Glasgow Rail Link Not Debated

This from the SNP candidate in Glasgow North By-election...

SNP by-election candidate, David Kerr, hailed the action of the SNP Group in Glasgow council after they walked out in protest at the Lord Provost's refusal to discuss the scourge of organised crime in Glasgow.

So the SNP candidate agrees with the SNP group? Big news, eh?

This from the Herald...

... Lord Provost...ruled that (the) motion... was neither competent nor relevant..." and "...the council was happy to discuss organised crime as long as the motion was competent...

but...

...there was a debate scheduled on the Glasgow Airport Rail Link.... and the walkout allowed the SNP to duck out of taking part in that debate....

Am I being cynical in suspecting the typical and frequently used SNP/Monty Python tactic... run away, run away!!??...

Where's our schools Fiona?

In February 2007, Fiona Hyslop, speaking to The Herald, said:

“Within the first 100 days of an SNP government we'd start replacing PPP with a Scottish Futures Trust. It would be a not-for-profit trust which would serve as an alternative finance scheme - and it would squeeze out the PPP programme.”

Two and a half years later, we have no Scottish Futures Trust and the effect on our (non-existent) school building programme is evident.

SNP politicians say that they have "opened" a number of new schools, but what they do not say is that the SNP has not commissioned one new school in all the time they have been in power.

Last week they announced that there would be part-funding for 14 new secondary schools, but none of these are expected to be complete by the time of the next Scotttish elections.

As for the claims to have "opened" new schools: over the last two years, the only projects that have been completed are either PPP projects left over from the Lab/LibDem administration or delivered and funded by local authorities, without help from Holyrood.

Ministers like Fiona Hyslop have been quick to attend opening ceremonies and take the credit, but they have done nothing to deserve any credit for any schools.

A damning statistic: tThe Scottish Futures Trust will not build and deliver a single school in the lifetime of this parliament.

What Exactly is The Scottish Futures Trust? ..and can we trust it to build our schools...??

The Education secretary has announced 14 new Secondary Schools* across Scotland. These schools are to be financed by traditional methods of borrowing.

So what, I hear you say, of the SNP's flagship "Scottish Futures Trust", the all singing all dancing replacement for PPP, the magical money making machine that was to do away with the hated PFI and provide enough money to match the previous, Labour-led, administraton's school-building programme "brick for brick"? Whatever happened to the SFT?

The SNP says that these schools will use the SFT. But they will not be financed by the SFT. How can that be?

Well. It seems that the "Scottish Futures Trust" has been transformed (without actually telling anyone) from

...."an all singing all dancing financing mechanism that will help match the previous school-building programm brick-for-brick",

into ...

..."a wee office in Glasgow where 5 civil servants will use Project Management Software to report on the progress of a few new schools that are actually financed in the same old way as before..."!!!

Right. So no Scottish Futures Trust and just 14 schools and none of them likely to be completed by the end of this Parliament.

That's why we voted SNP, is it?

As I said elsewhere: the SNP lack of vision and ambition for the people of Scotland is so disappointing. Disgraceful actually.

*Any new school building is good news, but to put this figure in context: there were 3 Secondary and 3 Primary Schools built in my own council area by the last administration. So only 14 in all of Scotland, and not likely to be completed any time soon, is pretty mean, is it not?

a little p.s. 6th Oct. 2009.

There is to be a debate at Holyrood on Thursday on the provision of schools. Apparently Fiona Hyslop ducked the last big Education debate (on teacher numbers). Will she hide away again?

Arguments for (and against) independence

Richard Thompson has promised to give his arguments for believing that independence is the best route for Scotland, I will respond and anyone else is free to join in (subject to moderation for insult and obscenity and irrelevance).

Over to you, Richard...

Referendum? What Referendum?

The most intriguing thing about Alex Salmond's scheduling of legislation for a referendum this year is the lack of excitement it has caused.

The blogs are not full of it, nor are the comments columns in newspapers nor even the letters pages, where you would expect to see the nat letter-writing teams trying to whip up a false furore in favour...

Why is that? On the face of it, the SNP administration's only reason for wanting power (and therefore for voting them into power) is to get this referendum. But when it comes, indifference rages. Nobody seems to care...

I think the main reason is the shallowness of support for independence. When questioned by pollsters a certain number of people will always say that they are “in favour” of independence. But when you probe a little deeper you find that it is not their top priority, or even their tenth priority.

What people really want, their real priorities, are more jobs (or in the recession job security) and better health care and education and roads and policing and housing. If I, or a close friend or relative, lose my job or have a serious health issue, it can be the talk of the steamie. A referendum? On idependence? Yawn and yawn...

So the voters are not really engaged by the idea of a referendum. It's a distraction, a waste of resources and a misdirection of political energy. It shows that the SNP has got its priorities all wrong and out of kilter with the real needs and desires of the Scottish people.

The SNP is playing political games while the economy struggles and Scots are losing their jobs and are just not all that interested in a referendum on independence.

They have other priorities, and it is these priorities that the SNP administration should be addressing instead of wasting their energy, and ours, on a futile party political exercise.

SNP MSP and the Property Developer

MPs and Msps expenses, their relationships with money and who they consort with have been big news recently. The need for total transparancy has never been greater for those in public life.

This story in the Sunday Herald is headlined "Msp Criticised after backing friend's planning application", looks suspiciously like more than friendship. Kenny Gibson, Msp for Cunninghame North, has supported a planning application by a friend for a development on Arran, which is in his constituency, while living in a house rented from that same friend and after the main social housing element of the development was dropped. As Margot NacDonal Msp is quoted as saying "....a planning application plus friendship and a tenancy equals a load of trouble...."

The Flags Were the Last Straw....

I was quite willing to go along with Justice Secretarty Kenny McAskill when he said the release of Meghrahi was on compassionate grounds. It seems so plausible: the guy is dying and he wanted to be near his family.

But then he did get released and he did get near his family, and what happened? The Gadafi mob flying Scottish Flags happened. It struck like a kick in the stomach: horrible and awful. Who are these people and what gives them the right to wave our flag in support of a man who has been convicted of 270 murders?

It seems the right has been presented by our very own Justic Secretary. Now, you may say: what else could he do? Well, the answer is, anything that made sure these morons were not implicating us in their hero worship. Keep Maghgrahi in a secure hospital, or in some other secure establishment where he can get treated. Allow unlimited visits for family members. Then he wouldn't die in jail, or alone, and that would be compassionate enough for me.

Anything but what he did.