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Worst Motions of the Week

Nov 12

Posted by Jeff in Holyrood | 12 Comments

Our cup runneth over this week and these motions need no accompanying comment as the awfulness speaks for itself:

Title: 7 Up

S4M-01257 Elaine Smith (Scottish Labour): That the Parliament congratulates Albion Rovers on beating Lanarkshire rival Airdrie 7-2; notes that this was the third victory in a row for the Wee Rovers this season and that it was the first time that it has defeated Airdrie in 35 years; considers the crowd of 1,109 to be a fantastic attendance, and hopes that this result will act as a catalyst for future success this season.

Title: Scotland’s No’ Full Up Yet

S4M-001156.1 Mary Fee (Scottish Labour): As an amendment to motion S4M-01156 in the name of John Mason (Scotland’s No’ Full Up Yet) insert at end, “; believes that, while it considers the news of the population increase to be welcoming, the Scottish Government has not acted on what it sees as its failings since 2007; considers that these failures include not protecting the health budget, with a real-terms cut of £319 million and the loss of 4,000 NHS staff, including 1,700 nurses, not protecting local services that it believes to be essential for older, poorer and vulnerable people, not protecting funding for colleges, resulting in the loss of thousands of student applicants in the 2011-12 academic year, not creating opportunities for Scotland’s youth, with one in five young men unemployed; notes what it considers to be the Scottish Government’s broken promises, such as the building of 5,000 socially rented homes over the next five years and to reduce class sizes, and considers that, if Scotland’s population increases, this administration is unfit to face the challenges that increased population brings.

Short Title: Arbroath’s Award-winning Sweet Chilli and Irn-Bru Sausages

S4M-01269 Graeme Dey () (Scottish National Party): That the Parliament congratulates Arbroath butcher DH Robertson on the success of its sweet chilli and Irn-Bru pork sausages, which are now to be sold in 450 craft butchers across the country and which won first prize in the speciality sausage category at last year’s Scottish Craft Butchers Awards; notes that this year’s winner, Stuarts of Buckhaven, has recognised the demand for the unique Arbroath pork delicacy and provided the Angus recipe to the 450 Scottish butchers; recognises that this latest culinary export adds to what is considered a long list of fine food and drink from the county named the Birthplace of Scotland, which includes the Arbroath Smokie and the Forfar Bridie in addition to venison, game, Angus beef, soft fruit and seafood, and encourages people from all over Scotland and wider afield to try the tasty new Angus delicacy themselves at their local craft butchers shop.

Scottish Politician of the Year

Nov 10

Posted by James in Holyrood, Westminster | 17 Comments

Colin Mackay being funnyI’m confined to quarters with a bug, which annoyingly means I’m almost certainly missing tonight’s annual Herald-sponsored prize-giving. Someone else will have to put out any unduly flammable curtains and finish the minature whiskies for me.

So I’m going to play predictions instead.

The nominations are as follows:

BEST SCOT AT WESTMINSTER
Danny Alexander
Douglas Alexander
Angus Robertson

Three strong contenders, apart from Danny Alexander, who has to be the most out-of-his-depth senior politician Scotland has ever produced. For my money it’s Douglas Alexander: he has found a purple patch since losing Ministerial office and taken full advantage of the profile Shadow Foreign Secretary has offered of late.

DONALD DEWAR DEBATER OF THE YEAR
Alex Neil
Michael Russell
Nicola Sturgeon

Only Nats do debating? For me this is between Mike Russell and the Deputy First Minister – Alex Neil’s style is too student debater for my taste. Although Nicola goes from strength to strength (and would make a far more emollient FM than the current gaffer), Mike’s erudition and grasp of political history are hard to beat.

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Ruth Davidson (Con)
Jenny Marra (Lab)
Graeme Pearson (Lab)
Willie Rennie (LibDem)
Humza Yousaf (SNP)

Alison Johnstone should clearly have been on this list, but then I’m biased. Ruth Davidson’s obviously the most prominent newcomer, and, contrary to the spin from SNP head office, her first few days have been steady and thoughtful, so I’m giving it to her by a nose ahead of future First Minister Humza Yousaf.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR
Michael Cook (Ind Borders)
Michael Foxley (LibDem Highland)
David Stewart (SNP Moray)

Foxley here, I think, and not just to counter accusations of anti-Lib Dem bias. He’s claimed a national role and profile, admittedly in part by some pretty bonkers outbursts.

PUBLIC CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR
Argyll Schools
Coastguard Stations
RAF Lossiemouth

A toughie. The Argyll schools campaigners got Mike Russell to save them, effectively, but that might possibly have been electioneering on his part. For me, professionally, the messaging from the coastguard campaigns was first class, so I’m going for them.

POLITICAL IMPACT OF THE YEAR
Patricia Ferguson (Lab)
Murdo Fraser (Con)
Tricia Marwick (Presiding Officer)

I rate Patricia, but I’m not seeing much political impact from her this year. Tricia’s style of chairing will certainly have a huge impact on Holyrood over this session, but, for impact outside Holyrood, it’s Murdo all the way. His radical proposal to abolish the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and reform some new independent right of centre party meant the Tories’ leadership election was actually discussed by civilians, unlike Labour’s. Outside Parliament. I heard them do it. The fact that he lost doesn’t change the need for change, and although I reckon the panel will probably pick the PO, he’s the right choice.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
They don’t announce nominees for this in advance, so that gives me a free hand. Lifetime achievement award for a Scottish politician the November after an election means someone who stood down or was defeated in May. Name me another politician who single-handedly saved his or her party, who led that party into the mainstream and elected office for the first time, and who stood down having left said party a fixture of the Scottish political scene. It’s a no-brainer. It’s Robin Harper all the way. And yes, in 1994 or so, before I was a party member, he turned round a debate at a demoralised party conference on the question of whether the party should dissolve, as well as fighting countless impossible elections for the Greens. An extraordinary boss, and the party’s only elder statesperson.

But I suppose Jack McConnell would be a strong second place.

SCOTTISH POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR
As above, there isn’t a shortlist here either. But there doesn’t need to be. After the most successful Scottish election campaign in living memory, there can be only one. The First Minister, the Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin’ Race, Alex Salmond.

Could someone record Colin Mackay’s intro for me, incidentally?

Ah’m no a Onionist, he’s no a Separatist

Nov 9

Posted by Aidan in Holyrood | 157 Comments

Well, obviously all of the SNP are constitutionally obsessed separatists with no regard for other issues. But they do have one big advantage, the Yes campaign have something that unites them despite their radicallly different views on what happens after independence. Apparently it will be Scandanavian style social democracy with very low tax rates to stimulate business and a haven of freedom where you can’t criticise religious types for arguing against the government treating gay people equally. But that’s ok, they just need to hold together long enough to get to the line and it’s such a strong part of their identity that they’ll probably manage to hold it together long enough for the ballots to get counted.

Over on the other side of the fence, despite being regularly lumped together as “the Unionists”, those of us who oppose independence are similarly divided about everything other than independence. Labour disagree with Tories, Tories disagree with Lib Dems, Lib Dems disagree with Labour…

If, from a Nationalist perspective, Unionism looks incoherent, disorganised or lacking leadership that’s because it isn’t really a thing. Unionism just isn’t a widely held political philosophy in the way that nationalism is, and it hasn’t been for the better part of half a century. Demands that we produce a single agreed on line For The Defence Of The Union mostly meet with a confused look and shrug of the shoulders because there is no “we”.  Despite what’s commonly assumed there isn’t a secret Unionist conclave with decoder rings, complicated handshakes and a fraternal greeting of “Hail, fellow North Briton!” where we plot to keep the freeborn folk of Scotland servile to our London masters. Well, maybe there is, but I certainly haven’t been invited to join it.

Fortunately nobody’s going to be defending that. Yeah, ok, there’s a few loons who want to roll back devolution, but that’s rather to ignore that both the Scottish and British constitutions are evolving beasts and Holyrood’s here to stay a while. The real dividing line is how much further devolution is going to, with some wanting Full Fiscal Autonomy, others saying “this far and no further”. Malcolm Chisholm has a well written piece on the other place on this, the Lib Dems want a federal UK… there’s a range of options.

I actually think there might be a few too many options. Which is why I’m opposed to independence really – it offers no time for review, post referendum negotiations will necessarily get things wrong and we’ll have to live with consequences. We can’t go back from independence. Once it’s done it’s done, renegotiating our position on cross border institutions such as the Bank of England, the DVLA and whatever else we share will be difficult.

Devolution, on the other hand, does allow for that. Powers can be moved around as appropriate,some pushed from Holyrood to Councils, some from Westminster to Holyrood, some from Westminster to Brussels. But if, for some reason, that doesn’t work out or circumstances change then devolution can be reviewed, revised and altered.

But being opposed to large, rapid, irreversible change isn’t, as I said, a political philosophy. It’s not a shared prism through which we analyse politics, like Nationalism, Socialism, Liberalism and Conservatism are.

Just because Unionism isn’t a coherent political philosophy shouldn’t cheer those in favour of independence too much though. There’s a coherent, convincing case to be made for staying in the union – shared defence and commercial interests for instance, and also one against independence as both a process, outlined above, and a promise: Scotland’s problems are not a result of our constitutional arrangements. Becoming independent will not solve those problems, and remaining part of the UK will not prevent us from solving them.

ETA: this isn’t meant to be a grand “Defence of the Union” post, it isn’t even really about devolution vs independence, it’s about why very few people bind themselves together under the “Unionist” label

Bagging a panda

Nov 8

Posted by Guest Blog in Environment, Holyrood | 15 Comments

Another lovely wee guest post today, from John Nichol, aka @cowrin, who blogs at Suitably Despairing.

A panda at Holyrood yesterday

In a few weeks time, Edinburgh Zoo will take delivery of a couple of Giant Pandas, a gift from China. Actually, they’re not a gift, they’re a loan, bestowed by the country on any other nation which tickles it’s fancy. And to get them, Britain has done an awful lot of fancy-tickling.

There’s something faintly queasy about China’s use of this sad creature as a diplomatic tool. Not only do they demand that the country receiving the “gift” bends over backwards to please the Chinese, but they then have to pay China $1 million a year for the privilege of keeping the pandas for a maximum of ten years.

No animal should be used as a commodity in this way, bestowing favours on countries that please you, and I’m ashamed that Scotland and the UK is a party to this. It feels even worse when the poor creature being transported halfway around the planet is so endangered.

It was Chris Packham of Springwatch fame (and, to those of us of a certain age, Really Wild Show fame) who suggested a couple of years ago that we should let Giant Pandas die out. They’re an evolutionary dead-end, a picky eater which barely moves and barely mates. I have some sympathy with the idea that we’re only throwing money at the Panda because they look damn cute. After all, other species have come and gone without us giving much of a damn. But I also feel that if we have the means to save a species then we should.

What we shouldn’t be doing is saving a species just to use it as a diplomatic tool. Pandas are not trophies, to be paraded around to the citizens while the First Minister gushes about how much China really, really likes us. Animals that aren’t part of our food system should not be trade-able commodities between countries, to be exploited by politicians as some sort of coup that the creatures are in the country in the first place, or to be used to curry favour with previous enemies. If you really want to bestow gifts on a foreign country, then give them a statue.

Whether zoos themselves should exist or not is a whole other topic, but needless to say Edinburgh Zoo will not be shy about commercially exploiting their new residents, just another way that the pandas will be used for the benefit of others and not themselves.

It’s too late to stop the pandas from coming to this country, but I would urge the Scottish Government to have nothing to do with this shameful modern-day trophy-hunting.

Alex Salmond and the Euro of Doom

Nov 5

Posted by Guest Blog in Economy, Europe, Holyrood | 34 Comments

A guest from Paul Freeman, who’s known to his Twitter fans as @setindarkness, and who also blogs here. Thanks Paul!

A pound, yesterdayIn a recently published interview in Time Magazine, Alex Salmond was asked the question of whether an independent Scotland would keep the Pound:

The sterling, well, it really depends on the financial circumstances of the time. We would tend to stay within the sterling area until such time as it is to our advantage to join the Euro and then we would only do it with the consent of the people.

However, given the entry criteria for the Euro, jumping from the Pound to the Euro would be impossible.

As was noted in James’ recent article about Scotland and the Euro, Any other existing EU members not in the Euro have to join ERM II. You then have to spend two years in ERM II and meet the convergence criteria before you can join the eurozone.

If an independent Scotland kept Sterling, it wouldn’t be possible to join ERM II, given there is zero change of rUK ever joining, or ever wanting to join ERM II.

The logical conclusion is that if Scotland were unable to remain in the EU through existing treaties, it would have to create the Scottish Pound, join ERM II and then apply to join the eurozone, before they could join the EU.

If Scotland were allowed to remain in the EU, it doesn’t seem possible to do what Alex Salmond suggested and jump from the Pound to the Euro at some future time.

There are other options. There is nothing to stop Scotland not joining the EU. It hasn’t seemed to have done our favourite country, Norway, any harm, and it would add to the ‘remarkable similarities’ between the two countries.

You’d have to be pretty insane, but you could just start using the Euro, as Montenegro does. Whilst the European Commission wasn’t happy about it, they didn’t stop them, and now Montenegro is an official candidate to join the EU.

Finally, Scotland could go the whole way and introduce the Scottish Pound. After all, there are already notes being printed and in circulation. They are already foreign currency in most English shops. It could then decide whether to join the EU/Euro via a radical democratic device called a referendum.

All this highlights the increasing need to resolve the matter of EU membership. In my opinion, the EU wouldn’t want Scotland to leave, and Scotland’s use of Sterling would give the EU leaders a nice Swedish style opt-out, allowing EU membership without the Euro. Leaving everyone except the Unionists happy. But, the SNP shouldn’t leave this dangling before the referendum as uncertainty will not make persuading people to vote Yes easier.

Nor should Alex Salmond say Scotland will join the Euro straight from the pound unless he can show how it’s possible.