The future of the LibDem party?

Tweedledum and Tweedledumber

Two men who have risen without trace, yet are the only serious (?!) politicians objecting to the introduction of ID cards.

Their claim to lead a 'campaign of civil disobedience' is slightly far-fetched, and - considering the demographic and nice nature of LibDem members - not very threatening to the future of the state. One can hardly see a mass protest of LibDems ending in rioting in Trafalgar Square, and them lobbying bricks lentils and home made quiches at the Police.

What is the collective noun for a group of LibDems who are angry and leading a campaign of civil disobedience, given that 'A riot' is so inapplicable?

• A mildness
• A sandals
• A beard
• An uncertainty
• An ambivalent prevarication

Whatever it is, Gordon Brown and David Cameron will be sleeping easy tonight.

Job creation

One of my bugbears has always been the lack of opportunities for job creation on the islands, and the impact of the 'dead hand' of the Comhairle (and the rest of the public sector) on local businesses.

There are so many potential opportunities for local entrepreneurs to build good businesses and employ lots of people, if they believe that they have the support of the community, as well as being able to exploit the niche that they can see.

I am privileged to be able to deal with many business-people throughout the islands, which gives me a steady flow of information about how the local economy is performing, almost island by island, and I am aware that owners expectations are lowering, which is an adverse lead indicator of trading performance.

Sadly, little of any significance has happened over the past few years, other than Arnish, and I hope that there are some businessmen and politicians out there trying to create jobs on the islands, because that is what we desperately need to ensure a sustainable community.

Any such success will have my full and vocal support, and no doubt it will be compared to the anti-economic development approach pursued by other parties.

Labour nominations close

I understand that there are no more than two candidates to stand for the Labour party at the Westminster elections, as nominations closed today.

Most of the names that were speculated about appear to have dropped out, and yet some of the Labour members are already hoping that no-one is selected and that nominations re-open.

A depressing situation for them, given that some of the candidates who are being talked-about have repeatedly declined, despite having their arms severely twisted.

Candidate one is Cllr Donald John MacSween, although there are still some mixed messages about him not getting back into the Labour Party. Care to confirm or deny, Mr MacSween?

Assuming my information is right, I have business dealings with candidate two, and on my desk right in front of me is his full address in London N22. Which is without doubt his biggest single handicap. An impressive CV, a very, very nice gentleman, but (you can fill in the blanks). Indeed, he has just come off the phone this very minute, but discreetly no discussion of party politics took place.

Interesting times.

Isles FM

I did the early morning political punter thing on Isles FM on Monday morning in the company of Callum Ian MacMillan, and overseen by Iain X MacIver, discussing the major political events over the past few months.

We insulted Ming Campbell and the LibDems.

Abused the Tories over their English Grand Committee scheme (I was for as it was the thin end of the wedge for Scottish Independence; Callum Ian was against as it was the thin end of the wedge for Scottish Independence).

We had a debate about Gordon Brown's (non-)performance in the House of Commons.

Then when the chat turned to RET, my compadre tried to claim that the SNP should have delivered on RET by now. I robustly pointed out that the delay was largely caused by the Labour Party forcing the tendering exercise on CalMac, and that given the legal and practical difficulties no-one could have delivered by this point. (That's not to say that a clear, unambiguous timetable for delivery is conspicuously absent, and I have my cynical doubts about the 'promise'). I made a point of praising Cllr Donald Manford, SNP Group Leader on the Comhairle for his successes to date.

I highlighted my concern about the absence of any statement on the Air Discount Scheme proceeding - and the outcome of my FoI request will appear here soon.

Finally, the discussion turned to my DPA request from the SNP as featured elsewhere on this blog.

Today, despite admitting that they hadn't heard the broadcast, Alan Masterton, the Parliamentary Assistant to the MSP was on the phone to Isles FM complaining that assorted supporters had heard the broadcast and apparently were upset by the lack of balance. For which read, they were embarrassed by the further revelations that the DPA request has brought out, and they don't want me on the airwaves again. Clearly ignorance places no restrictions on the desire to complain.

Looks like another attempt to gag me....what are they scared of???

'Shared values'

You couldn't make up the fawning drivel from the lips of Foreign Office Minister, Kim Howells. According to the BBC, Mr Howells told a conference ahead of a state visit by Saudi leader King Abdullah that the two states could unite around their "shared values".

So which shared values are these, then?

Does the Minister for Wimin, the oh-so-scary, Ruth Kelly agree that women who walk unaccompanied in Jeddah should be arrested on suspicion of being prostitutes?

Does son-of-the-Manse Gordon Brown support a regime that executes people for taking Bibles into the country? Or for refusing to convert to Wahabism?

Perhaps Mr Howell will be sharing his experience as a past Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Count me out.

• I believe that countries should be democratic, not theocratic.
  
• I believe that criminal trials should be open, with adequate defence facilities for the accused.
  
• I believe that capital punishment should be abolished, not be the national sport.
  
• I believe that women should be treated equally, not as third class citizens.
  
• I believe in transparency in public financing, and not in the rulers robbing the population for their own benefit.
  
• I don't believe we should be paying them bribes to buy arms to further destabilise the area.

Funny, but Labour used to believe in these things too, as Robin Cook said, Our foreign policy must have an ethical dimension and must support the demands of other peoples for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves. The Labour Government will put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy and will publish an annual report on our work in promoting human rights abroad.

Cash for honours

On a damp Sunday afternoon whilst waiting for something interesting to happen at the SNP Conference, I caught up on the Public Accounts Committee meeting, which I had avoided this week as it looked and smelt like a very slow car crash, and I wasn't going to rubber-neck.

Angus MacNeil 29/3/06: After the meeting the Scottish Nationalist MP Angus MacNeil said: "The police are interested in crime. They are not interested in which party committed it ... After meeting people at Scotland Yard I would say anyone who has been involved in the selling of peerages should be shaking in their shoes."

Angus MacNeil 20/4/07: "When I lodged the complaint, it was said that the police would turn a blind eye, but what we have had is a meticulous investigation."

Angus MacNeil 23/7/07: Scottish National Party MP Angus MacNeil, whose complaint triggered the investigation, last night predicted that the next few weeks would be "extremely interesting" because Mr Yates had promised that full details of the police inquiry would be provided to the House of Commons Public Administration Committee.

Tony Wright 23/10/07: According to Mr Wright, Yates always had far too little evidence to go on: "You had a letter from an SNP MP [Angus MacNeil] and you had some press cuttings."

Guardian 24/10/07: Mr Yates claimed at one point that the lack of cooperation may have not been deliberate, but stemmed from a belief in parts of No 10 that his inquiry was a political rather than criminal problem.

And after 16 months and £1m in costs, what do we have? Nothing. Nada. Nul Points. A damp squib. Everyone exonerated, except the poor Plod who is being lambasted for not catching anyone - when everyone knew what was going on. And being excoriated for having the temerity to investigate politicians and being part of a 'party political' investigation.

The end result is even more disillusionment with the entire process, and politicians who believe that they won't be held to account for their sins.

The winners are those on the inside - in every party - and we, the public, are the losers.

An "English Grand Committee"

The Tories have been backed into a political corner over the 'English vote on English matters' debate, and it is not a pretty place they find themselves.

Personally, I'm all for it on every level as it is 'unfinished business', as so much that Tony Blair started, he never had the intelligence, political insight or drive to actually finish. A man driven by the next day's headlines, he proposed and tried to implement so many half-arsed ideas that sounded good and got middle-England cheering, but which were never able to be completed, or were abandoned before starting. Remember 'Marching offenders to cash-machines', anyone?

Anyway, Sir Malkie has done a fine job of pandering to the Daily Mail readers (and I mean that in as disparaging a manner as is humanly possible) whilst dressing it up as some kind of answer to the West Lothian question.

In practice, as any fule kno, it is the inevitable consequence of devolution and the inevitable next step before the UK dissolves.

IIRC, Brian Wilson campaigned against devolution citing this as the probable outcome. Which persuaded the rest of us to campaign even harder.

I love the prospect of having different classes of MPs, with presumably some debates and votes open to English and Welsh MPs whilst others will be for the English only, and presumably some for the Scots or the Welsh alone. As most members have little idea what to do unless instructed by the Whips, I forecast.

No-one seems to know where the Northern Ireland MPs fit in all of this. Probably everyone is trying to ignore them as usual, but no doubt there will be the usual 'special arrangements' involving Sinn Fein and the DUP screwing an enormous number of concessions, or they will threaten to return to the Chamber.

10 hours

That's how long our little daughter slept for last night, and we all feel the better for the first night of uninterrupted sleep in three months. After a Saturday night out together, having her sleeping until 9:30am (or 8:30 after the clock changes) was blissful. Goodbye crib - hello cot, in her own room.

It's been a very successful - if stressy week, and with another significant client win for the business providing the icing on the cake. Our international operations are now forming a significant element of the business, much to our very pleasant surprise, and we just need to arrange a visit to some of the more exotic locations.

We've booked a late winter sun holiday for ourselves, as we were unable to get away this summer, and the prospect of some hot sun and being pampered in just a few weeks is keeping us going.

Risk transfer

I am all for the use of the private sector in delivering Comhairle services, where there is a real transfer of risk to the private sector, as it give the public sector a degree of certainty about the future commitments.

It is also A Good Thing to ensure clarity and openness in the presentation of information to the public. I was therefore delighted to see the following statement on the Comhairle's website:

Great care has been taken in the creation of this website and attempts made to present and maintain accurate and up-to-date information, however inaccuracies may occasionally occur.To err is human, to forgive divine. And none of us are perfect.

I am also fully supportive of risk mitigation, but I do understand that such a transfer usually requires both parties to agree, so the next sentence seems to imply that some kind of deal has been done:

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC) will not be held responsible for any loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of any inaccuracy or error within its website pages. If you discover any information on our pages that you believe to be inaccurate or inappropriate, please notify the Webmaster.

So either the service has been contracted out to the West Bromwich, or there has been some plagarism happening. I favour the later, given the 'mailto' links are to the Webmaster at Sandwell.

Perhaps this is why planning applications seem to take so long......

Sunday ferries

I came across this article (or a version thereof) in "The Scots Magazine"* and having found the original on-line - about 2/3 of the way down the page - I thought it worth posting, for comments and observations:

On 7.20 a.m. on Monday, the 1st. April 1901, the first ever Mallaig to Glasgow train left Mallaig Station, carrying on board passengers from the steamers Clydesdale from Lewis and Lovedale from Skye.

The Clydesdale had sailed overnight from Stornoway with the first through ticket holders booked from Lewis to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and they would reach their destination within twelve hours.

Which begs the question of when Sunday sailings from Lewis STOPPED.

Any visitor to the Transport Museum in Glasgow can find a ticket booth in between two railway engines which has a timetable for connections between London and Stornoway (amongst other places) from the 1930's showing the ferry leaving on Sunday morning to connect with the overnight sleeper to London; presumably so that the Lords and Ladies could finish their hunting, fishing and shooting and be back in the Courts, House of Lords or at work in London on Monday morning.

When I mentioned this in the Council Chamber in a discussion about Sunday travel, no-one would admit this ever happened, but nor could they deny the evidence of my own eyes. That was fun.

* The Scots Magazine is found (only) in hospital waiting areas, doctors surgeries, the homes of elderly aunts and ex-pat emigrants from the 1950's. It advertises support stockings, Kenneth McKellar's Greatest Hits and the dolls with big skirts that sit over toilet rolls. Inevitably it is published by DC Thompson.

Goodbye Sir John Bourn....

....the free-spending Comptroller and Auditor General at the National Audit Office has announced that he is to stand down in January, to spend more time with his wife. At home, instead of taking her jetting around the world to attend spurious meetings on 'behalf' of the UK Government.

According to this week's Private Eye, he hasn't found the need to have any 'business lunches', 'business dinners' or other entertainment since the details of his expenses were published.

Funny that.

Less funny is that he has been lunching with and entertained by, and on freebies with, those whom he is supposed to be investigating and controlling.

Health Board deficit

According to the Stornoway Gazette, and as I predicted:

Western Isles Health Board has suffered further losses as it was forced to throw out its deficit recovery plan today (Thursday).

Aiming to recover £800,000 from the £2,484million debt over the last year, the Health Board have instead predicted that by the end of 2007 they will have lost a further £243,000, throwing them a whopping million pounds off their "far too optimistic" savings plan leading to an accumulated deficit of £3.363million.

It is expected that the Board will be told that it must reign in expenditure in two main areas; the use of medical locums and prescribing and that in a revised plan for 2007/8 it must at least aim to break even in a bid to plug the financial drain.

And the result of this is going to be the loss of control of the service to Highland Health Board.

RET (again!)

Good to see that progress on RET is happening - and I suspect that this is largely due to the influence of Donald Manford, Chair of Transportation.

He expects the RET pilot to happen next Summer, which would be excellent news, but to make sense it needs to cover a long period and to cover the busy and the quiet times, and to see the impact on other routes.

And it will preclude a Sunday ferry.

Two cheers for the Government, and three for Mr Manford.

Crofting reform

The news that Brian Wilson has called for the break up of the Crofters Commission and the devolution of decision making to the local communities, fills me with a mixture of dread and despair, with just a smidgen of support.

It is really no surprise that Brian is making this statement, when one considers the Stòras Uibhist submission to the Shucksmith Inquiry into crofting, which I have seen in full.

One section of the submission reads as follows (my emphasis):-
Community ownership of the land is tied to Community Self Determination and to Community Development. Consequently, Stòras Uibhist believes that powers over land use arrangements should be given to democratically accountable community companies. Community land owners should be given powers to veto the purchase of crofts on land owned by them, to veto the sale of croft tenancies, and to decide the appropriateness of croft assignations. They should be given the powers to develop crofting for the benefit of crofter. They should be given powers over the effective administration of township common lands and should be given powers to decide the effective use of common lands for community benefit. Likewise, they should be given powers over crofter diversification to enable crofters to enter the tourism market.

It's almost like Brian Wilson has written (or at least had a major influence on) the Stòras Uibhist submission.

Now, I like the idea of devolving the power downwards; and I think that the Crofters Commission needs major reform, as it seems that nobody is happy with the current set-up. That's the end of the good news.

Basically, the Stòras Uibhist submission seeks the power to decide who can live in a crofting community, who can sell and buy a house, and who can transfer a croft. I wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of whoever held control of the Board of such a community organisation, as they could destroy your entire livelihood.

Unanswered is the question of how far down the chain such decentralisation should be, and the extent of any powers that are transferred. Should the Grazings Committee in each village have similar powers of veto? Should the Grazings Committee and the landlord have to agree on any veto? Should everyone in the village or everyone in the area controlled by the Community Company have a vote on any veto?

If the Stòras Uibhist submission were adopted, then you have swapped one controlling landlord for another, and given the numerous conflicts of interest and personality issues that arise in any small community, giving such power to Stòras Uibhist (or any other similar body) is a recipe for conflict.

There requires to be a body with a wider remit to oversee the whole system; there requires to be greater control over absentee crofters; there requires to be restrictions on the speculative sale of crofts; yet, the crofters need to be able to profit from their efforts on the land.

I don't have the answers, but I do know when something just smells wrong.

Weaning

Our daughter is ready to be weaned and as a result I have been tasked with the preparation of the food. Thankfully, it is one of my areas of ability in the parenting field and I have peeled, boiled, pureed and put fresh apples into tiny, little containers.

The baby rice has been on the menu for the past week, and it has gone down quite well, but unfortunately the transition to apple has been less successful, perhaps as it comes out rather tart at the end of the process. Why, I don't know, but no doubt some nutritionist will explain.

Second choice was carrot, and two large ones were peeled, diced and boiled before the hand blender came into action and the resultant mash was placed into the tiny boxes, which are probably 1.5 inches cubed, hence the picture.

However, pureed carrot has the tendency to stain badly and irredeemably, so daughter has to be fed carefully and with a bib, a cloth to catch splashes, something to wipe child, chair, clothes and parents and at least four hands to manage everything. Like her biggest brother, carrots are much appreciated, and are going down a treat, so I am scouring through the recipe books for the next exciting (!) mush to prepare.

An end to right-to-buy?

Speculation is running rife that the Government are due to announce an end to the right-to-buy Council and Housing Association properties.

Quite right too. It has resulted in public subsidies to allow the less well-off to get a first step on the property ladder into a public subsidy for the buy-to-let market.

Too many people have made a nice profit on their properties (which I'm not begrudging), but instead of this being reinvested into new houses by the Housing Associations it has funded a property price boom, with some children being encouraged to get onto the lists for new houses just so the parents can fund the purchase of the property and reap the expected gain.

The number of ex-HA properties in Stornoway that are rented out illustrates the scale of the problem and the abuse that has happened.

All in all it promises to be a major step forward, as long as it is allied with additional funding to provide the means to deliver all the aims.

8pm

It's not labelling on bottles of plonk that the Government requires to take action on, but warnings when the BBC or ITV are about to broadcast the same 'Sun shines out of Jonny Wilkinson's arse' story from the same location with the same journalist making the same vacuous statements. It appears to be on constant replay every 15 minutes, interrupted only by news headlines from Paris about the Rugby.

It's enough to drive you to drink.

Or at least for us to go out for dinner to avoid the gratuitous rubbish being spouted by the media.

As I don't have Sky, I can't go for the option of taking the pictures from another station and not have to listen to the sycophants.

May the best team win, and they better or we'll never hear the end of it.

Seven charged over 'voting fraud'

According to the BBC, Each of the men has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the returning officer.

Now move onto the 646 MPs who have conspired to defraud the voters....

Immoderate drinking

The joyous news that the Scottish Government have nothing better to do than to demand compulsory labelling on all alcoholic products so that drinkers 'know how many units' are in each drink/bottle/can may lead to better informed drinkers.

But only in the sense that the dawn patrol, students and under-agers (especially under-agers) will be hunting out those drinks that have the maximum units per £.

It's one of these campaign that no-one is against - publicly - but one that deserves the appropriate amount of abuse for it's sheer banality and it's ability to distract from the real issues.

As drinks labelling is a reserved power, unless Westminster decide to do something, then nothing can happen. As the sole purpose is to ensure safe drinking (for which read 'reduce sales of alcoholic drinks') I don't see the big drink companies voluntarily labelling one set of cans for lager for delivery to Scotland and having a different set of cans for England, whilst their competitors ship the supplies direct from the continent or even England, label free.

Buckfast with a label saying 'This gets you blootered, fast, pal'?

As most of the drunks I see in Stornoway are coming out of pubs, are the pumps and optics to be labelled? If I ask for a Black Russian, am I going to get a label telling me the number of units the bartender has just put into my glass? Are we going to see bottles of Champagne with the number of units detailed?

The hell we are.

The target is clearly the pile-them-high sell-them-cheap customers, and not the civilised drinkers like you, me and all politicians.

But no-one is asking the real question, which is 'Why do people drink to excess?' No attempt to reduce poverty; no initiative to provide alternative facilities for youngsters; no thoughts about restricting advertising.

Any serious policy - as opposed to a cheap headline - would start by banning alcohol advertising in and around sporting activities and force Rangers and Celtic to find other sponsors.

And there lies the rub.

Difficult decisions require you to upset some people; and until you do, you never achieve anything.

Overworked politicians

Just when you thought they couldn't work any harder, Harriet Harperson - the Mary Poppins of the Commons - blows in from goodness knows where she normally hides away to announce that she has sprinkled the masses with fairy dust. Perhaps that is Peter Pan which ruins the analogy, but as we are talking mysterious events without a basis in reality accuracy is not at a premium on a Friday night.

The announcement?: that the underemployed are to get an extra four days holiday next year, bringing their holidays up to an exceptional 18 weeks a year. Bastards. The justifciation? According to the BBC:

Variations in the number of Fridays when the Commons is open for business mean it is likely that MPs will sit for a greater number of days in 2007-8 than in the previous 12-month period.

Last time I looked there was only one Friday each week, but bugger me if it all makes sense. More Fridays next year means more days at work and more days on holidays and still only 366 days in the year which just explains why I am a mere mortal and not an MP. Still, with a final salary pension of 1/40 of annual salary for each year served (plus a top up on loss of seat), the job obviously requires a certain dedication to greed that is missing in mere mortals.

As MSPs try to bring their pension arrangements up to the level enjoyed by MPs to ensure that any lost allowances, scams and missed mortgage payments are duly reimbursed. The public can show their appreciation that their elected representatives have got the right priorities by emailing them, although you should be aware that sweary words probably won't get through the filters on the email servers