So it’s almost all over then. One more Chamber ding-dong and that will have been the pariamentary term that was. I guess arguing loudly is the Holyrood equivalent of being allowed to bring games in (as long as they’re quiet) but whatever floats their boat. I’m still not ruling out a game of ‘heads down, thumbs up’ (Labour has been practising this game for the past few weeks).
For tens of MSPs, golden goodbyes and retirement beckons and for more still they are simply being ‘retired’, not sitting high enough on the party lists to realistically be re-elected thanks to less than dazzling performances over the past four years. I won’t name any names but discussing £500bn PFI issues on Newsnight (as opposed to £m) isn’t going to help your cause.
So has it all been worth it? On balance one would have to say yes though one could argue that paying for a largely talentless crowd of people to call each other liars for four years is a waste of time and money but that would surely be too harsh. There will be a refinement of personnel from this term to next, the Parliament will evolve as a direct result of parties picking stronger politicians, though a few exceptions will slip through I am sure.Â
On policy, lest we forget, the direct comparison is with Westminster and many Scottish succeses would have been unlikely to have been achieved from London. These include a Council Tax Freeze, a solid commitment to renewable targets, keeping tuition free, safeguarding free care for the elderly, a focus on class sizes and moving away, slowly, from expensive PFI contracts. I’m sure I could celebrate more achievements from 2007-11 if my knowledge and memory were a bit sharper!
One bit of effort that doesn’t yet earn the accolade ‘achievement’ is that of the Calman process. It is too early to say what the conclusion to that mysterious piece of legislation will be but one can only suspect it is taking us halfway to something ‘other’, probably full fiscal autonomy.Â
The stand out moment of the past four years is of course the decision by Kenny MaxAskill to release the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds, a decision that split the nation and even the world for a short while. I had a rare sense of pride in our Government at what took place that day and still do. Between the US inhumanely incarcerating Bradley Manning and Scotland freeing a dying man, I know which side of the Atlantic I’d sooner take lectures from.Â
Furthermore, to focus so squarely on Megrahi after an act of state-sponsored terrorism, ordered by a leader that is even today chaining Libyans to tanks and rocket launchers to prevent them escaping, is to miss the bigger picture and ignore a much greater dereliction of duty. I do worry that this heavily raked over issue will prove a scourge and a distraction over the coming weeks.
But onwards we look and what will the next four years bring? Noone knows for sure of course but a food revolution, a sustained drive on renewable energy, more sensibly priced transport and cross-party efforts to really drive up results at school would be good, regardless of whether one interprets “results” as academic/interpersonal/sporting or whatever. There is no reason why Scotland should not look towards the coming half-decade with optimism and enthusiasm.
We just have the small matter of an election campaign and Government to form before then.  Â
#1 by Danny1995 on March 22, 2011 - 4:06 pm
Well here we go then. Boy are the next six weeks going to be very interesting.
#2 by Alec Macph on March 22, 2011 - 4:59 pm
Fortunately, the French are unlikely to do similar.
#3 by Jeff on March 22, 2011 - 5:07 pm
Je ne comprends pas
#4 by Allan on March 22, 2011 - 11:01 pm
Obviously the Megrahi release divides opinion, and infuriates me when people refer to him as guilty (like whenever the subject is brought up on Question Time). My opinion is that it is the biggest miscarrage of justice under Scots Law – there are other places which make this argument not least on my own blog.
However, I think that the decision by John Swinney to axe the Glasgow Airport Rail Link was a key moment too. It was an expensive vanity project for New Labour, which was presented during 2004 as a fait accompli. Yet the SNP had the “temerity” to axe this project that was going to cut a swathe through some playing fields in Paisley… sorry… goin to benefit Glaswegians. It was the right decision, yet it was handled badly (Swinney should have announced that he was going to look into viable alternatives). “Scottish” Labour have been dining out on that decision since.
Those two decisions, whether we agree with them or not, have made life a bit easier for “Scottish” Labour and a little more difficult for the SNP.
#5 by Indy on March 23, 2011 - 11:30 am
As a weegie it has not been my experience that the Glasgow Airport Rail Link decision has been an issue either at the time or now on the doorsteps.
Indeed the fact that this is the only thing Labour can come up with to “prove” their ripped off Glasgow mantra almost works in our favour because it is so weak. If that is the best they can come up with it pretty much proves their case is flawed.
I suspect people outside Glasgow think it is more important than it is. If anyone were to raise it, it is easily dealt with by pointing to the hundreds of millions which have gone/are going into other infrastructure projects like the M74 completion, new Southern General and not forgetting the new rail line to Edinburgh – 6 of the stations are in the constituency John Mason is standing in. And of course we can also point out that every single Glasgow Labour MSP voted for the flawed Edinburgh tram project and look what has happened with that.
#6 by Allan on March 24, 2011 - 10:39 pm
Indy, the point is that the media seems to have been buying into it (the Evening Times went with that campaign did it not?), and yes Wendy Alexander did bring it up quite a lot in her column in the Paisley Daily Express. But then again, support for the project was more mixed here in Paisley.
I suspect that the issue is/was importaint to a lot of the unblinking Labour supporters, unfortunatly there is still a lot of them here in the West of Scotland.
#7 by Alec Macph on March 24, 2011 - 9:52 am
Let’s try again, Jeff. I was referring to Flight UT772.
Of course he’s “guilty”. By all means make the case that he was wrongly found guilty but this – an admission that Scots law is highly faliable – is not likely to be heard from the SNP.
You’re out of the loop. Everything from Libya over the past few weeks has shown just that.
Out of interest, Indy, d’you have a run-down of the voting decisions by all MSPs?
~alec
#8 by Allan on March 24, 2011 - 10:34 pm
Alec, not quite sure what you mean by out of the loop. To date I’ve not heard any evidence that suggests that Libya was indeed behind the Lokerbie bombing. I’ve heard a lot of things about the West’s favourite tinpot dicator (after Sadam Hussein), but no “smoking gun”.
You’re not referring to the stuff the Daily Sexpress printed a couple of weeks ago surely?