http://www.skakagrall.com/ Notes on Scottish politics, environmental issues and modernization etc. en-us Copyright 2007 Fri, 28 Apr 2006 08:46:26 +0000 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:37:31 +0000 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000608scotsman_prescription_campaign.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000608scotsman_prescription_campaign.html Health Fri, 28 Apr 2006 08:46:26 +0000 Serious illnesses are indicated by multiple symptoms. So it is with the NHS. Despite government protestations we have one public issue after another, affecting every aspect of the service. Rarely has the breakdown of a system been so comprehensive. One issue which has not yet hit the middle pages is the position of junior foreign doctors. For years, they have helped fill gaps in the NHS, coming to Britain for both career advancement and (increasingly in recent years) for higher pay. In order to facilitate the employment of these doctors, the Home Office invented a ‘no work permit required’ category. They were described as being in ‘training’, while typically earning net salaries of around GBP 20,000 to 30,000 per annum. (I suppose one of the purposes of bureaucracies is to create interesting anomalies.) Those wishing to get this status had to take the so-called PLAB (Professional and Linguistic assessments Board)... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000607foreign_doctors_change_of_status_protest.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000607foreign_doctors_change_of_status_protest.html Health Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:33:16 +0000 Malcolm Kendall-Smith, an RAF medical officer who refused to serve in Iraq, has just been court-martialed. He was given an 8 month sentence, a dishonourable discharge and a legal bill for GBP 20,000. The RAF prosecution made a statement that: “British troops are operating in Iraq under a United Nations mandate and at the invitation of the Iraqi government. The judge advocate ruled that the court would not accept his defence that the war was illegal and a panel of his peers have convicted him on that basis.” Many people would not recognize that version of the situation in Iraq. I hope we hear more from Kendall-Smith. news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=567932006... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000606malcolm_kendallsmith_and_the_legality_of_the_iraq_war.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000606malcolm_kendallsmith_and_the_legality_of_the_iraq_war.html Iraq Sat, 15 Apr 2006 23:12:20 +0000 Peter Riddell in the Times believes that “Lords reform is doomed to fail”. He writes: There is an inherent conflict between defending the supremacy of the Commons and making the composition of the Lords more “legitimate”, less aristocratic and more democratic. Of course real democracies, whether unicameral or bicameral, elect all (yes, all) their representatives. www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2110315,00.html... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000605will_labour_block_lords_reform.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000605will_labour_block_lords_reform.html Mon, 03 Apr 2006 10:50:37 +0000 Using an idea pioneered by the Labour Party, Elect the Lords are selling virtual peerages. Starting from just GBP 10 for a virtual barony (your choice of title, latin motto, coat of arms, certificate of authenticity etc.) prices are competitive with the domains sold by Network Solutions, GoDaddy etc. Sales are completely clean and above board. The small type says “The Elect the Lords campaign regrets that it cannot accept a loan as payment.” electhelords.org.uk/pages/buypeerage.html... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000604buy_a_virtual_peerage.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000604buy_a_virtual_peerage.html Westminster Sun, 02 Apr 2006 09:34:24 +0000 Almost everybody is now talking about climate change and it’s a confused debate. What exactly do we make of the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, telling us we will fail to meet the target of reducing CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010, and then hopping into her Jaguar? Meanwhile according to the Archbishop of Canterbury, God is sending us a warning and we should take notice. Chris Huhne got it right when he said, “Even the modest progress made on the Kyoto basket of greenhouse gases is largely an accidental result of the switch from coal to gas-powered electricity generation, and has nothing to do with government policy.” The government has never prioritized climate change except in Tony Blair’s speeches. Mark Lazarowicz, the excellent Edinburgh North MP, is quoted as saying, “Nuclear power is neither safe, secure, cheap nor renewable. As long as the debate remains focused on the fors and... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000603climate_a_confused_debate.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000603climate_a_confused_debate.html Climate change Wed, 29 Mar 2006 11:30:52 +0000 With renewed interest in the reform of the House of Lords, the catch phrase of the week seems to be the ‘primacy of the Commons’. Blair, Brown, Kenneth Clarke and probably a number of others have referred to it in recent days. Members of the House of Commons are determined to maintain the power of the Commons, i.e. their own power. They have the difficulty of trying to reform the Lords (in a seemingly democratic way) and at the same time making it subservient. However for those of us who are not in the Commons, ‘primacy’ is not an issue. We just want effective democractic institutions. The relative power of an elected lower house vis-à-vis an elected upper house is not a problem. Indeed it seems entirely natural that an elected upper house should become more powerful than an unreformed, unelected, and basically corrupt assembly. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4848618.stm... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000599the_primacy_of_the_commons.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000599the_primacy_of_the_commons.html Westminster Mon, 27 Mar 2006 11:46:08 +0000 No smoking in public places from today. All concerned should be congratulated. This measure alone has made the Scottish Parliament worthwhile. If only other political issues were so easy to solve! Will 140 pubs close? I doubt it.... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000600public_smoking_ban_starts_today.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000600public_smoking_ban_starts_today.html Health Sun, 26 Mar 2006 13:15:20 +0000 The Public Geo Data site is organizing a petition to the European Parliament asking for state-collected geographic data to be made freely available to the public. Geographic data is of considerable economic, social and political importance. It’s vital that the public have free access to information that has already been funded from taxation. Please sign! petition.publicgeodata.org... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000598petition_for_free_access_to_european_geographical_data.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000598petition_for_free_access_to_european_geographical_data.html Europe Sat, 25 Mar 2006 22:21:41 +0000 I’ve had an iPod for about a year. At first it was for music, but gradually I’ve been using it more and more for spoken voice. One of the big advantages of (time-shifted) mp3 over radio is that you can scan/skim (which is the right word?) audio, rather as you scan a newspaper, extracting what is value and passing over the rest. According to someone on the PodTech podcast, there are still only about 100,000 people in the States are listening to podcasts. The number in Britain may be higher (relative to the size of the population) as the BBC has so enthusiastically embraced the medium for recycling radio programmes like the ‘Today Programme’, ‘In Our Time’ etc. www.podtech.net www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000597audio_scanningskimming.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000597audio_scanningskimming.html Internet & IT Sat, 25 Mar 2006 13:43:08 +0000 Following his article on the David Steel Commission, Hamish Macdonell reports that Nicol Stephen’s policies on local tax and (anti) nuclear power are diverging more and more from those of Labour. “We would make it clear [in the 2007 election campaign] that we are absolutely determined to use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to prevent a new generation of nuclear power stations being built here… . I am absolutely committed to local income tax for councils replacing the council tax. We will fight very hard for that issue - this is one of the core issues we will be fighting the campaign on.” Nicol Stephen news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=458162006... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000594nicol_stephen_not_to_compromise_with_labour.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000594nicol_stephen_not_to_compromise_with_labour.html Liberal Democrats Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:34:59 +0000 Yes, Scotland should have an anthem - so long as it is the right choice. We need a well-crafted tune that people will enjoy singing not just today, but also in the future, not something that everyone wants to change in 20 years time. So which song is easy to sing, universally known, expresses warm and friendly emotions, and has a text by our national poet? ‘Auld Lang Syne’, of course. Not choosing it would be like the Australians failing to pick ‘Waltzing Matilda’. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4837078.stm www.theherald.co.uk/features/58519.htm kirkelder.blogspot.com/2006/03/scotland-has-no-need-of-anthem-for-it.html... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000593another_vote_for_auld_lang_syne.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000593another_vote_for_auld_lang_syne.html Scottish Anthem Thu, 23 Mar 2006 12:56:15 +0000 Liberal-Democrat supporter DocVee, the writer of a smart Edinburgh (?) blog. picked up my 7 March posting about the David Steel Commission. Perhaps I might make a few points in response? We can look at the Steel Commission’s list of recommended powers for Scotland, noting what is there and what isn’t. The detail is important. ‘Scottish national security’ is in. For the SNP this is good. In almost all federal countries this power is not devolved. Control over taxation and immigration are also in, although foreign policy, Europe, defence and the armed forces are off the list. I believe the Liberal Democrats and the SNP could negotiate a common programme around these proposals - after the 2007 election. Much would depend on the actual election results. Looking further ahead, a vigorous Scottish parliament in charge of its own finances might be in a position to claim control of foreign policy... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000592more_on_the_david_steel_commission.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000592more_on_the_david_steel_commission.html Liberal Democrats Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:53:35 +0000 Friends of the Earth Scotland have an excellent page on micro-renewable energy - which means do-it-yourself clean electricity generation. This includes a system for absorbing heat from the ground which I hadn’t heard of before. It is being used in the Orkneys. www.foe-scotland.org.uk/nation/microrenewables.html... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000596microgeneration.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000596microgeneration.html Energy Wed, 22 Mar 2006 12:25:57 +0000 According to the BBC this morning, Edinburgh City Council intend to bring the city’s parks “into the 21st Century”. I don’t really understand this. Are our trees out of date or something? Councillor Ricky Henderson is quoted as saying that “A world-class city needs ‘world-class’ green space”. What exactly does he mean? What is a “world-class green space”? The establishment of new parks in areas which don’t have them is obviously desirable, but the language of ‘upgrading’ the existing ones rather than ‘conserving/preserving’ raises suspicions. After all, the council has an appalling record when it comes to new architecture. If they want to upgrade they should start with the performing arts facilities used by the Edinburgh Festival. A lot of money is needed there and until it is spent the Edinburgh Festival will continue to decline. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4814368.stm... http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000591upgrading_edinburgh_parks.html http://www.skakagrall.com/archives/000591upgrading_edinburgh_parks.html Edinburgh Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:24:49 +0000