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February 28, 2005
West Lothian 'card'
Michael Howard is playing the ‘West Lothian’ card according to an article in the Scotsman by Fraser Nelson. The idea is to stop Scottish MPs voting on England-only legislation.
The Tories propose that the Speaker should decide which legislation does not concern Scottish MPs and bar them from debating or voting on it. However Tam Dalyell MP (Linlithgow Labour) who invented the so-called ‘West Lothian Question’, pointed out “I imagine the Speaker would be very reluctant to take on such a burden in such a grey area”. Quite so.
Surely a major reform of The British Parliament would be needed to deal with this problem? But is Westminster capable of reform? They have already failed to reform the House of Lords!
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=221952005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:14 PM | TrackBack
Attorney General's advice II
According to the Guardian, the government are now reviewing their decision not to release the Attorney General’s advice on the legality of the Iraq War. An announcement of some kind is expected on March 11 (see also February 24).
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1426842,00.html
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4296887.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:12 AM | TrackBack
Stirling County?
According to a newsletter from Anne McGuire MP and Sylvia Jackson MSP, the new name for the reorganized Stirling constituency (which now covers the same area as Stirling Council) is ‘Stirling County’.
However I can’t find any references to this new name. Is it correct?
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:55 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
February 27, 2005
Decline in language studies
It’s strange, the world is getting smaller, we communicate more, we travel more, we do more international business - and yet we are making less effort to study foreign languages.
The number of undergraduates studying foreign languages in Britain has fallen by 15 per cent in the last six years according to a study by the University Council of Modern Languages cited by the Guardian.
What are the reasons for this?
www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1424772,00.html?gusrc=rss
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:38 PM | TrackBack
February 26, 2005
German wind report
A new German report questions the economics of wind farms, suggesting we should all concentrate on making our homes energy efficient rather than building huge numbers of wind turbines.
Germany currently gets more than 10 per cent of its energy from renewable sources. More than 15,000 turbines have been built. Britain currently has about 1,000. Our target is to get 10 per cent of our energy from renewables by 2010.
www.guardian.co.uk/renewable/Story/0,2763,1425864,00.html?gusrc=rss
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:17 PM | TrackBack
Holyrood rejects ID cards
Holyrood have voted against ID cards with the SNP, the Conservatives and the Greens opposed, and the Liberal Democrats abstaining. The vote was 52 to 47.
The motion was: That the Parliament notes the Identity Cards Bill currently being considered by the Westminster Parliament; is concerned at the lack of time devoted to the scrutiny of this Bill, which has left important questions unanswered over how the identity card scheme will work in practice; believes the proposals to be flawed on political, technical and financial grounds; is concerned that the national identity card and database offer an ineffective response to problems of security and fraud and pose an unacceptable threat to civil liberties; notes that the current cost estimate for the scheme is £5.5 billion and that further escalation of this cost is expected; rejects the Prime Minister’s belief, stated on 1 December 2004 in the House of Commons, that “it is legitimate and right, in this day and age, to ask people to carry identity cards” which appears to go far beyond the current scope of the Bill and would require the consent of the Scottish Parliament; welcomes the Scottish Executive’s position that identity cards will not be required to allow access to devolved public services, and calls on the Executive to make a full statement on the intended use of the identity database by devolved institutions.
The Identity Cards Bill is about to be considered by the Lords in Westminster, but with the election coming the bill may eventually be abandoned. If the measure is re-introduced later, I suppose there is a chance it may be improved providing someone in the Home Office takes the trouble to research the technical issues involved. The Holyrood vote is a gesture - maybe not an insignificant one?
Footnote: It’s a pain searching for the debate and the vote on the Scottish Parliament website - really inferior to the Westminster ‘They Work For You’ site.
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=428&id=213172005
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4292893.stm
www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-05/sor0224-02.htm#Col14711
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:24 AM | TrackBack
Prevention of Terrorism Bill debate I
‘They Work For You’ have the whole text of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill debate on 23 February. Some notable passages:
“I suppose that once one has shown contempt for liberty by voting against it in the Lobby, it becomes easier to do it a second time and after that, a third time… . They voted: first, to abolish trial by jury in less serious cases; secondly, to abolish trial by jury in more serious cases; thirdly, to approve an unlawful war; fourthly, to create a gulag at Belmarsh; and fifthly, to lock up innocent people in their homes. It is truly terrifying to imagine what those Members of Parliament will vote for next. I can describe all that only as new Labour’s descent into hell, which is not a place where I want to be… .” Brian Sedgemore (Hackney South & Shoreditch, Labour)
“Let us never forget that the greatest victory that terrorism can have is if it forces us to abandon the very principles of liberty, democracy and the right to justice which we are all seeking to defend against terrorism.” Chris Smith (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour)
“In a hotly contested field, the Bill is one of the worst Government measures that has been produced in my time in the House… . It is reminiscent of the actions of some tottering Belgian coalition Government of the early 1970s, using the threat of terror as an excuse to enact repressive emergency measures that are never removed from the statute book.” Boris Johnson (Henley, Conservative)
“No mature democracy has ever been overthrown by terrorism. The terrorist bosses know that as well as we do. Their aim is not to overthrow our system of government but to provoke responses from us that damage us in the eyes of the people whom they wish to impress. In the case of this country, one of the things that they want to do is get us to abandon our long-standing and honourable claim to be a society that rejects arbitrary imprisonment and rests instead on the demanding and constraining concepts of natural justice and the rule of law.” Frank Dobson (Holborn & St Pancras, Labour)
“If somebody is put into detention without trial by a Minister, we cannot avoid that person being described as a political prisoner.” Malcolm Bruce (Gordon, Liberal Democrat)
“It is almost certainly one of the worst pieces of legislation that any Government have attempted to put through this House for 200 years. It offends against the cardinal and root principle of our democracy—the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary. That principle is not a tributary of democracy, or a bit or part of it. It is what democracy is, and it is fundamental to our system, as it is to all systems of democracy that ultimately derive from revolutions of the people. The constitutional liberties in the US, France and this country are all based on that principle, which was first enunciated by Montesquieu and subsequently taken up by Paine and Jefferson. Their names will resound through the annals of political democracy and liberty when the names of those who are trying to take democracy away from us will be no more than dusty footnotes in the unpleasant history of this era of Parliament.” Robert Marshall-Andrews (Medway, Labour)
www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2005-02-23.333.0&m=1215#g365.0
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 25, 2005
RFID in e-passports
The State Department is now proposing that the new American electronic passports (e-passports) should have an unencrypted radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, confirming the basic data written in the passport.
Critics say this is insecure as the chips can be read from 10 to 30 feet away, and suggest contact chips should be used instead.
The technical arguments are relevant to us because the United States is also asking Britain to issue e-passports to those of us intending to visit America.
www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66686,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Net prose and 'Leetspeek'
The internet is stimulating the development of language - on the whole - that seems to be the general drift of an article in Wired News. More people are writing than ever before - which is good. On the other hand we have a lot of abbreviations - and emoticons!
I have always hated the banality of emoticons. I remember having an angry debate about them on a BBS in Tokyo in the mid 1990s. But they are still with us, I suppose they remain a novelty for each new sub-generation of internet newbies.
The Wired News article references a fascinating Microsoft page about the subtleties of ‘Leetspeek’ (Elite Speak or ‘133t5p33k’) online slang, explaining how to translate words like ‘h4x’, and ‘d00d’ (hacks, dude). Being Microsoft the information is of course not for fun, but for spying on your children!
www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66671,00.html/wn_ascii
/www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 24, 2005
Attorney-General's advice I
The Attorney-General’s unpublished advice on the legality of the Iraq War has long been at the top of the list of unfinished political business relating to the war.
Now according to the Guardian there is new evidence, from a book by Philippe Sands, that Lord Goldsmith was reluctant to commit himself on the issue, and the ‘advice’ was in fact cobbled together in 10 Downing Street by Lord Falconer and Baroness Morgan.
So we still need to ask: what was the full advice that Lord Goldsmith gave to the prime minister in March 2003? Was it accurately conveyed to the cabinet and parliament?
politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1423304,00.html
politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/comment/0,12956,1423038,00.html
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4290031.stm
www.snp.org/index_hires.php?pageName=news/newsdetail.php?newsID=2836
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:30 PM | TrackBack
February 23, 2005
Detention without trial
Detention without trial has always been opposed in these islands. It has been the hallmark of totalitarian regimes. Habeas corpus, the right to trial is one of the cornerstones of our political system, dating back to the 12th century.
Now our authoritarian Labour government in London wants to have the power of indefinite detention without trial - in response to the threat of terrorism - to be used at the discretion of the Home Secretary, at a time when the country is not at war, and without any kind of time limit.
The ‘Prevention of Terrorism Bill’ passed its first reading tonight (309 votes for to 233 against) and will be discussed again next Monday before being rushed to the House of Lords. (There were 32 Labour rebels voting against the measure, but only one Scottish Labour MP, Tam Dalyell.)
The Lords may or may not succeed in delaying or amending the bill, but if it passes in its present form, it will mean that the government, rather than a law court, has the right to lock us up, albeit at home rather than in prison, although that could change.
This changes the fundamental relationship between the government and the citizen, and the implicit ‘contract’ which binds us together in a peaceful and tolerant society.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4285835.stm
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4289349.stm
www.snp.org/index_hires.php?pageName=news/newsdetail.php?newsID=2835
www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:39 PM | TrackBack
'No' to congestion charge
As expected, Edinburgh voted against traffic congestion charges - by a margin of three to one.
Whether the scheme was well-planned or not, I believe the end result is bad for the city. In the words of Duncan MacLaren, of the Friends of the Earth, “No one should be happy with this result - it is not a victory for anyone. Dealing with traffic growth needs political leadership, not opportunism.”
It’s difficult not to see the result in part as a verdict on the city’s Labour council and its work style - slow, unresponsive and tending towards arrogance.
Nevertheless Edinburgh does have a traffic problem - we experienced it only yesterday! Now nothing will be done about it until after the advent of the STV-elected council in 2007. A new traffic scheme is unlikely before the end of the decade.
What will happen to the proposed tram lines? Will any of them go ahead now?
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=203642005
www.snp.org/index_hires.php?pageName=news/newsdetail.php?newsID=2833
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:59 AM | TrackBack
February 22, 2005
"Free Mojtaba and Arash Day"
Mojtaba Saminejad and Arash Sigarchi are two bloggers in prison in Iran. The ‘Committee to Protect Bloggers’ is asking us to dedicate today to the effort to get them released.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4278241.stm
committeetoprotectbloggers.blogspot.com
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:09 AM | TrackBack
February 21, 2005
January floods
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have released some photographs of the floods in Callander in early January. They were taken from a Piper aircraft (see 7 January). SEPA report that the Teith River was at its highest level since 1992.
Please click to enlarge the images.
From above the Callander Crags, northeast of the town Photo © SEPA
From above the Callander Crags Photo © SEPA
Towards Callander from the southwest Photo © SEPA
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:20 PM | TrackBack
Mons Graupius
Historian James Fraser has ‘relocated’ the battle of Mons Graupius (AD 84) to the Gask Ridge in Perthshire, as noted by Ian Johnston in the Scotsman. Famously described by Tacitus, this was fought between the Romans under Agricola and the Caledonii under Calgacus.
thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=169512005
www.morgue.demon.co.uk/Pages/Gask/index.htm
UPDATE 21 March 2005
Predictably, perhaps, James Fraser’s studies are being challenged. As Charles Currie says, “Grampian is called Grampian because of Mons Graupius.”
thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=302582005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:22 PM | TrackBack
February 20, 2005
IDS on blogs
There is fascinating and altogether unexpected article about blogging by Iain Duncan-Smith in the Guardian. He sees the blogosphere enabling a huge right-wing challenge to newspapers and broadcasting.
While his piece is well argued, I don’t see the IDS scenario happening. We still have a considerable digital divide in this country. The bloggers are a special group with idiosyncratic views. Judging by those who comment on Boris Johnson’s blog (and Boris Johnson is, after all, a Conservative MP) most bloggers are libertarians. (IDS is correct of course in saying that conventional journalists will be held to higher standards in the future.)
Has IDS thought of publishing his own blog, or even a website? Just a thought …
politics.guardian.co.uk/egovernment/comment/0,12767,1418003,00.html
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4279229.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:27 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 19, 2005
Strategic Voter
An anti-war tactical voting site called Strategic Voter is giving a new prediction for Stirling;
Labour down from 43 to 38.5 percent
Conservatives up from 23.7 to 25.3 percent
SNP up from 17.1 to 24.2 percent
The ‘principal author’ of the site is Keith Mothersson who lives in Perthshire.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:34 PM | TrackBack
Sea temperatures
As we might have expected, it is sea temperatures that are vital indicators of global warming, rather than air temperatures. Once again, it’s worse than we thought, according to a Reuters report in Wired News. If the Greenland ice-cap melts, world sea levels could go up 23 feet (7 metres).
www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66651,00.html/wn_ascii
Posted by Simon Holledge at 05:25 PM | TrackBack
February 18, 2005
'Backing Blair'
Excellent news! ‘Backing Blair’, the ironic election campaign targeting the prime minister, is now supporting no less than 46 SNP candidates and incumbents in the forthcoming election, including Frances McGlinchey, the SNP candidate here in Stirling (see below 12 February).
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:37 PM | TrackBack
Burns birthplace
Following the petition (19 January, see also 27 December, 19 December), A rescue package has been agreed for the Burns cottage involving the National Trust for Scotland, as well as the Scottish Executive and the National Lottery.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4276761.stm
heritage.scotsman.com/news.cfm?id=187972005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 03:28 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 17, 2005
ID theft
Hackers in California have stolen sensitive data, including social security numbers, on 35,000 people from a company working for the government. It’s happened before. California now has a unique law requiring customers to be alerted if there are breaches in data security. Other states are considering introducing similar legislation.
Security is also one of the many concerns with the British ID card and database scheme. Centralizing information makes us more vulnerable to identity theft.
www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,66628,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:41 PM | TrackBack
Few 'green' cars yet
Less than 2,000 cars out of 2 million vehicles in Scotland have been converted to low carbon fuels in the past three years, while three-quarters of a million are emitting high levels of pollution, according to a statement from the SNP.
Ideally all vehicles in Britain might be converted to hydrogen, however according to a study published by Warwick University in October 2004, this would require the building of either 100,000 new wind turbines or 100 new nuclear power plants.
www.snp.org/index_hires.php?pageName=news/newsdetail.php?newsID=2821
www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/NE100000009439/
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:29 AM | TrackBack
February 16, 2005
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol (1997) comes into effect today, thanks to the belated approval of Russia. It is designed to cut emissions of greenhouse gases in developed countries below 1990 levels, by 2012.
Unfortunately coal-fired power stations are in operation everywhere and new ones are still being built, threatening to hasten rather than delay global warming.
In Scotland we have two huge coal-burners, Longannet (Kincardine-on-Firth, capacity 2,400 MW), the second largest of its kind in Great Britain, and Cockenzie (East Lothian, capacity 1,200 MW). Both are owned by Scottish Power.
Longannet is by far the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. According to Friends of the Earth, the power station released 11 million tonnes in 2002, three times as much as any other industrial plant in Scotland. Cockenzie although smaller is even dirtier, in terms of pollution relative to the amount of electricity generated.
Longannet and Cockenzie should be closed down as soon as possible and their generating capacity replaced by clean energy.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4267245.stm
www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1415663,00.html?gusrc=rss
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/pressforchange/carbon_dinosaurs/
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/pressforchange/carbondinosaurs/longannetpower_station.html
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/pressforchange/carbondinosaurs/cockenziepower_station.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:13 PM | TrackBack
Trains worse again
The train service in Scotland is getting worse, rather than better.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=175852005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 01:06 PM | TrackBack
February 15, 2005
Bannockburn site
According to the Stirling Observer on 2 February, the Balquidderock Community Action Group are protesting plans to build a new high school on part of the supposed site of the Battle of Bannockburn (1314). The 57 acres of the Bannockburn Heritage Centre are evidently only a section of the battlefield.
I wonder how much archaeology has been done there? According to a report on the ‘24 hour museum’ only one iron arrowhead has been found so far. If the building of the school does go ahead, it would be reasonable to ask for the best part of the site to be examined by archaeologists. Digging test pits would be inadequate.
www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwhgfxen/ART22796.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:42 AM | TrackBack
Wind debate
The debate on wind farms is intensifying. some extreme opinions are being expressed judging by correspondence in the Scotsman,
The Scottish Borders Tourist Board and the Duke of Buccleuch are objecting on scenic grounds to a proposed wind farm of 13 turbines at Broadmeadows near Selkirk.
Jim Wallace has been giving assurances that wind farms will be sited according to stringent planning procedures, and claims that Scotland will be able to get 40 percent of its electricity from clean renewables by 2020.
I doubt if tourism will be much affected by wind farms, but equally I wonder if the Scottish Executive have an appropriate planning system. I’d also be interested to look at a breakdown of Wallace’s figures to see where he gets his 40 per cent.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=162662005
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=605&id=166782005
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=605&id=172452005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:40 AM | TrackBack
February 14, 2005
No to congestion charge?
Edinburgh is likely to vote against the traffic congestion charge according to a poll for The Scotsman carried out by Scottish Opinion. The two-week postal vote ends on 21 February.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=169352005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:54 PM | TrackBack
February 13, 2005
Macbeth
The Scottish Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone is proposing the rehabilitation of Macbeth for his 1000th birthday - that’s Macbeth’s not Alex Johnstone’s.
Historical assessments are normally the job of historians not legislators. The Pope does this kind of thing, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union used to be expert at it, but should Holyrood get involved? As far as I know, Westminster have not been debating whether or not Richard III was a nice man.
Should we be protecting ancient reputations, when actual heritage sites are neglected and allowed to deteriorate?
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4232221.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 05:46 PM | TrackBack
February 12, 2005
'Backing Blair'
‘Backing Blair’, an ironic (their adjective is Orwellian) election campaign targeting the prime minister, was launched on 10 February.
They are supporting no less than 45 SNP candidates in the forthcoming election, including all the present SNP incumbents, and SNP principal challengers in Labour seats.
Run by Tim Ireland (the UK internet’s answer to Michael Moore) and friends, this is much more ambitious than the tactical voting plan of the Save our Scottish Regiments (5 February). It covers the whole of Britain. The site has some terrific graphics and a splendid ‘Vote Blair’ Flash Video (see below).
The idea behind Backing Blair is to support the strongest non-Labour candidates in each constituency. This means they are opposing anti-war Labour MPs (like Robin Cook) as well as pro-War ones.
Unfortunately they are now supporting the Tory here in Stirling. I have appealed to the campaign to drop their support for him. Many other would-be campaign supporters are less than delighted at the idea of supporting right-wing, possibly pro-war Conservatives.
www.backingblair.co.uk/vote_blair/index.htm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 03:12 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Vote-2005 forum
There is a new forum site (phpbb based) called Vote-2005 UK Election Prediction which is currently seeing a lot of activity.
(Thanks to Stuart Dickson for recommending this one.)
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:14 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
February 11, 2005
The SNP and the Lib-Dems
Looking at the excellent Alba Publishing website list of the new Scottish Westminster seats to be contested at the next general election, and their ‘notional’ results for 2001 based on the same borders, it is interesting to see that there are no SNP Vs. Liberal Democrat contests.
In other words, there are no seats where the first and second contenders are SNP and Liberal Democrat, or vice versa. The difference between the two is largely territorial.
Looking to 2007 and beyond, it may be worth speculating on the future orientation of the Liberal Democrats. Will they continue to prop up Labour? Would they support more devolution? Would they support holding a referendum on independence?
SNP strategists please note!
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:55 AM | TrackBack
February 10, 2005
Scottish Opera: The Knot Garden
Scottish Opera’s new production of Michael Tippett’s The Knot Garden opened in Glasgow on 19 January. I saw it in Edinburgh on 3 February. It is a difficult opera - probably the most inaccessible piece I’ve been to since Karl-Birger Blomdahl’s science fiction opera Aniara at the Stockholm Opera when I was 17. I went into the Knot Garden ‘cold’, having failed to to get hold of a text beforehand, and was able to catch very few of the words, despite the fact that it’s in English.
I would have appreciated surtitles. The allusions to Shakespeare’s The Tempest may be obvious, but the continually changing orientation of the characters is confusing without understanding all the words. The orchestral music is fascinating, but always seems to have priority over the vocal writing, with the singers often struggling to make themselves heard over the climaxes.
Was Scottish Opera fearless or foolhardy in presenting this work? Not perhaps the obvious choice for a financially-strapped company under political siege! Nevertheless the production by Antony McDonald was excellent and all the singers, Peter Savidge, Jane Irwin, Rachel Nicholls, Andrew Shore, Hilton Marlton, Derrick Parker, and Rachel Hynes were committed and effective, even if they didn’t succeed in making the vocal writing sound very beautiful. Richard Armstrong, the Music Director of Scottish Opera, did a fine job. He seems to be more at home with cerebral 20th-century works like the Tippett than he does with mainstream lyrical Italian and German works.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 09:18 PM | TrackBack
Scottish history neglected
Kevin Schofield in the Scotsman has an article about the neglect of Scottish history in schools. We hear much the same about Scottish literature, geography, languages etc.
Can those in charge develop a curriculum balancing general education, specialization and the teaching of skills? The prevailing weaknesses of British secondary education, over the past 40 years or so, have surely been over-specialization and inadequate skill acquisition.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=126992005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:30 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 09, 2005
Population decline and immigration policy
Hamish MacDonell and Gerri Peev’s article in the Scotsman highlights the lack of flexibility in London Labour’s new immigration policy.
Following the raising of visa renewal fees for foreign students (8 February), this is just another, larger, torpedo in Scottish Labour’s ‘Fresh Talent’ initiative to attract immigrants, stimulate Scotland’s economy and reverse the population decline.
Jack McConnell may have the right basic ideas, but he can’t deliver without cooperation from London. As Alex Salmond said, “It is time for Scotland to tackle its population crisis itself and for power to be devolved to the Scottish parliament”.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=145932005
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4242899.stm
www.snp.org/index_hires.php?pageName=news/newsdetail.php?newsID=2811
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:12 AM | TrackBack
February 08, 2005
Fundraising
We were all asked to contribute ideas for fundraising at the January SNP AGM. After the tsunami relief appeals, the SNP may not rank so highly as a charity, so perhaps the SNP should concentrate on events designed to boost party membership and collect membership fees?
I have little knowledge of local venues. I don’t know about the particular interests of local people. I have no list of SNP-friendly local businesses etc. No doubt my ideas will be impractical for one reason or another, but here are two of them!
Callander/Doune is a scenic area in the centre of Scotland with good road and rail connections, broadband, and plenty of accommodation. To me that adds up to a conference centre, so my first idea to suggest a series of small weekend conferences or seminars to raise local awareness of the SNP, attract new members, and also contribute to developing policies.
Subjects such as global warming and nuclear energy, the viability of renewable energy, reforestation, reform of the NHS, media and information strategies for political parties, Scottish productivity, and modernizing Scottish education, might attract sufficient interest from non-governmental parties for them to take part without demanding fees, together with SNP politicians, and members of the public.
The John Muir Trust held a fundraising ‘Wild Land’ conference at Pitlochry on 21-23 October last year, charging members 60 pounds a day (conference only, no accommodation). Non-members were charged about 100 pounds. The John Muir Trust had the use of a 500-seat theatre. No doubt we couldn’t organize anything on such a large scale, but that might not be necessary.
My second suggestion would be to run a festival of political or Scottish films with an SNP slant. This is now easy to do with DVDs. The discs once collected could be loaned to other branches.
The Callander Youth Project (Summer Cinema Programme) have been doing something similar at McLaren High School. Last summer they showed 24 films. Film showings were also popular Democrat fundraising events last year in the States.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:03 PM | TrackBack
Foreign students to be hit again II
Visa renewal fees for foreign students will rise to 250 pounds (postal application) and 500 pounds (application in person) from April, it was announced yesterday.
I wrote about this on 26 October 2004 and have nothing much to add now. This policy is not in Scotland’s interests. If I were a foreign student, I wouldn’t want to come to Scotland and pay visa fees at this level.
Back in October I asked if the SNP were paying attention to this issue. Regrettably the answer seems to be no.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4244627.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:57 AM | TrackBack
February 07, 2005
'The Index of Success'
Over on the Independence blog, Stuart Dickson is writing about Scotland’s poor economic performance and the so-called ‘Federation of Small Businesses-Sunday Herald Index of Success’.
It’s true that the economic data is bad enough, but when we factor in Scotland’s abysmal health record and lack of progress on the environment, the results look pretty bleak.
Gordon Brown has got away with some extraordinary hyping up of the British economy. This may be good for Labour, but it has done nothing to help people here realize the truth about their economic performance.
The reality is low standards and low productivity.
For someone coming to Edinburgh (as I did) from one of the world’s leading economic centres, low productivity is something that stares you in the face: the local government officers who respond by formal letter months after email enquiry, the paper-clutching 1980s-style solicitors, the doctors who are too busy to see you and then chat to you about the weather when you get an appointment, the shops where someone insists on doing your photocopying for you, the people who say they’ll ring you back but don’t, the call centres that are always busy, etc. etc.
I don’t see any solution to this because the problem starts at the top - with the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Parliament and the local governments. In fact it’s the bureaucrats that are the worst! Who is going to tell them that they must respond to email within 24 hours? Who is going to tell the doctors that they must see more patients? Who is going to tell the lawyers to raise their productivity and lower their fees?
And, come to think about it, who is going to tell the headquarters of the SNP to run a thorough-going dynamic, aggressive, modern party organization?
scottish-independence.blogspot.com/2005/02/scotland-is-last-among-advanced-oecd.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:30 AM | TrackBack
February 06, 2005
Orkney tunnel?
The Orkney Council are discussing an exciting proposal to link South Ronaldsay and the mainland via a 7-mile tunnel (costing about 100 million pounds), probably after testing the viability of the idea by building shorter tunnel links between outlying islands.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4236595.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:04 AM | TrackBack
February 05, 2005
Goodbye Stirling?
The Save the Scottish Regiments Campaign’s decision to support SNP, Tory and Liberal-Democrat candidates in the coming general election was confusingly reported yesterday with the campaign failing to put a statement on their website.
It is now clear that the campaign will support four SNP candidates in the Western Isles, Dundee East and West, and Ochil and South Perthshire. This is good news. Prospects for the SNP are good in all four seats. To capture them all would be a considerable coup for the party.
Unfortunately the campaign is supporting the Conservative candidate here in Stirling. At the last general election, the SNP came third, but not by a huge margin. The constituency has changed a little with the addition of four wards from the old Ochil constituency. The adjusted ‘notional’ 2001 result by Alba publishing would have given Labour 18,525 votes (43 percent), Conservatives 10,222 (24 percent), SNP 7,352 (17 percent), and Liberal Democrats 4963 (11.5 percent).
Clearly the SNP candidate, Frances McGlinchey, would have an uphill struggle to win this seat, however the Save the Scottish Regiments Campaign campaign is overshadowed here by a much weightier moral issue - the Iraq War. The sitting Labour MP Anne McGuire voted for the war and should be firmly held to account.
www.savethescottishregiments.co.uk/main.htm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 04, 2005
Tactical Voting
Stuart Dickson has a fascinating article on ‘Anti-Labour Tactical Voting’ on his Independence blog.
I have been saying that voting patterns in the coming election are going to be more complicated than the pollsters are allowing for, so I was interested to read about the possibility of ‘tactical unwind’. Apparently there may be up to two dozen English Labour seats, now propped up by the tactical votes of anti-Tory Liberal-Democrats, which could unravel if the third party voters decide to switch sides and vote Conservative.
Meanwhile the Save the Scottish Regiments Campaign is encouraging tactical voting by backing particular SNP, Tory and Liberal-Democrat candidates. This includes the SNP’s Angus MacNeil in the Western Isles. Maybe a good target?
Stuart declares that he would never vote tactically, but isn’t that what MPs and MSPs do every week of their parliamentary careers? Why should voters be different? After all we live in an imperfect democracy, and many important issues are not party-based.
scottish-independence.blogspot.com/2005/02/anti-labour-tactical-voting.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:56 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Salisbury Crags Wind Farm II
Yesterday’s announcement proposing a wind farm for Salisbury Crags was apparently a hoax, according to an article by Sue Halstead in The Scotsman. Maybe we should have guessed?
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=605&id=129862005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:22 PM | TrackBack
February 03, 2005
Liquid information
What comes next on the internet? According to one idea, the pages of the future will have a lot more links, in fact every word will be linked. This is being called ‘liquid information’.
www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66382,00.html/wn_ascii
www.liquidinformation.org/index-fr.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 01:50 PM | TrackBack
Theatre Royal
Glasgow City Council is considering handing over the Theatre Royal to a commercial company to lessen Scottish Opera’s liabilities.
It’s good to run theatres and performing arts companies seperately. Theatre managements can concentrate on running the venue as efficently as possible, while leaving the performers to concentrate on performing. The latter can be flexible and rent venues as appropriate. (This is a system I am familiar with in Japan, where no company owns any venue.)
However we are not going to see a long-term solution to the problems of Scottish Opera and the Edinburgh Festival without a new, well-designed, fully-equipped, multi-purpose, 1,800 to 2,000 seat theatre, (price tag 80 to 100 million pounds). Such a building could be a national institution, rather like a museum or art gallery, vested with a responsibility for encouraging the performing arts and its own budget.
thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=122612005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:37 AM | TrackBack
Salisbury Crags wind farm?
Can they be serious? There is a proposal to site a wind farm on Edinburgh’s Salisbury Crags (Arthur’s Seat). Is the intention to enrage the anti wind farm brigade?
I am all for wind farms but, as I have argued before, we need to zone Scotland so that we have a proper system for locating them. We shouldn’t have them on top of famous mountains or in the middle of national nature reserves.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4226313.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:28 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 02, 2005
NHS Dentists
The Scotsman headline on 31 January read “Scots NHS Dentistry about to ‘collapse’”, but anyone reading the story would conclude that this had already happened. The account of Scotland’s dental health is so bad that it reads more like a satire than a news report.
Why do people put up with this situation? Another vicious circle of diminishing services and expectations?
Judging by the followup story on 1 February, Labour politicians expect dentists to be altruistic. This doesn’t sound like much of a solution. Dentists fees will have to raised, we should train more dentists, and we should make it easier for foreign dentists to come and practice here.
SNP MSP Shona Robison has a good statement on this on the SNP website.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=115802005
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=119262005
www.snp.org/index_hires.php?pageName=news/newsdetail.php?newsID=2797
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:20 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 01, 2005
Another look at nuclear power
Peter Schwartz and Spencer Reiss make a strong case for nuclear power in Wired News. They argue that we must shift from fossil fuels to nuclear in order to control global warming. We will never be able to get enough energy from renewables to dispense with other forms of energy. They also endorse a carbon tax, pointing out that fossil fuel power stations have done a lot more more damage that nuclear ones in the past.
In a companion article, Amanda Griscom Little writes about the conversion of some prominent greens in Britain and America to nuclear energy.
www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/nuclear.html
www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/nuclear.html?pg=5
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:09 AM | TrackBack
Project Honey Pot
There are some new ideas for stopping spam. One of these is Project Honey Pot, inspired presumably by Winnie the Pooh. This is designed to catch spambots - in flagrante delicto - harvesting email addresses for spam lists, so that they can be tracked down.
www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,66378,00.html/wn_ascii