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(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
"Promoting all that is best in Scottish Nationalism and all that is best in Scotland."
Content of the Flag in the Wind Web Site is the copyright of the Scots Independent Newspaper.

[ Issue 530 - 30th July 2010 ]


Compiled by Richard Thomson


 

 

The 'Lack Of Respect' Agenda

 

Westminster and Whitehall are built to be imposing places - deliberately so. Constructed on a mud flat and a crumbling river bank they may be, but the offices from where an empire covering a third of the globe was run weren’t built to accommodate people who harboured the slightest doubt about their place or importance in the world.

 

Some of that sense of destiny, however delusional it may seem to outsiders, lives on today in the British political class. Surrounded by untrustworthy Europeans and treacherous Celts with their troubling notions of self-government, the thought that ‘we still matter’, is one which comforts. ‘We punch above our weight, they say; ‘we’re like a bridge across the Atlantic’. Say it often enough, and it almost begins to sound plausible.

 

About the only thing which ruffles this outward display of confidence is the ritual flap about the state of the ‘Special Relationship’ with the US, particularly when a new President or PM takes office. Every aspect of their every interaction is poured over, from the cordiality of the first phone call to the minutiae of the first visit. No detail, from the gifts that are exchanged to spousal body-language, is thought too trivial when trying to diagnose the state of the partnership.

 

Say what you like about Gordon Brown, but at least in his anguished attempts to gain some reflected glory from President Obama, he never managed to abase himself in quite the supine, oleaginous manner as did David Cameron on his recent trip to Washington. Not content with describing his country as the ‘junior partner’ in WWII, he then went on to highlight his ‘violent agreement’ with President Obama that Scotland was wrong to release the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

 

Admittedly, the oil spill in the Gulf and the resultant BP-bashing made it a difficult trip for Cameron anyway, even before the US Senate decided to investigate allegations relating to BP and Megrahi’s release. However, for Cameron to publicly criticise the decision of the Scottish Government, safe from instant contradiction, simply demonstrated his desperation to curry favour in Washington, and exposed his ‘respect’ agenda back in Scotland as being purest wind. 

 

But enough of the ‘boy blunder’. What of the Senators and their (now postponed) inquiry? The case ran something like this: BP lobbied Westminster for a PTA to help its interests in Libya; Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland; therefore, the Scottish Government must have done a dirty deal. QED. And using similar Senatorial logic, since my dog has four legs and my cat has four legs, my dog is also my cat.

 

Some points worth noting:

 

  • Firstly, the difference between the Westminster and Scottish Governments should have been easy for the lawmakers of a federal country to grasp. The Senators’ confusion over UK and Scottish responsibilities in this matter did nothing to enhance either their personal credibility or that of their enquiry.

 

  • Robert MenendezRegardless as to the lobbying of the UK Government which BP may have undertaken regarding the PTA, compassionate release meant there was *no prisoner to transfer*. Given the UK Government’s refusal to confirm what undertakings, if any, had been given previously to the US families and authorities that Megrahi would serve the entirety of his sentence in Scotland beyond there being ‘no legal impediment’ to using the PTA, compassionate release ensured that any commitment which may have been made in this regard was honoured.  

 

  • Professor Sikora, the cancer expert quoted luridly to the effect that Megrahi could live for another 10 years, in fact estimated the chance of this happening as being less than 1%. In any case, his report was not considered by the Scottish Government at any point as part of the medical evidence forming the application for compassionate release.

 

  • Since Scottish Ministers had no involvement with BP, they therefore had nothing to add in this regard. As such, they were quite right to decline to attend in person, and to co-operate instead by trying to aid Senators’ understanding of the issues at hand, and by drawing their attention to the wealth of information which was already in the public domain.

 

  • Finally, much has been made of the commercial advantages which BP may have obtained in Libya from the introduction of the unused PTA. It’s worth noting that back in May 2010, the Office of the United States Trade Representative – an executive office of the US President - signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the Libyans, designed to “provide a forum to address trade issues”, and to “help build trade and investment relations between the United States and Libya.”

 

  • One of the organisations which welcomed the deal was the US/Libya Business Association.  Based just a few blocks away from the Capitol, on Washington’s ‘K’ street, US oil firms ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Occidental sit alongside BP on the ‘Executive Advisorial Committee’ of this body.

 

Throughout, Senators have exhibited all the elegance and finesse of a herd of elephants trying to tapdance on ball bearings. BP may be the number one corporate hate figure right now in the USA, and the chance to try and tie it to the Lockerbie case must have seemed irresistible. However, there was never the slightest substance to the accusations being thrown about by Senators. Frankly, if they really wanted to find out more about the genesis of the PTA, then they should have rooted back through the recycling bin to find that invitation drafted but never sent to Tony Blair.

 

Did Cameron and Obama not realise when they called for ‘full disclosure’ – a call that has gone eerily quiet over the last few days - that the obstacle to this was the previous refusal of their own governments to publish the remaining documents? Given we now know that the view of the US Government at the time was that “conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer”, perhaps now the fury of US lawmakers can be put into some kind of perspective.

 

Kenny MacAskill On both sides of the Atlantic, the contradictory views have been advanced that Scottish Ministers were naive, yet still playing a murky game of geopolitics; always picking fights with London but somehow suckered into doing London’s bidding; grandstanding on the world stage, yet ‘running scared’ of wider scrutiny. Every attempt to stand up a new conspiracy theory has fallen flat on its face. The only explanation still standing is that a terminally ill man was released on compassionate grounds, in accordance with the due processes of Scots Law, and that Scottish Ministers played it completely straight throughout.

 

Perhaps the final word, however, should be left to former Foreign Secretary David Milliband, who said in Parliament last year that:

 

“Although the decision was not one for the UK Government, British interests, including those of UK nationals, British businesses and possibly security cooperation would be damaged... if Megrahi were to die in a Scottish prison.”

 

Milliband has since, of course, altered his position. Nothing at all, I’m sure, to do with his attempt to win his party’s leadership election, any more than the Senators’ cack-handed attempts to revisit this issue will have been motivated by their own pending electoral contests.

 

 

 

 

What's Left Worth Conserving?

 

My good public reputation was tarnished irreparably a few weeks ago by a newspaper which made an unwarranted and vile slander against me. Frankly, I don't know if I'll ever be able to hold my head up in polite company again. If I had any money at all I'd see the blighters in court.

 

What was this vile calumny perpetrated against me? I'm outraged to say that in a recent report on a talk I'd given to a community group in Aberdeenshire, the Press and Journal described me not as a former SNP candidate, but as a former Conservative candidate. Since then, my world has collapsed.

 

I now get stared at in shops. Neighbours cross the street to avoid me, and already the hate mail has started to arrive, some of it recognisably from my own family. Even my cat has taken to shunning me, except, of course, when there's the prospect of food on offer.

 

Joking aside, there's no doubt that even if the label 'Conservative' is no longer as politically toxic as it was in the 1980's and 90's, the party is still going nowhere in Scotland. Even when on course to win South of the Border at the recent General Election and with the resulting positive media coverage, Cameron's Caledonian brethren struggled to make it above 17% in the polls, and were lucky to hang on to their single Scottish seat.

 

There's no doubt that a relentlessly negative campaign by the Labour Party entrenched Scottish voters into a 'Stop the Tories' mindset, despite the fact that not even a clean sweep in Scotland for Labour would have kept Cameron from Downing St, given Labour's refusal to work with any other parties in Government. As such, we have a Tory Prime Minister elected on the back of English votes, and with it, some uncomfortable questions for the Scottish Tories from their southern colleagues about their effectiveness.

 

Already, the recriminations have started. An independent commission has been set up to examine the party in Scotland. At least one key staff member has been shown the door. There are whispers of a purge of the candidate list; that Annabel Goldie's days are numbered as leader; that the party may be given new autonomy from London, and that it might even change its name in a bid to find new appeal amongst Scottish voters.

 

All well and good. But who, might we ask, is the individual being tasked with dragging the Scottish Tories kicking and screaming into the 21st century? Why, none other than septuagenarian peer Lord Russell Sanderson - a Scottish Office Minister at the height of Margaret Thatcher's unpopularity. There's nothing like having the right man in place for a job like this, and let's face it, he's nothing like the right man for a job like this.

 

From an outsider's perspective, a cleansing of the MSP stables and a change of leader might be no bad thing, provided, of course, that what they plan to replace them with represents an improvement. Similarly, a name change might help dull antagonistic associations with the party, although you also have to be changing something more fundamental than the name if it's to be credible. Without a change of substance, renaming the 'Scottish Conservatives' as 'Scottish Reform' or whatever seems little better than rebranding Windscale as Sellafield.

 

While the bit about greater party autonomy has got people interested, no-one seems to have harked back to a report which was compiled by Lord Strathclyde for the party back in 1997, following the Tory wipeout earlier that year. As a consequence of that report, the Scottish Tories became the most internally devolved of all the unionist parties in Scotland. Since then, the party has, constitutionally at least, enjoyed almost complete policy freedom. The point is that it has failed to use it.

 

Why? Simply, the problem, ironically for a party which used to hector others about the need to stand on their own two feet, is that it suffers from a complete intellectual and financial dependence on its London HQ. Lord Strathclyde threw open the door to the cage over a decade ago. Since then, the Scottish Party has cowered away at the back, lacking the confidence to embark on a route which might not come pre-approved from London.

 

Ultimately, the problem isn't structures, or finances, or what the Tories call themselves. Their problem is institutional, being too dull to say anything of interest to eachother, let alone the wider public. Financially and organisationally wedded to London, the idea that a Scotland could exist which paid its own way and set its own priorities, represents a conceptual leap well beyond all but perhaps a couple of their current MSP group.

 

I have a friend who is fond of pointing out that the opposite of love, in his view, is not hate but indifference. I think that captures a large part of the Tories' problem - it's not that people particularly dislike them any more, its just that they are largely irrelevant, and in consequence, people are now indifferent. They have little of interest to say, and don't look or sound like they represent modern Scotland.

 

Maybe an organisational revamp, a clearout of high heidyins too long in situ and a requirement to live within its means based on Scottish donations might provide the bracing does of reality needed to bring the Tories back to life. Losing the kneejerk unionism by fully embracing fiscal autonomy and an Independence referendum, even if not independence itself, would also show a confidence in Scotland which might just encourage Scots to show some confidence once again in the Tories. It would certainly throw down the gauntlet to a Labour Party which in Scotland, is even less able to stand on its own two feet than the Tories in their current state.

 

Make yourselves relevant and stop giving people reasons not to vote for you is a decent rule of thumb for any party. It's something Scotland's Tories would be well advised to remember, regardless as to what this commission may or more likely, may not come up with. Frankly, right now, it would no more occur to most Scots to vote Tory than it would for them to start walking around on their hands in public with a sparkler placed unconventionally.

 



Read Christina McKelvie MSP's Weekly Diary


SYNOPSIS

 

Respect needed over referendum

 

The SNP has said Nick Clegg must show Scots voters respect over his plans for an AV referendum and drop plans to hold it on the same day as the next Scottish Parliament elections.

 

Angus MacNeilInternational elections expert Ron Gould, who conducted the inquiry into the Scottish elections in 2007, has also spoken out over the Lib Dem leaders plans.

 

In the Sunday Times, Mr Gould said: "The highly negative aspect of running the referendum on an election system with the Scottish parliamentary election is that you are setting up a competition for the voters' attention.

 

He continued: "Voters will probably have more publicity about the

referendum than they will about the Scottish parliamentary election, drawing attention away from the Scottish election, so their opportunities for choice will be lowered by doing this."

 

SNP MP Angus MacNeil said:

 

“It is time for Nick Clegg to show Scotland some respect.  With his AV referendum and plan for fixed term parliaments to clash with Scottish elections Nick Clegg and the Tory-Lib Dem Government seem determined to do their best to damage Scottish democracy out of pure self-interest.

 

"Ron Gould is one of the world's leading election experts and his comments are an extremely welcome contribution to this debate.  The SNP has said from the start that holding the AV referendum - a referendum that neither the Lib Dems or Tories were elected on - on the same day as the Scottish Parliament election is completely unacceptable and against the interests of democracy.

 

"The SNP and the Scottish Government will continue to press Nick Clegg and David Cameron on this issue and will take what action we can at Westminster to stop this ridiculous proposal that will only bring unnecessary confusion to voters."

 



Info leak highlights need for Afghan rethink

 

The SNP has called for a Commons emergency statement after thousands of classified military documents were leaked. SNP Westminster leader and Defence spokesperson Angus Robertson MP has said that the situation underlined the need for a strategic rethink of Afghan operations to convince the public, and forces, that the best strategy was now being pursued.

 

Angus Robertson MPMr Robertson said:

 

“Regardless of how these documents were leaked, they raise immediate questions about operations in Afghanistan which the government must address.

 

“It is now essential that we have a full strategic rethink of operations in Afghanistan, including an exit strategy, to convince the public, as well as our brave forces themselves, that the best strategy is being pursued and is achievable.

 

“This conflict has now lasted eight years – longer than World War Two – over which we have heard persistent concerns from senior military figures in both the UK and US questioning the aims and the strategy being pursued in Afghanistan, as well as the support being provided for our forces.

 

“This leak amplifies these concerns further and we must have a full review. A major rethink is now essential. One that looks at all the options; one that will give people, not least our troops themselves, the confidence that the right strategy is being pursued and is achievable.”

 



Scotland's renewable energy future

 

Speaking following the annual energy statement in the Commons, SNP Westminster Energy spokesperson, Mike Weir MP, contrasted the UK Government programme, bogged down by nuclear, with the Scottish Government’s record of action, including an announcement today that more than 5,000 green jobs could be created through the development of three regional offshore energy manufacturing sites.

 

Mike Weir MPMr Weir said:

 

“The UK Government should follow the lead of the Scottish Government and focus on pathways to unleash our massive green energy potential, not be continually diverted down the cul-de-sac of nuclear.

 

“Claims that new nuclear stations will be built without public subsidy are plainly absurd. The fact of the matter is that nowhere in the world has a nuclear reactor been built without public money, and it is highly unlikely that any new reactors can be built in the UK without massive public investment.

 

“Chris Huhne will be judged on his actions, but the indications we have had from his government are not encouraging. He talks about action on the energy market, but says nothing about off-grid energy customers who are caught in a fuel poverty trap.

 

“UK Ministers talk about incentives for new micro-generation, but announces no action to end the transmission charging regime which discriminates against Scotland. That charging regime has already cost the country dear by slowing up renewable energy projects and threatening jobs.

 

“Contrast the UK Government record with the action taken by the Scottish Government who are taking action so that Scotland can capitalise on our vast clean, green energy potential.

 

“With 25 per cent of Europe’s wind energy potential, including massive off shore as well as onshore wind power capabilities, a quarter of Europe’s tidal resource, and huge potential from clean coal and carbon capture, these are the real economic and employment opportunities for Scotland.”

 

“The reality is that the UK Government is bogged down in nuclear planning issues and making no progress and creating no jobs, while the Scottish Government is getting on with the job of investing in the technologies of the future, and supporting thousands of energy jobs."

 


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