news, and then moving quickly to tell him about something good coming soon.

This is denied later on however. You can read the whole article here.

Time To Focus

2009-04-24T10:35:00.000+01:00

The true impact of the budget is starting to emerge now, and it's looking bleak.

I'm no economist, so I'll leave the dissection of it to others, but there are two arguments afoot at the moment. The SNP state that £500m has been cut from the budget, whilst Labour claim that the Scottish Govt has more money than before at its disposal.

If, as seems likely, we are £500m down in Scotland, then tough choices are going to be forced on us. This level of cut would mean Angus Council's loss would run into millions of pounds. A substantial figure for a local authority which is obliged to provide considerable front line services.

For someone like me in local government, these will be tough indeed and we really need to be working closely with Holyrood to see what can be done. Likewise, the relationship between Holyrood and Westminster needs to be a bit more positive.

I missed FMQ's yesterday, but the coverage of it later showed that it was disappointing to say the least. Although it could have been the way it was edited, it appeared as though it consisted of Parliamentarians standing in a circle pointing the finger of blame at each other. The only excuse that wasn't used was the old "a big boy did it and ran away" chestnut. This isn't going to help, and we can't be in denial over the gravity of the situation we find ourselves in. Newsnight later on provided much of the same.

It's time to walk away from partisan politics at Holyrood. The parties need to get together and work with Councils to lessen the impact as much as possible.

With this level of financial 'hit' then the historic concordat may well be in tatters, and at Scottish Govt level, this will no doubt have a severe impact on any new policy plans that require substantial funding. Council's are already struggling to comply with their demands already.

The current mantra of the day is "efficiency savings", doing the same job to the same standard, but with fewer resources. In truth, this has been going on for years already and there may be less room for manoeuvre than you might think to achieve this, which makes the choices open to us even more stark.

Next year's Council budget is going to be hard to balance, so it's time to stop playing pre-election politics at national level, and time to start focusing on the job in hand, so that we can do everything possible to maintain the front line services that people want.

Climate Chaos

2009-04-22T15:09:00.000+01:00

Boss made me go to a 'Stop Climate Chaos' event outside Parliament with him today. It was a bit out of my comfort zone, but Boss was in his element.

This is him with two of the audience...........

SNP Whisky Hypocrisy

2009-04-22T14:13:00.000+01:00

I really don't get the SNP's stance on drink at all. First of all they complain when the duty on whisky goes up, claiming that the Scottish economy would receive a huge boost if duty were reduced. Then they complain when little political support materialises for them to introduce minimum pricing on alcohol (which would increase the price of whisky), and now, going round in circles so fast it must surely be making them dizzy, the SNP's Angus Robertson, with all the predictability of night following day, 'slams' the 2% duty increase on whisky.

What is it they want?

Feeble Fiscal Fines

2009-04-22T10:22:00.000+01:00

There has been a sharp rise in the number of Fiscal Fines (or Direct Measures) issued from Arbroath. Fiscal Fines were introduced to punish low level offences and thereby free up court time for more serious matters.

For example, in Arbroath during 2007 there were 5 direct measures issued for vandalism/graffiti (Section 52(1) of the Criminal Law (Scotland) Act 1995). In 2008, this had risen to 46.

A Fiscal Fine can be up to £300. The accused does not need to attend court and does not end up with a criminal record, although it is kept on file for two years.

On the face of it, the system may have something going for it. And yet. We now know that an individual who commits an 'assault to injury' can be dealt with by a Fiscal Fine. Worse still, get caught in possession of a class 'A' drug, and guess what, you can get a Fiscal Fine (don't forget that in either of these cases you also won't get a criminal record either. Given that the accused won't see the inside of a courtroom, a contributory factor such as a drink or drug problem will not be addressed either. You just send off the letter accepting the fine.

Crimes involving violence or hard drugs are not, in my opinion, low level offences and should involve a court appearance.

It gets worse than this though. Because it was recently revealed that almost half of these fines haven't even been paid, with almost £2million outstanding. So a criminal avoids court, avoids a criminal record and ultimately avoids punishment. What's the point?

Clearly, the Direct Measures idea is not providing a punishment and it certainly isn't providing a deterrent.

Whilst I understand that there is a degree of embarrassment in the Crown Office over this (which is something of an achievement I would say given my experience of them) there seems little appetite for change.

My sources in the Justice Dept are also expressing frustration at the SNP's reluctance to take a harder line on law and order issues, preferring instead to give credence to the arguments of the hand wringing apologists whose ideas are accelerating what many members of the public perceive to be a rapid decline in the justice system, with ever decreasing punishments.

I actually wonder if those whose job it is to direct or manage the justice system, whether they are politicians or Crown Office lawyers, are actually aware of the concern among communities about the effect of crime, not just on the amenity of an area, but the detrimental effect on an individual who has been a victim of crime. Personally, I don't think so. I'm not advocating a 'lock 'em up and throw away the key' solution, but we really do have to ask ourselves if the punishments being meted out fit the crime and provide a deterrent.

Was this necessary?

2009-04-21T17:29:00.000+01:00

Iain Macwhirter of The Herald has certainly been causing a stir with comments which he claims were intended to provoke a reaction with bloggers. Call me cynical, but I'm not so sure.

Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I really don't think the statement "financial services sector which is being downsized faster than the twin towers......"
is particularly appropriate.

Obviously there is no need to rehearse the events 9/11, which perhaps makes the analogy even more offensive.

The McBride Impact on Bloggers

2009-04-15T05:32:00.000+01:00

The controversy over Labour Aide Damien McBride's plans to publish unfounded allegations about senior Tories has opened up a wider debate on the role of bloggers and the collective influence that the blogosphere may or may not have.

Some quarters of the press seem almost to have taken offence that the story was broken by a blogger with Iain MacWhirter of The Herald launching a tirade on bloggers which has been much commented on. Stephen Pollard, writing for The Times is also critical, albeit more measured.

In contrast, some bloggers have been a tad more celebratory in their comments, but it should be obvious by now that there doesn't need to be a dichotomy between the mainstream media and the bloggers who choose to comment on current affairs. It is naive of UK journalists to try and pigeon-hole bloggers as nerds and extremists given the scale of some of the stories broken on blogs in the US, the most famous one being the story of Clinton's affair with Lewinsky.

But perhaps even this view is too simplistic. It has been argued that the blogosphere can act as something of a 'conscience', forcing the media back to a story that although they did publish briefly, they initially did not deem it important enough to give it any prominence until forced to do so by the online community.

The case most cited for this is when a Mississippi Senator stated in 2002 at a birthday party "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years either."

Thurmond had been a presidential nominee in 1948, standing on a Dixiecrat ticket whose manifesto in part declared "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race."

You can read an interesting analysis of how the story unfolded here.

I also find it mildly ironic that mainstream journalists should be so critical of blog authors given the media has been trying to establish a serious online presence (with varying degrees of success) for some years now.

Whatever any ones view is of blogging, it's clearly here to stay and vitriolic outbursts by journalists will not change that.

Sad News

2009-04-08T11:47:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, I was given the sad news that a fellow Angus Councillor had passed away.

SNP Councillor Frank Ellis was an incredibly hard working man. He was a talented debater and able to cut to the quick of any argument, usually landing some hard blows, always with deft good humour and absolute professionalism.

I always had great respect for Frank and although we had our political differences, we also had a substantial amount of common ground too.

He was always an absolute gentleman and would give any help he could to anyone that needed it.

When I was elected, it was Frank that was the first to welcome me to the Council.

I will miss Frank terribly, I learned a lot from him and I owe him a great deal. His passing is a great loss.

New Parly Rules.......

2009-04-02T16:32:00.000+01:00

An e-mail was circulated round Parliament today, warning pass-holders about taking photographs.

I have pasted it in below. Now, my understanding is that this new dictat was brought about after an MSP's member of staff took 'clandestine' photo's of people round parliament and posted them on her blog, along with some captions. Failure to comply could lead to having your Parliament pass withdrawn we are warned.

So that's an end to that eh? Well no. Because said blogger is now an MSP herself and if you read the e-mail below, the SPCB can revoke anyones pass, except those of an MSP. So in reality, the very person who caused all this in the first place is actually immune to the suggested punishment should she do it again. Smart eh?

Dear All
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) wishes to remind all passholders that although photography, filming or recording in areas within the Parliamentary estate is permissible, everyone is required to respect the privacy of building users. Building users should not be the focus of the shot or recording unless prior permission has been given by the individual. Photography, filming or recording of Parliamentary business is not permitted except that authorised by the SPCB.
Other than for MSPs, you should be aware that the SPCB has the right to withdraw a photographic security pass at any time where it considers that a breach of conduct or discipline has taken place.
Contract managers are asked to bring this note to the attention of contractors.

Clerk/Chief Executive's Office
2 April 2009

Daily Mail Headline Generator

2009-04-02T10:09:00.001+01:00

Quite amusing

How Local Govt Communicates

2009-03-24T15:55:00.001Z

I got a rather cryptic phone call the other night. It was from someone asking about a Socialist rally in Arbroath, and did I know any of the details about it.

Somewhat perplexed as to why someone would phone a Tory councillor about a Socialist rally, I politely asked who was calling.

It turned out that it was a 'PR Consultant' for the council who had been asked to call me for details.

Clearly sensing my bemusement, she explained that she had been asked to call me about it in case it was going to conflict with another event around the same date.

"Why would you expect me to know the details of that" I asked. Turns out that a member of the council staff had read about the rally on my blog and had phoned the consultant to get her to phone me and ask about it.

"Why didn't she just phone me herself?" I asked

"She's busy" replied the consultant.

So how did I know about the rally? The council wrote and told me about it..........

Crap Week

2009-03-22T19:05:00.000Z

I have had a couple of e-mails commenting that I haven't:

a) done enough blogging

b) not enough personal posts

c) asking if I had split with up with Girlfriend (no is the answer to that)

Guilty as charged to the first two though.

I've had a crap week or so. I took girlfriend out to dinner the other weekend. We went to a very small restaurant that we don't often go to, largely because its not the cheapest place to eat out, and you have to book well in advance to get a table as its a popular place. We'd both been looking forward to it as it's a treat to go there.

All was going well until a large group came in at the back of 8pm. No problem there, but they had with them a toddler. Still no real problem, but the kid started a high pitched screetching from the moment it sat down (I'm not being offensive saying 'it' I just don't know the gender. For the sake of typing we'll assume it was male and call it Damien).

Damien's screeching continued, only pausing long enough to draw breath. The parents, having made little effort to quieten their little darling, helpfully gave him a noisy electronic toy to play with, thereby doubling the cacophony. After a while they decided a full fat fizzy drink might help. Strangely, twenty minutes later, this made the situation worse. Considerably worse.

Having put up with this for some time we asked the waitress if we could move. The couple at the next table asked to do the same. There was no place else to go, so the four of us ended up eating in the reception area.

Later, Grandma decided it would be easier to get Damien (still screeching) ready for bed in the toilet, which took around half an hour. It was after 10pm when they left. What do you do in these situations? I can empathise with the restauranteur in that there was perhaps little she could do (notwithstanding the fact that by law, Damien should have been out by 9pm). On the other hand, the situation pretty much spoiled the night for us and the couple who were up on holiday.

Earlier this week, a fellow angrily threatened to "take a hammer" to me in a rather interesting incident which I won't go into at the moment as the police are now involved and I understand the fellow has been arrested. In what proved to be a fairly protracted event, I was fortunate that someone was there to witness the second half of it. Strange how calm you can be when faced with that level of violence. Not to worry, we'll see what happens.

I have also come into something of a disagreement with the 'Cooncil'. Sadly, I can't go into detail about that at the moment either, but I may well do in a week or so. Sometimes, trying to work within the constraints of local government is enough to drive you up the wall (or beat your head off it). When I was elected, I thought perhaps the council would be run in a similar, but considerably smaller scale fashion to the Scottish Parliament. It's not. Oh how it's not. Not even close. And to say I'm not happy at a current situation is an understatement.

With various other minor mishaps added to that, it hasn't been a great few days and my back injury seems to have returned. Not sure if this is because I increased the weight of the kettlebell I use by nine pounds and reduced the rest period between sets from one minute to thirty seconds, but it's a dull, constant pain that is making me irritable. Well, more irritable.

I decided to take a walk out the cliffs by Arbroath this morning. It's a walk I do once every few weeks. I took my camera this time so here's a few photo's.

The cliffs are made of sandstone, which has a beautiful red colour. Over millenia, layers of sand were compressed to form stone. It's very porous and crumbles quite easily. You can see the effect here:

The elements have also carved the stone into some fantastic shapes. This one is known locally as the Deil's Heid (Devils Head):

Or this arch:

There's also the remains of an ancient fort out there. On old maps it's referred to as Maiden Fort. This is taken from the inside:

The outside has a defensive ditch:

Here's a couple more from the rest of the walk:

If you like the look of these, it's a great place to take a walk, and the path is well maintained too.

Debate by Motion

2009-03-12T15:48:00.000Z

Parliamentary motions are an excellent way of highlighting good work by organisations in an MSP's constituency. They might raises awareness of a particularly succesful campaign on important subjects that can lead to more developments in that field. At the other end of the spectrum, an MSP might use a motion to congratulate his own eleven year old daughter for doing well at school.

Somewhere in between of course we have the motion below espousing one view on a subject, which is amended by someone else whose position is a polar opposite.

This one is a particularly good example:

S3M-3625 Jamie Hepburn: 25th Anniversary of the Miners’ Strike—That the Parliament notes that March 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the 1984-85 miners’ strike, with the announcement of the closure of 20 pits across the United Kingdom being made on 6 March 1984 and the strike in Scotland starting on 12 March 1984; believes that the strike represented a defining moment in the history of industrial relations across the UK; regrets the damage inflicted upon the trade union movement by Margaret Thatcher’s government at the time; recognises the devastating immediate effect and lasting damage caused to communities across Scotland by pit closures; notes that at the peak of the strike over 90% of Scottish miners had walked out, demonstrating the massive solidarity in Scotland for the miners’ cause, and hopes that no government ever again shows the contempt to organised workers shown to the miners by the Conservative government of the day.

*S3M-3625.1 Jackson Carlaw: 25th Anniversary of the Miners’ Strike—As an amendment to motion (S3M-3625) in the name of Jamie Hepburn, leave out from "; regrets" to end and insert "with the eventual outcome ensuring that the country would thereafter be governed by the Government as opposed to a collection of militant trade union barons and left wing rabble-rousers; considers that the ballot-less and illegal strikes were rightly opposed at the time by the Labour party under the leadership of Neil Kinnock and urges everyone to reflect on this fact before attempting to rewrite history for political advantage; fully acknowledges the suffering experienced by local communities during this period but also considers that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) busied itself concealing millions of pounds that could have been used to ameliorate this suffering in order to avoid potential sequestration as a consequence of its illegal actions; believes that Arthur Scargill was directly and personally responsible for the demise of the NUM and therefore finds it deeply ironic that he remains Life President of the NUM to this day; welcomes the fact that this period of economic restructuring transformed the country into a fully fledged, modern, free market economy subsequently used as a blueprint for success the world over, and therefore pays tribute to the Thatcher government for having had the determination, resolve and foresight to make these reforms when it did and for the period of unprecedented economic expansion, wealth creation and personal and economic liberty that followed."

Motion as amended
That the Parliament notes that March 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the 1984-85 miners’ strike, with the announcement of the closure of 20 pits across the United Kingdom being made on 6 March 1984 and the strike in Scotland starting on 12 March 1984; believes that the strike represented a defining moment in the history of industrial relations across the UK with the eventual outcome ensuring that the country would thereafter be governed by the Government as opposed to a collection of militant trade union barons and left wing rabble-rousers; considers that the ballot-less and illegal strikes were rightly opposed at the time by the Labour party under the leadership of Neil Kinnock and urges everyone to reflect on this fact before attempting to rewrite history for political advantage; fully acknowledges the suffering experienced by local communities during this period but also considers that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) busied itself concealing millions of pounds that could have been used to ameliorate this suffering in order to avoid potential sequestration as a consequence of its illegal actions; believes that Arthur Scargill was directly and personally responsible for the demise of the NUM and therefore finds it deeply ironic that he remains Life President of the NUM to this day; welcomes the fact that this period of economic restructuring transformed the country into a fully fledged, modern, free market economy subsequently used as a blueprint for success the world over, and therefore pays tribute to the Thatcher government for having had the determination, resolve and foresight to make these reforms when it did and for the period of unprecedented economic expansion, wealth creation and personal and economic liberty that followed

"Bollocks" says Transport Minister

2009-03-12T10:37:00.000Z

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson lost it a little bit in this mornings crossrail debate.

Whilst Lib Dem Alison McInnes was speaking on the future of rail services in the North East, Stevenson aimed the off-mic expletive Mike Rumbles, who he later claimed was passing comment on ministerial relationships with transport officials.

It was probably a tad naive to fall into what might be regarded as an old trick by cheeky chappie Rumbles, who has indulged himself in these dull 'sotto voce' asides for years.

Mr Stevenson apologised for his intemperate language, but I can't help but sympathise with him. Rumbles sometimes drives me to expletives too.

Tom Harris MP

2009-03-11T15:05:00.000Z

I have been following Labour MP Tom Harris' blog for a while. It's a good read with an interesting mix of political and personal posts.

He (somewhat predictably it must be said) ran into some controversy about this post. It's a bold, honest and well written opinion, which has attracted over 300 comments. Was it wrong for him to express his views? I don't think so.

You may not agree with what Tom said, but he makes some valid points. The shame is that having expressed an opinion which opened up a wider debate, albeit briefly, his views attracted the motion below by Bill Kidd MSP. The knee jerk motion is almost dripping with synthetic outrage whilst offering no alternative view apart from 'you can't say that'.

Well he can, and he did. And well done to him.

*S3M-3634 Bill Kidd: Labour’s True Beliefs—That the Parliament condemns the views of Tom Harris, Labour MP for Glasgow South, who, in response to hearing how proud a father was of his daughter’s newborn baby, stated in his blog "But proud? Proud that his teenage daughter was not only sexually active but was now a mother? Proud that any chance of a decent education, followed by a decent job, was now remote at best? Proud that she was, in all likelihood, about to embark on a lifetime of depending on benefit handouts for her and her child?"; considers sickening the beliefs espoused by the MP when he stated that "They become pregnant because they have absolutely no ambition for themselves. They have been indoctrinated with the lie that they’ll never amount to anything, and have fulfilled that prophesy by making no effort to achieve any qualification. Very often they live with parents (or a parent) who have no jobs themselves, who are setting the example of benefit dependency for all their offspring"; believes that such right-wing and downright offensive language is completely indefensible, and calls on the Labour party to sanction Tom Harris publicly and for the MP to issue an immediate apology.
Supported by: Bill Wilson*, Joe FitzPatrick*, Sandra White*

Police Figures

2009-03-03T15:03:00.000Z

The Scottish Govt today issued a press release on police recruitment. On the face of it, things seem to be on target for achieving the 1000 extra police officers that the SNP promised as an election commitment, although it should be noted that this was another commitment that was going to be dumped by the SNP until they were forced to honour it by the Tories. However, the letter below from Tory Justice Spokesman Bill Aitken to Kenny MacAskill sheds a different light on the matter.

Dear Cabinet Secretary,

The Scottish Government gave an undertaking to use £10million in 2008/9 and £13million in 2009/10 to fund the recruitment of 1000 additional police officers by 2011.

That means by 2011 we should have a minimum of 17,261 police officers. This funding and these additional officers were over and above the baseline budget to maintain police numbers at the 2007 level of 16,261.

In a letter to Annabel Goldie dated 22nd September 2008, Alex Salmond said “We are committed to recruiting 1000 additional police officers during the lifetime of this Parliament”. No ifs, no buts, no maybes.

Can you please explain why this unequivocal commitment will not result in overall police numbers increasing by 1000?The additional funding secured by the Scottish Conservatives should have meant at least 1000 more officers in Scotland. Indeed, I refer you to the quote from John Swinney on 6th February 2008, when he said: “Let me be clear: the additional money that the amended budget will provide means that we will not only deliver 1,000 more police officers on our streets and in our communities but go substantially beyond that”.

The public deserve clear answers because the SNP is gaining an unenviable reputation for breaking far too many promises and pledges. That in itself is bad for politics, but there can be no room for such equivocation when it comes to the first duty of government – protection of the public.

Yours sincerely
Bill Aitken MSP
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice

Booze Laws

2009-03-03T09:25:00.000Z

I haven't had a chance to look fully at the SNP proposals for licensing yet, but I hope to do so today or tomorrow and will post up some thoughts then.

At first glance it's a mixed bag, but I'll take a closer look.

The Socialists Are Coming To Town

2009-03-01T18:59:00.000Z

Quite a lot of politicians have sought to use Arbroath Abbey as something of a political football (or crutch in some cases), because of its association with the Declaration of Arbroath. When I worked there, I ejected the local MSP Andrew Welsh along with a couple of his cronies when he came in (without paying it has to be said) to have photo's taken for his election leaflets. His blustering "but I'm the local MSP......." as I escorted him off the premises left me somewhat cold.

Alex Salmond, before becoming First Minister, effectively hijacked the annual ceremony which marks the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration.

It has been argued that the amount of political abuse (for want of a better word) that the Abbey has received over the years has resulted in a lack of of promotion of the site by Historic Scotland. Personally, I'm minded to give this argument some credence.

That said, one political organisation is once more coming to town for its annual rally. Step forward (literally) the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement who have a march through the town on a weekend close to the 6th April (the date written on the Declaration).

It's a peaceful and well run event, albeit a rather bizarre spectacle (and I've seen some stuff in my time let me tell you) accompanied by a piper and a flute band, the SRSM march to the Abbey, have a few speeches and then go home again.

The last time I listened to the speeches it was something of a revelation. After reading out goodwill messages from far flung places, one orator gave a speech which somehow managed to lurch from the benefits of universal Socialism to the battle tactics of King of Robert the Bruce and back again.

It left me somewhat confused, but the audience were appreciative so that's ok I guess.

Study of the Declaration of Arbroath is too often restricted to academic papers which many find a little inaccessible, but reading more on it can be extremely rewarding. As one book description on the subject states:

"The Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April, 1320, is one of the most remarkable documents to have been produced anywhere in medieval Europe. Quoted by many, understood by few, its historical significance has now almost been overtaken by its mythic status."

If you are interested in reading more about the Declaration then you could do a lot worse than buy the collection of papers on the subject called "he Declaration of Arbroath: History, Significance, Setting" which was edited by respected historian Geoffrey Barrow.

I'm all for promoting Arbroath Abbey and the Declaration of Arbroath, but I can't help but feel that a better appreciation of the document itself, set in the context of the times in which it was written might make some people think twice before using it as a political football.

Disabled Parking Bill

2009-03-01T10:25:00.000Z

Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw made this contribution to the Disabled Persons Parking Spaces Bill on Thursday. It's an interesting angle on the subject:

“I would like to address a matter which concerned me for much of my career within the Scottish retail motor industry.

It concerns not so much the securing of dedicated parking places themselves as the eligibility of those who are entitled to use them via the UK Motability Car purchase scheme.

“It was determined that rather than create a specific replacement vehicle to the Reliant Robin, general discounts would apply with VAT being waived in addition on whatever range of motor vehicles manufacturers wished to make available on the scheme.

“Demand exploded as those who discovered they were eligible for the benefit, but who had not fancied a Reliant Robin, realised that the benefit could be applied to any make or model of vehicle subject to the manufacturer making it available under the scheme.

At one point in the 1990s there were more people registered on the UK Motability disabled driver scheme than there were registered disabled people in all of the other countries within the European Union put together.

Moreover fewer than 2% of the vehicles supplied were adapted in any way whatsoever. “I regret to say that in some instances I was aware of deliberate abuse and the frankly ridiculous. The customer who was eligible for the benefit because he was diagnosed as ‘clinically bald’. Or the man who freely admitted to my salesman that he was driven from Glasgow to Ayr on a cold day with his leg stuck out the window, before a doctor confirmed poor circulation entitling him to the benefit.

“I should also like to contrast this to the monstrous injustice which has, in contrast, been meted out to those in need of an appropriate wheelchair. Relatively pathetic amounts of public money are spent on wheelchair users and I point to the contrast between this and the huge public subsidy on motor vehicles.

“This is not to take away from the incredibly liberating lifeline those who rightly enjoy vehicles under the scheme enjoy, or to detract from the screaming frustration they feel when trying to park and finding their spaces selfishly blocked by others too lazy to park elsewhere.”

Peace and Love Among Parly Staff

2009-02-26T11:35:00.000Z

Despite the 'yah boo sucks to you' image that is shown on TV, the Parliament can be quite an affable and good natured place to work.

Today, MSP Dr Bill Wilson's Office Manager circulated the humorously well written e-mail below, which I thought (with Eric's permission) I would share:

Dear Researchers (of all parties and none)

Stefan Buettner (Chris Harvie's researcher) is off to Germany today, having accidentally purchased a Lothian bus pass for the day (only used once, excellent running order, full service history :-) ).

He no longer needs this and, as a gesture of international and cross-party friendship (not forgetting the independents), has asked me to advertise its availability. I am holding it in M5.09.

First come, first served. Please pass the favour on in some way. Perhaps it could snowball and we could end up saving the world! Peace, love and pronoia all round. ("Pronoia" is your word for the day.)

Warm regards

Eric

Saving the world might be a tad ambitious of course, and one G. Brown has already taken the credit for that anyway, but it was a very nice gesture.

It transpired shortly afterwards that the only spanner in the works was the fact that it is against Lothian Buses policy to allow a day pass to be given to someone else. But in the grand scheme of things, as Eric later said, the pass may have gone to someone who does not usually avail themselves of Lothian Buses services, and they may well be so impressed by the experience that they might become regular users.

If you (like me) had never encountered the word 'pronoia' before, then I would direct you to Eric's very interesting blog which you can find here.

Right, after all that, I'm off to Forfar now for my Cooncil Committee meeting, which may or may not be quite so equitable.

Some (alleged) Quiz Show Answers

2009-02-25T13:47:00.000Z

BEG, BORROW OR STEAL (BBC2)
Jamie Theakston: Where do you think Cambridge University is?
Contestant: Geography isn't my strong point.
Theakston: There's a clue in the title.
Contestant: Leicester.

BBC NORFOLK
Stewart White: Who had a worldwide hit with What A Wonderful World? Contestant: I don't know.
White: I'll give you some clues: what do you call the part between your hand and your elbow?Contestant : Arm.
White: Correct. And if you're not weak, you're...?
Contestant: Strong.
White: Correct - and what was Lord Mountbatten's first name?
Contestant: Louis.
White: Well, there we are then. So who had a worldwide hit with the song What A Wonderful World?
Contestant: Frank Sinatra?

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE (BBC2)
Jeremy Paxman: What is another name for 'cherrypickers' and 'cheesemongers'?
Contestant: Homosexuals.
Paxman: No. They're regiments in the British Army who will be very upset with you.

LATE SHOW (BBC MIDLANDS)
Alex Trelinski: What is the capital of Italy?
Contestant: France.
Trelinski: France is another country. Try again.
Contestant: Oh, um, Benidorm.
Trelinski: Wrong, sorry, let's try another question. In which country is the Parthenon? Contestant: Sorry, I don't know.
Trelinski: Just guess a country then.
Contestant: Paris.

THE WEAKEST LINK (BBC2)
Anne Robinson: - Oscar Wilde, Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Archer have all written books about their experiences in what: - Prison, orthe Conservative Party?
Contestant: The Conservative Party.

BEACON RADIO (WOLVERHAMPTON)

DJ Mark: For £10, what is the nationality of the Pope?
Ruth from Rowley Regis: I think I know that one. Is it Jewish?

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
Bamber Gascoigne: What was Gandhi's first name?
Contestant: Goosey?

GWR FM (Bristol)
Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?
Contestant : I don't know, I wasn't watching it then.

RTE RADIO 2FM (IRELAND)
Presenter: What is the name of the long- running TV comedy show about pensioners: Last Of The...?
Caller: Mohicans.

PHIL WOOD SHOW (BBC RADIO MANCHESTER)
Phil: What's 11 squared?
Contestant: I don't know.
Phil: I'll give you a clue. It's two ones with a two in the middle.
Contestant: Is it five?

RICHARD AND JUDY
Q: Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?
A: Forrest Gump.

RICHARD AND JUDY
Leslie: On which street did Sherlock Holmes live?
Contestant: Er. . .
Leslie: He makes bread . . .
Contestant: Er . ... Leslie: He makes cakes . . .
Contestant: Kipling Street?

LINCS FM P HONE-IN
Presenter: Which is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world?
Contestant: Barcelona.
Presenter: I was really after the name of a country.
Contestant: I'm sorry, I don't know the names of any countries in Spain.

NATIONAL LOTTERY (BBC1)
Question: What is the world's largest continent?
Contestant: The Pacific

ROCK FM (PRESTON)
Presenter: Name a film starring Bob Hoskins that is also the name of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
Contestant: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

THE BIGGEST GAME IN TOWN (ITV)
Steve Le Fevre: What was signed, to bring World War I to an end in 1918?
Contestant: Magna Carta?

JAMES O'BRIEN SHOW (LBC)
O'Brien: How many kings of England have been called Henry?
Contestant: Er, well, I know there was a Henry the Eighth ... ER...ER ... Three?

CHRIS SEARLE SHOW (BBC RADIO BRISTOL)
Searle: In which European country is Mount Etna?
Caller: Japan.
Searle : I did say which European country, so in case you didn't hear that, I can let you try again. Caller: Er ....Mexico?

PAUL WAPPAT (BBC RADIO NEWCASTLE)
Paul Wappat: How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
Contestant (after long pause): Fourteen days.

DARYL DENHAM'S DRIVETIME (VIRGIN RADIO)
Daryl Denham: In which country would you spend shekels?
Contestant: Holland?
Denham: Try the next letter of the alphabet.
Contestant: Iceland? Ireland?
Denham (helpfully): It's a bad line. Did you say Israel?
Contestant: No.

PHIL WOOD SHOW (BBC GMR)
Wood: What 'K' could be described as the Islamic Bible?
Contestant: Er. .. .
Wood: It's got two syllables . . . Kor . . .
Contestant: Blimey?
Wood: Ha ha ha ha, no. The past participle of run . . .
Contestant: (Silence)Wood: OK, try it another way. Today I run, yesterday I . . .
Contestant: Walked?

THE VAULT
Melanie Sykes: What is the name given to the condition where the sufferer can fall asleep at any time?
Contestant: Nostalgia.

LUNCHTIME SHOW (BRMB)
Presenter: What religion was Guy Fawkes?
Contestant: Jewish.
Presenter: That's close enough.

STEVE WRIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON (BBC RADIO 2)
Wright: Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungle-swinging character clad only in a loin cloth did he play?
Contestant: Jesus

Goldie's Letter to Salmond

2009-02-25T09:24:00.000Z

Dear First Minister,

Can I remind you that when you are abroad, you represent Scotland as the First Minister of a devolved parliament, not as the leader of a minority party.

In giving a lecture in Georgetown on independence you have once again abused your position as First Minister. There is no majority for independence in Scotland. Indeed, opinion polls consistently show that separation from the rest of the United Kingdom is a minority aspiration.

As First Minister you speak for all of Scotland, not merely as the leader of one of Scotland's minority parties and it would be a gross distortion for you to imply otherwise.

Yours sincerely,
Annabel M Goldie MSP

Immigration Curbs

2009-02-23T00:32:00.000Z

Under fire Home Secretary Jaqui Smith, a woman who looks so similar to an ex of mine that I find it disconcerting, is proposing to stop 'tens of thousands' of 'highly skilled' immigrants from outside the EU from coming to work in the UK.

This strikes me as something of a populist reaction to the concerns of UK workers who were facing redundancy recently when a foreign company won a contract in the UK and promptly shipped (literally) a workforce in from abroad. The UK workers rightly threw Gordon Browns statement of "British jobs for British workers" back in his face.

The irony is of course that in this instance, the foreign workers were from inside the EU and not from the outside, so her protectionist measures would have achieved nothing whatsoever.

The whole thing strikes me as a tad frothy given the global recession, and I wonder just how many people outside of the EU were actually planning to come here to work over the next year or two. I know two highly skilled Australians that have recently returned home because the pay and conditions were far better there than here.

No doubt immigration will fall because of the financial climate and Westminster will attribute this to their shiny new policy.

The only mention of EU immigration (ie the type of immigration that caused such an adverse reaction to the workers down south) comes here:

"The Government also plans to change the laws regarding the deportation of EU citizens convicted of sexual, violent and drugs crimes. At the moment EU citizens can only be deported if they are given a jail sentence of two years or more. Ms Smith said that she intended to reduce this to 12 months."

I'm not sure what it takes to get a 12 month sentence these days never mind two years, but I suspect it would have to painfully serious, especially here in Scotland where Kenny MacAskill's abhorence of jailing criminals means that it is unlikely many will fall into that category.

All in all, I suspect that this proposal is more spin than substance, but time will tell.

Edinburgh Permit Charges

2009-02-22T00:14:00.000Z

I see the lentil bake loving Greens have introduced higher parking permit charges for 'gas guzzlers'.

On one hand I can see the point. I'm always amazed at the amount of shiny new 'Chelsea Tractors' that are driven in Edinburgh. Trying to get to work in the morning can be like driving through the set of Stepford Wives when you go past a school. The irony is of course that most of the city dwelling 4x4 owners have never driven a vehicle off road before in their lives and a wee bit mud on their expensive wagons would induce a fit of the vapours in them.

There's no question that these things produce more pollution than smaller vehicles, but that said, what about those on low incomes with old cars with large engines that they can't afford to replace? This is especially pertinant in times like these and I'd hate to think that anyone who is struggling financially already might be hit with higher charges by the 'holier than thou' eco warriors.

Harris for the Turner Prize!

2009-02-16T21:13:00.000Z

Labour MP Tom Harris has suggested that people nominate his blog as a contender for the Turner Prize.

For those of you who are blissfully unaware of what the Turner Prize is, their website describes it as:

"The Turner Prize is a contemporary art award that was set up in 1984 to celebrate new developments in contemporary art.
The prize is awarded each year to 'a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding'."

Personally, I would describe it as a collective of Guardian reading, Tofu loving pseuds who indulge themselves in an 'emperors new clothes' type of artistic bunfight every twelve months, and award a sickening amount of money to some arty type who cobbled together an 'installation' out of a couple of bricks and a coathanger. If you don't get their thinking, then you simply don't understand art dahhling.

Yup, it really is the art equivalent of a train wreck. There have been some utterly crap winners and nominees for this over the years. Look some of them up for yourself and you'll see what I mean, unless of course you are fully supportive of this type of thing, in which case you may have just spluttered some organic yoghurt over your monitor in synthetic outrage (dislodging your designer specs, which you don't really need at the same time) at the opinions I expressed above.

Anyhoo, I digress. Tom thinks it would strike a blow for us ordinary types if as many people as possible nominated his blog for the prize. I fully agree with him and am happy to support his nomination. You can find his blog post on the subject here.

25 Random Facts

2009-02-14T20:11:00.001Z

Fox in Detox tagged me to post up 25 random facts about myself. Quite a lot of bloggers have been tagged with this and there's some good ones out there. Here goes:

1) The first vehicle I was licensed to drive on the road was a 60 ton Chieftan tank. I found it difficult to learn how to drive a car after this.

2) I was a guard on the Berlin Wall for a time. Three of us got into some bother for climbing it and sitting on top for a photo at the Brandenburg Gate.

3) After school I used to work in a fish factory every night. I never eat fish.

4) I love pets. My German Shepherd died 10 years ago and I still miss him.

5) I was a marksman in the army, but have not handled a firearm since I left the forces.

6) I played rugby for my school and regiment as a loose head prop. The same position as my Dad played even though he is a lot smaller than me.

7) I love art, but no-one believes me when I tell them this.

8) I enjoy martial arts and hold black belts in kickboxing and karate. I'm a qualified blade arts instructor and former assistant Judo coach. I have broken several toes and fractured most of my ribs down one side doing this.

9) I have a large collection of historical weaponry and armour.

10) I wanted to learn jousting and had not fallen off a horse in a year until I took former fiance. Ten minutes after she arrived I fell off a very large horse. It was a tad sore.

11) I practice archery with an English longbow. It took almost a year of practice before I could draw it properly.

12) My sense of humour is very dry and has got me into trouble several times.

13) I can be very cynical at times. Actually, quite a lot of the time.

14) Japanese history and culture fascinates me.

15) I loathed primary school and did not get on with the teachers. (I could expand on this, but wont)

16) I hate cruelty to animals and sponsor a dog from a national charity.

17) I worked on oil rigs for several years. Hard work but enjoyable.

18) I get bored easily and fidget a lot.

19) I love old films.

20) I rarely watch tv except for documentaries and current affairs type stuff. I hate game/quiz/chat/magazine/car shows.

21) I enjoy reading. I prefer horror and factual stuff

22) I spend most of time working and put in hours every evening and weekend.

23) I never forgive and forget.

24) I'm 42 next month.

25) I love visiting old churches, abbeys and castles. How they were built and how the stones were cut fascinates me.

RIP LIT

2009-02-11T15:40:00.001Z

And so the spectre of a Local Income Tax has gone. Even when unions, business leaders and many others reacted with nothing short of horror at the thought of its introduction, the SNP carried on with it regardless. Until now.

John Swinney, realising the policy was about as popular as a fart in a spacesuit has announced today that it has been ditched until after the next election.

The SNP had to be forced to honour their pledge of 1000 extra cops, the promise to wipe out student debt was a lie, the undertaking on class sizes is in chaos and now LIT has sunk without trace.

Surely there must come a time when the only people the SNP big guns are fooling will be themselves.

There's No Place Like Rome.......

2009-02-07T22:58:00.000Z

So the budget was finally passed (bit late with this I know). The Greens, as I predicted were put back in their box having ended up with less than half of what they originally had in their hand. Labour, voted for it after conspicuously failing to cover themselves in glory (not really got to grips with the idea of constructive opposition yet eh guys?).

But who was mooted as the 'party of the moment' by one TV pundit when they looked ready to strike a deal with the SNP? Step forward that collective of parliamentary charlatans the Lib Dems. They had demanded a 2p tax cut as the price of their support. This would have caused a black hole in already precarious finances of some £800m, a hole that they helpfully failed to offer any solutions on how to fill apart from some kind of 'it'll be allright on the night' type thing.

It was clear to me that the Lib Dems were never expecting to get their way when they sent Chief Whip Mike Rumbles to negotiate for them. Mr Rumbles had previously enjoyed a mild, albeit dull, notoriety after adopting some kind of bizarre maverick persona whilst the Lib Dems were in coalition with Labour, but this has failed to have any impact now they are in opposition. It was inevitable that he would give a burlesque storming out of the meeting with Swinney performance, allowing the Lib Dems to do their usual hand wringing and breast beating. In the end, they caved in for not very much at all. Smart move guys.

On a personal front, I got my Roman armour mounted on a stand:

I'm getting two more stands made for my harnesses of 15th and 16th century plate armour. My new harness of 15th century Italian armour is still being made, although the helmet has arrived. I'm looking forward to fighting in it, although I will try and avoid a recurrence of an incident when some 'friends' put a few tropical fish fridge magnets on me in places I couldn't reach. It was a colourful albeit bizarre incident which confused small children.

I'm coming to the end of the 15th week of my diet. I'm down five suit sizes, and feel much healthier, although a journalist friend phoned me up and told me that "everyone preferred cuddly Jim". Encouraging. The leader of the council also asked if I had surgery. The answer to that is no, I simply stopped eating crap and drinking alcohol.

I now train with one of these for four hours a week:

It's a Russian Kettlebell and it provides an amazing workout. If you want to see rapid results you could do a lot worse than try training with one, though be warned it is incredibly hard work.

The dreaded Valentines Day is almost upon us and having promised Girlfriend dinner in some nice and suitably expensive restaurant, I have left it too late to get a table anywhere. To be fair to girlfriend, she is being very good about it and seems to have known this would happen.

That very nice blogger Fox in Detox (who is also reticent about Valentines Day) has tagged me with a challenge to post 25 random facts about myself. I'll compile them over the next day or two and post them up (though I may be a tad circumspect given some of the people that read this blog).

I haven't booked a holiday yet, but this year looks likely to be France or Italy. If it's Italy, then we would have to drop in on my relatives, and Girlfriend isn't that keen. In a strange coincidence, my cousin was elected to his local council near Pisa at the same time I was elected here. Last time I was there was with former fiance and they lent us a car which was so impossibly small I had to have the sunroof open so I could sit up straight whilst driving. This provided two weeks of amusement for the locals as I drove around with the top of my head sticking out of the roof.

I have finally persuaded Girlfriend to come to Japan with me next year. I have wanted to visit Japan since I took up martial arts twenty years ago, but have never managed it. Helpfully, having lived there for some years, Girlfriend speaks and reads Japanese which is really the only way the trip is possible for me given my notoriously bad sense of direction.

Apart from all of that, things remain very busy both on the council and work front. The announcement by the Scottish Government that local elections will be put back until 2012, giving us a five year term, instigated a sense of humour failure in Girlfriend, but I enjoy serving the community and at the end of the day it's a privilege to do so.

Those Budget Negotiations

2009-01-29T15:57:00.000Z

I hear that the Lib Dems are backpeddling furiously and have gone cap-in-hand to the SNP promising to forget about their demands for a 2p tax cut. I'm surprised it took them so long.

Meanwhile, I understand that Labour are continuing to take stick from their Cosla loving cooncillors and are also looking for a way out.

Some pundits wondered why John Swinney simply didn't give in to the demands of the Greens for extra cash, but had he done so, then the Tories would have held out for a proportionate increase in their negotiated settlement. Clearly, Mr Swinney was between a rock and a hard place on that one, and whilst he may have been able to give the Greens what they wanted, he would have struggled to provide the extra to meet the Tories' demands. Especially given that budget calculations seemed to be worked out on the backs of envelopes with five minutes before the vote last night.

For the SNP, a deal with the Lib Dems will allow them to give the Greens a swift kick in the proverbial for their audacity. The Lib Dems will be delighted with a get-out given their rather poor poll ratings just now. No party wants a Scottish Parliament election right now, and if, in the unlikely event that this happened, there is no doubt in my mind that the Lib Dems would be biggest losers.

It will be interesting to see who comes out with what at the end of this. The possibility that Patrick Harvie's gamble may see him lose everything he had in his hand last night may well prove to be a very real one.

Labour Press Release

2009-01-29T11:11:00.001Z

It had been mooted that Labour would have been on something of high this morning after defeating the government yesterday.

Judging by the rather badly written press release (below) they issued this morning, that's not the case. Word is that the some senior Labour cooncillors are on the attack about yesterday's performance, and Iain Gray is taking flak for it.

It should be borne in mind that whilst the 'historic concordat' seems to be falling apart at the seams, there are any number of labour cooncillors happy to support it through Cosla, and they were keen to see the budget passed.

Labour in the Scottish Parliament News Release
Immediate Release 29 January 2009 LABOUR: SCRAP TORY LIE LEAFLET NOW

Labour this morning demanded that the Scottish Conservatives immediately cease distributing a leaflet about the Scottish budget vote after it was found to contain seven falsehoods.

The leaflet, distributed this morning at railway stations, claimed that, because of the vote, a catalogue of disaster would now immediately follow, including council tax rising by £350, health budgets being slashed by £650 million and fewer police on the streets.

In fact, none of that will happen and a new, hopefully improved, budget will be considered by MSPs within a fortnight.

Each of the claims made by the Tories is utterly untrue. Labour's Business Manager, Michael McMahon said: "This is despicable and baseless scaremongering with not one iota of truth. The Tories lost the vote yesterday and have egg on their face. "The Tories may have a new 'celebrity' spin-doctor, but Annabel Goldie needs to bring him into line. This type of complete falsehood has no place in a modern politics. Voters want politicians to be straightforward and truthful. "They Tories could not win the argument, and they could not win the vote, so they stoop to blatant lies. What we need is a budget for the people of Scotland not a short-term political fix for the SNP and their Tory lap-dogs. "The fact is that the budget can be fixed in a fortnight, or even sooner if there is political will. There is no reason for any taxes to rise or services to be cut. "This Scottish budget is a serious process and the Scottish Conservative party needs to behave in a grown-up way." ENDS

Glasgow Valentines Day Gift

2009-01-29T10:06:00.000Z

This cheeky little gift set was spotted in Haddows, Copland Road, Govan last night - apparently they sell like hot cakes! A bottle of Buckfast, 20 Mayfair and a packet of skins - you couldn't make it up! BUCKY GIFT PACK ONLY £9.08!

Budget

2009-01-28T18:06:00.001Z

I have to say, I didn't see that coming! With the votes at 64-64, the casting vote lay with the Presiding Officer. Convention suggests he should vote for the status quo, and he did so.

The Garden Lobby was bristling with journalists immediately afterwards, with a mass exodus to an SNP press conference shortly after that.

I watched the budget debate, and John Swinney gave a steady and competent performance. Head and shoulders above the other speakers however was Derek Brownlee whose barnstorming efforts landed heavy blows against Labour. Jeremy Purves for the Lib Dems was weak with a dull, pedestrian delivery. Labour's contribution was hesitant and unpolished.

So what now? I just spoke with one Lib Dem MSP who wants to see an election. Given that election dates for the Scottish Parliament are pretty much cast in stone, that's not going to happen.

The Presiding Officer is holding a meeting tomorrow morning to look at the next step, and the SNP may have to do some fancy fiscal footwork to get the Greens on board. The Tories supported the budget, but are now saying that they cannot guarantee to support a different budget that the SNP may bring forward.

Swinney needs to get a budget passed soon, or the ramifications for local authorities, businesses and council tax payers could be horrendous.

Labour, who threatened a vote of no confidence in the immediate aftermath of the vote, have backed away from this slightly and are now saying that they will do this if the budget fails again.

Personally, I think Labour have come out of this rather badly, and the worst is yet to come for them if this continues to go wrong.

I believe this will be resolved soon enough. The SNP will negotiate with the Greens and bring back a budget with enough money in it to provide the home insulation investment that Patrick Harvie wants.

Interesting times...............

The SNP Retorts

2009-01-26T08:35:00.000Z

Following my last post (no, not the bugle variety) on Justice Secretary Mr MacAskill missing the important knife crime summit in the Scottish Parliament, the SNP have hit back claiming that knife crime is not in the portfolio of the Justice Secretary. Apparently it is the brief of Fergus Ewing.

Oh? This is news to me, and indeed to many others. Kenny MacAskill and Fergus Ewing have issued twenty five written answers on knife crime. Of these twenty five, Mr MacAskill has answered seventeen of them. A total of 68%.

Take a look at the Scottish Government's website. You can find two press releases on the subject, both issued by one K MacAskill. During the summer recess, it was Mr MacAskill that was interviewed on TV announcing the bold (and utterly useless measure) of a scheme to licence non domestic knife sellers in a bid to combat knife crime.

So if it's not his brief, why is he doing all the announcements and most of the answers on it?

Supporters of the SNP claim that it was not necessary to have two ministers at the summit, and it is important to promote the Homecoming.

Whilst I appreciate the benefits that the Homecoming could bring, and I very much hope those benefits materialise, I can't help but think it is more important to address the issue of knife crime in Scotland than it is to address the haggis in Canada.

Where's Kenny?

2009-01-22T15:17:00.001Z

Tommorrow, there is a Public Petitions Committee debate in the Scottish Parliament on knife crime.

The debate has been organised by the committee in response to the petition by John Muir whose son was stabbed to death in 2007. The committee bring together for the first time a wide cross-section of groups and individuals affected by knife crime such as the victims, young people, police, the legal profession, community groups and medical staff.

The organisers stated their desire for the debate to provide a real opportunity for people’s voices to be heard, to create fresh thinking on how to tackle knife culture and map out where we go from here.

The Scottish Parliament media team describe it as a "catalyst for change"

Given the circumstances surrounding this debate, given the importance of the subject matter, and given Kenny MacAskill's many pronouncements on this subject, you'd think the Justice Secretary would actually be there wouldn't you?

You'd be wrong. He's off to Canada for a Burns Supper. Nice to see he has got his priorities right.

That cheap pint........

2009-01-21T14:25:00.001Z

Pub chain Wetherspoons announced that they were selling a pint for 99p.

The knee-jerk reaction was as rapid as it was predictable. The anti drink lobby and the hand wringing professionally concerned were out in force lambasting the company for what some described as irresponsible selling of alcohol.

But amidst all of this, there was an opportunity to see how the SNP's proposals on alcohol, led by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill (described by journalist Tom Little as a zealot in this article) would affect offers such as these.

Well, if we assume that the beer in question was 4% ABV (not an unreasonable assumption), and we apply the SNP's suggested minimum price per unit of alcohol of 35p, then it turns out that Wetherspoons, or anyone else for that matter, could actually sell a pint for the grand total of 80p.

A whole 19p less than the pint currently offered, and still within 'Kenny's Law'.

Personally, I like a bargain, and I enjoy a pint (though not for the past 13 weeks due to my diet), so I certainly don't mind combining the two. I appreciate that we need to address our relationship with alcohol, but trying to price the stuff out of people's reach simply won't cut it. Those that want to, or need to buy the stuff will continue to do so, and they will fund the extra cost from other parts of the household budget. Like so many other of Mr MacAskill's pronouncements, this one will have the sum total of no effect on the problem whatsoever.

SSPCA

2009-01-19T15:30:00.000Z

Boss and I paid a visit to the Angus SSPCA rescue and rehoming centre on Friday. On one level it was great to see the work that the SSPCA does in rescuing animals from neglect and abuse, but heartbreaking to hear about some of the suffering that animals are put through by their owners.

One owner had a got a friend to hold his dog whilst he shot it thirteen times in the head with an air rifle in a bid to kill it. The dog survived and is back to full health thanks to the SSPCA who are also seeking to have the owner prosecuted for his actions. If found guilty, I hope the judicial system dishes out a sentence that reflects the pain and suffering of the dog, as well as the cost in time and money to the SSPCA who rescued it (though I doubt it to be honest).

I miss having a dog and given the travelling I do, it would be unfair to have one at the moment, but I'll be more likely to give a home to a rescue dog when I do get one.

Boss and I were so impressed with the work of the SSPCA that we gave a £50 donation to assist with their work.

If you're thinking of getting a pet, please think about giving a rescue animal a second chance.

I'm Back...............

2009-01-14T11:49:00.001Z

Sorry for the absence which went on far longer than I intended, and many thanks to those who contacted me to see if I was actually alive.

I had lots of things I wanted to blog about, but didn't have the time and then fell ill over Christmas which largely kept me away from things.

So, since the last time I posted, I had hoped to have a couple of weeks of complete down time over the festive period, but in reality it just didn't happen with various things coming up.

I had a fairly quiet Christmas and New Year, though all in all it was an enjoyable time.

Yesterday I was presented with my martial arts Knife Instructors Certificate (see photo above) and I also received a very nice Bowie knife, which will take pride of place in the living room.

I'm in Parliament today, and am attending a reception tonight for Japan Week, which I'm looking forward to.

I'm heading back north first thing tomorrow as I have my committee meeting, which may or may not drag on for hours. Its a relatively short agenda, with little contentious content, but you just never can tell.

Planning for the 4th July event continues to go well and seems to be shaping up nicely. I'm hoping it will be a good one.

Anyway, I aim to blog far more often than I have been doing recently, so I'll be updating more regularly.

Cheers

Jim

Proud of Yourself Mr Welsh?

2008-12-09T12:53:00.000Z

The Sunday Post reports that my local MSP Andrew Welsh managed to reduce two female civil servants to tears (not on the online edition I'm afraid)after a 30 minute rant during a Scottish Parliament Committee Meeting.

First of all, Mr Welsh is reported to have been upset that he had not received a report on Free Personal Care prior to the meeting. He was obliged to retract this after one of the civil servants pointed out she had hand delivered it to him six days before.

The report continues "Then, as he read the paper, the MSP's fury apparently boiled over as he accused the clerks who had written it of politicising the content."

Lord Foulkes is quoted as saying "he went off on a rant and said it had been polticised. He claimed the clerks hadn't reflected the views of the committee but would not explain what he meant by that."

"The clerks were reduced to tears by the end, one quite badly. I've never seen anything like it and I've been in politics for over 30 years."

The report goes on "Paisley South MSP Hugh Henry asked several people he considered not required there to be there to leave the room when the clerks broke down but stopped short of adjourning the meeting."

In the seven years I have worked at the Scottish Parliament, I have seen a few MSP's go into a bit of a strop. That said, I have never, ever, encountered such pathetic, bullying behaviour such as this.

I have always found Parliamentary clerks to be very non-political and professional, but even if on this occasion, this was not the case, is there any excuse for this kind of Victorian behaviour?

I hope Mr Welsh does the decent thing and makes not only a public apology over this disgraceful episode, but also writes to the two clerks concerned and apologises to them also. If he is not man enough for that, then one of his senior colleagues should 'encourage' him to do so. If not, do they condone this kind of thing?

Knife Certificate

2008-12-06T09:41:00.000Z

Next week, I am being presented with my Knife Combat Instructors Certificate. Though I have taught one or two different martial arts styles in my time, I have no intention of ever teaching knife combat.

First of all, I appreciate that there are some who would not approve of this. There are some indeed, who will try and twist this presentation for political means.

That said, I have campaigned for quite a long time now on curbing knife carrying, especially amongst younger people. The training that I have undergone in the martial arts over the past twenty years in general, and the edged weapons training I have undergone in the past few years, coupled with a few real life experiences, have led me to have a far greater understanding of the issue than many others who claim to know the answers to knife crime.

It is all of the above which has informed my argument against carrying a blade, and whilst it may seem unorthodox, thinking 'out of the box' is no bad thing. I will continue to do everything possible to curb knife carrying, simply because I am acutely aware of the dangers of carrying a blade and the profound, and wide ranging impact of using one.

From the Office of John Swinney MSP

2008-12-05T17:32:00.000Z

Sometimes, it's best to read a press release before you issue it.
Then you won't end up asking journalists to delete it, as happened with this rather amusing one. The first is the original press release, the two beneath are requests to ignore it.

Obviously, I'm sure the Cabinet Secretary does like doing surgery's really.............

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen.Carter@scottish.parliament.uk [mailto:Stephen.Carter@scottish.parliament.uk]
Sent: 03 December 2008 15:06
Subject: News Release from John Swinney

News Release from John Swinney MSP

Attn: News Desk
For Immediate Release
Photo Desk
Friday 21st November 2008

SWINNEY TO HOLD CONSTITUENCY SURGERIES

Mr John Swinney, SNP member of the Scottish Parliament for

North Tayside will be holding constituency surgeries in December.

John Swinney endeavours to hold surgeries around his

constituency as often as possible. He regularly has

appointments in his constituency office in Blairgowrie but

travels around North Tayside to meet those who cannot attend

meetings in the office.

John Swinney will be holding surgeries at the following

locations on Monday 15th December 2008.

Pitlochry, Town Hall – 10.00 – 11.00

Aberfeldy, Breadalbane Academy - 11.30 – 12.30

Dunkeld, Birnam Institute – 1.00 – 2.00

Scone, Robert Douglas Memorial Institute – 2.30 – 3.30

Coupar Angus, Town Hall – 4.00 – 5.00

Commenting on the upcoming surgery John Swinney said,

“God I hate these things!!!!!!!!!!

“These surgeries are an important element of my portfolio as a

representative of the people of North Tayside.

“They provide me with an opportunity to travel around the

constituency and meet those who are not able to meet me in my

constituency office.

“I encourage the constituents who wish to see me to come along

to one of the surgeries, to make an appointment to meet with me

simply phone 0125... .”

END
Contact: Stephen Carter
0125...

**********************************************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen.Carter@scottish.parliament.uk [mailto:Stephen.Carter@scottish.parliament.uk]
Sent: 03 December 2008 15:08
Subject: Previous Press Release

Dear All
Please immediately disregard the previous press release.
Yours Sincerely
Stephen Carter
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen.Carter@scottish.parliament.uk [mailto:Stephen.Carter@scottish.parliament.uk]
Sent: 03 December 2008 15:10
Subject: Previous Press Release

Deal All
I would be very much grateful if the previous press release would be immediately deleted.
I am sorry for this inconvenience
Yours sincerely
Stephen Carter

**********************************************************************

**********************************************************************

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Knife Crime (yet again)

2008-12-01T21:30:00.000Z

The SNP have announced another strand in the fight against knife crime. I have gone over my opinions on knife crime on numerous occassions, so won't re-hash those again now.

Nicola Sturgeon was delighted to report a new initiative where surgeon's with experience of dealing with the aftermath of knife incidents would go into schools and outline the difficulties of repairing the damage.

First of all, I welcome wholeheartedly any attempt to stop young people carrying a blade, and I absolutely commend any surgeon willing to give up his or her spare time to talk to kids about it.

However, I had heard of this move some time ago, under rather different circumstances. The story went that some bright spark had come up with the idea. The spark in question, working in the Violence Reduction Unit, has been previously reported to me as rather closed minded about new ideas and unwilling to promote anyone else's proposals. Rather amusingly, I was told that bright spark, on vocalising the idea, had been told 'not to be daft' (my own opinion will follow later).

So it was with some surprise that I read in the papers that the idea had forged ahead. Wonder how that happened?

Having people going into schools certainly works, according to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, who point out that education programmes were the most effective method of reducing weapons carrying on a local basis.

That said, they also point out that these programmes are effective when delivered by someone that the young people could identify with, rather than an individual who would be seen as an authority figure.

In my own opinion, for what it's worth, too many of these ideas are formulated by people with no first hand experience of street violence. Perhaps this is why we get crap like the proposal to introduce licensing schemes for non domestic knife sellers (my response this one is in an earlier post).

The kind of violence that can be encountered on the street is barbaric in the extreme. It's one thing reading about it, it's another thing entirely to experience it.

Let me tell you, that when you see someone lying in the gutter with the life ebbing out of them from a stab wound, it's not a good experience. Likewise, having a knife pulled on you in a dark alley is even more unpleasant.

It's these experiences that inform my views on knife crime, and it's the reason I get so frustrated at the fluffy solutions put forward by politicians who live in comfortable middle class conditions.

There are lots of good works on the events leading up to, and during a violent episode. If you are interested, do some research on the subject. It's fascinating and horrifying at the same time.

It is the brutal reality of the event itself that I believe needs to be taught to kids. And the brutal reality can only be really described by someone who has experienced violent crime at its worst.

The effects on a victim, can be profoundly long lasting, and not just physically. Many suffer from depression, loss of self esteem and some develop agrophobia. The consequences are far more serious than many appreciate.

So, given the research points to education programmes delivered by people kids can identify with (the kids who do, or are likely to, carry a blade) as being the most effective way to combat knife carrying, then why is it not being done?

In an earlier post on this subject, I ended up stating that I hoped civil servants, with a rather set ideology, were not having undue influence on Ministers. I gave a 'tail wagging the political dog' analogy. I had hoped it wasn't true, but some may think otherwise.

If you want to speak to someone who can graphically illustrate the scene of a violent episode, then give my friend Mr Mark Davies a call. I don't know anyone who can do it better.

Weekend

2008-11-30T17:31:00.001Z

Friday was a holiday at the Scottish Parliament, and Girlfriend was off too, so we have had an enjoyable albeit busy weekend.

A chance conversation on Friday morning with a council colleague led us to the Christmas Market at Hopetoun House, near South Queensferry. Have to say it was pretty good, and there was a fair few people there, though interestingly, not many people buying.

There was quite a selection of stalls, though some of it was prohibitively expensive, and quite a lot of it just wasn't the kind of thing I'd buy anyway.

I did buy a few things though, such as a selection of Italian leather bound notebooks or 'journals' as stocking fillers, and (not for Christmas presents) some honey and jam, and this reindeer skin:

It's currently on my livig room floor, but will later be added to a 12th century costume before the re-enactment event in Arbroath in July.

Following the excellent advice of fellow blogger 1st Lady, we went to Castle Campbell on Saturday and we were pleasantly surprised that it was free for the St Andrews Day weekend.

I wish I'd taken the camera, as the scenery was breathtaking. There were also repairs being carried out to the castle, and the irony of Castle Campbell repaired by a firm of MacDonalds wasn't lost on us.

We followed some of the trails for a couple of hours and then went into a great wee cafe in Dollar for lunch.

As this is my first Christmas in the new place, we went to B&Q and got a bargain on Christmas decorations, as well as looking at greenhouses for Girlfriend's present.

Busy weekend, but a good one. I'll away and do the housework now before the cleaner comes tomorrow........

The Scottish Government Housing Con

2008-11-27T14:52:00.000Z

Among other things, I take an extremely keen interest in social and affordable housing. So much so in fact that girlfriend thinks I'm a secret Trot, but I suspect she is simply assuaging her guilt for going out with a Tory.

Anyhoo, I digress. Today, the Scottish Government announced the second tranche of their £100m investment into affordable housing.

Good news I hear you cry, and even someone as cynical as me would get excited at this, despite the fact that so far, Angus isn't getting any of it.

The £100m has been announced by John Swinney et al, more often than Micheal Jackson has been in court, so lets look a little closer at it.

The £100m is not new money as many seem to think, and to be fair the SNP have sometimes, though not always, stated that this is accelerated spending from the year three budget.

But, (and there has to be at least one doesn't there?) a closer look at the detail reveals that only £60m is coming from the Scottish Government, the other £40m is coming from Local Authorities. What this means, is that all the councils in Scotland are expected to chip in £40m into John Swinney's central pot so that the SNP can continue to be seen to be acting with open handed benevolence to the masses.

Worse still, if, for example we found £1m to help out the SNP, we actually have absolutely no say in where the money will be spent. Despite an assurance that we will get the money back in some way. The big cop out from the SNP would be to simply to allow us to borrow more cash in 'prudential borrowing'. I'm not suggesting they will do that, but it's certainly possible. And if we are spending year three's money this year, where will the cash come from in year three for housing? The 'jam today' scenario is fine just now, but what about later?

Apart from the fact our finances were already tight, the council of which I'm part is facing an energy price rise of £2m, on top of what we might have expected to pay a while ago. Fuel costs are hitting us hard too (a bin lorry only does seven miles to the gallon, so you can see where I'm coming frome here). We are having free school meals foisted on us, which may have been agreed in the much talked about 'historic concordat' but this was not to be done for some time yet, and financing this could well be a major problem.

Worse still, the Scottish Government is drip feeding the announcements of who is getting the cash, and today was only the second tranche which brings the total up to £18m. Great from a PR perspective, not good for those involved in providing homes.

The organisation 'Homes for Scotland' is rightly calling for the SNP to announce where the rest of the money is to be spent before Christmas, so that developers know where they stand as they approach the end of the financial year.

The Scottish Government are also allowing local authorities to purchase 'off the shelf developments'. In reality, what this means is that we will no doubt be offered blocks of flats that were built for people seeking to enter the 'buy to let' market, and are now lying empty and unsold.

Given the fact that most local authorities already have lots of flats, then these kind of developments are a very low priority for us. Add to this, the fact that these developments invariably mean that the number of properties on them is disproportionally high to the size of the plots they are built on.

Thus, we may well be making exactly the same mistakes as we did decades ago when the solution to housing shortages were........lots of flats. That experiment failed in a grand style, so should we really revisit it?

Housing after all, is not just about the number of units that can be provided, it is also about building a mix of the kind of houses we need, in the places they are needed, it's just as important that we seek to build safe, sustainable communities that people can take pride living in. I'm really not convinced that under the SNP's plan that this will actually happen.

Perhaps a more sensible, albeit longer term solution, would be for the Scottish Govt to take advantage of low land prices and start investing in a land bank which would help social landlords and hard pressed local authorities to provide local solutions to local pressures.

Perhaps one reason that may explain what, on the surface appears to be a fairly joined up approach, but with some analysis, and indeed some knowledge of housing, is actually a disjointed and short term solution, could be lie in a source of mine within the Scottish Government who tells me that "Ministers are under intense pressure to do something, anything, that makes it look as though they are taking action". Actually that sounds about right, and it's something I will revisit when I come back from a weekends walking.

Have a good weekend.

E-Mail

2008-11-24T12:23:00.001Z

Sometimes Spellcheck isn't all it's cracked up to be.

This morning, Hugh Henry MSP's member of staff circulated the e-mail below asking people to support a motion on oil prices.

He also also apologises for the 'incontinence'. Old age doesn't come alone right enough.

Can those who have signed up please do so again.
Sorry for the incontinence.
Paul

S3M - 02711 - That the Parliament calls on the oil companies to pass on to consumers immediately decreases in the price of oil; notes how quickly increases in prices are passed on to consumers as the world price of oil goes up, and believes that consumers should benefit as soon as possible as a result of the drop in price of oil.

Unusual Gifts

2008-11-23T19:06:00.000Z

A friend came round with a couple of unusual gifts today. He brought me this Roman helmet:

And a replica Confederate American Civil War sabre.

The sabre looks quite plain, but the blade is beautifully engraved for almost two thirds of its length. It's bloody sharp too as I discovered.

Caravaggio's Works in Edinburgh

2008-11-18T09:11:00.000Z

Two works by Caravaggio, one of them thought for decades to be a copy have gone on display at the Queens Gallery at Holyrood Palace.

They are part of an exhibition of 31 paintings and 43 drawings entitled the Art of Italy.

The Baroque is my favourite era of Art History, and Caravaggio is by far my favourite artist. When I started (though didn't finish because I couldn't afford it at the time) a PHD in Art History, it was on the work of Caravaggio and His Followers. Caravaggio really revolutionised the art world and broke all the artistic conventions of the time.

It's not just his work that fascinates me, his turbulent and fairly short life is well worth looking at too.

His works have an uncanny sense of movement in them, but possibly the best aspect is the almost three dimensional effect he manages to achieve.

My favourite example of this is the Head of Medusa painted on a parade shield.

It's in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. As you turn a corner in the gallery, it sits almost by itself and you first see it from a distance. As you get closer, it seems as though though the head is projected out from the shield itself. It truly is a masterpiece given that it is painted on a convex surface, which is perhaps why photo's never do it justice.

The talent of these old Masters perhaps throws into sharp focus the utter s**te that gets punted into galleries today and sold for ludicrous sums of money. Japanese investors got their fingers really burned a few years ago when they paid vast sums for European 'modern art' that they were assured would rise in value, only to find that the pieces they bought plummeted shortly afterwards.

Of course you could argue that modern artists are, in their turn, breaking conventions and challenging our perceptions, just as Caravaggio and other Baroque artists did. On the other hand, you could equally argue that they are turning out meaningless crap made from household rubbish, or worse still, simply moving the contents of their bedroom into a gallery and passing it off as some kind of artistic statement or comment on modern life as Emin did.

Anyway, I digress. I'll no doubt go and see this exhibition half a dozen times before it ends in March, and if you're in the area, I'd recommend it as well worth a visit.

Forth Road Bridge

2008-11-13T16:01:00.000Z

In February, I was badly delayed heading up to Arbroath by an overturned lorry on the Forth Road Bridge. I blogged about it here.

Today's Evening News reports that lorry drivers who cross the Forth Road Bridge in high winds that could cause an accident are to receive a dreadful punishment.

What could it be you ask? A substantial fine that reflects the chaos that is caused when they overturn because they ignored the warning signs not to? Imprisonment maybe? Community service perhaps?

Nope. The punishment for driving a high sided vehicle across the Forth Road Bridge when the warning signs state not to do so is...........to be named and shamed!

Thats right, break the rules and they will send CCTV footage of you to the local media. Well, I don't know about you, but that's certainly put me off!

Tube

2008-11-12T16:44:00.000Z

Some people really are stupid. Below is an excerpt from a Crown Office press release about a chap who put video footage of himself waving a sword in a public place, on his Bebo page.

Strangely, this footage provided ample proof of the crime:

An Ayrshire man who was seen posing with a sword on BEBO, the social networking internet site, pled guilty today at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court to possession of a sword in a public place.

19 year old Charles Bowman was convicted of a contravention of Section 49(1) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 between 1 January 2006 and 14 July 2008. The offence came to light after the accused was seen posing on BEBO.

Bowman's case was reported to the Procurator Fiscal in Kilmarnock as part of Operation Access, the unique and ongoing campaign against violence launched in July 2008. This involves Strathclyde Police trawling the internet in a move to uncover criminal activity, supporting the drive to reduce crime and disorder across the region. Intelligence gathered in this way is then passed to the Violence Reduction Taskforce who work closely with local community police officers to identify those pictured online.

"This case demonstrates the benefits of using creative investigative techniques to gather evidence of crimes of violence and anti social behaviour. It sends a clear message that those responsible for such crimes cannot escape justice.

Anthony Bowman was fined £200.