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EXCLUSIVE: Inverness outpost (2)

Oct 22

Posted by The Burd in Holyrood | 4 Comments

I haven’t managed to read any newspapers this morning.  Helpfully, an unidentified man from a hotel scooped all copies of the Herald, the Scotsman and the Daily Mail from the shop I visited “fur the guests”.

I wonder though if it might not have been Pete Wishart or Alyn Smith, revelling in their limelight on the same sex marriage debate and taking cuttings for their scrapbook.  Not often, an MEP and an MP manage to garner the headlines at an SNP conference.  For the right or wrong reasons….

So still playing catch up a little, for those who missed it and who likewise haven’t managed to catch up with the papers, here were the key announcements from the Depute First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon’s speech yesterday:

  • a commitment to provide all type 1 diabetes sufferers under 18 with insulin pumps by 2013
  • over the next three years tripling the number of pumps available to sufferers of all ages to more than 2000
  • the aim of these measures is to improve the quality of life for people with diabetes and allows them to manage their conditions more effectively and prevent complications
  • reduce the waiting time for older people to be discharged from hospital from six weeks to two weeks by 2015
  • a guarantee that the additional £1 billion funding for the NHS over the next three years will be spent supporting frontline patient care
  • a commitment to maintain the NHS in Scotland “a public service, paid for by the public and accountable to the public – there will be no privatisation of the National Health Service in Scotland”

Continuing the conference theme of giving glimpses of what life in independent Scotland could look like, the Depute First Minister offered these commitments:

“Independence means no longer having to watch our national wealth being squandered by Westminster governments.  Independence means having an economic policy suited to our needs, with increased capital investment supporting and creating jobs.  Independence means having a welfare system that can tackle the scourge of child poverty.  It means not having to put up with Tory policies that will consign tens of thousands of our children to a life of deprivation.  Independence means deciding for ourselves whether to send our young men and women into conflict.  And it means knowing that we need never, ever again be dragged into an illegal war….. And independence will mean no longer having to put up with the obscenity of Trident nuclear missiles on the river Clyde.”

No doubt there will be more, much more in this vein, from the First Minister himself when he speaks today….

 

 

 

 

RTing @patrickharvie’s #MOTW

Oct 21

Posted by Jeff in Holyrood, Housekeeping, Society | 2 Comments

Every Parliament needs one and for Holyrood that role has fallen to Patrick Harvie of the Greens. I am talking, of course, of the necessary drive to open up Parliament and make it accessible to as many people as possible.

So, Patrick’s common sense but nonetheless unlikely to be taken up suggestion of allowing social media to be used in the Scottish Parliament chamber is this week’s motion of the week:

Motion S4M-01085 – Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Scottish Green Party) : Social Media in the Scottish Parliament
That the Parliament notes the decision of members of the House of Commons to permit the responsible use of mobile devices and social media in the debating chamber; considers that debates would not benefit if members used electronic devices in ways that did not relate to the subject under debate; notes, however, that members are already expected not to read in the chamber printed material that is unrelated to the debate and that a similar rule could apply to the use of electronic devices; considers that the use of social media during parliamentary debates can be a way of engaging the public in the political process and can enhance democratic participation, and would welcome consideration of a possible change to the Parliament’s rules by the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, the Presiding Officer and members themselves.

Supported by: Humza Yousaf, John Park

I have no doubt that there is a lot of really great debate that takes place at Holyrood that doesn’t see the light of day. It gets typed up by a secretary and sits on the records until the end of time.

How much better would it be to have rip-roaring debates going live online, pulling punters in that would otherwise be uninterested in political debate? And yes, I’m largely thinking of Twitter here but Facebook and blogs could be updated from within the Chamber too. Why not?

The online discussions around First Minister’s Question, BBC Question Time and Leader Debates are excellent fun while still being substantive. The only thing that tends to be lacking is the people in the room, the people taking part in the discussion, also taking part in the online debate.

Patrick Harvie gets a bit of stick for being Holyrood’s Twitterer-in-Chief but he is pushing the boundaries of what Holyrood can be and who can access it and, for that, and for many other reasons, we salute him.

Slovakia is right to just say No

Oct 12

Posted by Jeff in Holyrood | 28 Comments

The average Slovakian pension is around 300 Euros a month while the average Greek pension is around 1200 Euros a month. It is little wonder therefore that Slovakia has voted No to a Greek bailout, bringing forward the real risk and probable inevitability of Greece defaulting on its loans.

As togetherly as I would like to be with Greece’s problems, I can’t help but wonder why we are throwing good money after bad at this issue. The solution to Greece and the Euro’s ills is not to pour more money into a broken system but rather to force Greece’s creditors, and the creditors of those creditors, to take a material haircut on what is owed to them and allow Greece to breathe again.

I forget the precise figure but the percentage of its outgoings that Greece spends on interest alone is eye-watering. A cut in liabilities would help significantly get Greece back to something of an equilibrium. That’s the deal that needs to happen, not putting money into Greece that will end up in banks’ largely well-capitalised pockets. That is a continuation of the short term gain outlook that banks are struggling to shake off, the something for nothing fast buck culture that Ed Miliband rightly railed against at Labour Conference.

Companies with big pockets backed the wrong horse with Greece and, like all gambling (for that’s what we’re dealing with here), they need to just take the hit.

It often takes the little guy to stand up to the big guys and in the EU they don’t come much littler than Slovakia. Good on them.

Hero of the Week, Motion of the Week

Oct 7

Posted by Aidan in Holyrood | 15 Comments

There’s three things that you can do make sure you’ve got a great motion: identify a problem, identify a solution, present some evidence for it.

Alison Johnstone’s Bag Tax motion does those things admirably and topically. It identifies why plastic bags are a problem and how big that problem is – we use 590m a year in Scotland, they use up resources to produce, are used for a short time and are a danger when discarded. It identifies a solution – a plastic bag charge which has recently come into force in Wales, showing that this is a feasible thing that Holyrood can do. It also presents evidence for that solution – a huge reduction in usage in Ireland since a charge was introduced. So a (recycled from Christmas) Better Nation gold star!

Motion S4M-00992 – Alison Johnstone ( Lothian ) ( Scottish Green Party ) : Time is Right for a Bag Charge in Scotland

That the Parliament welcomes the decision by the Welsh Assembly Government to introduce a levy on single-use bags; considers that the 5p charge in Wales, to be introduced from 1 October 2011, will encourage a reduction in excessive use of plastic bags; congratulates Wales for being the first UK nation to introduce such a charge; notes that, in Ireland, where a charge for bags was introduced nine years ago, the government has reported that the number of bags used annually has fallen from 328 per person to 26; welcomes the news that some large retailers in Wales will be donating the money from the levy to charities; notes that, in 2009, the number of plastic bags handed to customers by supermarkets in Scotland almost halved in the three years following stores signing up to a voluntary government-organised scheme but that, since then, there has been a reported rise in the prevalence of use and that, in 2010, 590 million bags were used in Scotland; regrets that this is equivalent to 9.4 bags per person per month and considers that more must be done to reduce what it sees as disappointing figures; understands that bags are often used for only around 20 minutes, can take up to 1,000 years to degrade, can litter the landscape and threaten marine and bird life; further understands that their production and use can deplete natural resources and pollute the environment; agrees with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment that “plastic bags are a scourge on our environment and a blight on our streets, our countryside and our seas”; welcomes the announcement by the Scottish Government that, in autumn 2011, it will begin a public consultation on options to reduce plastic bag use, and calls on the Scottish Government to take inspiration from the Welsh decision in order to make real progress towards a zero-waste society.

Supported by: David Torrance, Roderick Campbell, Christine Grahame, Kenneth Gibson, Fiona McLeod, John Finnie

Of course, if you want to make sure you’ve got a rubbish motion why not say how much you enjoyed the ballet, dahlink?

Motion S4M-01005 – Clare Adamson ( Central Scotland ) ( Scottish National Party ) : Scottish Ballet’s Autumn Performance Opening Success

That the Parliament congratulates Scottish Ballet, Theatre Royal, Glasgow on what is considered the triumphant opening of its autumn performance on 29 September 2011, featuring a double bill of Jorma Elo’s Kings 2 Ends, combining complex choreography set to the music of Mozart and Steve Reich, coupled with Ashley Page’s Pennies from Heaven, inspired by uplifting cinema and music from the 1930s; considers that this was a very accomplished piece of work, which also featured in Edinburgh’s International Festival; notes that the tour will also be heading to the United States, with performances in California and Minnesota, and would like to wish Scottish Ballet continued success for what it considers its excellent performance throughout the autumn season.

Supported by: Jamie Hepburn, Christina McKelvie, Bill Kidd, Patricia Ferguson, Jim Eadie, Colin Beattie, David Torrance, Roderick Campbell, Maureen Watt, Joe FitzPatrick, Gil Paterson, Kenneth Gibson, Derek Mackay, Hugh Henry, Chic Brodie, Paul Wheelhouse, Jean Urquhart, Jamie McGrigor, Mike MacKenzie, Humza Yousaf, Drew Smith, Annabelle Ewing, Mark McDonald

Holyrood’s finest hour?

Oct 4

Posted by The Burd in Holyrood, Society, Westminster | 13 Comments

It’s time for the Scottish Parliament to show its mettle.

Tomorrow, Holyrood will debate welfare reform.  Hopefully, the Scottish Government will lay its delayed Legislative Consent Motion (LCM) before the Parliament and everyone will agree to the highly unusual step of appointing three scrutiny committees for the process, one lead and two secondary ones.  This will enable evidence to be laid and heard from the widest possible range of contributors and allow Holyrood to determine whether and how it allows Westminster to legislate on devolved matters contained in the legislation.

Such is the potential impact to Scotland and her people from the measures in the UK government’s welfare reform bill that nothing less will do.  If ever the SNP wanted to pick a fight with Westminster, if ever Labour wanted to return to the hallowed ground of class politics, if ever the Liberal Democrats wanted to point up differences with their English brethren, if ever the Scottish Greens wanted to champion the cause of inequality, if ever the Scottish Conservatives wanted to show that leopards can change their spots, then this issue is it.

I blogged at the ither place that “the scale of change heading down the tracks from the ConDems’ systematic dismantling of the welfare state is almost overwhelming”.  I don’t think I was over-stating the case.  For if the ConDems get their way, nary a household nor family in Scotland will be unaffected by some aspect of the bill.  And not for the good.

Everything is up for grabs and for months, voluntary organisations have been trying and largely failing to influence the process at Westminster.  The old labyrinth of benefits will go, to be replaced by a universal credit.  No bad thing in itself, for everyone has been crying out for fairness, transparency and simplicity in the benefits systems for years.  But it is the application of conditionality, time limits and sanctions for not taking up work or work-related activity – with no exception allowed – and the cutting of income and raising of threshholds making benefits harder to access that will cause increased complexity and real problems for claimants.  Though these measures will, of course, slake the thirst of the right wing media which has helped pave the way for public acceptance of these changes with its damaging, inaccurate and misleading denunciations of people on benefits as workshy fraudsters.  But anyone losing their job – and over two hundred thousand people in Scotland have in recent months – will be affected.

Families with disabled children will be particularly hard hit from changes, as will cancer sufferers and those with complex and longterm mental health problems.  Housing benefit changes appear to benefit no-one.  Lone parents, kinship carers, unemployed young people, people unemployed for more than a year, people seriously injured in an accident, young carers, children, women reaching retirement age, people with multiple and complex disabilities, people with mild and moderate learning disabilities, homeless people, war veterans with health problems, large families, separated parents, families with a young baby and low income families in work – all might find themselves worse off.

This matters because if tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Scots are made poorer and more vulnerable as a result of benefit changes, the pressure on services like health, social work, education, housing – and on charities that work with vulnerable people – will rise, at a time when funding for such services is being stretched and cut.  Real hardship could result.

Moreover, the bill cuts across whole swathes of devolved issues and even interferes with the independence of Scots family law, through the child maintenance reforms.  The devolution of certain parts of the welfare state, including council tax benefit, parts of the social fund and the new benefit Personal Independence Payments for disabled people, will create additional work for the Scottish Government and potentially add new burdens to the public and voluntary sector, without, of course, Westminster providing appropriate funding to help smooth the way.

And everything that involves a concession or a benefit-related discount or access, such as fuel poverty measures, or is in fact, a devolved benefit, as free school meals and clothing grant vouchers are, will require to be reformed, again creating additional work for the Scottish Government and where new regulations are required, for the Scottish Parliament too.

To date, the Conservatives have not been listening:  concerns about the impact of measures and attempts to amend provisions have been ignored.  The shape of the bill has changed little since its introduction in the Spring, with the Conservatives aided and abetted in their selective deafness by the Liberal Democrats.  At committee stage in the House of Commons, scarcely a murmur never mind a protest could be heard from Lib Dem members:  that will be the civilising influence at work again, then.

And the political point is this:  Scotland did not vote for this UK Government.  These changes are being imposed with missionary zeal on a population which did not ask for them, and would not want them if it had a choice.

Changing the shape and impact of the bill’s measures is proving impossible through the front door, so it’s time to try the back.  Holyrood can do something here.  It can do its best to change the worst aspects of the bill in which it has a devolved interest.  If it was feeling particularly brave, it could try to stop the bill in its tracks and refuse to consent to allow Westminster to legislate on the matters that properly belong to its jurisdiction.

Wednesday signals the start of the process that might end in an unprecedented denouement and a constitutional crisis:  already many voluntary sector organisations are calling on MSPs to refuse the LCM.  No one knows what might happen if Holyrood said no thank you, not this time.  But that is for the end of the process.  In the meantime, the Scottish Parliament must devote all its available energes and resources to poring over every aspect of this bill, so it can make an informed decision.  Time is short – the bill is now at its Lords stages, which the UK Government has also gerrymandered by creating a grand committee which makes it harder to amend the bill, and will be done and dusted by Christmas – and minds must focus.

It’s time for Holyrood to show the Scottish people what it is made of.  It’s time for the parties to lay aside childish things and act in concert, in the public good.  It’s time to abandon tribal loyalties and politics.  Work together, create a consensus, speak up and speak out.  Then stand together and stand up for Scotland.

Holyrood, your country needs you:  this could be your finest hour.

 

 

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