Praise where praise is due (updated)

Everyone in the Western Isles needs to read the story in this week's West Highland which utterly, completely and finally put the future of the Rocket Range on the backburner.

The case made by QinetiQ is smoothly and efficiently gutted by the Defence Minister, who seems to have learned more about the QinetiQ operations from the employees and Tax Force than from QinetiQ themselves.

“I was very struck during my many conversations with senior engineers and technicians in the Hebrides by the fact that none of them had had sight of the detailed proposals. I was able to identify from these conversations at least one understated investment expenditure which was acknowledged by QinetiQ management.”

And, of course, from the case built by the Task Force using specialist consultants:

“I think Jane’s [Advisory Services] comments should be taken seriously and the proposal should not go ahead unless we are satisfied with QinetiQ’s response.”

Then Mr Davies beautifully skewers QinetiQ over their failure to consider any problems that might arise in getting planning permission on St Kilda, and a host of other (important) local issues.

The extent and nature of the critique should be enough to keep the Range safe for many years and it is yet another tribute to the Task Force and the workforce for their intense hard work in a short period of time.

We really must appreciate the full depth and extent of the impact that their hard work has had.

Just as well they didn't listen to our MP, talking about the visit by the Minister: “Playing the old trick of lobby me lobby me won’t wash.”


Update 14/11/09: The letters can be read here and here. The quality of the files may be less than perfect.

Glasgow NE result

What a disastrous result for almost everyone, but most especially for the SNP.

The one winner was Labour who couldn't energise it's voters - as evidenced by a 1/3 turnout - but still somehow manged to take nearly 60% of the vote and keep the majority at a respectable and healthy margin.

The LibDems must be putting the periscope up to see if they find dry land, and some prospect of survival, coming a very, very, poor fifth.

As for the SNP: this was disastrous for the natural party of opposition, who should have been able to capitalise on distrust and disillusion with the Government, and who should have been able to get their vote out. Instead the managed to lose 900 votes.

So why did this happen?

Simple - the SNP are the party of Government in Scotland and as such they are being blamed for economic mismamgement and the economic problems in exactly the same way that they have blamed Labour and Tories over the past decades.

It is a consequence of being the party of power that you stop being the party of hope, and start being just another party who says one thing and does another. Such is the price of power.

What makes that interesting is the impact that this new realism will have in Scotland at the next General Election.

I was surprised how well Labour did last night, but I think that it is more about how badly the SNP are doing. Or more accurately, how the imnpact of their policy decisions is feeding through to the voters.

I predict that Labour will do much better than currently forecast at the Election, and that the SNP will be hard pressed to get more than a dozen seats. I also think that there will be some surprise, local, results which will be more about the individuals than the parties, but that the overall political landscape will barely change.

As I have said before, the SNP's greatest set-back was becoming the party in power in Holyrood, which will prove a millstone rather than a springboard, and were Labour still running the show, you would be looking at the SNP being within spitting distance of a majority at this point in the electoral cycle.

However, it is the unexpected events that will drive the result of the Election; and I look forward to an exciting, incident-filled, campaign next year. Sadly, I expect a dull, dreary slog that will alienate the voters.

Synthetic fury over fuel card withdrawals

According to The Gazette, Angus MacNeil MP is furious about BP withrdrawing the fuel cards from businesses in the islands and has written to the Chancellor demanding that he bring pressure to bear on the company.

Yes, withdrawal of the cards would be a serious blow, but let's look at the knee-jerk reaction from our occasional MP....

Writing to the Chancellor: WTF use is that?  He'll write back to say that he cannot interfere with commerical business decisions.  MacNeil will blame Labour, Labour will refute any invovlement.

Contacting BP: Not on the agenda. Why not? They are the only ones who can change the policy.*

Getting the Scottish Government involved: Not on the agenda either. Could this be because MacNeil is more interested in blaming Labour than actually achieving anything.  cf MacNeil's actions over the rocket range

* Actually, the cards are provided by Fuel Card Services Ltd, who are a completely separate business, and are an agent of BP, whose existence is predicated upon getting a cut of the BP turnover by driving large volumes through the cards and through the BP Stations.

As the most likely companies to have to deal with the loss of discount are the local hauliers who have failed to pass on the benefits of RET, is there not a wider issue here about lack of joined up policies that between Edinburgh and London that needs to be sorted before blame is spayed everywhere, regardless.

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.

Shock at love rats on ultra-religious islands

Thanks and (c) The Sun

Just how many people can this offend?

Out of the mouths of children.....

The children of Barra have had a long and illustrious history of activism, and successful activism, on community issues.

It was thanks to sustained pressure from the school children that Barra got mobile phones; and they even went to the House of Commons to campaign for the retention of the air service to Barra.

They know their community and are not scared to make their views known. Model children for the future in other words.

Or not, as the case may be if you are a Quango.

Sources in the Education Department have told me that when Scottish National Heritage heard that the school children of Barra were going to demonstrate yesterday against SNH and the possible designation of the Sound of Barra as a Marine Special Area of Conservation, then SNH jumped into action.

Phone calls, faxes and assorted threats later, the Education Department instructed the two Barra schools not to allow their children to show their views on the possible designation, as it wasn't the media image that SNH wanted to give.

SNH are, of course, happy to go into schools and give their perspective, but any contrary view meets with this heavy handed approach. It looks like democracy only works one way in their mind.

Does the Minister know what is being done by the organisation is is nominally responsible for?

The actual meeting in the Craigard was full to overflow, but SNH refused to discuss the issues, clkaiming that they were there to have only an informal chat, mingle and make small talk. Which required about 75% of the attendees to leave the room so that SNH, assorted hangers-on, and the vast coterie of officials, could have cheese and wine and make meaningless noises.

All at vast public expense.

SNH is held in such huge contempt by large sections of the public that it claims to represent that the need for it's very existence is questioned by most of those directly affected. This reflects very, very, badly on the entire process and consequently upon the Government itself, who seem unable - or perhaps unwilling - to take any action to bring the organisation under control.

This cavalier behaviour cannot be allowed to continue, but we've been saying this for a decade, and it is only getting worse, not better.

If they can't debate with the children who will be directly affected by the decisions they want to bring in, then why should they be trusted that what they are doing is the right thing?

Council complaints procedures - the black hole

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman is seeking an urgent meeting with the Comhairle, about their handiling of complaints.

The policy is clear:

Your complaint will be acknowledged by, or on behalf of, the Head of Service within three working days of receipt.[...]

You will be advised in writing of the outcome of your complaint within 21 days and be given the opportunity to discuss the outcome if you so wish. If a decision cannot be given within 21 days you will be informed of the reasons for any delay.

Today, it is now 150 days since a complaint I made was acknowledged, and 170 since it was received without any further update being received.

Good stuff!

No doubt Audit & Scrutiny Committee will have a very good look at whatever the Ombudsman says.

Ferry subsidies are allowed

Was there anyone who really thought that - post Altmark - there was no way that CalMac could continue to receive a subsidy?

Cllr Manford and I read the decision carefully some 6 years ago, and only the blind or terminally stupid could have tried to insist that tendering was essential on life-line ferry services.

So it proved, when Scottish Labour continued to drive through the ludicrous deconstruction of CalMac into goodness knows how many companies to meet some fabled (and utterly unjustified) 'European' requirement for a west-coast maritime Railtrack.

Thankfully, Europe have eventually made the position clear and we can now see the CalMac ferries being brought back into a sensible single structure; rather than the fragmented shambles it has become.

Can't we? Can't we?

Raft of school closures on the horizon

That's the headline in Hebrides News.

This is not about new schools, per se, but about balancing the budget.

The Council face a number of very serious challenges in achieving the aim of rationalisation:

• The parents and teachers don't trust you
• What Councillor is going to vote to close a school in his ward?
• The Government want to protect rural schools, at a cost to the Council; not the Government
• Our MSP has made protection of Gaelic a higher priority than educational quality
• Is there actually a coherent plan?

On the positive side, the Chair of Education - Morag Munro - is probably the very best person to have in post to make these decisions and drive them through.

However, I predict many tears before bedtime, and many changes to the plans before the communities accept the inevitable - the money isn't there to keep all the schools open; and it is not in your children's best educational interest to be educated in a class of three in a semi-derelict building.

Anyone understand this?

Congratulations to my brother who has just seen a patent of his published for approval.

I might be being just a bit thick, but does anyone understand just what "Secure Boot with Optional Components Method" actually means?

Kenneth, whatever you are doing is highly impressive but totally unintelligible to us mere mortals.

Edwyn Collins - utter genius

Friday night saw us out and about on the town, which is extremely unusual, as we normally prefer dinner and a few drinks on a Saturday.

We had booked tickets for Edwyn Collins at An Lanntair, and due to mainland travel and sick children we really weren't sure that we were going to make it.

What a night we had! Truly one of the best nights out we have had in a very long time, and the best live music that we have seen in years.

The support act, "The 1990s" came highly recommended by one of our staff, who had seen them live previously. They had a difficult job warming up the crowd who were predominantly slightly older than their usual target market i.e. 40-somethings and older. However, they were very good, suitably loud and made an excellent counter balance to the main attraction.

Although sparsely attended, the tour which is billed as "The Restoration of Edwyn Collins" (a reference to his serious illness) was utterly wonderful, from the moment Edwyn walked onto stage and perched on the speaker to the end of the encour. I saw the set list as we went to our seats and was delighted to see a mix of old and new, covering the Orange Juice years right up to a new song he had co-written with someone from the Cribs.

The highly professional band - which included the guitarist from Primal Scream - were absolutely excellent, and provided an excellent backing to an highly emotional and personal set from Edwyn. The songs were all so obviously chosen from an extensive catalogue to relate to his 'restoration', but poignancy never became mawkishness; and there was absolutely no suggestion of any self-pity.

My good lady ended up dancing to "A Girl Like You" along with some of the 1990s.

Afterwards we stopped in the bar for a beer or three, and ended up being very late talking to the bands, the management (Mrs Collins) and to Edwyn himself.

I remember seeing Edwyn and Orange Juice in (I think) the Locarno in the early 1980's, but it might have been the Edinburgh College of Art. And Friday night was every bit as good, as I'm not sure I would be up to a mosh-pit any longer.

Five mainland firms in running to build new island schools

Did any of the local firms try to get on the tender list, or did none of them make it to the event in Glasgow?

I was told UBC were going to try to get on the shortlist.

I can see the successful bidder coming here, setting up a base to try and win other work before, during and after the schools project, and destroying the local construction industry.

Actually, the Council will be the ones destroying the local construction industry as all the capital budgets are being raided and committed to this project, meaning that nothing else of significance is going to be built or repaired.

Good news for the islands? Hardly.

Good news for the mainland consultants? Snouts in troughs.

#Things can only get better#

A Scottish Government press release gives a flavour of the economic problems facing Scotland.

----

Scotland's Chief Statistician today announced the release of Gross Domestic Product for Scotland for 2009 Q2.

This quarterly publication measures growth, in real terms, in Gross Domestic Product at Basic Prices, also known as Gross Value Added, for Scotland.

The main findings are:

* GDP fell by 3.2 per cent annually and fell by 0.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2009 (seasonally adjusted)
* In the year to end-October 2009, the Scottish service sector fell by 2.5 per cent, the production sector declined by 5.7 per cent and the construction sector fell by 6.3 per cent
* In the second quarter of 2009, the service sector fell by 0.4 per cent, the production sector declined by 1.9 per cent and the construction sector fell by 2.8 per cent

----

I'm not going to shoot the messenger, but I am going to caution against the impact of trying to spend your way out of this deep hole. As in the 1980's, manufacturing is being hit especially hard and the capacity of the Scottish and British economy to recover seems to lie with services and with public sector spending.

Neither of these are the way to built a strong long-lasting and resilient economy, with the former being more transitory and easily transferable to a lower-cost country; and the later having the effect of smothering the country with bureaucracy and paperwork whilst delivering ego-stroking and over-priced capital projects at the expense of public services.

Counter-cyclical spending is - of course - part of the answer, but there is also going to have to be economic contraction towards the essential public sector core. And that is a fact that the Scottish Government would do well to acknowledge and take action upon now, before the Westminster Government force these unpleasant decisions upon them.

And, yes, I do realise that provoking a battle may be part of the strategy, but that's not really going to help economic growth.

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.

Conflicts of interest...

The Minute of the Human Resource sub-Committee of 27 August 2009 was pushed through my letterbox last night (many thanks to whoever), and just what an eye-opener it was.....

19. The Chief Executive submitted a Report to enable the Sub-Committee to consider a request for retirement in the interest of efficiency of the service by employee OP. The Report detailed the terms of the request, the financial consequences of the request and provided details of how these financial consequences could be met.

The Sub-Committee adjourend at 2:50pm and re-convened at 4:00pm on Tuesday 1 September 2009 [the next day] when the following Members were found to be present.

Norman A MacDonald (Chairman)
Angus Campbell
Annie MacDonald
Norman M MacLeod

It was agree that employee OP be retired in the interests of the efficiency of the service with immediate effect subject to:

(a) thew agreement of employee OP to relinquish the right to pay in lieu of notice;
(b) no compensation payment being made other than in respect of accrued pension rights; and
(c) the agreement of employee OP to sign a Compromise Agreement consistent with the terms of the draft attached as Appendix 1 to the Report as amended to take account of the foregoing paragraphs (a) and (b)

----

Councillors may wish to ask

• why a suspended employee was able to retire before the discipline process was completed?
• just what the Compromise Agreement said? (any chance of a copy, please)
• just who was covering their backside using public money to try to hide a problem?
• why Councillors are still being kept in the dark about the complaint and the its subsequent handling?
• where is the Audit & Scrutiny Committee in all of this?
  

Given that the Chair of the Committee and the Chief Executive's office were both intimately involved in directing and deciding upon the course of events that formed the basis of the original complaint, did neither think that there might just be the tinniest suggestion of a conflict of interest?

Tackling the BNP

It is no good having ex-Generals complaining about the BNP 'hijacking' symbols of Britain's military successes and expecting anything to com from it, other than good publicity for the BNP.

If they have successfully used Churchill or (ironically and unwittingly) Polish spitfire pilots as part of their campaign against immigration, then that is because they understand how to connect with their key voters and their potential voters. Perhaps better than any other party.

If they are the only party playing on folk memories as an electoral tool, then they are doing because it is effective.

Presumably these same ex-Generals wouldn't want to see any PM awarding medals to the military in case that could be perceived to be some kind of implied political advantage for Gordon Brown or David Cameron.

The bottom line is that a political party that we don't like is able to deliver its message efficiently and effectively; and instead of addressing the issue too many people want to brush it under the carpet, which will only invigorate its activists and supporters who ill feel further marginalised and excluded by political society.

If the military symbols are significant and strike a strong positive chord with voters, then the mainstream parties need to use these images and attitudes to draw people away form the negative and poisonous views of the BNP and back into the the fold.

All we are doing is making martyrs and storing up trouble for the future, when decisive leadership is urgently needed.

I don't particularly relish seeing the BNP on Question Time, but they need to be exposed, and beaten in logical argument, and the responsibility lies with the other members of the panel to put aside their own divisions and achieve that single important end.

Sgoiltean Ùra - the story so far

I don't know how Hebrides News got the story of the offer of £10,000 of taxpayers money we received from Sgoiltean Ùra, but I can (obviously) confirm that it is correct and that they also offered to pay some - and only some - of our legal fees.

Without admitting liability.

I hadn't really wanted this to get into the public domain for reasons I won't go into at present, but the legal defences are now in from Sgoiltean Ùra, and whilst they are a public document, there are good tactical reasons for keeping my cards close to my chest at the moment.

I'm not going elaborate any more at the moment, as the period for adjustments in the Court of Session is still open (search for Nicolson) for another few weeks, and there are other matters going on in parallel.

I can also confirm that complaints have gone to Audit Scotland and detailed complaints will be following to the Public Service Ombudsman and to the Standards Commission. About who and what I'm not saying.

Yet.

Gordon Brown is a .....

try this at home......

Thanks to "you know who you are".

Alex Salmond's best quotes

Which of the following was actually said by Alex Salmond this week?

1. Kenny MacAskill is like Mahatma Gandhi.
2. Nicola Sturgeon is the new Mother Teresa
3. Jim Mather knows more about economics than John Maynard Keynes (but less than me)
4. The SNP have improved yields from Gaelic peat banks by 40% this year
   
5. Alasdair Allan is Scotland first professional cage fighter
6. If we spend even more money that we haven't got, then everything will be fine
7. All of the above