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CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
Compiled by Jim Lynch
[Issue 51 - 25 May 2001]

Two of the lines below remain unchanged since last week; I did not see the programme Scottish 500, so I am not aware of what that vote was, and I could not find the separate figures for Scotland in the Scotsman. To be fair to the Scotsman, difficult and never reciprocated, they did publish the detail of every Parliamentary seat; the fact that their information was inaccurate is beside the point. They tried, and failed; eg under voting figures for Eastwood they showed following Labour 52.7%, Tory 19.9%, SNP 15.7 Liberal 10.5, whereas the actual figures were Labour 39.75%, Tory 33.56%, SNP 13.07%and Liberal 11.7%. Maybe the Labour candidate has a friend in the press room! This seat is a Labour/Tory marginal, but the choice of Jim Murphy and Raymond Robertson is the political equivalent of Scylla and Charybdis.

What System Three has done this time is split the votes into regions, and this is profoundly revealing:

It would also seem from the above that more than the Tories are in trouble; the Highlands and Islands are only showing 14% for the LibDems, and this area includes Orkney & Shetland, Argyll & Bute, Ross Cromarty & Skye and Caithness & Sutherland, all Liberal seats; in fact the Liberals are on equal footing with the Tories in that area. We in the SNP are slightly surprised that Glasgow is showing 66% Labour, as only this week the Scottish Catholic Observer published a Labour Party report showing that the Labour Party is losing Catholic support, and is urging its members to go to Catholic organisations meetings to tell them what a good job Labour is doing! The support Labour is losing is not going to the Tories or the Liberals, but to the SNP - shock, horror, dismay!

HOW DARE THEY!

The current Deputy Secretary of State for Scotland , George Foulkes, is waxing indignant at voters having the temerity to want to vote for other parties; he feels that anyone who does not vote Labour is voting Tory, and keeps banging the drum about "letting the Tories in" a ploy his boss, Mrs Helen Liddell, has decided they should adopt. As usual, he completely ignores the fact that if the Labour vote in an SNP seat, or a Liberal seat, increases, then this could hand the seat to the Tories, and who is Mr Hague’s little helper then? Mind you, as it is difficult to distinguish between New Labour and the Tories, Mr Foulkes would obviously be quite happy for that outcome.

His premise is not one that any normal democrat could accept, and his claim that Labour marginals could be lost to the Tories if people vote SNP, is disingenuous, to say the least; certainly, they are worried in Edinburgh Pentlands and in Eastwood, as Riffers and Robertson are desperate to win them back, but that’s democracy. I have been looking at other Labour marginals where the SNP is the main opposition:

One thing you can be sure of from the above figures, is that none of these seats are in the remotest danger of falling to the Tories, and while some of them do not look like as if they would fall to the SNP, these figures are from the General Election in May 1997; since then we have had the Scottish Parliament elections. Inverness East is now an SNP Scottish Parliament seat, the majority in Dundee West for Labour was slashed to 121, and in Dundee East to 2854; in the latter seat John MacAllion is no longer standing, so his high profile personal vote will be missing. Kilmarnock went to Labour 44% and SNP 37%, Govan to Labour 43% and SNP 37%; in this one too there is a complication in that Gordon Jackson, the MSP has been dividing his time between being an MSP and an advocate in the Courts to the great annoyance of the law. Apparently he has now decided to give up his £350000 a year career in the law and will become a full time MSP. In Ochil, Labour were on 42% to the SNP’s 38%. (All voting figures are from The Almanac of Scottish Politics, by Gerry Hassan and Dr Peter Lynch)

It is also pertinent to note that Labour is strongest in the constituencies which are the poorest in health, wealth and opportunities; it bears out my contention that Labour is there to represent the least fortunate members of our society, and it will do its best to keep them that way.

THE LUNATIC CRINGE

No sooner had our politicians and pundits uttered the words "This is the first election for many years which is not dominated by the constitutional debate", when lo and behold the constitutional debate burst into the election. This time it is all about money; the SNP has been saying that the government is going to change the Barnett formula to Scotland’s disadvantage, John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, has said it has to be tackled (no innuendo intended) and assorted politicians in the Unionist parties are producing assorted views! And into this situation, a group of 12 academics and economists wrote a letter to the Scotsman, calling for the Scottish Parliament to raise all its own taxes ; worse, oh calamity, they all said that Scotland was subsiding England, as produced in the Treasury report mentioned last week. Subsequently, Grant Baird, former chief economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland, has also confirmed this to be the case.

What a panic they have caused, and we now have Mrs Liddell. Mr Foulkes and Mr Angus Mackay, Scottish Parliament Finance Minister, all rushing around in a cringing fashion trying to outdo each other in claiming how much the Scots are subsidised by; it beats me how they can have any pride in their nation at all, when they are prepared to prostitute themselves in this fashion. It could be that they fear taking responsibility, or it could be that they just fear the SNP; as it is Mrs Liddell talks about a "black hole" of £5 billion, which one might have thought that 12 academics and economists might just have noticed, and Mr Foulkes has also latched onto this figure and repeated it in a letter to the Scotsman. The three people mentioned are paid from the public purse, and the prospect of an independent Scotland could mean that their jobs are at risk; that may be fair enough from their point of view, but we still have high unemployment and some appalling conditions in Scotland which could be cured with independence. I am quite sure that they would all prosper, as Mr Foulkes has by being a professional politician, and even Mrs Liddell could no doubt find another dodgy tycoon to employ her undoubted talents.

Strangely enough, amidst talk of fiscal autonomy for Scotland, there has been a parallel, but unrelated, demand from Northern Ireland that local control of taxation was the key to influencing the economy of the province. This appeared in an editorial in the Belfast Telegraph, and highlighted the fact that fiscal decisions taken at Westminster had a profound effect on the economy, and that while London set the rate of corporation tax, Northern Ireland had to compete with the Republic, where corporation tax was much lower. It appears that the "one size fits all" fiscal policy is good for London and the South East but it does not work for anyplace else.

IN DEFENCE OF THE REALM

A government minister says that all the Scottish regiments are safe in Labour’s hands, and that 500 jobs at BAE Marine’s shipyards are also safe; Lewis Moonie, Defence Minister said that everything possible was being done to give work to BAE and there was a programme of work in the pipeline which would keep them going for a number of years. The Ministry of Defence has given no reasons for the delay in awarding the contract for Type 45 air defence destroyers, but they have not awarded it. Mr Moonie also said he would fight "tooth and nail" to keep all the Scottish regiments, which is not quite the same as saying they are safe!

There has been a bit of correspondence this last week about Scottish regiments and who did what and when; to my recollection, in 1953 there was a Highland Brigade, consisting of the Black Watch (RHR), the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, the Gordon Highlanders, the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders, the Seaforth Highlanders, and the Highland Light Infantry. The last, I think, wore trews, and were Light Infantry, which meant that they marched at a 180 paces to the minute, compared with the regular infantry pace of 120 to the minute (See what useless bits of information clutter up the mind). The Lowland Brigade consisted of the Royal Scots, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and the Kings Own Scottish Borderers; at this time, all young men did two years National Service, so naturally there were reasons to keep all the regiments. Around that time there was the Korean War, the emergency in Malaya and the emergency in Kenya due to the Mau Mau; there were enough hotspots around to occupy all the young men.

When considering the article above, about who subsidises whom, we should bear in mind that with 8.6% of the population, Scotland is providing 13% of the Armed Forces; we should be grateful that now we are only subsidising with money, and not with human lives, as since the Union of the Parliaments Scotland has borne a disproportionat amount of casualties in any of the many conflicts Britain got us into. Even as far back as the Battle for the Heights of Abraham in Quebec in 1759, when General Wolfe said of his Highlanders, "They are hardy and intrepid, and ‘tis no great mischief if they fall." Nothing changes!

ELECTION SYNOPSIS

John Swinney MSP published a dossier of quotes from Tory, New Labour and Lib Dem politicians, calling on Scotland’s share of public spending to be cut; the quotes were from David Heathcot-Amory, Theresa Gorman, James Gray, Steven Norris, Eric Forth, Boris Johnson and Sir Peter Emery for the Tories, John Prescott, Peter Mandelson and Beverly Hughes for New Labour, and Alan Beith for the Lib Dems. Only one Lib Dem? Ah well, they’re never very sure of what they think. Roseanna Cunningham also threw these names at Raymond Robertson on the BBC’s Cross Examination programme.

Nicola Sturgeon MSP commented on the System Three opinion poll which showed that 55% of Scots trusted Tony Blair less after four years in power, but only 12% trusted him more. Mr Blair was obviously a promising chap.

Roseanna Cunningham MSP highlighted the leaked letter from the New Labour General Secretary; this letter said that broadcasters were colluding with demonstrators during the election campaign. Roseanna said "This is pathetic stuff from New Labour . What New Labour is trying to do is keep the election campaign focussed on non-issues and fluff, such as their attacks on the broadcasters."

Roseanna Cunningham MSP also publicised the remarks of Lib Dem Simon Hughes who said that only English MPs should decide English matters; she pointed out the the SNP has always had a self denying ordinance of not voting on exclusively English matters, even though English Tory MPs had foisted the Poll Tax on Scotland. However, the Lib Dems were a Unionist party, and this policy would bar their leader, Charles Kennedy, from many votes in the House of Commons.

Nicola Sturgeon MSP passed comment on Anne Widdicombe’s attack on providing free personal care for the elderly in Scotland, noting the inconsistency of the Tories in the Scottish Parliament voting for free personal care , and opposing it in London. On this issue, Tory candidate in Ayr, Phil Gallie, supports both views (well, anything for a vote)

Alex Salmond has called for full fiscal freedom for the Scottish Parliament; this week we have had 12 Scottish economists backing fiscal freedom, and now a Fraser of Allander study has shown that New Labour’s current plans will squeeze Scottish spending by £2 billion over the next three years. Alex also pointed out that Brian Wilson had said that North Sea revenues would be in the region of two to three billion pounds over the next several years, whereas the Treasury figures showed that North Sea revenues are running at £6 billion this year and next. Mr Wilson also wanted to see more private investment in the Health Service; SNP policy was for public investment in the Health Service.

A teletext poll has shown that 79% of those responding want fiscal freedom for the Scottish Parliament, as against 21% who do not.

Speaking at Stirling University on Wednesday this week, John Swinney MSP, set out the SNP’s policies to deliver strong public services; he called for fiscal freedom for the Scottish Parliament. On the projected £2 billion squeeze over the next three years, he said "This means we will see the number of nurses in Scotland continuing to fall. We will see class sizes remaining too big, and we will continue to see the police hampered in their fight to remove the criminals and thugs from our streets".

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

Two incidents involving public figures and violence have been shown ad nauseam on our TV screens over the last few weeks; one involved the Deputy Prime Minister punching a voter who threw an egg at him, and the other involved the Scottish football captain trying to shake off an opposing player who was hauling at his shirt from behind.

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, received plaudits from his party and colleagues, and Colin Hendry was banned for 6 matches, reduced to 3 and fined £4000; we obviously expect much higher standards from our footballers than we do from our politicians.

New Labour is planning to launch a sweeping review of the source and security of Britain’s energy supply after the election; they are apparently anxious about electricity shortages, and reliance on foreign sources of fuel, gas from Russia, North Africa and the Middle East.

Oil companies are increasing their investment in Norway’s offshore industry, and the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has raised its forecast for next year by 30%; gas output is likely to rise due to the discovery of big new field like the Ormen Lange.

Two ladies have been prominent in the political arena over the last week, one for and one against New Labour; Sharon Storer buttonholed the Prime Minister about waiting times for cancer patients, to his intense public embarassment. Geri Halliwell, ex Spice Girl, launched her support for New Labour, having supported Margaret Thatcher in the past.

Sharon Storer never votes because she thinks it’s a waste of time, and Geri Halliwell has never registered to vote as she is afraid for her security; turn over Emily Pankhurst.

New Labour Manifesto May 1997: "Labour is opposed to the privatisation of clinical services which is actively being promoted by the Conservatives."

New Labour Manifesto 2001: " We will create a new type of hospital - specially built surgical units, managed by the NHS or the private sector, to guarantee shorter waiting times."

How sneaky of Andrew Rawnsley of the Observer to keep manifestos.

In the same article, Mr Rawnsley comments on how the government intends to reform the public sector by introducing experts from the private sector.

He wonders if they will bring in people from Marks & Spencers, British Telecoms, or even Railtrack.

Her Majesty the Queen has sold unwanted stamps from her collection for £745000.

One is always grateful to exchange pictures of ones face for even bigger pictures of ones face.

While on the subject of flummery, the dissolution of Parliament was officially announced by the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh in a ceremony 24 hours after the announcement was made in London; apparently it used to be three days, the time a coach took to bring the news.

One unnamed Scottish government minister remarked that the news now comes via Virgin Trains.

 SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

See our Scottish Food, Traditions and Customs in our Features section

DATES IN HISTORY

SING A SANG AT LEAST
(compiled by Peter D Wright)

"That I for poor auld Scotland's sake
Some useful plan or book could make
Or sing a sang at least ........"

- Robert Burns

See the SING A SANG AT LEAST in our features section

A KIST O FERLIES
A Keek at the Guid Scots Tung
By Peter D Wright
(Note: All words underlined in this section are RealAudio links)

See Scots Language in our Features Section
for other poems, stories, sayings and words in the Scots language

THE MONTHLY PRIZE CROSSWORD

Each month the Scots Independent Newspaper offers a prize crossword and we're now offering this online in the Flag in the Wind as well.   Should you complete the crossword by the deadline you can fax it over to the SI and the first correct one opened on the closing date will win a £10.00 book token.

SI Prize Crossword No. 17
[Click here to bring up the crossword]