Council Tendering

A report to the Audit and Scrutiny Committee contains the majestically understated phrase at para 1.14:

In the tender process the Comhairle has had a number of high profile events in this area which have led to either litigation or having to go put the contracts through a re-tendering exercise. There is scope in this area for contracts to be identified as high value/high risk and having a higher level of strategic input from the start and that the key officers involved are trained so that they can minimise and manage the risks involved.

As I - and others - are aware, the Chief Executive has a report in his filing cabinet in which a Director admits breaking contract regulations to stop the top bidder winning and confirms he would do so again, I suspect that 'training' may be a tadge ineffective.

Ah, well.  One for the new Councillors to cut through the lies and hold people to account.

Read this and weep

Duncan MacKay and Sons Ltd v CnES.

Read the report in Hebrides News and despair.

This is such a spectacular level of incompetence at so many levels, that you have to ask the question if the Council actually fit for purpose.

And, yes, I do fully understand the implications of what I say.

Source: CnES management Team training course

Where are the Councillors asking questions demanding answers and holding officers to account.  This is the fourth serious, serious, failure at the highest level in recent years, and I include the attempt to screw us as one of those failures.

As far as I am aware, not one officer has been disciplined - beyond a slap on the wrist for the sins of others - for the huge losses incurred.  Yet the buck stops in three offices - Chief Executive, Convener and Leader.

I have seen and heard evidence of other incompetencies, fraud, theft and inherent corruption that is being brushed out of sight by senior officers, rather than being dealt with and all that is doing is making the position worse; due entirely to the inability of those at the top.

But Councillors are being mushroomed ("kept in the dark and fed on bs") and accepting the self-serving view from the top that they cannot question issues because  they are sub judice, confidential or subject to disciplinary issues, when the real reason is to protect those giving that advice - the culprits.

Distractions

As many people have commented, our MP and MSP can seem to be distracted by spurious issues, rather than focusing on major issues.

It would be slightly unkind to suggest that it is a deliberate campaign to reduce our attention span on the key issues.

A particular example is the decision to run down the spinal route to check phone connectivity.

The BBC launched an app just a month ago which did exactly that, only with proper technology and with independent verification of the results. Indeed, a patchy map of the islands connectivity is already available as a result of this exercise.  Nonetheless, the experts on Bayhead are busy reinventing the wheel.  Which we are paying for.  Rather than getting involved in a national, professional, project which could have given reliable results.

Put aside the fact that good broadband would be much, much, better than good phone calls.

Compare and contrast with the outrage of an SNP MSP about 14% of the Scottish public living in fuel poverty. 

I'm less important than a good phone signal

Whilst the locally based Energy Advisiory Service estiamte that last year 60% of the residents of the Western Isles are in fuel poverty and there are cuts in the Government fuel poverty budget, we hear not a bleat, not a complain, not a solution, not a proposal from either MP or MSP.

It could be that they are just very busy, or it could be that they don't want to point to the failure of the Scottish Government to stop the annual cull of pensioners in the islands.

Guga hunt II

According to the BBC...

A sports lets agency has reported "particularly strong" demand for grouse shooting in Scotland, as the 2011 season begins.

 Anyone like to guess why the SSPCA and SNH aren't demanding an end to Grouse shooting?

The cash economy

Just about enough to buy a house in Uist

Is rapidly becoming the "no cash" economy in Stornoway, where the number of counterfeit notes is spiralling out of control.

At least three shops I know have stopped accepting cash, and with even experienced bank staff being fooled, it looks like we are being flooded by dodgy notes of various denominations and supposedly from various banks.

I hope that the Police get to the bottom of this before the economy is further destroyed.

Tax breaks....

Whilst massive cuts are being forecast for every aspect of the economy in Scotland with the prospect of 20%-25% job losses, then you have to say "WTF?" to the latest political stunt.

Scottish sports minister Shona Robison is to meet senior Westminster politicians in an attempt to gain a tax exemption for Commonwealth Games competitors.
[...]
“I’m going to ask for an exemption for the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and Ryder Cup the same year, along with a number of events.

“A number of English sporting events are exempted, but none of the major sporting events in Scotland.

“We expect parity for major international sporting events.”

Get a grip, FFS.

Millionaires fly in and earn vast sums of money fora few hours work, and our Government wants to exempt them from tax.  Not mitigate their tax.  Not limit their tax liability to income earned in the UK.

No, let's make it all tax free.

This all smacks of NuLab's idolisation of Hedge Fund managers and other obscenely rich ponces and the subsequent tilting of tax laws in their favour.

A simple question: would you rather have a home help for your parents, or watch a millionaire hit a golf ball around for a vast tax-free lump sum?

Now ask: are these guys paying tax anywhere?  The answer is almost certainly that they are not paying very much tax anywhere. The sponsorship will have been sold to a BVI company, where vast sums roll up tax-free, and by judiciously moving around the world, nowhere - bar tax-free Monaco - will be home.  For tax purposes.

And our pensioners die unable to afford their heating bills......

Bloody vandals

I've just had a phone call from Cllr Keith Dodson to tell me that all four figures in the Bayhead playpark were vandalised last night and are beyond repair. Some of his constituents were almost in tears at the mindless destruction.
What a f'ing disgrace.

Tony Blair tells all

Or not quite, but he does tells his side of the story, which is yet another contradictory tale of NuLabour.

If you believe half the stories, then at least 100% of the Cabinet were liars, incompetents, social inadequates, losers, chancers and backstabbing bastards. And the authors saved their bile for those they didn't like.

Apart from Tony Blair chocking on his own self-esteem, nothing would please me more than seeing the lot of them getting into another bout of self-destructive score settling; as they might finally disappear up their own fundaments when they realise the contempt in which they encouraging themselves to be held.

Housing problems

In my role as a debt advisor to those who cannot manage their affairs properly, I am often asked to advise many who cannot see the wood for the trees.

Such was the case this weekend, when a new client approached me with an unusual problem.  Mr MacNeil, as I will call him to maintain his anonymity, was being forced by his employers to stop receiving a tax-free sum of £300 per month in housing subsidy, and having to accept a tax-free £1,450 per month instead.  He was at his wits end, unable to balance his budget and facing a continuing life of taypayer funded luxury.

"Angus", I said, "Get a fucking grip and stop acting like a completely sanctimonious arsehole."

"You choices are:

• Pay for your own property in the same way as everyone else has to, or
• Find a new flat; get £1,450pm in subsidy; rent out your old flat for £2,000+ pm; and you are still quids in, or
• Put your money where you mouth is, and sell your flat, and give the profit to the Treasury."

"You earn £66,000 and whatever your wife gets from the public purse for her non-job as your 'constituency assistant', and all your travel costs are paid, along with subsidised food at work, and numerous other perks"

"The flat you own was almost totally fitted at the taxpayers expense, and the fitting of any flat you move to will be paid for too. Although perhaps not quite so generously."

Another case solved.

"By the way", I asked, "Did you see the report that 25% of the population of the Western Isles live in poverty?"

"No", he replied, "I was too busy submitting my expenses claims to worry about something as minor as that."

Enjoying 'hospitality'

I am sure that the senior manager at the Comhairle has made sure that his line managers are well aware of the magnificent entertainment he recently enjoyed from a contractor who is hoping to get some work from the Council.

I am sure that nothing untoward can be inferred from the whole event, but as other contractors are keeping a very close eye on who wins future tenders, it would be sensible for the individual concerned to protect his back by making a full disclosure; before it is disclosed by others.

Of course, he is only following the example of a very senior officer who is using insider information to promote a family members' business interests, and make a profit for themselves - and yes, I do have times, dates and names.

MPs pay rises

If there was ever an example of being on a hiding to nothing, and running straight into a good kicking by the public, then the decision by MPs to award themselves a 1.5% pay rise is it.

Ooops, of course, it was an independent review body who took the decisions, so nothing to do with the MPs themselves.

The 'independent' body bases it's independent decision of the average of the pay rises for comparable workers in the public sector: such as judges, NHS managers and senior civil servants.

All of whom have been awarded pay rises by the self-same MPs who really, really, really, didn't realise that giving an increase to these groups would result in an increase for themselves.

What an unfortunate coincidence.

With COSLA likely to recommend pay freezes (or even pay cuts) for the coming years, and with significant job losses on the horizon, especially for the lower paid, the degree to which they are out-of-touch with their voters in election year is just spectacular.

Turkeys and Christmas anyone?

Incompetence, stupidity or laziness?

I have received an email bundle of FoI requests, which I am still working my way through.

The bundle contains some very damning correspondence relating to the Rocket Range, and appears to depict both the MP and MSP as liars.

But, I'll let you be the judge of that.....

In July 2007, Mr MacNeil received a letter from Lord Drayson about the review, which contains the key phrase:

If all these proposals were taken forward there could be a significant impact on the number of jobs at the range. However, I would stress that, at present, these are no more than proposals.

and later:

I am writing in similar terms to the constituency MSP, Alasdair Allan.

Six months later Mr MacNeil sprung into action, at the request of staff who were hearing rumours about the plans, and arranged a visit to the site.

But look at the terms of the memo that resulted from that meeting.

MacNeil was concerned about "stemming the rumour mill", and then made it very clear just how serious an impact any closure of the facility would have.

And then did nothing, as far as we can tell, except - as requested - to be kept informed.

Of course when the solids hit the fan and the Council set up the Task Force there was a sudden burst of press releases
mock-outrage from MP and MSP, who have repeatedly tried to claim their lack of advance knowledge of the situation.

There was a fourth option that I didn't have space for in the headline, and it appears to me to be the real story of these emails.

I believe that the workers in Uist were to be sacrificed by our MP and MSP to score a party political point, and it was only due to the massive, intensive and successful intervention of the Council that this was avoided.

I'll be posting further on this later today, work permitting.

(Link to pdfs now fixed - thank you for pointing this out)

Child labour abuses backed by Government

A report in the weekend Financial Times makes depressing reading, as Peter Mandelson (for it is he) seeks to change the rules governing the insurance of foreign deals by UK companies.

For the past few years, the policy has been that the Export Credit Guarantee Dept would not provide any assistance where there was any forced labour, or where children were involved in the production process to the detriment of their health, education etc.

That policy is now been abandoned relaxed to allow companies themselves to determine the best policy to apply in each country.

And how about this for a typical piece of doublespeak:

The department said its policies reflected those of Britain's fellow OECD members, adding that it was better to raise standards multilaterally rather than unilaterally.

Apparently our 'ethical foreign policy' is only appropriate if everyone else is doing it. Forget about being the first to try and improve the lot of the oppressed, by embarrassing the rest of the world, our proposed policy is now not to interfere with the companies that must know best.

So now we are accepting the use of slave labour in Burma, or small children working 16 hour days sewing clothes in a factory in India, as a necessary element of UK economic policy.

Next time you buy a nice new shirt it could by stained by the blood of the poor and oppressed, working for a pittance or less, and being kept in that condition with the tacit approval of our Government.

This is a scandalous and disgraceful act of mendacity by a party that is blinded by its adoration of the multi-nationals and is desperate to ensure that there is no impediment to the exploitation of the poor in third-world countries.

I recommended that Lord Mandelson read Mark Thomas' excellent book "Belching out the devil" to understand just how the big companies disregard each and every rule that they can.

If this were the 1860's you can just imagine Mandelson opposing Unions in favour of a 'consultation on a unilateral solution to be devised by the employers'. The man has sold his soul and is moving the Labour Party into the policies bequeathed by Thatcher in a desperate attempt to impress his rich business acquaintances.

Where the Sun don't shine.....

It's not often I feel a modicum of pity for Gordon Brown, but I feel myself strangely angry at The Sun, and it's manipulation of a greiving mother.

We all sometimes suffer from word-blindness, where you misread a word. I suppose it is a very mild sort of dyslexia, but one that tends to imprint the wrong word onto your consciousness.

Is the Chancellor Alastair, Alasdair or Alistair Darling? Why do people insist on spelling my surname with an H? At the PLI into the Eishken wind farm I read the wrong name out from the statement I wrote by myself, and made a bit of an ar$e of myself.

But to attempt to pillory a disabled person (for that is what he is!) for not being able to write neatly and for some spelling mistakes is a nasty and spiteful piece which reflects badly on the newspaper and the lady involved.

The secret tape-recording of the subsequent phone call smells more of an entrapment by The Sun to further their own political agenda, rather than making a truly serious political point.

This will, I suspect, backfire on both the genuine campaign to support the soldiers and on the attempts to demonstrate the general incompetence of Mr Brown. If anything this series of articles will strengthen Brown's position and gain him a substantial sympathy vote.

On the buses....

It seems that Bus na Comhairle are powered by free-range caviar-fed gold-plated rocking-horse shit, rather than simple and hideously expensive diesel.

That has to be the case, given their financial performance this year......

That's caught your attention hasn't it?

Well it certainly caught the attention of the Councillors last Monday, when the Chief Executive was given a serious bollocking - particularly, I understand, by Roddy MacKay - over his inability to control the deficits.

"If this were a commercial business..." went the oft-heard refrain.

Bus operators will be gnashing and wailing and rightly complaining about unfair competition when the truth appears in the annual accounts. Except it doesn't, as the buses are no longer considered to be a Significant Trading Operation, and hence the losses don't need to be disclosed in the accounts.

Oh yes, and as the matter is 'commercially sensitive' the Councillors can't go public with it, as it might affect the ability of BnC to compete with the private sector.

That is 'compete' in the sense of having a bottomless pit of money to use to drive the competition out of business, so that only BnC survives; and so that it's existence can be justified as a 'public service'

WTF is going on, and why is our money being squandered? And hidden from the public?

And where BnC leads, is the rest of the DSO going to follow?

Enough teasing, but sit down -- losses at the DSO last year were £100,000 of which the buses lost £84,000.

Bus owners of the islands unite, you have nothing to lose but your livelihoods.

Bank regulation

This is obviously the be all and end all to avoiding another economic crisis, isn't it?

No, of course not, as The Governor of the Bank of England explicitly stated:

Mervyn King said it was a "delusion" that tightening regulation could stop banks' most risky activities from failing and leading to huge losses.

The real secret to avoiding losses in in risk pricing, and bank regulation and stopping the biggest bonuses won't stop the same happening again. They might slightly mitigate the risk, but that is going to be insignificant, unless the risk pricing is directly related to the bonuses.

To explain: the banks will normally charge you a higher rate of interest if your borrowings are considered to be of higher risk (duh!!) or if they fund a bigger percentage - nothing different than you or I would do if asked for a few grand by a mate.

Where it all went wrong was that reward was being based on the loans being issued (more accurately the interest received, or expected to be received) and consequently the bankers persuaded the risk departments to lower the rating and hence the interest they were charging. Because, er, everyone else was doing it.

Bonuses flew out the doors as a common interest in ignoring reality meant extra special pay-days for the front -line staff and those tasked with keeping them under control.

Where banks will succeed in the future is in getting the risk pricing right.

Customers will always be there to draw down the borrowings and if Mr X and his risky new business gets two only offers of Base +10% and Base +15%, there will still be some who will pay that premium. But the bankers must be rewarded not just on the higher interest they earn, but also charged for the defaults that emerge,which means longer term incentive schemes and less focus on champagne by the case tomorrow.

This of course not a reflection on the real bankers in the real branches who deal with real money and who we see in the street every week, but instead the nation of spivs that have been created over the past 20 years.

Rant over. Clients with good businesses unable to renew or extend overdraft facilities as the banks are lending any money, despite the promises to do so; excessive security demands from risk departments that have gone from tarts to prudes overnight.

Berlusconi backs Blair for EU job

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has endorsed Tony Blair as his preferred candidate to be president of the European Union.

One is a right-wing millionaire megalomaniac within Messianic self-belief who destroyed the economy of his country, and the other is Prime Minister of Italy.

As you're judged by the company you keep then you can already see where the EU is going.

Is there nothing Tony won't do for a large wedge of cash?

MP's expenses

The politicians really, really just don't get it, do they?

Their self-build ivory towers have put them so out of touch with reality that it is frightening.

Somehow many of them still believe that they should receive tax-free lump sums for anything and everything that they can conjure up and write on a claim form.

And then they complain when they are told their claims are excessive.

Excessive, mind, when in fact many of them are totally f'ing outrageous.

All the while they still happily employ family members on a fat salary and enjoy a tax-free profit on their flats that have been paid for by the taxpayer.

Hopefully reality will bite* after the next election.

* Not a reference to Toblerone

Desperate times

The planned £16,000,000,000 sale of the 'non-financial' assets held by central and local Government is nothing if not a desperate attempt to plug the enormous hole in the economy.

A hole created (or at very least encouraged) by Gordon Brown himself.

The sheer desperation is dispiriting, indicating as it does that the problem is even deeper than they are letting on.

But the noxious smell of sulphur indicates that dirty politics are at work here, and not genuine economic thought:

Ahead of the speech Lord Mandelson told BBC Radio 4's Today the sell-offs, which he said was an alternative to "savage" cuts planned by the Conservatives, could include local authority-owned airports.

Yes, it is all party political, not what is best for you and I. The ground for the main battlefield of the next election is already being laid. And it consists of (as Labour will portray it) sensible measures already taken to help the economy recover versus selling your granny to an organ farm.

Vince Cable has the best take on this,and I am in total agreement with him:

"What worries me about the government proposal is that they're proposing to sell off in very depressed markets, under very depressed markets for land and for shares."

Who can forget Brown's masterly sale of the UK Gold Reserves at $300 per ounce between 1999 and 2002. Gold now stands at £1,050 for the self-same oz.

It is a buyer's market, and the public are going to be scalped in these deals. But what is that cost in comparison to the possibility of re-election.

MOD - disgraceful and very serious misbehaviour

My earlier post explained what I was told about a meeting in Uist when the MOD briefed the Council and others about the closure/wind-down plans for the range.

That Angus MacNeil MP and Alasdair Allan MSP have had an apology from the MOD for misrepresenting their involvement in the closure plans is not the end of the matter.

Indeed, it doesn't even begin to address the seriousness of the situation.

If an MOD press officer has deliberately misled community leaders (which no-one seems to dispute) about other elected representatives, then that individual should be severely disciplined. It is not a small mistake, nor is it by any stretch of the imagination trivial.

If there has ever been an issue that needs to be raised in Parliament then this is it.

But why did the MOD do this?

• Stupidity or ignorance?
• Deliberate political meddling? (to stitch up Labour or the SNP?)
• To ferment local antagonisms so we ignore the main issue?

I favour option 3, and let's all follow the advice of the public (as shown in the poll on the blog) and get everyone working together against the MOD. And not be divided and conquered.