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Better Nation

Motion sickness and sense of humour bypass at Holyrude

Aug 13

Posted by Jeff in Holyrood | 32 Comments

We here at Better Nation like to gaze into the future in the hope of glimpsing a better tomorrow, we want to grasp the jaggy thistle and emerge stronger and united as a result and, finally, we want to avoid the pettiness that blights our dear and pleasant land.

But, you know, sometimes a good old bit of gossip can’t be avoided.

So, while we’re talking about motions, I thought I would paste up this (redacted for anonymity) exchange from the Parliament between an SNP’s camp and a Tory’s MSP’s camp that was kindly forwarded onto me.

Email 1:
From: (SNP assistant)
Sent: Friday, August 12
To: DL MSPs
Cc: DL MSP Researchers
Subject: Big Lottery Fund, Time 4 Us, Bellshill

(SNP MSP) would appreciate your support for the motion below. Voting button attached.

Short Title: Big Lottery Fund, Time 4 Us, Bellshill
S4M-00651 () (Scottish National Party): That the Parliament congratulates Time 4 Us, Bellshill, on receiving an award from the Big Lottery Fund; is confident that the purchase of new IT equipment will improve the administrative capability of the group, and hopes that the facilities will enhance parent-child bonds.

Regards
(SNP assistant)

Email 2:
From: (Tory assistant)
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011
To:
Cc: DL MSP Researchers
Subject: Re: Big Lottery Fund, Time 4 Us, Bellshill

(Dear SNP assistant)

While I am delighted that you appreciate the Big Lottery Fund, set-up by a UK Government under Sir John Major, who created the National Lottery, your motions are becoming somewhat repetitive and frankly tedious.

As ever
(Tory assistant)

Email 3:
From: (SNP MSP)
Subject: Re: Big Lottery Fund, Time 4 Us, Bellshill
Date: 12 August 2011 18:12:31 GMT+01:00

(Dear Tory assistant)
I find your comments offensive to a new member of my staff who is only working to my instruction.
I request that you send an apology for your unwanted comments to all.
If not received I intend to make an official complaint re your email.
If you have a problem speak to me personally in future.
Staff members work to members instruction and as xxxx only started on the 1st August your email is not welcome.

(SNP MSP)

An official complaint? Yes, that’ll get taken seriously I’m sure. Nice to see that the Parliament is bickering while England burns. I do hope that the big-stick removal department wasn’t part of John Swinney’s efficiency savings, it might be needed on Monday…

NB – Normal service in helping to build a better nation shall resume in due course….

Worst motion of the week – er, lots

Aug 12

Posted by Jeff in Holyrood | 23 Comments

So week two and frankly, our riches were embarrassed. To pick out just one proved impossible. Too many contenders, far too little time and space to do them all justice.

But trawling through the list of current motions prompted a few observations. It’s all a bit formulaic no? And there is a definite need to refresh the system and its purpose.

There are what can only be termed the micro-motions – wee, timrous, cowrin’ beasties. Where MSPs line up to outdo each other in the hyper-local and this week they seem to be concentrated in Lanarkshire, for some inexplicable reason. So, Cumbernauld BMX club got a nice wee grant from the lottery fund – thanks for sharing that with us Jamie Hepburn MSP; ditto Plains Community Futures for some “planned events”, Archibald Kelly Court Residents Committee in East Kilbride got some lottery dosh for “film nights”, Gill Park Residents and Tenants Association got theirs for a playpark and 1st East Kilbride scout group got a grant to renovate its hall. All worthy of fulsome praise from SNP Central Scotland list MSP Richard Lyle, who finished the latter motion with a flourish: “hopes that the central heating system makes the Scottish winters more bearable”. Gosh.

And then there are the charity touts. Where Parliament will inevitably congratulate, note, recognise, hope, admire and welcome but never, ever ask for something to be done. Redefining anodyne beyond our wildest dreams. Oh we know these are all good, important causes that deserve recognition but there appears to be a textbook template for drafting them that turn them into a snoresfest. Thus, this wee gem from Kezia Dugdale MSP makes Amnesty International, one of the world’s feistiest, bravest and more essential organisations, seem like a knitting bee:

Motion S4M-00627 – Kezia Dugdale ( Lothian ) ( Scottish Labour ) : Standing Up for Freedom

That the Parliament congratulates Amnesty International on what it considers its excellent programme of work at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival; believes that events such as Stand Up For Freedom, the Comics versus Critics football match, Amnesty’s imprisoned writers series and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, which this year has received a record number of entries, are excellent means of celebrating and promoting freedom of expression, and further congratulates Amnesty on 50 years of relentlessly campaigning for human rights across the world and never letting legislators or governments forget that human rights are important and should be enjoyed by all by virtue of their common humanity.

Campaigning charities exist because they want to right wrongs, and to change the world, or at least their part of it. Often they are radical and fearless and work with the sort of people, the rest of us cross the street to avoid. Scotland is pretty good at the charitable thang – we have lots of voluntary organisations doing great things and folk dig deep to support them. They deserve better from our elected tribunes and actually as well as warm words, most would also welcome a little call to action. Even a teeny weeny one. Once in a while.

Then there are the milestone motions, that mark an anniversary of some kind. Current and recent motions in this vein include one wishing the NHS a happy 63rd birthday, the 25th anniversary of East Kilbride Yamakai Karate club, the 25th anniversary of Burngreen Peace Garden in Kilsyth, and 45 years of East Kilbride and District Engineering Training Association. But our favourite is this one:

S4M-00581 Mark McDonald: Aberdeen University Shinty Club 150th Anniversary—That the Parliament congratulates Aberdeen University Shinty Club on celebrating its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary; notes that the club is recognised as shinty’s oldest constituted club; welcomes the decision by the Camanachd Association to hold the final of the 2011 Aberdein Considine Sutherland cup final between Kingussie and Kyles Athletic at King’s College pitches at the University of Aberdeen as part of the celebrations; further welcomes the outreach work by the Camanachd Association in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire schools to encourage more young people to take up the sport and hopes that this work will boost the profile of shinty across Scotland; congratulates Kingussie on its 6-1 victory; further notes that past and present players attended a celebration ceilidh and participated in the city of Aberdeen’s Tartan Day parade; also notes that a book celebrating the club’s history, Keeping the Camanachd Flag Flying: 150 Years of Aberdeen University Camanachd, compiled by Steven MacKenzie, has been published with all proceeds going to the club, and wishes Aberdeen University Shinty Club a long and successful competitive future.

Of course, motions that are hyper-local, have a charitable bent AND mark a milestone are the high watermark of achievement – look out for ones in future editions of Worst Motion of the Week…

Finally we have piping wars. No we are not making this up. Last week, we had Colin Keir, SNP MSP for Edinburgh Western, celebrating the return of the Edinburgh Pipe Band championships and Derek MacKay, another of the newsbies, marking similar in Paisley. This week, we have this from Marco Biagi MSP about bagpipes on the Royal Mile:

“Motion S4M-00612 –
That the Parliament welcomes the agreement between the City of
Edinburgh Council and Royal Mile traders to ensure that the volume of
bagpipe music played by retailers does not exceed irresponsible levels
from August 2011; recognises the importance of residents, traders and
tourists all being able to carry out their daily activities in a
respectful environment; believes that this action will reflect well on
the Royal Mile’s status as part of a World Heritage Site, and would
welcome greater variety overall in the commercial offerings on the
Royal Mile so that Edinburgh’s medieval heart continues to thrive.

while Stuart McDonald MSP for the West of Scotland proclaims the World’s Biggest Week of Piping:

“That the Parliament welcomes what is considered to be the world’s biggest week of traditional music, held between 8 and 14 August 2011 in Glasgow; notes that tens of thousands of traditional music fans and 8,000 pipers, drummers and performers will descend on the city for Piping Live!, Glasgow’s International Piping Festival and the World Pipe Band Championships; further notes that the World Pipe Band Championships or ‘the Worlds’ have predominantly been held in Glasgow for around 70 years while Piping Live! is entering its 8th year and has established itself as one of the world’s top celebrations of Scottish culture, showcasing a diverse blend of traditional music; acknowledges the importance of these cultural events, and wishes the festival and all participants the very best.”

One man’s peace is clearly another man’s pipe.

Total Politics Blog Awards 2011

Aug 11

Posted by Jeff in Democracy, Elections, Housekeeping, Sport | 17 Comments

The main beauty of the beauty contest blog rankings is that most bloggers that are involved in them say on the outside that ‘they’re just a bit of fun’ but on the inside they’re boring their eyes into you thinking ‘Vote for me! Vote for me!!’. So, as much as my co-editors will tut, sigh and think a whole lot less of me for this, and now that the Total Politics Blog ranking 2011 voting lines are open, let me just beg of you this, it’s only a bit of fun vote for us!

As electoral tactics go, pleading to lend us your votes simply because we put in a good bit of blood, sweat and tears to keep this blog going, kept the energy up during a lacklustre election campaign and provided a new resource for #sp11 election results (oooh, shiny!), is probably not enough so let me try this instead….. Tom Harris cannot win Scotland’s top blog award for the umpteenth year in a row. End of.

Seriously, this is the West Lothian question turned on its head that we’re dealing with here. Tom’s multi-award winning, platinum ‘And Another Thing’ blog scooped the prize in recent years on the back of predominantly English readers (as Tom, being an MP working in London, understandably tends to stay away from devolved issues). This may be less of an issue now that it is Labour Hame that is in the running, a distinctly Scottish beast, but how would you feel if Mr H was top of the charts once again?

Now, don’t get me wrong, this poll is deeply flawed, it’s even worse than the d’hondt system. What is to stop anyone from creating numerous email addresses and sending in their votes collecting 10points per email? Nothing but the belief in the common decency of our fellow man (and the last few days alone has put paid to that). However, this is the only show in town. Wikio is flawed due to its unfair reward of the group of blogs known affectionately as ‘circle jerk’ (or Lib Dem blogs if you really want to be specific about it) and there is nothing that is going to stop Total Politics from hosting this exercise every year (as I would prefer, at least until they have a decent system in place). So, if there are to be rankings, all blogs might as well get involved, all bloggers might as well aim to be as high as they fairly can and all Scots should be crossing their fingers that MacBloggers are well represented, not to mention that Scotland has a new champion in a few weeks’ time.

There are several Scottish blogs that could topple the lovable rogue from Glasgow South and I like to think that this here is one of them. So, if you don’t do it for you, for us, for your nation or for democratic duty itself, at least do it for whatever satisfaction the sight of Mr Harris slipping down the rankings will provide.

NB – The rules have changed in that you must complete this survey in order to vote.

(Tom, if you’re reading this, don’t be put off; please also vote for us!)

So you think you can dance?

Aug 11

Posted by Jeff in Culture, Transport | 62 Comments

One news story that caught my eye this morning was the SNP complaint that a young girl (who happens to have a Labour MSP as a relative) has been granted £9,000 a year in taxi fares in order to attend Dance School of Scotland in Knightswood throughout the year. The story struck me in light of yesterday’s discussion on Better Nation where Kate (SNP) wrote “Carping, sniping, empty posturing. That’s what the people rejected, so we’ll (Labour’ll) give them more of the same.” and Aidan Skinner (Lab) followed up with “The other thing is that there’s a developing and hardening narrative that the SNP are relentlessly positive, above the old, discredited politics and offering something new. They aren’t.”.

It didn’t take long for a bit of evidence to back up Aidan’s point.

I vividly remember the one kid in our school who wanted to do German and had to get a taxi out to Kilsyth every other day to make this happen (as we had no German teachers). The girl lost out on a good half an hour of her lunch break whenever these trips took place and had to sit on her own in a class of strangers. So, obviously, we thought she was mental. Now, of course, I’m 15 years older and wiser(?) and I’m in a relationship with someone who speaks three languages and I, luddite Brit that I am, only speak the one, the dearth of opportunities open to Scottish youngsters now abundantly clear.

A Scotland where we don’t aspire to be creative, cultural, sporty, healthy and knowledgeable because it’s too hard or it costs too much or it means ‘the other lot’ might win a few more votes than us is a terrible prospect for our nation to find itself in and, yet, hardly a day goes by that a headline doesn’t relate to something along those lines. How do so many other countries find it so easy to make all the pieces fall into place? Why is it so damn hard for Scots to better themselves and feel good about it, all at the same time?

So, it is disappointing to see the SNP acting in this way. North Lanarkshire council has a £3.7m fund to spend on moving children around to match potential with opportunities and this case of a young girl going to dance classes in Scotland’s only centre of excellence looks like a no-brainer decision to me. If the local councillors know that the family are multi-millionaires or the little girl can’t dance for toffee (unlikely if Scotland’s leading dance school is welcoming her in), then they should state their arguments accordingly but throwing mud in the hope that it sticks just because Labour happens to be distantly involved really does undermine any complaints that the Nats may have regarding any mudslinging coming their way, particularly involving Brian Souter.

I can’t see any problem with the taxpayer helping to make sure this girl gets the best chance to dance and, if the SNP wants to really have the positive vision for a better Scotland that it regularly claims to, I’d be surprised if they had any real problems with it either. But then, I would say that, because I really can’t dance for toffee.

Beware the worms lurking in cans!

Aug 10

Posted by The Burd in Holyrood, Parties | 49 Comments

Can WormsIt seems that in the absence of anything meaningful to offer the populace, and despite being given a kicking of the first order at the polls, Scottish Labour has decided that it’s groundhog day.

Carping, sniping, empty posturing. That’s what the people rejected, so we’ll give them more of the same.

How else do you explain the shitstorm its elected representatives have been trying to generate in the last few weeks? First, with tongue firmly not in its cheek, it demanded to know just how close the SNP and Alex Salmond had got to Rupert Murdoch and his News International empire in Scotland. In an extremely linear approach which would keep no person out of jail, Paul Martin determined that because the Scottish Sun had supported the SNP in the last election, ergo this was damning evidence of the SNP being in Murdoch’s pockets.

So the Scottish Government duly publishes a full list not only of First Ministerial contacts with the media since 2007 but those of key Cabinet members AND copies of correspondence between Eck and Rupe. The latter ain’t pretty and caused many toes to curl in discomfort. Yes, the First Minister might have been really, really trying to portray himself as the global media mogul’s equal and really, really trying to persuade Murdoch to become a Caledonian champion. But frankly if there had been anything to hide, the goverment would have hidden it.

But like much of its interventions in the last year, Labour might well have scored an own goal. Disclosure of Labour leaders’ contacts with the media has been asked for and… we’re still waiting. Oh why are we waiting? What’s so hard about pulling together a list of all the meetings, lunches, receptions, letters etc exchanged between the Scottish Labour leadership – Iain Gray, Wendy Alexander in opposition and Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish during their time as First Minister – and Scottish media representatives? The longer they take, the worse it looks, even if there is nothing untoward at all. But they started it.

But the real can of worms opened up by Scottish Labour recently involves the insinuation that the SNP Government offered Brian Souter honours for political donations. They haven’t actually come out and said it, but the inference is of cash for honours on our ain doorstep. Siller for hallions no less.

A whole webpage has been set up over at Scottish Labour’s website – the Souter files, powered exclusively with righteous indignation, over-wrought hyperbole, and rank hypocrisy and inaccuracy. Cathy Jamieson MP suggests that “The First Minister and his party must look seriously at the relationship they have developed with wealthy individuals handing them large sums of cash. The public will rightly be asking what’s next on Mr Souter’s shopping list and waiting for the First Minister to deliver.”

Individuals plural. Who exactly? Apart from Souter’s admittedly eye-watering donation in 2011, other donations to the SNP were five figure sums, the vast majority of its donations far, far lower. The SNP does not have that many supporters with deep pockets: Souter’s donation was matched by hundreds more, much smaller ones by members and supporters. The only person who out-donated Brian Souter was the late Edwin Morgan through a bequest in his will. What’s that? Nothing nasty to say about the Makar appointed by a Labour First Minister? Oh.

Apparently, Souter’s donation(s) are why the SNP has not re-regulated bus provision in Scotland. I acknowledge – it’s a policy that makes sense and it should be done. But then again, I don’t recall Labour-LibDem Scottish Executives, in power for double the time the SNP has been, rushing to re-regulate. Indeed, in four years of opposition, I don’t recall Labour making this a big issue and pushing for it to happen. How curious.

So let’s overturn the can and see what comes wriggling out. What’s this? A number of individuals – all of them wealthy, some of them longstanding Labour supporters or who have donated to the Labour party and bestowed honours while Labour was the lead partner in the Scottish Executive and Ministers were involved in nominating people for honours.

Moir Lockhead is one such, Willie Haughey is another, as is Duncan Bannatyne and Tom Hunter. All of them distinguished businessmen in their own right, who have also made huge charitable contributions during their lifetime. These are the reasons their honours were bestowed but following Scottish Labour’s current logic, all were given awards at the time they were active supporters and/or donors to the Labour party. Though historic, the worms in its can are far more juicy than the ones in the SNP’s.

Frankly, the Scottish public doesn’t give a damn. It holds all politicians and political parties in equally low esteem. Labour might think it is landing blows on the SNP but all such activity achieves is to confirm what people think of all parties, its ain included. In May the people spoke loud and clear – the SNP was the party they liked better or at least, disliked least. Given the current electoral mood, Labour will continue to come off second best if it persists in pursuing this kind of puerile politics. Making the road back to electoral credibility a whole lot harder.

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