The Flag in the Wind
A weekly online newspaper bringing you information on the political scene in Scotland: part of the monthly Scots Independent.

Home | About Us | Subscriptions | Archives | SNP | Ad Rates | Features | Adverts | Events | Links

CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
"Promoting all that is best in Scottish Nationalism and all that is best in Scotland."

Features:  Scots Language  |  Scottish Food, Traditions and Customs  |  Notable Dates in History
Rebel Ceilidh Song Book  |  Sing A Sang At Least  | Tartan Day, April 6th, USA & Canada


Compiled by Jim Lynch
[Issue 91 - 1st March 2002]

We have now had three years of a devolved Parliament and the people did not vote for a Parliament which would allow Westminster to cut our share of health funding, condemn one third of Scottish children to live in poverty, see manufacturing fall nine months in a row, and allow Westminster to foist unwanted nuclear power stations on Scotland.

Devolution is not meeting the expectations of the Scottish people and it is obvious that this is a job half done.

The Scottish National Party is raising the debate; Scotland needs more power, and if there was a Tory government in Westminster the Labour Party would be calling for this as well; the SNP will make the running, as the Labour Party will not.

The campaign will be launched at the SNP National Council on 2nd March 2002.

Fraternal greetings to the people of Wales on their Patron Saint’s Day, 1st March; St David (or Dewi Sant as he is known in Welsh) is one of the old Celtic Saints. It is indeterminate as to exactly when he lived, dates vary between 454AD to 600AD, and in these days the term "saint" meant a holy person, a pious church founder or a learned ecclesiastic; that he was more than that is evident in that he is the only one to be canonised by the Vatican. He lived an austere life, eating only one meal a day, and by the 9th century he had gained the name Aquaticus (long after his death, of course), as he and the monks of his establishment drank only water; he founded or restored 12 monasteries, including Glastonbury, Bath and Leominster. According to one legend, during a battle against the Saxons, David ordered his men to wear leeks in their hats to distinguish them from their enemies, and this explains why the leek is one of the emblems of Wales.

He was officially recognised as a saint by Pope Callistus in 1120, and he was declared patron saint of Wales with a feast day of 1st March; in 1398 it was decreed that the day was to be a religious festival which would be kept by every church in the province of Canterbury, a tradition which was ended with the Reformation in the 16th century. During the 18th century St David’s Day became a Welsh national festival, something that we Scots have not as yet done for St Andrew’s Day. Interesting that of the four patron saints of the United Kingdom, St Andrew of Scotland, St David of Wales, St Patrick of Ireland and St George of England, only the last one has been booted off the Calendar of Saints, as there is doubt as to whether he even existed!

AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY

The 1st March is also remembered with bitterness in Scotland as on that day in 1979 the people voted in a referendum for a Parliament, only to be cheated by a rule put in at Westminster by a renegade Scotsman; George Cunningham, a Scot, and the Labour MP for Islington, put in an amendment that the result of the referendum would only be valid if 40% of the Scottish electorate voted for it. Note the phrase "40% of the electorate", as this meant that people who did not vote were counted as having voted "No"; Sir Alex Douglas Home of the Tories also urged people to abstain or vote "No" as the Tories would produce a better Scottish Parliament. We got Margaret Thatcher! To put the 40% rule into perspective, in New Labour’s triumph in 2001, they received 40.7% of the votes cast, but with a poll of only 59.4%, this meant that they only got 24% of the electorate, so by the Cunningham rule should not have formed a government. Mr Cunningham betrayed by his country by proposing the 40% rule, and then his party, as he later left them to join the Social Democratic Party; truly a man who put country before party, if only in betrayal.

* The nine of diamonds is known as "The Curse of Scotland". It has been alleged that Cumberland scribbled the order "No quarter" on this after Culloden, or that it was used to cryptically authorise the Massacre of Glencoe; it does resemble the arms of the Earl of Stair.

DOES BRONZE BEAT GOLD?

First it was Simon Barnes of the Times who described them as "looking like the wives of electricians", whatever that is supposed to mean (Mr Barnes has a ponytail and wears sarongs!); when the team had a setback, BBC’s Olympic Grandstand link man, Steve Rider commented that a British success was turning into a Scottish failure. This is a well known English denigration tactic, British when they’re winning, Scottish when they’re losing; the official Olympic Website made things even worse when the team beat Canada, when they headlined it "England Stuns Favored Canada."

But now they have won, they are Olympic Gold Medallists, and the adulation is being heaped upon them from all sides; the final attracted 5.6 million viewers,(85% of them English) even more that the Rangers v Feyenoord football match the same evening, and a record for that time of night. (No, I didn’t watch either of the programmes.) While curling is not all that popular in Scotland, only 15000 take part, in Canada 1.2 million play the game; the Scottish triumph is all the more startling as we have a much smaller base to choose from. So, many, many congratulations to Rhona Martin, Janice Rankin, Debbie Knox, Fiona MacDonald and Maggie Morton; Scotland is justly proud of you. And it was great that the First Minister, Jack McConnell, was there to greet them when they landed at Glasgow Airport; to those who would criticise him for trying to get some reflected glory, I would say "What would you have said if he had ignored them?" (All right, that’s the only nice thing I’ll say about him.)

The press was much more ecstatic about Alain Baxter, "the Highlander", who achieved a Bronze Medal in the slalom, as this was the first British medal on snow in the Winter Olympics for 78 years; it would have been longer but the Games did not start until 1924! I owe this comment to an article in the Los Angeles, kindly emailed to me by Bill Kraines of Hollywood CA ( this is Hollywood, California, not Hollywood Constituency Association, to those who think we have spread our wings a bit far.) The Los Angeles Times highlighted (no pun intended) the case of Alain Baxter’s hair dyed as a Saltire, and the action of the British Olympic Committee in getting him to dye it out, as we covered last week; it also pointed out that Alain had outskied Norway’s double gold medallist, Kjetil Andre Aamodt, all the Austrians and the US double silver medallist, Bode Miller. It was apparently noticeable that when he finished his medal winning run, the saltire was visible to the world television audience. (No I didn’t see that either, but I saw it on TV when he arrived at Edinburgh Airport.)

ANDREW THE MAGNANIMOUS

Andrew has dared to suggest, in a Sunday newspaper, on television, and in an article in the Scotsman, that in this year’s World Cup we should support England! Shock, horror, dismay... is the man mad? It may seem like that at first and the Tartan Army is aghast, but there is an element of logic in what he has to say. (There’s always logic with Andrew; even when he wrote to Jack McConnell asking him to go easy on Wendy Alexander, there was logic, and it wasn’t to help Wendy Alexander!)

It is true that a lot of Scots blame all our problems on the English, and that this can be a very convenient cop out for all of our failures, and the point that Andrew was making was that we were in this situation through our own fault, and using the English as a scapegoat should no longer be an option. Winnie Ewing said, many years ago, that "The enemy is on this side of the Border"; they are the members of the London based parties who place their own political advancement ahead of the well being of their country, Scotland, and they are the ones we have to beat. I can recall many years ago being castigated about "narrow nationalism" by a colleague; when the guy’s brother in law tried to enter the conversation, he was told by my colleague " " Push off, this has nothing to do with you, you’re an "expletive deleted" Englishman!"" He then carried on his tirade against Scottish nationalism, completely unaware of what he had said.

To a degree, what Andrew is saying is much what Jim Sillars said in 1992; the Scots are 90 minute nationalists, and when the game is over, they put the flags back in their

pockets. If you want to see this land prosper, then you have to take charge of your own affairs, and not let someone else make all the decisions for you, for as sure as the sun rises the decisions will be made in their favour, and not yours. The idea is that Scotland should be a good neighbour to England, rather than a surly lodger, and speed that day.

It is also a fact that people in England do not understand the Scottish attitude to them, where sport is concerned, but that is always the case where the majority rules; they cannot comprehend the resentment which is directed towards them, and do not pick up on the patronising comments of their sports commentators( see previous article) so it is a mystery to them. In every international football match involving England there has been and will be a mention of England’s World Cup win in 1966, and while English supporters will not even notice this, it is a tad wearisome to have this still being shoved down our throats 36 years after the event.

I accept and sympathise with Andrew’s point of view, and I would like to think I would be noble enough to follow it, but I know myself better than that; I might watch some of the World Cup, as I would be able to watch the football without getting all screwed up about the result, but I could not bring myself to give England whole hearted support, depending on who they were playing. On the other hand, if I thought that England winning would irritate enough Scots to make them vote SNP.........well! Or as Gordon Wilson, former National Convener of the SNP put it "When Scotland are playing, whoever they are playing, we support Scotland. When England are playing, whoever they are playing, we support the police!"

THE PERCENTAGE GAME

normally at SNP Conferences, policies are passed by number of votes for and against, but at the Labour one we were given percentages. Maybe this is always what happens, just that I haven’t noticed it before; anyway the policy was passed but by something like "For 58.69% - Against 41.31%". These are not the precise figures, but the actual figures were to two decimal places, so you get the drift. This must be because the voters are not there, and the percentage hides that fact; just a few weeks ago a Labour branch in Glenrothes voted 66% to 33% to deselect Henry McLeish, concealing the fact that there were only three people at the meeting ! Maybe the Perth votes were cast on the basis of constituency parties and trade unions, most of the latter having no say at all in the decision making.

The policy which was passed, the flagship of the First Minister, Jack McConnell, was bitterly opposed by the trade unions; it provided for more PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects, which means more privatisation and jobs at risk in the Health Service, in schools, in local government and in the prison service. This policy was expected to fail, as the unions had agreed to fight it, but one union, Amicus, broke ranks and voted with the Executive; another union, USDAW, abstained, so Mr McConnell emerged triumphant, for the moment. The interesting point about Amicus, is that it is the engineering union, and that it will have no members working in the public sector whose jobs will be at risk; USDAW is the union for shopworkers, traditionally low paid, but none of them at risk from privatisation.

A lot of sabre rattling from the unions, with veiled threats of withdrawing funds; according to some reports, unions are even thinking about lending their support to other political parties who might be more sympathetic to their members fears. We do not think that the Tories will be on the list of possible recipients, as their policies are synonomous with those of Labour, but in England the Liberals are sniffing the air; in Scotland and Wales, of course, there are nationalist parties which are much more socially conscientious than New Labour, so the SNP and Plaid Cymru might, just might, benefit. One thing we can be sure of; if that happens, the political levy, long regarded as a donation to the Labour Party, will suddenly be reformed; at present, every trade union member has to pay a political levy along with their union subscription, and this can only be changed after a long and detailed rigmarole, not least because union branch secretaries lose paperwork, are awaiting a response, do not return phone calls or reply to letters, or many of the thousand and one delaying tactics they are adept at. The political levy will become something you have to opt into and not out of, mark my words.

The Blessed Tony appeared at Perth, but seemed to be a bit bemused; he was walloping into the Tories, when his autocue said "Hey Tony, you’re in Scotland", so he changed tack and said "Oh, SNP? Right, I’ll spend some time attacking them, as they are not a threat at all", or words to that effect, and we got lambasted. Or, as we often think, if we’re not a threat, why don’t you just ignore us? We are a threat, and the Blessed Tony was attacking us for our refusal to go along with his "modernising" which means privatising, and completely oblivious to the fact that he was attacking the view of most of his audience, or their "unspoken" opinion, as they are all feart; principle is a great thing as the Labour supporters talk in the pub, but it doesn’t make the Conference floor. Even the much publicised "revolt" by former Ministers was at best vague, and at worst non-existent; I watched both Angus Mackay and Susan Deacon being interviewed, but the message must have been obscurely coded, because it meant nothing

The First Minister won the day, and he has a new catch phrase; he keeps talking about the "opportunity gap", whatever that might be. I think it must be what he thinks he’ll get away with overlooking; he said he intended to do less, but better, which reminded me of a security man I worked beside, who used to claim "I do very little, but I do it very well." He was half right.

UNCLEAR NUCLEAR

Mr Foulkes says that planning powers for nuclear power stations in Scotland lie with the Westminster Parliament; Mr Wilson says that planning powers for nuclear power stations in Scotland lie with the Scottish Parliament. Wherever the planning powers lie, one of these two is, but which one?

Alex Salmond MP has written to the Blessed Tony pointing out the totally contradictory statements from two of his Ministers, and asking him for guidance; fat chance of Tony committing himself to anything. He’s too busy putting distance between himself and Stephen Byers, the English Transport Secretary, and his spin casualties to worry about about anything so trivial as a nuclear power station "in a far off land of which we know little". What we suspect is that if push comes to shove, and England needs more electricity then we will have a nuclear power station foisted on us whether we like it or not; the matter may appear to be relatively straightforward if it is a New Labour government in Westminster and their lickspittles in the Scottish Parliament. Try the same with a SNP administration in Scotland, and New Labour at Westminster, or even with a New Labour administration in Scotland and a Tory/Liberal coalition in Westminster; things change, or as my old auntie used to say with a knowing nod "Circumstances alter cases."

FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

What is that old saying about rats and sinking ships?

A recent opinion survey among 3 - 11 year old children discovered they did not approve of smacking.

Well, shut ma mouth!

Group 4 who are responsible for Yarls Wood detention centre which was set on fire earlier this month is going to sue the local police for £43 million; apparently under the 1886 Riot Damages Act, police are liable if they can prove rioters started the fire.

Despite warning from the fire brigade, Group 4 did not fit sprinklers; let’s hope that they can be charged with negligence, and fined £50 million.

The Boston Tea Party was because of "Taxation without representation"; the Westminster Tea Party just got it mixed up.

Michael Ashcroft, former Treasurer (and treasure) of the Tory Party, was made a Lord on the condition that he spend some time in the Disunited Kingdom; he made his maiden speech in the Lords 14 months ago, but has not been heard of since.

Well, the government are boasting that they have reformed the House of Lords, and the Tories still have a massive overdraft; are we missing something?

The government plan is to get people off the roads and on to public transport; this is being masterminded in England and Wales by Stephen Byers, and in Scotland by Wendy Alexander, we think.

New car sales for February are 21% up on last February, which was also a record. A different connotation on the word "spin" is needed by the politicians.

Is today 1st March, or 1st April?

HOMELESSNESS INCREASING UNDER LABOUR

Kenneth Gibson today accused the Labour Government of presiding over a forty per cent rise in the number of families living in B&Bs across Scotland since they came to power. The Shadow Social Justice Minister was commenting on the Scottish Executive's announcement that they intend to end homelessness by 2012. "This is a damning indictment of the Executive's failure to tackle homelessness and their pledge that homelessness will be eradicated will ring hollow to those families trapped in B&Bs," said Mr Gibson. Mr Gibson cited the withdrawal of benefits from sixteen and seventeen year olds as one of the most significant causes of homelessness amongst young people and said, "As benefits are reserved to Westminster the Scottish Executive will be fighting homelessness with one hand tied behind their back. We must therefore complete the powers of the Scottish Parliament if we are serious about eradicating homelessness across Scotland."

KENNY MacASKILL LAUNCHES SNP POST OFFICE CAMPAIGN

Shadow Communications Minister Kenny MacAskill today launched the SNP's new campaign to stop New Labour's plans to privatise Royal Mail and to keep postal services public. The campaign follows the mail industry regulator Postcomm's proposals to collect or deliver household mail by April 2006. Kenny said the plans undermined the whole concept of mail delivery as a public service and explained, "The SNP are campaigning to protect our postal services against New Labour privatisation and to provide a public service that benefits the whole community and not shareholders". Mr MacAskill said the privatisation plans could lead to the "irreversible damage of both rural and urban post services, an end to home deliveries, the price of a stamps rocketing, thousands of workers thrown on to the dole queue, and already threatened sub post offices disappear faster than ever". SNP Publicity Vice Convener Anne Dana who also attended the launch said, "SNP activists will be taking our 'SAY NO TO POSTAL PRIVATISATION' message across Scotland handing out leaflets and stickers, organising petitions, and raising public awareness of the situation.

WAITING LIST FIDDLE EXPOSED BY OFFICIAL PROBE

Senior NHS bosses believe up to 20,000 patients may have been removed from official waiting lists in an attempt by local trusts to meet government targets. They claim trust managers are massaging the figures following pressure from ministers to keep waiting lists down. John Swinney, the SNP leader, who has raised the issue of waiting-list figures in the Scottish Parliament on several occasions, said: There is anecdotal evidence in different parts of the country that reclassification has been used as a device to make waiting lists look better." Mr Swinney today demanded that an investigation by the auditor-general for Scotland, ordered in December, be broadened to include "reclassified" lists. Audit Scotland is due to start its review within the next week and will present its report to the Parliament by June. The North Tayside MSP added: "Labour has been caught fiddling the waiting list figures yet again. Instead of working to treat more patients more quickly, Labour ministers are concentrating on fiddling the figures and hiding the true state of the health service from the public."

LABOUR DONORS USE TAX LOOPHOLE TO SAVE MILLIONS

Nine of Labour's biggest donors are benefiting from a lucrative tax loophole that Gordon Brown, the chancellor, repeatedly promised to close. One third of the election cash raised by Labour in the first six months of last year came from foreign-born donors who are able to exploit the loophole. These latest claims come after another week dominated by sleaze and government disarray over its manipulation of the news. SNP deputy leader Roseanna Cunningham claimed the loss to the Treasury from the loophole was equivalent to 2.5p on the basic rate of income tax. She said: "It says a lot about New Labour when it is prepared to leave in place a tax loophole for its pals which costs the same as the amount of extra tax that ministers want to raise to pay for the National Health Service." Meanwhile the debate over the use of private money in public projects is set to rumble on as delegates head home from Labour's Scottish conference. Union opposition to the use of private finance for public schemes dominated the event and tensions continued today when the conference called for postal service Consignia not to be privatised. SNP leader John Swinney again dismissed private finance schemes as "bad economics". "The public pay more, get less, and end up owning nothing," he said.

MINISTERS TO U-TURN ON EMERGENCY SQA FUNDS

Ministers are expected to backtrack on a decision to refuse the Scottish Qualifications Agency emergency funding this year. The quango was told it must become self-financing by matching its expenses to the income it receives for every exam candidate, but it is understood the SQA cannot achieve that position this year and so faces a potential cash deficit without government aid. Mike Russell, the SNP's shadow education minister, said the SQA should not seek money until its recovery was complete. He said: "They have to have a solid reputation of delivery before they could even consider changing the charging structure. One year is not a solid record of delivery."

SCOTS HOSPITALS MAY DRAFT IN FOREIGN STAFF

The NHS in Scotland is considering hiring foreign doctors to perform additional operations to cut waiting lists, press reports suggest. It comes at a time when both Westminster and the Scottish executive are looking both to the private sector and overseas for solutions to the problem of lengthy waiting times for NHS operations. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP's shadow health minister, today welcomed the move. She said: "For months, I have been calling on the Scottish Executive to look at this and asking the health minister to put in place a package to entice foreign doctors here. Until such time as more doctors emerge from training here, we need to fill the shortfall by hiring more doctors from overseas. It is time for Labour ministers to stop talking and to start taking action."

RICHARD LOCHHEAD ATTACKS SECRECY OVER BEAR'S ROAD MAINTENANCE RECORD

North-east MSP Richard Lochhead has attacked Government secrecy. It follows the Executive's refusal to disclose details of an investigation into how BEAR Scotland was maintaining trunk roads in the Tayside and the North-east. Ministers told the SNP MSP that details of the audit of BEAR's performance was not considered "appropriate for circulation". "Given the number of complaints from travellers in the North-east about BEAR's performance over the winter, it is only right that we see the details of how they have measured up to their obligations," Mr Lochhead said. "To claim that the reports contain material that isn't appropriate for circulation is simply a cop-out. We need to know if BEAR are up to the job that they are being paid by the taxpayer to do. I will be pursuing this matter until the Government comes clean and tells us the full story on this matter."