UNACCUSTOMED AS WE ARE

At present, the Government, which is really us, are losing hundreds of millions of pounds in excise duty every year, a situation reported by Richard Broadbent, Chairman of Customs and Excise to Dawn Primarolo, the Paymaster General. Customs and Excise officers in Scotland will remember Ms Primarolo; she came to Glasgow in 1996 to back their protests against the cuts by the nasty Tories, describing them as "crazy". Her department is now going to close the only Customs and Excise office left in Scotland, leaving all intelligence gathering to be done in Kent.

Roseanna Cunningham, MSP, MP, SNP, of course, has written to Jack Straw, the speedy Home Secretary, and to Jim Wallace, the Scottish Justice Minister (Who hasn’t been caught speeding in his ministerial Mondeo yet) to protest at the lunacy of closing the only Scottish Customs Office. She pointed out that Customs Officers in Scotland must operate under Scots Law, and that activities in Scotland must be controlled by people who are familiar with the territory; delays in reporting and support would put Customs Officers at risk.

Next month there will be a blitz on tobacco smugglers, who are responsible for evading Customs duty of around £2500 million a year; in Scotland a lot of this occurs at Glasgow Airport. In fact one would imagine that more resources are needed to find some way to stop the flood of drugs pouring into Scotland, with one third of the land mass of the United Kingdom, and a longer coastline than France, why is the reverse the case?

Customs and Excise affairs are among the matters reserved to the Westminster Parliament, and it is significant that this latest cut emerged when they are on holiday and cannot be questionned; it is also significant that no New Labour MSPs are asking questions, not even Lord Watson, but he only objected when he was a Labour MP in opposition. Nowadays, he is more concerned about foxes than drugs.

SAM THE SURVIVOR - SO FAR

Well it had to happen; the Tories had to find some way of intervening in the SQA debacle, their idea in the first place, and the SNP leadership contest, so they copied Wee Wendy’s model of CPI (Crass Political Ineptitude) by trying to cobble up a motion of no confidence in Sam Galbraith. Nicola Sturgeon refused to go along with it, and John Swinney backed her. The bold David McLetchie then attempted to get Alex Neil to sign his motion, as he is contesting the SNP leadership against John Swinney. Just how Mr McLetchie thought that ganging up with the Tories against fellow members of the SNP would help Alex Neil’s chance of being elected leader is a mystery, or perhaps explains why the Tories are in such a mess. Alex Neil gracefully declined, probably without using expletives.

As a part of the same ploy, Elizabeth J Smith of Almondbank, Perth, in a letter in the Scotsman, praised the sensible members of the SNP, Alex Neil and Margo MacDonald," who have both expressed the sentiment that it is the duty of every opposition MSP to ask Mr Galbraith to resign."

This conveniently ignored the fact that the SNP had asked Mr Galbraith to resign anyway, but were not prepared to support a motion of no confidence which they would lose. The Herald printed the same letter, but from Elizabeth J Smith, Perth Conservative and Unionist Association, Almondbank, Perth; probably the Scotsman just saving space.

While both the Scotsman and the Herald accused the opposition of being in disarray over the issue, with the Scotsman blaming the SNP, the Sunday Post classed the motion as a Tory blunder which let Mr Galbraith off the hook.

What does not seem to have dawned on the Tories is that Labour and the Liberals would all support Mr Galbraith, and the motion of no confidence thus defeated then becomes Parliamentary approval for Mr Galbraith’s conduct. The SNP stance was vindicated when Lord James Douglas Hamilton, business manager for the Tories, supported by Mike Russell, business manager for the SNP, quite properly requested a half day debate on the Exam fiasco when Parliament re-opens; the Lab-Lib majority on the Parliament’s business bureau threw this out.

QUIS CUSTODIET QUANGOS?

The Scottish Qualifications Authority is a Quango, appointed by Raymond Robertson, and re appointed by Donald Dewar, but so far the Board Members are invisible. As commented last week, David Miller is the Chairman of the Board, but apart from a brief reference to Ann Hill, no other names have surfaced. In his column, Frank Gilfeather of the Herald, noted that when Raymond Robertson claimed on the programme "Failing the Test" that he had attended Board Meetings, a former Board Member said he had never seen him there. Frank Gilfeather’s ears were keener than mine, as Mr Robertson apparently muttered "I went for lunch" It looks as if all the Board Members are still at lunch. Where are they, who are they, what did they do, and while they may not have been paid, they must have cost us something; well, we know they went to lunch.

 

OLD HABITS DIE HARD

Only last week, Mr Charles Millar, former building operations manager with North Lanarkshire Council, lost his claim for unfair dismissal; Mr Millar was with the Council’s DLO, which ran up losses of £7 million in 1998, and the upshot was that hundreds of jobs were lost and the DLO transferred to private sector management. The employment tribunal also recognised that his ability to do the job had been hampered by the conduct of those above him, but his dismissal was fair.

Also last week, North Lanarkshire DLO, decided to spend £10000 on a route planner for its gritter drivers; this will identify priorities for gritting such as schools, hospitals and old peoples homes. This decision has incensed SNP Group Leader, Richard Lyle, who said "There are computer discs on the market for £40 or £50 which could do the job in seconds, not weeks". Councillor Lyle thought it might also be an idea to ask the gritter drivers, who were likely to know where the trouble spots were.

It looks as if North Lanarkshire privatised DLO has the same attitude to taxpayers’ money as its predecessor.

FINANCIALLY FAILING

Inverclyde Council has been declared as Scotland’s poorest performing local authority. The Council was created four years ago as a result of local government reorganisation. and was formerly a part of Strathclyde Region. The first year’s accounts needed 2500 adjustments and this resulted in a reduction in net assets of £49 million, not a lot if you say it quickly, and only taxpayers’ money, not like real money.

The Council could be forgiven for a bit of confusion, after all, they were formed by the Tories, who detested Strathclyde, which they also set up, and the reorganisation was to set all that right, but not enough resources were allocated. All these clever moves by the Tories to regain their lost votes didn’t work, but the taxpayers footed the bill for their joukerie pawkerie*. None the less, Inverclyde have now had four years to put things right (Or should it be left? Oh no, it’s New Labour, so right is the correct term). Anyway, they submitted late and poorly prepared accounts, there is delay in the audit due to the number of changes to the accounts, poor accounting systems and controls, and failure to achieve statutory financial targets.

They only implemented the action plan in July, fourteen months after the failings were highlighted; what is shocking is that no heads seem to be rolling, and that there is no clamour for heads to roll. The Secretary of State for Scotland went to town, obviously in vain, on North Lanarkshire, why did Donald Ceasar not do the same with Inverclyde?

* Joukerie pawkerie - Trickery.

ONLY THOSE AND SUCH AS THOSE

All this year we have been treated to tirades about asylum seekers, and it begins to look as if no asylum seekers at all will be allowed into the United Kingdom, and those who are here will be treated as second class citizens; no that would be an exaggeration, they will not be treated as well as that. Except for some----Pakistan’s military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf has sent the Home Office a list of 14 Pakistanis "Who have looted and plundered this poor country, and we thought we would get some assistance in getting them back, or at least getting some information on them" he said.

It would seem that the past decade in Pakistan was rife with corruption nepotism and greed, so the 14 individuals would feel quite at home in Britain, with the £2.6 billion they have taken. Foreign Office Minister, Peter Hain, said he was ready to help the General but that he would need a proper international arrest warrant, and that as Pakistan was currently ostracised , this would probably not be forthcoming.

Obviously well heeled asylum seekers are always welcome in Britain, for they will not be a drain on the state; they’ve already drained their own state.

AND WHAT’S YOUR MONICA?

The rather unedifying tale of the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Sir David Steel, and the girl in the Box Office, is causing him some embarrassment, and has so far appeared in the Diary column of the Scotsman, the letters page of that paper, and been picked up by the Herald as news. Sir David turned up at a Fringe show, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (That was the name of the show) on the wrong night and allegedly demanded to be allowed in. According to some reports he said "Do you know who I am?" (Shades of "Haw, Wullie, here’s a man wha disna ken wha he is ") but his wife denies this, but agrees that she was somewhat sharp with the Box Office girl, an American student, who was reduced to tears. The girl said later that Sir David was "The rudest person I have met" since arriving in Scotland.

Like the SQA, but not the Festival Fringe show, this one will run and run; Presiding Officers, like American Presidents, should beware of students called Monica, Gross in this case, not Lewinsky.

DATES IN HISTORY

3 September 1745
James Francis Stewart proclaimed as King James VIII of Scotland by his son, Prince Charles Edward at Perth.

5 September 1750
Birth of Robert Fergusson, poet, in the Canongate, Edinburgh. His poetry in Scots was to inspire Robert Burns who wrote in praise of Fergusson - "my elder brother in misfortune, by far my elder brother in the muse". Fergusson died tragically in the Edinburgh Bedlam in 1774.

8 September 1820
John Baird and Andrew Hardie were hung and beheaded for treason in Stirling. They led the Radicals at the Battle of Bonnymuir in April 1820. Nineteen others were transported to New South Wales.

"My suffering countrymen! I remain under the firm conviction that I die a Martry in the cause of Truth and Justice, and in the hope that you will soon succeed in the cause which I took up arms to defend"

- Andrew Hardie, August 1820.

THE REBELS CEILIDH SONG BOOK

TAY BOAT SONG
As sung by Margaret MacKay

Mighean ruaidh your golden hair,
Has more glamour I declare,
Than all the tresses rare
From Killin to Aberfeldy,
Be they lint-white, gold or brown,
Be they blacker than the sloe,
They are no more worth to me,
Than a melting flake of snow.
Hi Ho Ri, Hi Ho Ro.

Chorus:
When I've done my work of day,
And I row my boat away,
Down the waters of Loch Tay,
When the evening light is fading,
And I look upon Ben Lawers,
Where the after glory glows,
And I dream of two bright eyes,
And a merry mouth below,
Hi Ho Ri, Hi Ho Ro.

She's my beauteous nighean ruaidh,
She's my joy and sorrow too,
But I doubt she is not true,
Yet I cannot live without her,
But my heart's a boat in tow,
And I'd give the world to know,
If she means to me go,
As I sing Ho Ri, Ho Ro. Ho Ri, Ho Ro.

Chorus:

Your eyes are like the gleam
Of the sunlight on the stream,
Like fair songs it seems,
The songs they sing at milking,
But my heart is full of woe,
For last night she bade me go,
And the tears begin to flow,
As I sing Ho Ri, Ho Ro. Ho Ri, Ho Ro.

Chorus:

See the Songbook in our features section

AND AS WE CONTINUE.........

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THE FLAG IN THE WIND

The above was the title of a book written in the early Fifties by John MacDonald MacCormick, one of the founder members of the Scottish National Party in 1934. The sub-title was "The Story of the National Movement in Scotland". His comment in the book said "It is perhaps in the symbols which men use that their deepest sentiments are most readily expressed. Flags as well as straws show which way the wind is blowing". A fuller account appears under Features.

 

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