Aw diddums

Can you feel some sympathy for the City of London fatcats? The Times can:

Some in the City pocketed bonuses by risking other people's money, but most did well by slogging their guts out. The mean salary in the City last year was £85,500, but even secretaries were at their desks by 8am and ate their supper in the canteen before joining the 10pm yoga class.
As one headhunter told me yesterday: “Most of the high-earners have been doing incredibly punishing jobs, working untenable hours. They are often disliked by their clients and estranged from their children and wives, who will now run off in their Laboutin shoes with their younger, fitter personal trainer. They have endured years of dog-eat-dog corporate politics and punishment, only to have their net worth wiped out over a weekend. It's not funny, it's painful to watch.”

Excuse me while I puke. I have a lot more sympathy for the tellers and call centre operators at the Bank of Scotland who are about to lose their considerably less well remunerated positions.

Yes, I remember it well

Ah yes, spivs. The First Minister has brought them to our attention. The BBC reports:

Scotland's first minister has launched an outspoken attack on the "spivs and speculators" he blames for targeting Scottish-based bank HBOS.

A few words of explanation may be helpful for our younger readers. Spivs were invented during and after the Second World War. In a time when many goods were rationed, spivs were a (relatively speaking) reliable source of black market goods. So, if you needed cloth to make a wedding dress (that was what people did in those days), recourse to a spiv was necessary. At a price of course, a spiv could always get hold of a few eggs to make a cake (another quaint pastime of those days).

Rationing lasted until well into the 1950s, along with powdered egg and a peculiar orange juice to which I was addicted. And so did spivs. Some would say that spivs lasted a lot longer - apart from careers in financial services, some of them probably became members of one parliament or another ...

Gaeth a wyrd swa hio scel

I had drafted a fairly political post about the impending takeover of HBOS - but now is not the time.

One of the great historic Scottish institutions is about to be swallowed up by a lesser competitor. Why? If you like, you can attach the blame to a bunch of City wideboys who have been short selling.

But the consequences for Scotland, and for Edinburgh, are likely to be severe. It is not just the jobs in the bank itself, but in all the associated businesses which serve this massive institution, from the auditors to the sandwich shops. And the loss of prestige and influence that attaches to having one of Europe's biggest banks headquartered in Edinburgh.

A sad day.

Rip-off Britain

You may remember this story. You should - it's less than two months old.

British Gas yesterday increased the pressure on household budgets after announcing the biggest ever increase in gas prices for its 16 million customers.
The 35% rise in gas bills was blamed on higher wholesale costs but came just hours before British Gas's parent company, Centrica, was due to reveal profits of £880m for the first half of the year.

There was an excuse of course:

British Gas managing director, Phil Bentley, defended the price hike.
"We very much regret that we have had to make this decision at a time when many household budgets are already under pressure. The simple fact though is that we have entered an era of unprecedented high world energy prices. The only answer to cope with higher energy prices, I'm afraid, is for all of us to be more energy efficient."

Aye well. Oil is now less than $90 a barrel compared with over $140 a couple of months ago. And, as we were so often reminded, the wholesale price of gas is directly related.

So when are we going to see a reduction in gas prices for the consumer?

Cause and effect

I blame football. Hubris leads financial institutions into sponsoring football clubs. (For unaccountable - literally - reasons, they like to see their names on footballers' shirts.) Thus Northern Rock sponsored Newcastle Utd; result nemesis and nationalisation. AIG sponsored Manchester Utd; same result.

As far as I am aware, HBOS does not sponsor any football clubs - so it is probably safe. On the other hand, RBS has a predilection for the Six Nations Rugby tournament - worrying.

Bye Dave

So Mr Cairns has gone. Maybe he was just bored to tears. It cannot be easy being the Minister of State in a department - such as the Scotland Office - with nothing to do.

If you check the departmental website, you will see that in August it managed to put out seven press notices (and a further two in September). By contrast, the Executive puts out that number every day.

But fair dos. He has given up a handsome salary, a ministerial limo and a position that might have seen him elevated further. Apparently on a matter of principle. So, until we hear otherwise, respect.

Melting down?

It's not getting any better. This is how the Footsie 100 is doing:



(Source: here)

And the Bank of Scotland is down to £1.72 per share.

Urgent breaking news - nothing happening

I suppose it means something when Downing Street has to confirm that a junior minister at the Scotland Office has not told them that he intends to resign. The BBC reports:

Downing Street sources have told the BBC that minister David Cairns has not informed them he intends to resign.
There have been reports the Scotland Office minister is about to quit over Gordon Brown's leadership.

Music of the week

"Where did the blue sky go?"

Good question. I don't really know this band - they're a bit after my time. But I like the song. I admire the faux paranoia. And it reflects the essential zeitgeist, combining the existential angst of Sartre with Ionesco's sense of the absurd.*





*Imagine - some people get paid to write this kind of rubbish.

All for television

I suppose that it might be better than deep-fried mars bars. The Guardian reports:

Ramsay went "sky fishing" for the puffins using a large net to "fish" the birds out of the sky. He caught six, four of which were killed. Their necks were broken and they were skinned, with their hearts taken out to eat.
"Ofcom acknowledges that in this country some members of the public may consider that the capture of puffins for human consumption is unacceptable and consequently distressing," said the regulator.
"However, the sequence featuring Gordon Ramsay occurred in Iceland where it is not a protected species, where it comprises a popular part of the national diet and, as the programme informed viewers, is 'a traditional food that has been hunted for centuries'.
"In addition, Ofcom noted that the birds were caught and killed in what appeared to be a fast and humane way with minimal suffering.

Well that's all right then.

Except if you're a puffin ...

It's not our fault after all

There you go. I thought it was the square sausage, the Buckfast and the fags. But The Times reports:

A national campaign to persuade every Scot to take daily supplements of vitamin D is needed if the country’s appalling health record is to be reversed, leading scientists believe.
A report, published this week, links poor weather to the lack of the “sunshine vitamin” in Scotland, and urges the Scottish government to launch a nationwide vitamin D programme to lower the incidence of devastating illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer and multiple sclerosis.
The research points to the country’s damp, cloudy climate as a significant contributor to its bleak record of ill health and disease.

Maybe Karl Marx was right

OK, so maybe my last post was a little parochial in the light of the fact that the world's financial system is this morning well on its way to hell in a handcart. Despite a temptation to rejoice at the discomfiture of bankers everywhere, the present crisis is not going to do anybody any good.

Besides, my few remaining bawbees are with the Bank of Scotland, which - the BBC tells me - is the biggest loser in this morning's stock market crash. Its shares are now worth a meagre £2.37 each, compared with over £9 a year ago.

Faux pas

The sudden interest of The Independent in the new leader of Labour might have been more convincing if they had managed to spell his name correctly.

HW recommends ...

... a couple of great political movies on BBC4 this evening.

First up, at 7.15 is The Candidate, how the classic liberal played by Robert Redford is corrupted.

Then at 10.00 is Primary Colors, the movie of Joe Klein's analysis of the first Clinton campaign. Not as good as the book but a more than adequate film. Emma Thompson is, as always, superb.

Surprising how many good political movies have been made by Hollywood - Mr Smith goes to Washington, Advise and Consent, The Parallax View. The BBC should show them more frequently.

A pig in a poke, with or without lipstick.

Well, that was all very civilised. An election without any apparent rancour, but with respect on all sides. Not just listening but hearing. Adjectives and participles, no finite verbs.

But what did we learn? Do we have a clear idea of the new leader's position on the council tax? Reform it to make it fairer? How exactly? What about the referendum? Not strongly opposed, but needs to look at the wording of the question - where does that take us? Additional powers for the Scottish Parliament? Await Calman. Nuclear energy as opposed to renewables? Police and crime? Class sizes?

It's all very well having values (but, if those values are honestly held, it is not entirely clear how you can align them with popular aspirations). But policies would be nicer.

Are the tectonic plates shifting?

This begins to look like a concerted plan. Some might even call it a plot. The BBC reports:

The Labour MP Joan Ryan has confirmed that she has also written to the party asking for a leadership election.
Ms Ryan, a Labour Party vice chair, confirmed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she had asked for nomination papers.
It comes after junior whip Siobhain McDonagh was fired after saying she wanted the debate on Gordon Brown's leadership to be out in the open.

More hands in the public purse

The Times reports:

This year had looked so promising for Britain's grain farmers. They were expecting a bumper crop, with prices to rival last year's, when best milling grain fetched £200 a tonne. Wheat was standing proud and tall in July and there had been optimum conditions for growth.
Now thousands of acres are flattened or blackened from the rain. Wheat being salvaged in some parts of the country is not prime milling quality and some farmers may lose a third of their expected earnings.
The situation is so bad that farmers are demanding urgent payment of subsidies to alleviate their plight.

Who do they think they are? Bankers?

In praise of bookies

Some days, the newspapers can be irritating. Today, they are - virtually without exception - banging on about the number of airlines which will go bust before Christmas. But they don't tell you which ones are in the frame.

Thank heavens, therefore, for bookmakers. Paddy Power is taking bets on the next airline to go into administration. Here are the favourites:

6/4 Alitalia
5/2 SkyEurope
9/1 Spanair
10/1 Berlin Air
14/1 bar

Oh, Charlie ...

Frightening:

Quote of the day

Ann Treneman in The Times (here):

"If Gordon Brown thinks loft lagging is the answer, then he's asking the wrong question."

Only in football ...

Where else would you secure £1.5 million per year to do a job for which you have no relevant experience? Acting as assistant manager to Italy's under-21 team hardly counts.

There was a time when you had to start in the lower divisions and work your way up. No longer, apparently.

Breaking News

Channel tunnel closed due to fire. Europe cut off.

It's not getting any better

If you are desperately short of reading material, today sees the publication of Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics for 2007. Devour it here.

Of course, in the good old days, before all these new-fangled computers, it was published much earlier in the year. In 1927, for example, it took them less than three months to gather up the data, even though there were many more fishing boats than nowadays. You don't believe me? Check out page 2 of this document and note the date in the top right hand corner.

You see, we advance only to recede.


Update: It is a disgraceful calumny to suggest that I had anything to do with the compilation of the 1927 publication.

In praise of the jury system

Perhaps it's plain contrariness. Or sympathy with the little guy standing up against the big battalions. Or maybe we are actually greener than we thought.

Whatever the reason, yesterday's verdict goes some way to restoring one's faith in the Great British public.

The Independent reports:

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

Post from Wester Hailes by the sea

I know. I've been slightly remiss in terms of posting over the last couple of days.

That is partly due to my removal to Spain for the next couple of months. Spain, land of astonishingly beautiful young women. Unfortunately, also the land of fat Brits. And why do they have to wander about, baring their flabby torsos to all and sundry. Put a t-shirt on, you're not on the beach!

Amazingly, my broadband connection is still functioning. So normal service will be resumed, once I get used to the shock of the heat. And, indeed, of the deprivation of the BBC's i-player; even though I pay my licence fee, I don't get access because of rights issues. Other than that, life is sweet - even if 2 euros ( approximately £1.70) for a pint seems excessive. I bought a watermelon this morning; impossible to eat the damn thing courteously, but who cares.

No-one likes to be told they're just specks of dust blowing through the universe

I just can't see Barry Ferguson or Darren whatever his name is taking a similar line:



Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life

But let us hope the boys do good this evening.

Quote of the day

Gordon Brown (here):

“My own response to the great challenges in my own life has been to confront them, resolute in the belief that there would always be something that could be done to overcome them. And there always has been.
“Now, once more, I am confident that we can come through this difficult economic time and meet these challenges a stronger, more secure, and fairer country than ever before.”

What about the time you first had the opportunity to lead the Labour Party but stood down in favour of Blair? Was that confronting the challenge?

And all those unhappy years under Blair, mumping away behind the scenes but afraid to strike. Was that confronting the challenge?

And when the going got rough, for example over Iraq, doing a Mr MacAvity act and disappearing. Was that confronting the challenge?

And when you finally became Prime Minister, last September's ducking the prospect of a general election. Was that confronting the challenge?

And, now, crumbling before the energy companies' resistance to a windfall tax. Is that confronting the challenge?

Face it, you're a wimp.

Music of the week

I know. I'm a sentimental old fool. But I heard it on Wogan yesterday morning when I was doing the dishes and was transported.

We're all doomed - again

We've only got four days left. The Times reports:

If you believe a vocal lobby of doomsayers, at the flick of a switch on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) next week the world will be consumed from the inside out and turned to a pile of grey goo. Yesterday their apocalyptic warnings were challenged by a report from the scientists behind the project outlining just how safe it is to recreate the Big Bang under the France-Switzerland border.
The Large Hadron Collider - the atom-smashing machine built underneath the Alps - has sent more internet-based harbingers of doom into a spin than it will have atomic particles whizzing around its 17-mile circumference when it is put into action next week. They fear that the energies released will be so powerful that a runaway black hole will be created that will engulf the planet or produce “quantum strangelets” transforming the Earth into a dead lump of “strange matter”.

So there you are. Forget the Labour leadership struggle. Put away your doubts about local income tax. Stop worrying about sterling's decline. Cease complaining about the Hibees' abysmal start to the season. It all ends next Wednesday.

I blame the French.

Palin's bitch

Unless you lean to the republicans, you may find this mildly amusing:

That old slippery slope

Perhaps it was inevitable. Maybe Gordon Brown had no choice but to bow to overwhelming pressure. But, by indicating that he will not stand in the way of increased fiscal powers for Holyrood, it is certainly the case that a rubicon has been crossed. Increasingly, it looks as if - all those years ago - Tam Dalyell was right to describe devolution as a motorway with no exits.

And is there a ledge on the slippery slope where one can stand firm and say 'this far and no further'? Can a parliament be partly responsible for raising the financial resources for whose spending it is wholly accountable? (I appreciate that this is the situation in which local authorities find themselves - but their obvious subservience to their paymaster would be intolerable for a body with the pretensions of Holyrood.)

So, if the status quo is no longer an option, we end up with a choice between a big bang independence heralded by the proposed 2010 referendum and a creeping, evolutionary, de facto independence, with the latter shorn (at least for the foreseeable future) of some of the external trappings of a nation state (such as a place at the Brussels table, and without guns and aircraft carriers).

Is this a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? I don't know. I will need to think on it.

Ah didnae ken

I learned something new today, courtesy of Jane's Industry Quarterly. The UK has a bigger defence budget than any other country in the world, with the sole exception of the USA. Here are the figures:

(2008) USD Billion

1 United States 696.30
2 United Kingdom 79.27
3 France 65.74
4 China 58.07
5 Japan 48.10
6 Germany 43.55
7 Saudi Arabia 38.32
8 Russian Federation 36.73
9 Italy 31.40
10 Korea, South 28.30

Unbelievable. But Jane is widely regarded as knowing its stuff.

You may wonder why we are spending so much more than those belligerent states such as China or Russia, with so little to show for it (at least in terms of adequate equipment for the troops in Afghanistan). But remember these figures the next time the Ministry of Defence chiefs start moaning about the next defence review. (Unlike Edinburgh Corporation buses, defence reviews appear relatively frequently.)

Ask yourself - do we really need a replacement for Trident? or those two dirty great aircraft carriers (even although they may guarantee 10,000 jobs at the dockyards for a while)? or those 272 Eurofighters (when we have less than 100 aircrews capable of flying them)?

We are a peace-loving nation, are we not?

No pies

Adult professional sportsmen or untrustworthy children? The Independent reports:

Fabio Capello has proved to be an uncompromising manager in his nine months in charge of the England squad but this week he has made his first concession to the players over their strict dietary regime. After complaints that many felt light-headed and even nauseous because of the rigorously-controlled diet before the Czech Republic friendly last month, they are now allowed to have greater choice over their pre-match meal.
The issue of food around the England camp has become a major factor for many of the players who have privately complained of hunger between meals because of the strict watch over what they eat. They are no longer permitted to serve themselves at buffet-style dinners, hotel mini-bar snacks are cleared out of their rooms and the baskets of energy bars that would be left around the hotel under Steve McClaren's reign are now gone.
However, they have been told that they are now allowed greater freedom of choice over their pre-match meal. Bizarrely, given Capello's nationality, some of the players have said that they would have preferred the choice of pasta as an early-evening meal which many of them are accustomed to with their clubs. That was not available to them before the Czech Republic game on 20 August because the team had eaten it for lunch that day.

It's going to be a long winter

The legislative programme. How tedious. Can I bear to write another post on local income tax? You must be joking.

If you're desperate, you can read this. As far as I am aware, none of the problems identified therein has been resolved (or even taken forward a little).

And there is no reason for Labour to feel smug. The prospective leaders have yet to clarify their position as described here.

Incidentally, has the First Minister been over-indulging? He looked a little over-weight today.

Betrayal

Oh dear. Even Jackie Ashley of The Guardian, and longtime cheerleader for Mr Brown, is deserting the camp:

It's all the rage these days to suggest Gordon Brown look to the United States for inspiration, to see if he can summon up some Obama-style vision and charisma. Apart from the obvious difficulties (looks, personality, political culture, etc) Brown could do a lot worse than take a look in his own backyard – Scotland. For increasingly, Scotland is beginning to look like the progressive country that we hoped New Labour would produce.

It may appear so from the metropolitan fastness, but I cannot say that Scotland feels like a progressive country. But I'm just an old curmudgeon ...

All that wildlife

Her attitude to polar bears, to grizzly bears and to moose (mooses?) does not necessarily mean that she is a bad person.

But it probably does.

Update: She doesn't seem to like wolves either.

Dismal science

Just don't expect the price of petrol to come down. The Guardian reports:

Now the oil price becomes interesting. Hurricane Gustav has shown the strength of the market's downwards momentum. The approach of the storm provoked only a modest climb in prices. Its passing, leaving oil platforms and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico intact, has taken the price below $110 a barrel. That represents a fall of almost 30% since July's peak - a serious move, notwithstanding the recovery in the dollar, the currency in which the black stuff is traded, during the same period. The interesting question is whether Opec, the oil producers' cartel, can defend $100.

On the other hand, the price at the pumps may have reached a peak - for now at least. Provided that the value of the pound sterling ceases to drop like a stone ...

One more tick in the box

The abolition of hospital parking charges is populist but astute. Those who do not frequent hospitals can have no idea of the irritation, even fury, caused by such charges.

So, once again, the SNP administration has confounded the opposition parties. Others may have talked about it whereas the SNP has acted. I have not been able to find any assessment of the loss of income to health boards as a result but I doubt if the patients, their relatives and hospital staff will care.

The only slight - but understandable - disappointment is that PFI hospitals, including the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, are not (directly) covered by the announcement.

Tokenistic?

So the 1% stamp duty on the sale of properties under £175,000 is to be abolished (at least temporarily), thus saving those buyers of houses between £125,000 and £175,000 the princely sum of between £1,250 and £1,750. It will make absolutely no difference to those buying more expensive houses.

Will it make a significant difference to the housing market? Probably not, but it's marginally better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Quote of the day

The admirable Clairwil (here) on the Arches farce:

For me the whole public shagging thing is a question of appropriateness. Shagging by the 'pick n' mix' in woolies is wrong, shagging in a nightclub on a men only gay night for over twenty fives is harmless sport and arguably a rational response to the promise of sex used in the marketing of the evening. Rather that than a hullabaloo on the nightbus or worse the hijacking of the public lavs.

Picture of the day

Worrying - would you want this woman as commander in chief of the most powerful miltary in the world?

Biting off more than you can chew

One of the principal reasons why Scottish Ministers have tended to keep their mouths shut about matters beyond their competence is that they have no-one to advise them. But, according to Scotland on Sunday, this does not seem to bother the SNP administration:

ALEX Salmond and his ministers are to draw up official Scottish Government foreign policy independently from the rest of Britain, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
The First Minister has decreed that he and other SNP ministers are to declare Scottish Government positions on everything from the future of Nato to the conflict in Iraq, if asked by members of the public.
...
The major shift in policy is disclosed in an internal memo, leaked to Scotland on Sunday, which changes the way ministers deal with public correspondence. Anyone writing to the Edinburgh administration asking for ministers' views on such "reserved" matters as foreign affairs will now get an official reply, representing the views of the Scottish Government.

All very well, but some foreign affairs are quite complicated. For example, to take a view on how Europe (for want of a better phrase) should react to events in the Caucasus demands careful consideration (although I readily admit that Miliband's blundering about on this matter gives little indication of any thought processes). Similarly, getting 'our boys' out of Iraq without allowing the country to disintegrate may involve some delicate judgements.

And who will advise Scottish Ministers on these matters? Scottish Executive civil servants have no more knowledge of most foreign affairs than any other citizen. I rather doubt that the Foreign Office will be prepared to advise Scottish Ministers.

Furthermore, if Scottish Ministers take an official view on Iran or the Ukraine, they may be asked to justify that view, either in parliament or out of it. They have neither the knowledge or the advice to enable them to do so.

Dithering

What does this remind you of? Scotland on Sunday reports:

GORDON Brown is preparing to lead his party into the crucial Glenrothes by-election, but only from his neighbouring seat in Kirkcaldy, Scotland on Sunday has learned.
The Prime Minister has vowed to maintain the convention which states that the occupant of No 10 does not actively campaign in by-elections.But the Brown camp is now eyeing up numerous dates in the Prime Minister's calendar over the next two months in his own Kirkcaldy seat, which they may turn into de facto campaigning visits.

Perhaps, it might be the signing of the Lisbon Treaty but turning up late. Alternatively, it might be welcoming the Olympic torch but refusing to touch it.

When will he learn that seeking to triangulate your way out of difficulties merely risks getting the worst of both worlds? If you're going to do it, do it whole-heartedly.

Music of the week

For insomniacs everywhere.

The video may not be very good; the clothes may be somewhat doubtful. But that was what 1980 was like.

Charlie Dore:

Where to go on holiday?

Well obviously not the States (even if you could find a reliable airline):

(£ against the dollar; source - BBC)

And Europe is not looking too good, either:

(£ against the euro; source - BBC)

Portobello, once again, I suppose ...

No we can't?

It was an occasion, certainly. (Can you imagine Mr Cameron or Mr Brown attracting 80,000 people to Wembley or Hampden? Even if Sheryl Crow was doing the warm-up?)

A bit too glitzy for my taste, but Americans seem to like that stuff. And our politicians can only dream of being allowed to produce a stream of uncosted pledges which would simultaneously deliver tax cuts and increased public spending. Nevertheless, I cannot deny that it was thoughtfully put together and beautifully delivered.

You may read the text of his speech here.

What's in a name?

I confess to a pang of regret that Celtic were not drawn in the same group as BATE Borisov of Belarus. Apart from the pleasing alliteration, the football club has the delightful name of Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electrical Equipment. Or so I am reliably informed.

Anyhow, these tractor boys have to face Real Madrid, Juventus and Zenit St Petersburg. Not a snowball's chance.

Yes you can

Will you wait up (or get up) for Obama's speech? According to the schedules, it will be shown on BBC Parliament at 4 am tomorrow (Friday) morning. You might also catch it on Up All Night on Radio 5.

Me, I kinda sleep irregular hours anyway. So, sure, I intend to witness what might be extraordinary.

No excuses

Motes and planks and glass houses. The Guardian reports:

Overweight people were told today there are "no excuses" for being obese as the Conservative party launches a new "responsibility" deal on public health. The shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, used a speech to the thinktank Reform, entitled No Excuses, No Nannying, to set out proposals on how the government and business can work together to address problems caused by poor diet, alcohol abuse and lack of exercise.
"Tell people that biology and the environment cause obesity and they are offered the one thing we have to avoid: an excuse," he said.
"As it is, people who see more fat people around them may themselves be more likely to gain weight."

Bigger and bigger

Not sure that I understand demographics. The Times reports:

Forecasts published by the European Commission suggest that Britain will overtake Germany within 50 years as the population rises from 60.9 million today to 77 million.
The projected 25 per cent increase triggered renewed calls for the Government to stem the flow of immigration, which has surged since Labour came to power 11 years ago. Increasing population, together with a rise in the number of elderly people, will heap further pressure on public services, particular the NHS.
Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that the report showed a coherent strategy was needed to deal with population growth. “This not only requires an annual limit on immigration, which takes into account its impact on the public service infrastructure and cohesion,” he said, “it also requires us to tackle other issues like family breakdown which have a direct effect on resource use in our country, as well as to improve our skills base.”

If we are all getting older and not breeding sufficiently to maintain the size of the workforce, we will run into trouble like this, reported in The Herald:

The cost of providing the Scottish Government's popular free personal care policy has risen by 15% in a year.
Official figures published yesterday show the cost of delivering the policy rose from £280m to £321m in 2006-07.

Instead of limiting immigration, surely we need to encourage it, so that the workforce will be big enough to pay for the costs of the elderly.

Michelle

Senator Obama is a lucky man. Mrs Obama is quite something. The speech may have been corny in places and overly concerned with pressing the appropriate buttons. But the delivery was splendid - Gordon Brown could learn a lot. I don't know about her husband but I'd vote for Michelle as president.

Footie politics

All this talk of a GB football team for the London Olympics seems a bit pointless. It is not as though Jim Baxter, Denis Law and Kenny Dalgleish were still in their pomp. I struggle to think of any current Scottish players who would merit inclusion in a GB squad. Barry Ferguson against Gerrard, Lampard, Cole, Hargreaves et al? McManus against Ferdinand, Terry and co? I suppose Craig Gordon might be in with a shout.

The present English team might not be world-beaters, but it is difficult to see that a leavening of Scottish (or Welsh or Northern Irish) players would effect any improvement. Which is not the point of course. But why play an essentially English team under a GB flag?

On a point of historical interest, there was indeed a GB football team which used to play in the Olympics in, I think, the 1950s. It was composed entirely of amateurs, as in those days professionals (in all sports) were excluded from the Olympics. (How quaint, I hear you respond.) But I think I am correct in asserting that the GB team included Davie Holt, the Hearts full back of that era, who remained an amateur during his time at Tynecastle.

Great quotes of the Olympics

1. Chris Hoy

Next day, Hoy meets some Scottish journalists. One puts it to him that: 'In the last 24 hours everyone has been offering an opinion on Chris Hoy. But what does Chris Hoy think of Chris Hoy?'
Hoy doesn't miss a beat: 'Chris Hoy thinks that the day Chris Hoy refers to Chris Hoy in the third person is the day that Chris Hoy disappears up his own arse.'

2. Rebecca Adlington

"Someone asked me whether they should make a statue of me somewhere. How daft is that? Who'd want a statue of me with my big shoulders?"

3. Bryony Shaw

Expressing her delight at clinching a bronze in the dramatic windsurfing competition in Qingdao, Shaw told the BBC "I am so fucking happy."

Book morals

It seems to me a little ungenerous, perhaps even distasteful, for someone to describe her mother's dementia in a book which is to be serialised in the sunday papers. But then I suppose Carol Thatcher needed the money.

Music of the week

Here is - as one of my interlocutors describes it - some more old fogey music. This time Janis Ian:

She wanted to be a mechanic

Internet telly is a wonderful thing. You can watch programmes when you want (within certain limits) - and, if necessary, you can pause them when the telephone rings or when you need to visit the loo.

But they are far from perfect. Habitually, I watch Newsnight Scotland (sad, I know) the following day on the BBC's i-player. (And Mr Brewer's smirk when, at the end of the programme, he mentions that it is available on the i-player really pisses me off.) But this week - for reasons unexplained - Newsnicht for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is simply not available. But, hey, I'm cool; I can live without it.

But ITV's 'Catch-up' equivalent takes the biscuit. This week, ITV3 has been re-showing various episodes of Rebus, for which much credit. But do not, for heaven's sake, try to watch last night's episode on Catch-up (here). Leave aside the obvious difficulties with the sound level. Focus on the fact that in an episode that lasts 90 minutes there are four ad breaks. The show is preceded by two showings of an MOD ad for the Royal Navy; the same ad is repeated three times during the first ad break, three times during the second ad break, four times during the third ad break and four times during the fourth ad break. Just in case you missed it, the same ad is then repeated twice at the end of the show.

I just hope that the MOD is not paying per showing ...

Quote of the day

The best job at the Olympics (here):

Some of the Chinese "volunteers" have a great job as well. You need to pick carefully, though, if you're thinking of doing it in London at 2012. You could end up being the guy who wipes the sweat off the weightlifting podium in between jerks – he didn't look that thrilled. Over by the discus cage, however, the volunteers with the best job in the Games have arrived. They are the two nerdy looking guys who control the jazzy little red cars that take the discuses and the javelins back to the throwing zone after the distance has been measured. These two volunteers just sit on little chairs with their remote controls in hand and guide the cars back and forth. How did they blag that one? I presume that their parents are probably party apparatchiks – book yourself in for that job now is my advice.

Fans with typewriters?

Were they at the same match? The Herald reports:

Strap yourselves in: Scotland are intent on taking the swashbuckling route to South Africa. George Burley removed any lingering doubt over his intentions for the imminent World Cup qualification process with a cavalier approach to neutralising Northern Ireland at Hampden Park.
As a result, last night's final warm-up was thrilling, adventurous and, in a remarkable change of tack, occasionally over-indulgent. Alas, for all their territorial, technical and tactical superiority, Scotland were tangibly unrewarded.
Nevertheless, this was an experiment rich in promise and possibility.

The Scotsman takes a different line:

Wish fulfilment remained well beyond George Burley's reach last night, when the Scotland manager's hoped-for victory over Northern Ireland failed to materialise. Most worryingly for Burley and the home fans, such a frustration seemed inevitable virtually throughout a largely undistinguished 90 minutes.
The second-half penalty kick substitute Allan McGregor saved from David Healy and the ordering off just minutes before of the Irish left-back, the 18-year-old debutant, Ryan McGivern, were isolated moments of excitement in a match that could not reasonably be used as a measure of the Scots' prospects in their opening World Cup qualifier in Macedonia next month.The Scots for a long time appeared generally ill at ease, deriving in no small part from the way in which they were deployed.

"Thrilling" and "adventurous" or "largely undistinguished"? I suppose it depends upon whether your glass is half-full or half-empty. The fact remains that it was a nil-nil draw.

It's not rocket science

This may seem like a fairy story, but once upon a time there was a Labour Party which operated a system of succession planning. When an MP was reaching retirement age - admittedly a somewhat flexible concept - a replacement would be (informally of course) identified and he or she would 'nurse' the constituency. When the time came, the replacement would be effortlessly eased into the position of candidate. This may appear to be a species of cronyism and, in one sense, I suppose it was.

But was that system any worse than the chaos that surrounded the prospective Labour candidate for Glasgow East and that now envelops Glenrothes? The SNP appears to have got its act together - why cannot Labour? The late Mr MacDougall was seriously ill for two years but when the worst happens the Labour Party representatives run around like headless chickens - McLeish, May, Rowley? Did nobody think to look ahead?

Is there anyone in charge of the party organisation?

It's all become a bit silly

I blame that Tony Blair. It was he who decreed that Kelly Holmes should be made a dame, just because she won two gold medals. And a precedent was set. Populist, yes, but hardly respectful of honours. I don't remember David Hemery being knighted; and Sir Steve Redgrave had to win oodles of medals before he secured his title.

So now, we face the prospect of Sir Chris, Dame Rebecca and Sir Bradley. How can the government avoid it? Not easily, I suspect.

The only good thing is that it will bring the whole silly honours shooting match into disrepute.

Remember the also-rans

Nice piece from Charlotte Leslie in The Guardian:

I celebrate the magnitude of Olympic glory not as one of the winners, but it means so much to me because I am one of the losers. I used to swim. I never got to Olympic standard, but between the tender ages of 11 and 14, I was a national finalist (backstroke) and Olympic glory didn't seem utterly impossible.
Then my feet didn't grow. I didn't grow. And I subsequently watched several of my 15-year-old rivals zoom ahead, eventually to swim in the Olympics, while for me, four hours of training a day with City of Bristol swimming squad, at 7,000m per session, resulted not in better times, but the slow realisation I just wasn't quite good enough.

Join the rest of us, Charlotte. And just because I never got my marathon time below 3:38 doesn't mean I can't appreciate the effort and talent of the Hoys and Adlingtons.

Yngling

No, I don't know what it is. I can't even pronounce it with any certainty.

But they won a gold medal. Must be worth something.

What are the comrades saying?

Dear oh dear. The Sunday Times hits the nail on a sore spot:

A friend of Brown, who is MP for neighbouring Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, said McLeish suffered from “intellectual arrogance”.
He added: “I can’t stand the little bastard. I couldn’t wish it on a nicer man. If he wins it he can go into well-deserved obscurity in the House of Commons. If he loses, fine.”
Another Labour MP said: “It can’t possibly be Henry. If we had to put Henry up it would be a wider sign that the Labour party was in deep, deep trouble. If we can’t find a youngish candidate it just shows that the cupboard is bare and we can’t afford that.”
Another said: “It would look as if we had completely run out of talent if we had to go back to someone who resigned in disgrace seven years ago.”

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Sticks and stones and all that

Obviously, you have to have a stupid name to get on in the armed forces. This morning, Major General Barney White-Spunner is all over the papers. This will no doubt bring joy to his ultimate boss, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup GCB AFC ADC DSc FRAeS FCMI RAF. And then there is Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy KCB CBE DSO ADC BSc(Eng) FRAeS FCGI RAF.

Weird.

Music of the week

I was going to let you have something gentle but, what the hell, what we need is good old-fashioned rock'n'roll:



If you are desperate for the Sabre Dance, it's here.

It's a hard life for some ...

It's a crying shame. All the other Ministers received their bottles of whisky, their coffee table books, their ties and scarves. So show a little sympathy for those who were given nothing - Malcolm Chisholm, Rhona Brankin, Sarah Boyack, Johann Lamont, Des McNulty and Cathy Jamieson.

It's just not fair.

You can view the list of gifts given to Scottish Ministers during 2006-07 here.

Chucking our money away

Look, don't be like that - it was only £227,000,000.

The Times reports on the Ministry of Defence's latest snafu:

As a spy drone, it had its disadvantages. To land, it had to flip on its back. It could not operate in extreme heat or in thin air and became known as the “bugger off” because it frequently did, never to return.
The Phoenix unmanned air vehicle, which cost an estimated £300,000 each and was brought into service with the British Army in 1998 after a protracted development programme, is now officially dead.
MPs on the Commons Defence Committee revealed in a report published last week that the Phoenix, which provided target information for the Army's artillery regiments from an operating height of about 9,000ft, was unable to cope with the heat in Iraq when it was deployed in 2003. It had to be used only in the cooler months. The Ministry of Defence also confirmed that it was never sent to Afghanistan because the air was too thin there.
The Phoenix has now been taken out of service and replaced by a more sophisticated aerial spy platform called Hermes 450.

Are heads likely to roll? What do you think ...

Tra la la

You might have thought that by now they would know what they wanted to do about local government finance. It is not so long ago that the Burt Report's recommendations were jettisoned by Scottish Labour in favour of (very) modest changes to the council tax (which they never got round to implementing). Then the Scottish Government (as we must learn to call it) produced its proposals for a local income tax. If the Labour Party did not approve of LIT (which they did not - for very good reasons), you might have thought they would have settled on a robust alternative. Alas, what they settled on was far from robust.

So we now have a situation where all three of the leadership candidates have pronounced themselves dissatisfied with the existing council tax, but none of them appears to have a clear idea what to do about it (other than more reviews, of course, and more consultation, equally of course).

If I were a member of the party, I would be in despair.

It's a joke, isn't it?

No, don't laugh. Somebody called Ms Hjul of The Sunday Times thinks Tavish Scott could be part of a dream ticket:

Tavish Scott, the LibDem finance spokesman, is leadership material, a fact which has been recognised by most of the important people in the party, in Scotland and London.
He is head and shoulders, literally, above the competition, Ross Finnie and Mike Rumbles. He has, astonishingly for a LibDem MSP, a recognisable public profile, and, as he says himself, he could “give people a really positive reason to vote Liberal Democrat”.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former party leader, said Scott had commitment, vigour, youth, and experience, and there even has been talk of dream tickets, with Scott in Scotland and the equally youthful and vigorous Nick Clegg in London.

It just goes to show that even hard-bitten journos (if Ms Hjul qualifies as such) can be fooled by a pretty face.

Connecting the dots

This seems an intriguing idea. I haven't seen it mentioned in the Scottish press but The Observer has the story:

Scotland is drawing up plans to build the world's longest electricity connector - to Norway - to help meet its renewable targets and end its dependence on nuclear power. The whole project could cost more than £2bn.
Jim Mather, the Scottish Executive's energy minister, will meet his Norwegian counterpart in October to discuss the proposal.
...
Norway gets almost all its electricity from hydro-power, which works by releasing water from a higher reservoir into a lower reservoir via a turbine which generates electricity. The water is then pumped back up to the higher reservoir for use later. If the 1,000km (620-mile) connector between the countries is built, when Scotland is windy and has surplus electricity, it would be exported to Norway to provide power to pump the water back up into its higher reservoirs.
When the wind does not blow in Scotland and there is a shortage of power, Norway would activate its hydro-plants to make up the shortfall. This would solve the issue of wind power's intermittency, frequently cited by critics.
Scotland wants to use the connector to provide power to North Sea oil operators. Drilling rigs and platforms use about four gigawatts of electricity, equivalent to the demand from about four cities the size of Birmingham. Currently, operators use expensive and dirty diesel generators or gas to power their facilities.

I don't know how much a nuclear power station costs but I doubt if it is much less than £2 billion in construction costs alone. If the estimated price-tag of the connector is realistic and provided it has sufficient capacity, it offers a cleaner, greener option, as well as significant cost advantages.

Quote of the day

From The Times (here):

So just what do you have to do to get fired around here? At Royal Bank of Scotland, gross moral turpitude and some energetic expense fiddling might just do it. Apparently, the worst loss in British banking history may not.
Sir Tom McKillop will stand up as chairman of RBS today to announce a loss of as much as £1.7 billion. He will, we can assume, attempt to justify last summer's €10 billion purchase of ABN Amro. Bad timing, couldn't see it coming, huge opportunities still, you can probably write the script.
RBS is a curious beast. Until the purchase of NatWest in 2000, its word went unchallenged in the incestuous Scottish establishment. You can bet that if anyone on an Edinburgh newspaper wrote in the above terms, the matter would be raised on the golf course with the writer's editor and his or her career would take an abrupt
detour.

As I don't have an editor, nor even a job, I can say that it is passing strange that nobody seems to be blamed for this disaster. And, as I have already pointed out, some of the scions of the Scottish establishment do not think it is a disaster.

Interpreting the Labour leadership runes

Mr Gray has garnered 13 leadership nominations, compared with Ms Jamieson's 12 and Mr Kerr's 10. (There are 46 Labour MSPs, so at least 11 of them have kept their powder dry.)

Mr Kerr has blotted his copybook with Scottish Westminster MPs by implying (in the nicest possible way of course) that the leader should have more responsibility for the party in Scotland than simply running the Holyrood group. Accordingly, the MPs (allegedly guided by the perception of Gordon Brown's preference) are lining up to support Mr Gray, to the extent that the latter would appear to have that third of the electoral college in the bag. Mr Gray's first problem - not insuperable, I admit - is that he is not a West of Scotland MSP. His second problem is that he is allegedly the favoured candidate of Gordon Brown.

Mr Kerr also has form, perhaps unfairly, in terms of his ministerial record at the health department. Nevertheless, even although he is unlikely to gain the majority of votes in one third of the electoral college, it would be foolish to rule out his chances overall.

Nobody knows how party members will vote. The unions are thought to favour Ms Jamieson on the basis that she is perceived to be the most left-wing candidate (not that you would know it from her ministerial record at Justice).

Nevertheless, it seems to me to be entirely possible, perhaps even probable, that the new leader of the Labour group at Holyrood will be someone who does not command the whole-hearted support of the majority of that group. But that goes with the territory.

We're all doomed

Global warming. The Guardian reports:

The UK should take active steps to prepare for dangerous climate change of perhaps 4C according to one of the government's chief scientific advisers. In policy areas such as flood protection, agriculture and coastal erosion Professor Bob Watson said the country should plan for the effects of a 4C global average rise on pre-industrial levels. The EU is committed to limiting emissions globally so that temperatures do not rise more than 2C.

I don't disagree with the need to make preparations. But if the temperature rises by 4C, we're in deep doo-doo. The positive feedback loops will kick in, with methane released from the tundra, serious polar melting, etc, thus accelerating the rise in temperatures even further. Nothing would be able to stop it.

Thus a DEFRA civil servant forecasts the end of the world.

A new political star is born!

Paris for President! Here.

As they say, go figure. (I mean ... oh, forget it.)

The mysteries of high finance

I was going to write a piece about the banks but I am far from sure that I sufficiently understand the fancy footwork which is going on. Here, for example, is the BBC's Mr Peston on Northern Rock:

The government is to inject up to £3bn of new equity capital into Northern Rock.
Or to put it another way, the nationalised bank is having a mega rights issue that taps its one shareholder.
The way to see it is as a tweaking by the government of its promise that all those taxpayer loans would be repaid.
It's now saying, in essence, that the final £3bn - plus £400m of preference shares that will also be converted into ordinary capital - will only be repaid if the bank is eventually sold and denationalised at a profit.

Clear? Now let's move on to Mr Linklater of The Times on RBS (here):

On the surface, the figures look terrible - a £5billion profit last year has become a loss of more than £1billion, if the figures analysts are quoted turn out to be correct. The anger felt by shareholders at the bank's £5.9million writedown earlier this year has developed into a wider concern by the public, which will see the loss as symptomatic of a decline in confidence in a hitherto impregnable financial institution.
Figures that look stark in a headline, however, are not necessarily the best indicators of a bank's underlying position. What is striking about the reaction within Scotland to the predicted results is how relatively sanguine it is. Most analysts make the point that the bank is still profitable, that the £1billion-plus figure analysts predict does not represent an actual loss, more a potential one, and that, against the background of the global credit crunch, it might in fact turn out to be a pretty good result.

A loss of £1 billion could be 'a pretty good result'? What would be a bad result?

My head hurts ...

It's the taking part that counts

Oh yes, the Olympics. Questions, questions.

Are our druggies faster/stronger than their druggies? Do world records mean anything these days? What new 'sports' do we have to tolerate this time?

And will the BBC overdose itself on coverage? (Looks like it, from the tv schedules.) And why do they employ all these inarticulate ex-athletes? And will Sharron dress provocatively to cover the swimming? Do bears defecate in the forests?

How long will Sue's facelift endure? (At Wimbers, it sort of disintegrated during the second week - something to do with the botox, I think.) But Hazel will be unbearably perky every breakfast-time.

Will girning Andy win a medal for Scotland?

It all starts on Friday. Happily the forecast is for rain.

Music of the week

Something of a wee treat this week:

Quote of the day

Rod Liddle in The Sunday Times (here):

It is said that on the eve of the 1997 general election, Satan appeared before Tony Blair and offered him a bargain. “What is it?” Blair asked the Antichrist.
The Devil replied: “I will give you not just this general election, Mr Blair, but three general elections with crushing majorities. In return, however, I will claim the souls of you and your wife, your children and any subsequent children you have.” Blair listened to this, narrowed his eyes and said: “Um . . . okay . . . what’s the catch?”

Jilted

First you set out to woo her. Then you declare your interest in marriage, preferably on one knee. And you negotiate the terms, the dreaded pre-nup. The prospective mother in law (in this case the British Government) declares herself satisfied, even approving. Then at the last moment you get cold feet. The Independent reports:

The nuclear power generator British Energy today said discussions over a possible takeover of the company have failed to reach an agreement.
The firm, which owns eight nuclear power plants and generates around one-sixth of the UK's electricity, is the subject of takeover interest from EDF, the French state-controlled electricity company.
EDF had been expected to announce a £12 billion deal this morning, but it said last night that "conditions for a major development in Great Britain" had not been met. It did not provide further details.

British Energy has its headquarters in East Kilbride. Is the failure of the takeover a Good Thing for Scotland? Don't know. Does it matter? Yes, enormously. You'll see ...

Not so hot pants

It has nothing to do with the fact that I get excited by Kate Moss. But you have to keep up with fashion, and my current style guru is the wonderful Hadley of The Guardian, a lady whose syntax is as contorted as her views on shorts:

The rise and rise of shorts, in numbers and hem heights, confirms my long-nurtured opinion that, with the exception of poor government funding, nothing has wreaked as much damage on the British fashion world as Kate Moss. Never mind the drug rumours, the sharpness of her hipbones and her impressively consistent taste in moody-looking dark-haired men with an aversion to shaving: no, I'm talking about the clothes she cruelly convinces other people to wear.
Every wrong trend from pirate boots to pixie haircuts has emanated from this young lady, and she continues to prove she is worth more than the millions she gets paid in her ability to convince the British public to wear the daftest things.
Never known to be averse to getting it out, Kate and hotpants were as inevitable a couple as Ronnie Wood and a 20-year-old Russian cocktail waitress, and the fact that she has included them in every single one of her collections for Topshop served to sway the swayable that this is a look they should not only admire in the pages of Grazia, but copy.

Me? No, don't be silly. I'm still wearing shorts I bought ten years ago: M & S, knee-length, respectable, navy blue - you get the picture. But I like to know what I should be wearing if I cared about it.

Nice one

I confess that I laughed out loud when I saw this:

An Open Message From The People Of Naxos, Greece, To Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill Regarding His Crackdown On Happy Hour Drinks Promotions

Same old same old

Professor Neil McKeganey, Scottish drugs prevention guru, writing in The Telegraph, wants to intensify the existing policy:

For the past 15 years, government has pursued a drug policy that has been more about reducing the harms associated with illegal drug use than about reducing the scale of the problem itself.
That is where we are going wrong.
Yes, policy must focus on treatments that enable addicts to become drug free, but also on hard-hitting prevention with robust enforcement.
Policing the problem means tackling street-level drug dealing directly. It must also mean tougher action against those who profit from the trade. We need to ensure that our police are protecting our communities. This will not be done through intermittent, high-profile campaigns, but sustained action.

Now I know nothing about drugs (other than the usual Al K and Nick O'). When I was a student, I didn't move in those kind of circles and, subsequently, I've never felt the need (nor had the opportunity).

But, do the phrases 'flogging a dead horse' and 'pissing into the wind' come to mind? Is more of the same really going to deliver? Did a police crackdown ever solve anything? Even a 'sustained' police crackdown, even if it were possible? How often over the years have you heard of special police task forces set up to deal with the drugs problem? Is more of them going to do the business? Let's face it, the present policy of prohibition, combined with modest support for addicts, has utterly failed.

Disintegration?

Over-dramatic, you think? Well, perhaps.

I suppose that it is a sign. A relatively anodyne, even platitudinous, article by in The Guardian by Mr Miliband has triggered the firestorm. And it is not just the media; 'friends' of Mr Brown and Mr Miliband are briefing and counterbriefing. The leadership of the Labour Party is clearly in play, despite the organisational obstacles to replacement. From now on, anything said by any member of the cabinet will be interpreted and analysed in terms of the leadership question.

Meanwhile the mini-me Scottish version of the leadership question wends its weary way from the starting gate down the first furlong. None of the nags looks impressive. Does it really matter who wins? The most significant development in the press today is the report that in last year's Scottish campaigns the SNP outspent Labour by more than two to one. How the mighty have fallen.

Is there a way back for Scottish Labour? Of course, but it will take time and a lot of hard work to re-build the party structure. And I am not sure that the party leadership has the capacity, the understanding or the will to do it. I hope I'm wrong ...

Holiday attire

Poor old Gordon. His wife buys him a nice new sports jacket and a pair of slacks, but he still gets caned for it in the press.

I'm sure his mother would think that he looked very smart.

And, yes, it's probably the kind of thing I would wear.

Quote of the day

Boris (for yes, it is he, now back with The Telegraph):

For most of the next two years, it can be confidently predicted, the story of the Labour Government will be about coups and plots and Cabinet rivals warring for succession. One day we will be told that the armies of Hattie Harperson are mustering in the wings; the next day the media will be talking up the claims of Geoff Hoon - "Who Hoon?", as Lenin so pungently put it.
One day a female columnist will announce that Miliband has the magnetic good looks to see off Cameron; and the next day a rival female columnist will proclaim that, on the contrary, James Purnell is the man, what with his sideburns and his interesting views on welfare reform.
On and on it will go, day after day, and at no stage will the plotters come within a million miles of actually jugulating Gordon Brown. For all their bluster, for all their off-the-record briefings, they know that the practical difficulties are immense.

Probably right - in any event, a period of calm in the UK labour party would be welcome.

It's not a sprint, you know

So the starting gun has been fired. The BBC reports:

The race to find a new Scottish Labour Party leader is under way after former minister Iain Gray announced he was standing in the contest.
The move came after party officials met to set out the timetable.
There will also be a deputy leadership election after Cathy Jamieson quit the job after more than seven years.
Ms Jamieson, along with Andy Kerr, are thought to be the leadership front-runners. Mr Gray was the first to officially announce he was standing.
...
The new leadership team will be unveiled on 13 September and MSPs have until 1 August to secure the support of five colleagues to go forward to the next stage.

I appreciate that speed has to be balanced against democracy, but a seven week process seems excessive. But the Labour Party seems to be enmeshed in bureaucracy, even as its infrastructure decays.

Linguistic pedantry

You can become obsessed with (but not of) this sort of stuff. The Guardian shows a little respect for language:

If you are bored of columns about language it's possible you will be disinterested in this one. But if reading that sentence made you livid and you feel like breaking off to send me a Mrs Weasley-style Howler message, take a deep breath and read on.
You can be tired of something, or sick of it; you can be bored with, or by it, but you oughtn't, strictly speaking, to be bored of it. And, while we're on the subject of sustaining an interest, being uninterested is not the same as being disinterested. Of course the two are not mutually exclusive, you might be uninterested (couldn't care less) and disinterested (impartial) at the same time, but the two ideas don't usually keep company.

Me, I love it. I'm not disinterested at all.

Now, if I can only restore some respect for the apostrophe, I would be a happy man.

Why Labour lost Glasgow East

It's not so difficult. The Sunday Times has a couple of articles in explanation. First, about Michael Martin aka Mr Speaker:

There is a dynastic quality to Martin’s Scottish political empire. Since 1979 he has been MP for Glasgow North East (formerly Springburn); his son, Paul, was elected to the equivalent seat in the same constituency in the Scottish parliament, despite having shown little dynamism while he served on Glasgow council. At election times, the pair of them appear together on the streets in identical suits and shirts. “We call them the Martin mafia,” laughs an SNP activist.
But this is not just a father-and-son political operation. For several years after Martin became Speaker, his wife, Mary, was also on his constituency payroll, earning £25,000 a year for unspecified duties, even though she was living in London with her husband.

Then we have the former MP, Mr Marshall:

Power has rotted what Labour thinks it stands for in Scotland and now the public smell it. The expenses scandal looming over David Marshall, who stood down from the seat on the grounds of ill-health, was not used by the SNP in the campaign. But people queuing for their rolls and sausage on the Gallowgate talked about it all the same. Marshall is said to have claimed more than half a million pounds to run an office from home, though the rumours are as yet unconfirmed.

Would it be unreasonable to suggest that these people have been in office for too long? And do not believe that they are the only ones.

Prezzies

I confess that I have never understood this business of gifts for visiting US politicians. According to The Observer:

Obama met Brown's children and his brother-in-law during a relaxed visit, during which the Browns presented Obama with books on Churchill and silver photo frames for his daughters.
The Tories had their own meeting between Obama and David Cameron, at which the senator was overheard congratulating Cameron on 'all your success'. The two spent 20 minutes chatting about juggling fatherhood and politics and discussing Afghanistan and the economy. Cameron gave him a box of CDs including albums by the Smiths, Radiohead and Lily Allen.

Why would the Senator want books on Churchill? And his daughters are not really going to be excited by photo frames. As for CDs, Mr Obama seems more likely to be of the i-pod generation. I will leave others to criticise the choice of music - but the Smiths?

A plea

Look guys, just go away, please. There are far too many people reading me. And in the past couple of weeks, there has been an unescapable surge in hits. You must have better things to do.

It's uncomfortable - I'm not a star blogger. I just do my thing for those and such as those. I don't want to be an eminent pundit. People might start paying attention.

So leave me alone to my decent obscurity.

In praise of Random Acts of Reality

It's not often that I get upset by reading the work of another blogger. But this did the trick:

We are called to a young woman in her thirties. Our computer screen sends it to us as a possible broken arm.
As we arrive at the house we are met by the rather excitable husband. He is all sweetness and light, thanking us for turning up so quickly, saying how worried he is and smiling at us a lot.
His wife is in bed, hidden under the duvet, she's fully clothed so we remove the cover to speak to her. She's not very communicative and every time she says something she looks at her husband for approval.

Please read the post and think about it.

The art of politics

Alex took a chance. He didn't need to visit the constituency eleven times. He didn't need to forecast a political earthquake. He could have sat back and relaxed in the knowledge that Glasgow East was not SNP territory. A couple of visits would have been enough to demonstrate that the SNP were taking it seriously enough.

But he committed himself. He may be a smug bastard, but he is a leader. And he has got a result.

Phew! Saved.

Aye, well don't get your hopes up. The FT reports:

The Arctic holds as much as 90bn barrels of undiscovered oil and has as much undiscovered gas as all the reserves known to exist in Russia, US government scientists have said in the first governmental assessment of the region’s resources.
The report is likely to add impetus to the race among polar nations, such as Russia, the US, Denmark, Norway and Canada, for control of the region.
The US Geological Survey believes the Arctic holds 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil, while 1,669,000bn cubic feet of natural gas is equivalent to 30 per cent of the world’s undiscovered gas reserves.

If it's undiscovered, how do they know it's there and how much of it is there?

The USGS report used a probabilistic methodology and included only undiscovered resources that could be exploited using today’s technology.

I think this means that they're guessing ...

Down to the wire

I have been accused of a certain amount of cynicism with regard to politics, an accusation to which I would cheerfully plead guilty on most occasions. But I have been impressed by the Glasgow East campaign.

Perhaps they were not the most astute candidates ever chosen to run in a by-election; perhaps they were not even the first choice of their respective parties. But I can only admire the sheer effort that the candidates of the four main parties have put in. To them, it matters - and they have shown it matters. And even if you do not believe the tales of the thousands of party activists thrown into the battle, it would be difficult to deny that their parties have fully supported them. It is almost enough to restore my faith in politics.

The saddest part of it is that they will be lucky if more than a third of the electorate bothers to vote.

Cookery

I'm a sucker for cookery programmes and this is relatively brief. You have to feel sorry for the poor bloke standing around, trying to make conversation.




I don't agree with the ice cubes - you have to let it chill in the frigo.

The cult of personality

Ann Treneman of The Times strays away from her usual beat at Westminster to visit the Glasgow East by-election and duly discovers the star of the show:

Alex processed (there is no other word) along the pavement. Music blared out of the centre. By chance it was the Pretenders. “'Cause I gonna make you see, there's nobody else here, no one like me,” they sang. “I'm special, so special! I gotta have some of your attention. Give it to me!”
And how he got it. His minders moved us over so photographers could get a clear shot. “My God, it's like Princess Diana!” gasped one chap, as he gazed at the wall of snappers.
Well, not quite, but, on a grey day in Glasgow East, it felt a bit celeb-crazed. The shoppers loved him. He hugged. He slapped backs. He squeezed arms. He chortled. Talk about acting. He put the others to shame. Do they give Oscars for Best Performance at a By-Election?

It's worth reading the whole thing.

Music of the week

Cos I love it:

Quote of the day

Andrew O'Hagan in The Telegraph (here):

"The Nationalists may be nice - or not so nice - civil servants and bank managers, but their vision of modern Scotland is at heart poisonously regressive. They are without intellectual content and their powerful presence in Scottish political life in recent years has done nothing to improve the lives of Scotland's poor. They don't wish to build on the past and be protective of what has been good for Scotland - i.e. the Union - but would sooner drag Scotland back to the mythical glory of a past that never existed."

Overdoing it a bit, I would have thought, but then this is a commentator who thinks that Glasgow East and Govan are neighbouring constituencies (see earlier in the article).

It's a ritual

Did you know that the government has published a green paper on social security promising the reform of incapacity benefit? No, don't be silly, I am not talking about today's announcement - this green paper was published in January 2006. Here is an extract from the ministry's press release:

The paper seeks to end the legacy of benefit dependency and deprivation that can damage communities across Britain.
Our proposals provide a once in a generation opportunity to transform the welfare state. They build upon our principles for reform; rights and responsibilities providing the individual with the support they need to transform their own life-chances, and those of their family.
They include detailed proposals for:
- reforming incapacity benefits;
- a £360 million roll out of Pathways to Work across the country by 2008
- extending support to lone parents and older workers;

Sounds familiar? That's because every two years or so the government announces its intention to reform incapacity benefit. And today's the day, just as it was in January 2006. Incapacity benefit will be replaced (or at least re-named) and reformed. Somehow, however, that ol' man river, he just keeps rollin' along ...

Beer

Here is a profile of the provocative new microbrewery, BrewDog, which seems to enjoy getting in the faces of politicians and health fascists.

On the basis that Scottish brewers should be encouraged, I recently bought a bottle of their Punk IPA in my local Tesco's (not quite so obviously provocative then). Quite nice but a bit more expensive than my habitual diet of Deuchar's and Caley 80/-.

Will I try their Tokyo at 12%? Not a chance. Even the Speedball at 8% is too strong for me.

But the guys from Fraserburgh have an interesting website and an amusing line in marketing.