Repainting devolution

The Labour Government has delivered tins of paint to the Commission to Repaint Devolution. I can exclusively reveal that devolution is to be repainted a dull beige.

I am, however, intrigued by the recommendation on page 132 that "Scotland should be Independent".

I am pleased

I hear that the Labour party wants to talk to three quarters of the Scottish electorate (I've no idea what they've got against the other 25%).

Can I be the first to say - I'm delighted, bring on the Bristol model ...

Glenrothes

Do as I say ...

Reading the Grauniad (as ye do), I was struck by a couple of stories. Let's fling them up in the air and see how they fly:


First, there's the tale about the people who face a complete ban on spending money - even the spare change in their pockets - because they are suspected of being involved in financing

terrorism - no conviction needed, you'll notice. There's a wee health warning - Orders in Council refers to decisions of the Privy Council.


Then there's the tale about Gordon Brown meeting former members of a terrorist organisation at a deradicalisation centre. At least those guys know what they were accused of.


Of course, Brown and his henchmen's heavy-handed oafishness has already branded Iceland a rogue state using secondary legislation - something which didn't go down too well amongst the average, ordinary, everyday terrorists in the streets of Reykjavik. They believe that Brown sacrificed Iceland's banks for the sake of his own political game. Surely not?

Libya's fine though (Brown later withdrew the invitation when it turned out that he had misjudged oil prices). Iran might be our pal - or might not, depending on the time of day. Syria's on our side - except if we're supporting the USA position.

The fight to cut off terrorist cash is very serious, of course. Responsibility for financial sanctions transferred to the Treasury on the 24th of October 2007. There's a fascinating list of those who have had their assets frozen.

As well as the fight against terror is the begging of wealth (no-one should mention cash for peerages at this point). For some reason, Brown thinks that oil producing countries should be rather well off these days (other than Scotland, of course, he still thinks we can't survive, we've only got 80% or so of Europe's oil, after all).

Satire is alive and well in Gordon Brown's hands.

Save HBoS

Right, come on, there cannot now seriously be anyone who still believes that HBoS should be flogged to Lloyds TSB at a knock-down price? No-one now thinks that it's a good deal, do they?

Knock-down? Yes. With a wee bit of Government help for a couple of years (of the kind offered to the merged bank and to RBS and offered to but rejected by Barclays), HBoS would get through its most pressing immediate difficulties and would come out the other side in a better condition with a higher valuation, higher share price, more secure investment portfolio (as the housing market recovers), and better prospects. It may still not be able to stave off a takeover but at least investors would get a better return and there would be another chance to keep some headquarters operations in Scotland.

There might even be the chance to offload Bankwest, pull Clydesdale back into Scottish ownership and get rid of that Halifax thing that's been attached to the bank for far too long now. Then you might even get a Scottish bank getting back into proper banking.

The evidence to suggest that the Lloyds deal is a dodgy one, a political fix to get Lloyds out of trouble, is mounting. We heard recently that there will be no HBoS people on the board of the new bank if the sell-out goes ahead; we had the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer insisting that help would only be given to a merged bank; we had the Scottish Secretary seeking to scupper an alternative deal by leaking news of it to the press; we've seen speculation that 20,000 jobs could go; and now we have Lloyds TSB saying that the deal will save it £1.5billion a year.

Daylight robbery - daylight bank robbery. Victor Blank get his bank bailed out and gets to expand - at the expense of the consumer, according to the OFT, but not at any expense to his bank - while a smelly political fix puts the kybosh on any other attempt to keep this Scottish institution alive.

It stinks.

How to make a Vegetarian Pie

Take three vegetarians, peeled and finely chopped ....

The worst joke of the campaign so far:
How do Welsh people eat cheese?
Caerphilly


Here all week, try the fish

More paint, more paint, there's a recession on ...

The Commission to Repaint Devolution continues to beaver away, trundling round the country having 'events' (not as in events, dear boy, events, more like free school trips). I'm resisting wondering whether this is a good use of resources - other people think it is and I trust their good judgement.

Anyway, the beachcomber emailed me about the forum on the website, saying

The highly policed forums are about as busy as a hermit's housewarming.

Oh, she's got an acid tongue that one!

Having been prompted thus, I had a wee look. Back at the beginning of October I reported (accurately and faithfully, of course) that there was a grand total of 11 posts in those discussions. I'm delighted to report that the total has now soared to a stunning, a quite magnificent, an incredible .... 11

So, do people not want to talk about the constitution of Scotland? Well, let's have a look at, for example, the Tartan Army Message Board. If you pop in a word search for (just plucking an idea out of the air here) devolution, it throw up three pages of threads where devolution is mentioned - 61 discussion threads - there are 285 replies to the thread titled "Is Scottish Independence Stone Dead?" alone. Change the search term to "independence" and you'll get a message telling you that your search results have been limited to the first 1,000 threads with that word in them.

Some of those threads will, of course, have both words in them. Now, I'll grant you that Scotland's football fans would debate the relative merits of Lorne sausage versus corned beef in stovies (and whether Lorne sausage should be called square sausage), but the sheer extent of the debate on the constitution on the TAMB surely points to the issue being one of some contention?

Why, then, is no-one engaging in the debate on the repainting website? Could it be that the rules of engagement are such that contributions which do not support the target conclusions will not be published? Such a policy is perfectly acceptable in a private space like a blog but is surely not acceptable where public money is being used.

There is a bit more in the submissions received section but it's still a partisan exercise - and not one single contributor has mentioned the absolute need to repatriate to Scotland those powers reserved by 'the Tardis reservations' - L5 and L6 of Schedule 5 - or E3 and E4 (surely necessary to think global and act local).

Since the public events are being set up to exclude anyone of a nationalist persuasion, I doubt whether there is much scope for greater light to shine forth from the repainting, but I look forward to them trying to prove me wrong.

How long after Calman would they have to get the paint pots out again?

The sound of panic

Remember Labour's Glasgow East campaign where their London Ministers campaigned for 15 minutes at a time, Gordon Brown was absent, and very few of their MPs or councillors turned up?

A wee voice has told me - in that inimitable wee voice way - that Labour is whipping its MPs to get to Glenrothes, sending Cabinet Ministers back time and time again (including sending John Denham today - 24 hours after he cut student grants in England), el Gordo is coming back to do more damage, and Labour is 'encouraging' its councillors from all over Scotland to get to Glenrothes. One hears, indeed, of an elderly Glasgow Labour councillor who has acquired a walking stick just in case.

Panic? Panic? Who said panic?

Norway sets record straight

Following yesterday's atrocious journalism, the Norwegian ambassador Bjarne Lindstrøm has written a reply letter to the Scottish Daily Mail. I've seen it thanks to Michael at The Truth About Scotland, and here is the text:

Sir,

The article "Salmond Slapped down by Norway Minister" in the Daily Mail on 29 October contained several incorrect and misleading statements attributed to Norway's Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

Firstly, there is no "growing anger in Norway" over comparisons made between Scotland and Norway during the debate in the United Kingdom against the backdrop of the current global financial crisis.

Secondly, no accusations have been made by Mr Støre against Mr Salmond, as alleged in the article. In the interview, the Foreign Minister merely pointed out factual similarities and differences between the challenges presently faced by Scotland and Norway. Inferring from this that Mr Støre is of the view that Mr Salmond has in any way lied or mislead the public, is simply incorrect.

In short, the Norwegian Foreign Minister did not intend to criticise either side in this debate, which is a domestic political discussion. What he strongly emphasised in the interview with the Daily Mail and which, sadly, was simply omitted from the article, was his sincere appreciation of the warm ongoing relationship between Scotland and Norway.

Yours sincerely,
Bjarne Lindstrøm
Ambassador of Norway

I do hope that all of those who rushed to hold up yesterday's Daily Mail in triumph will now be decent enough to apologise to Norway for suggesting that the Norwegian Government would have broken the convention that Governments do not interfere in the domestic politics of other nations.

Indeed, anyone who took the trouble to read the comments attributed to Jonas Gahr Støre would have been surprised that the Daily Mail could come to such conclusions from his quotes.

Mind how you go.

Lib Dems just want to save deposit in Glenrothes

There was a voice - it spoke to me and it said "pst, wanna buy a camel?" I refused, of course, camel hair gets everywhere.

"OK," the voice said, "but what about those Lib Dems in Glenrothes, eh? They've admitted they're losing their deposit."

Apparently, there was an email from their campaign manager asking for donations because they are about to lose their deposit in Glenrothes. The full email reads:

I was sat in the by-election HQ in Markinch, Glenrothes on Saturday afternoon with Tavish Scott MSP, the new Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats looking at the article in the Guardian, where they have said “even the Tory and the Lib Dem could lose their deposits.”
We have had this happen once this year, in the Glasgow East by-election, let us ensure it does not happen again! This constituency is bordered by Willie Rennie MP and Ming Campbell MP, so the result will be important for the Liberal Democrats.
Nick Clegg is about to make his second visit to the constituency, Ming Campbell has been many times, Charles Kennedy was here last week, Simon Hughes and Vince Cable are due here as well in the coming days. Tavish Scott has just done his tenth visit, the MSPs and local Councillors are holding their weekly group meetings here after campaigning in the local area.
Willie Rennie MP and Iain Smith MSP have been here near enough every day helping us shift the thousands of leaflets we have produced. We have had a good response so far, we now need to escalate to the next level for the final push, the plan we need to execute is fairly extensive.
Now I am asking you to help us in the final twelve days;
Make a donation via our website www.fightingforfife.org.uk - all money raised will go
towards extra target letters

Visit the constituency, details on our website - and help us deliver the remaining leaflets
Help us telephone canvass (postal votes start going out today).
Every pound raised through these online donations will be used for additional target letters, ensuring we continue to push our positive campaign and messages to the good voters in the Kingdom of Fife.

Full story here, I've taken screen grabs, of course ...

Told you they were out of it.