Clegg first appeared on the scene in Scotland when he took up a post with the Dundee Courier. His interest in politics was not long in surfacing and he enhanced his reputation as an investigative journalist reporting events in Holyrood.
Sky News also employed him to front political reporting of the day in Scotland.
He gained rapid promotion to Assistant then Editor of the Courier between 2010 -2012 before moving to the Daily Record where he reported politics between 2012-2019. A full circle of employment took him back as editor to the Dundee Courier in November 2019.
He is a bit of an enigma socially since there is little on record about him or his family but, based on the coverage of his news and current affairs he established a wide gathering of informers in a short time in Scotland, or perhaps he had friends in “high places”.
His political coverage of Scottish events up to the start of the 2014 Independence Referendum was marked by fairness and gained him a number of awards for political journalism.
But from the start of campaigning in 2014 he revealed his true political colours and they were “Red”. An avid supporter of the Unionist cause the “man from Northern Ireland” courted the wrath of nationalists through his relentless attacks on the SNP (mainly Alex Salmond) supported by the political and legal protection of the Unionist political mouthpiece the “Daily Record”.
Nicola Sturgeon raised many eyebrows when she defended Clegg’s right to free speech in a “twitter” post criticising nationalist supporters (aggressively given the title “cybernats” by Better Together campaigners) who allegedly made threats against him.
Her intervention would have been better received if she had criticised both sides but in any event any political vitriol against her by “Better Together” was somewhat muted by result.
2014 David Clegg and his input to the Scottish Independence Referendum
“Purdah”, the period which prevented the UK government from announcing new legislation to gain advantage over the “Yes” campaign started on 21 August 2014. For those who might not be aware of the legislation the term means:
“Veil on government”, and refers to the pre-election campaign period and provides restrictions on how the government may act, how the Civil Service behaves and the use of government resources during that time.
Like many aspects the UK’s unwritten constitution government, is a mix of convention, precedent, code of conduct and statutory requirement. Additionally there are some aspects of purdah that relate to statutory restrictions on how campaigns are conducted which are set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act of 2000: namely controls on funding and on publicity for electoral campaigns and how the Civil Service needs to be aware of them.
The abuse of “purdah” occurred only 3 days before the referendum in response to informed comment that the “Yes” campaign had gained a small but significant lead in the polls. Murray Foote, Editor and Clegg, then Deputy Editor of the “Daily Record” together with other press figures and heavyweight politicians, published the infamous “vow” which was then given major “air time” on the BBC over the final 3 days of the campaign and other news outlets to the Scottish electorate.
The unprecedented “pledge to the nation” brokered by former prime minister Gordon Brown and Scottish Labour, was signed by the three political leaders at Westminster offering their version of the future governance of Scotland, alternative to independence.
It gave assurance to Scots wavering about complete separation confidence that, if the a “no” vote would still result in major changes and Scotland would be given a much more control over its future.
It proved to be the deal of the century for the Unionists who won over many older voters who were worried sick that their would be massive reductions in their old age pensions which was only one of the many lies foisted on Scots and boasted about after the referendum by the “Better Together” campaign promises. And the delivery? Well that’s another story!!! “Not a lot” as Paul Daniels used to Quip.
There were three guarantees
New powers for the Scottish Parliament. Holyrood will be strengthened with extensive new powers, on a timetable beginning on September 19, with legislation in 2015. The Scottish Parliament will be a permanent and irreversible part of the British constitution.
The guarantee of fairness to Scotland. The guarantee that the modern purpose of the Union is to ensure opportunity and security by pooling and sharing our resources equitably for our defence, prosperity and the social and economic welfare of every citizen, including through UK pensions and UK funding of healthcare.
The power to spend more on the NHS if that is Scottish people’s will. The guarantee that with the continued Barnett allocation, based on need and with the power to raise its own funds, the final decisions on spending on public services in Scotland, including on the NHS, will be made by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament will have the last word on how much is spent on health. It will have the power to keep the NHS in public hands and the capacity to protect it.
2015: After So nearly winning, cheated of victory by the illegal treachery of the reincarnation of a few Daniel Defoe’s at the “Daily Record” the hurt was very painful for Alex Salmond and he stood down handing control of the Party to the ambitious but, untried Nicola Sturgeon anticipating there would be much for her to do to take Scotland forward equipped with many new powers assured by “the Vow”.
That was his big mistake and he lived to regret it. As predicted by Scottish nationalists who had campaigned day and night for nearly a year, Westminster renaged on the promises made in “the Vow”. This was the outcome of the inept bargaining powers of John Sweeney and his SNP team who allowed themselves to be set-up as the lesser particpants in a significant minority with Unionist political Partys’.
In the General Election Unionist party’s were just about wiped out in Scotland. Voters were scunnered with the Westminster cabal who failed to deliver deliver the undertakings contained in “The Vow”.
The reverse being the case in some areas devolved powers had been taken back to Westminster. It was expected that Nicola Sturgeon would announce that the Scottish electorate had given her Party a mandate to declare independence.
But she and her close colleagues lacked the political courage or backbone to do so. This the time Scotland badly needed a leader and Alex Salmond was out to pasture. An opportunity lost and Scotland would pay dearly for this in the years that followed.
2018: Murray Foote went on record saying: “I can no longer stand by while a cabal of a privileged cabal in London continue to deprive our sons and daughters the right to decide their future. Whilst an independent Scotland will face “financial challenges” in the years after a “Yes” vote and there will be difficult decisions to be faced and sacrifices to be made what troubles me more is the prospect of bequeathing to my daughters an isolated Britain governed indefinitely by the progeny of Westminster and their ilk. I have reconciled that independence will herald good and bad but I trust in Scots to solve the problems that will come our way. If so many other countries can, it is inconceivable that Scotland can’t. Were there to be another independence referendum, I will “strap on my work boots and take that leap” to support the campaign.” David Clegg, who participated in the betrayal of Scots offered no comment preferring to keep his head under the parapet!!!
2016: The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP)
The programme, introduces future power-brokers-to-be to the American way and is designed to pinpoint future VIPs. It was used in the early 1980s to reach out to young Labour politicians, including Blair and Brown, at a time when scepticism about the Atlantic alliance was prevalent within the party.
It is a highly prestigious and expensive (around £10k) programme and participants are hand-picked to spend typically three weeks visiting Washington DC and three additional towns or cities, meeting their counterparts and other VIPs and experts – all highly valuable networking experience for any ambitious young man or woman on the climb.
Conspiracy theorists say the scheme is all about an imperial power meddling in the affairs of sovereign regimes, seducing their future political leaders and moulding them into Washington-approved candidates. It is a prime example of US “soft power” in action, shaping first impressions and casting America within the context of one’s own ambitions, aspirations, ideas, and possibilities. But not everyone views the programme so benignly. There are those that argue that the notion of a major power courting the future elite of another nation state offers cause for alarm. (BBC)
In Jun 2016 a group of Scottish political activists with the approval of Party leaders were selected to participate in the IVLP progamme (while parliament was in session at Holyrood and Westmister). Among those attending were: Kezia Dugdale (leader of the Labour Party in Scotland (who authorised her own attendance); Jenny Gilruth, SNP, MSP, parliamentary liaison officer for John Swinney; Liz Lloyd SNP Senior political advisor (SPAD) to Nicola Sturgeon; David Clegg, Journalist at the Daily Record.
The presence of Clegg and the publicised togetherness of the group in America surprised political observers and disappointed many Scottish Independence supporters who were affronted by the decision of the Party leader to authorise the attendance of SNP officials on the course with an arch enemy of independence.
In America the group met-up with Patrick Grady (SNP Westminster chief whip) and Angela Crawley (SNP member of the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee) were also in the US at that time.
Shortly after their return to Scotland Dugdale advised the press that her new partner was, Jenny Gilruth, SNP, MSP for Mid Fife and Glenrothes who was first elected to Holyrood in May 2016. The visit to America would prove to be an eventful one in a number of ways in the future.
The attendance of Liz Lloyd on the course although criticised was proper, always providing she observed the roles and responsibilities of her employment as a SPAD
SPAD’s are not civil servants but as paid employees of the State they are – subject to specified exceptions – required to conduct themselves in accordance with the “Civil Service Code.”which states that the highest standards of conduct are expected of them.
“Specifically, the preparation or dissemination of inappropriate material or personal attacks has no part to play in the job of being a special adviser as it has no part to play in the conduct of public life.
“Any special adviser ever found to be disseminating inappropriate material will automatically be dismissed by their appointing minister.
“Special advisers…must observe discretion and express comment with moderation, avoiding personal attacks.”
“All contacts with news media should be authorized, in advance by the appointing minister.”
Right at the at the start of devolution a young and charismatic politician emerged and imposed himself on the Scottish political scene only to be destroyed by Unionist politicians who feared him.
He led the the Scottish electorate protests against the community charge (or ‘poll tax’) which Thatcher’s Tory government introduced in Scotland to replace the existing system of household rates and successfully campaigned against warrant sales, which publicly sold a householder’s possessions to pay tax arrears. In his first attendance at Holyrood he got the law changed. His campaigning saw Tommy jailed for six months, but while in Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison, he was elected to Glasgow City Council representing the Pollok ward.
He founded the Scottish Socialist Party in 1999 and became its leader and was elected as a member of the Scottish Parliament in the same year, representing Glasgow. A passionate conviction-politician he was demonised by some but praised by many more. In his time at Holyrood he gave away half of his MSP salary, preferring to live on the wage of an ordinary working person.
His party gained electoral success in 2003, when it returned six MSP’s to the Scottish parliament, including himself. But, concerned his party was becoming a one man band he stepped down from the leadership role providing opportunities for others in the Party to come to the fore. This proved to be the undoing of himself and ultimately his Party whose members could not agree common policies and the resultant in-fighting ended its brief but eventful existence in Scottish politics.
Outside parliament Tommy won £200k in damages from Rupert Murdoch’s sleazy organisation after the now defunct and disgraced News of the World newspaper printed unfounded allegations about his private life. But only later a police investigation was launched following complaints from the same press source that Tommy had lied to the jury over a minor point of law. In a highly questionable follow up action Tommy was jailed for contempt of court. In the year of his incarceration and the years that followed he did not receive one penny of his successful claim against Murdoch and without income he, his wife and child were dependent on their family for support. An unnecessary hardship imposed on innocent parties.
On his release from prison Tommy rightly went after Murdoch for his money but the media baron was not finished with him and asked the high court to overturn the verdict of the jury who had found in Tommy’s favour.
After a lengthy deliberation the appeal court rejected the Murdoch application and awarded Tommy the full judgement of £200k, but in a bizarre judgement it refused to award Tommy interest on the £200k that had been withheld from him at the time he was in jail.
Tommy appealed to the “Court of Session” that the “Appeal Court” had erred in its judgement. His argument won the day and the “Court of Session” awarded Tommy interest totalling £176k.
The judgement of the “Court of Session” was that Tommy had won his case against Murdoch press bullies and the imposition of a custodial sentence on him for a misdemeanour in law in no way influenced the jury against Murdoch. But Tommy was forced to wait nearly 8 years before Murdoch paid him a penny.
Why was Tommy jailed? The answer is simple. He was a “pain in the butt” to the established political system and needed to be removed, regardless of right.
Unelected “invisible establishment controllers” won the war. Tommy was finished as a politician, destroyed by unfounded, unsubstantiated innuendo about his private life.
What of the future? It is within the grasp of Scots to set aside any negative views of Tommy cruelly created in their minds by those who wish to take Scots down the WOKE road.
He needs to be rehabilitated as a leading politician heading “Alba-Under-One-Banner” in its marches for freedom from the clutches of Westminster and the WOKE nutters of the SNP/Green Alliance.
Independence supporters need to get a grip and seize the agenda
An Independent Scotland will remain a dream until Scots rally under one banner and defeat the forces of evil that have held Scotland captive for over 300 years.
In the years leading up to and after the signing of the infamous “Treaty of Union” political rivalries encouraged an avaricous elite to abuse their status and sign away Scotland’s independence.
And English politicians at Westminster were quick to seize the opportunities gifted to them. They destroyed the Scottish economy by removing acccess to foreign trade through Scottish ports making a potentially difficult exercise easy by blockading the seas around Scotland commandeering or sinking any ship not flying the red ensign.
They betrayed just about all of the written undertakings they had signed off to in the “treaty” not to interfere in the internal affairs or governance of Scotland. The independence of the Scottish legal system was rapidly eroded, then eliminated and replaced with Westminster dictates. Scots are now unable to “fart” without the permission of Westminster politicians.
Westminster politicians always fearful of the strength of the Scottish Clan system, that had denied them the freedom to control and subjugate Scots for hundreds of years set about destroying it using their tried and tested division and rule tactics playing one Clan against another feeding on the greed of influential individuals whose eyes were diverted away from the welfare of their friends and families by the glint of English gold. But these measures were time consuming and progress was slow so they played the religious card pitting Central and Southern Scots against their brothers in the North with the promise that the United Kingdom would become one of the most propersous countries in the World if only the “Church of Rome” followers in the North could be brought to heel.
The 1745 rebellion provided Westminster with just that opportunity. The “Jacobites” who supported the return of Charles to the throne of England and Scotland took their fight to the gates of London only to be betrayed by the French and English who failed to link with them and carry the battle to London. The long retreat of the “jacobite” army back to the highlands of Scotland was not made easier by the refusal of Scots occupying the lands below the “Firth of Tay” to provide shelter, food or indeed any assistance to them.
The demoralisd and almost defenceless “Jacobites” were wiped out at the “Massacre of Culloden” and in the 15 years that followed an English army garrisoned Scotland, north of the Tay and ruled the region through martial law.
Not content with these measures Westminster then removed Scotland’s troublesome leaders by eliminating the “clan” system and anyone associated with it and removed all lands north of the Tay from Scottish ownership transferring all of it to the English aristocracy and their supporters.
But there remained problems yet to resolve namely removal of any threat of violence forever against the new English landowners and a need to release English army forces who had been occupying the North of Scotland for many years, to fight new wars in Europe and further afield as England expanded it’s empire.
The solution was to “clear the lands “North of the Tay” of anyone whom the landlords wished to get “shot of”. The clearances did just that. Near 90% of Scots living in the North were thrown off the crofts they had lived on for centuries and hundreds of thousands of their families were forced onto small boats, incapable of safe ocean going and transferred to the new colony’s on the other side of the Atlantic. Many thousands didn’t make the journey and were dumped overboard to feed the fishes.
The enslavement and forced shipping abroad of so many Northern Scots, for that was what it was, solved a problem for the English Landlords who were able to flood their ill-gotten lands with sheep making fortunes from the sale of mutton and wool to the many new armies Westminster was deploying in it’s invasion of countries all over the “new World”. But Westminster achieved it’s principle objective.
It would no longer get it’s arse kicked by rebellious Scots whose finest fighting men perished at the hands of their own countrymen at the “Massacre of Culloden”. Scotland died that day and the English landlords still have control and ownership of the North of Scotland and many other parts.
I believe it is impossible to snuff out a dream and Scotland might yet return to the league of nations a free land but we need a charismatic leader capable of gathering and leading many hundreds of Scots already sworn to the common cause of independence, nullifying the impact of the many political conspirators and rabble rousers placed in Scottish society “feathering their own nest” in reward by their Unionist party mentors.
Is there such a person in Scotland at this time?
Alex Salmond? No, he is a very able elder statesman who need to be called upon to voice his opinion at times when the impact of his intervention can be assured.
Facebook warriors? No, Their memberships’ thinking is disparate and it is this volatility that is holding the cause of independence back. What is required is for all of the Facebook groups to link under one banner “Alba for Scotland”. Now that would be a sea-change for the independence movement.
Wings over Scotland? No. The blog owner “the Rev” was a thorn in the side of the Unionist for over eight years but recently closed the most effective organ for disseminating anti- unionist propaganda in the public media and it is doubtful it will return.
All under one Banner? No, But the potential for the group to be the vehicle that drives a “campaign for independence” to victory is there, but it badly needs a home, financial probity and a leader able to marshall and inspire supporters of independence who have proved their loyalty time and again marching in all weathers and donating their hard earned money.
Were it in my power I would link Alba and All Under One Banner under a new name “Alba Under One Banner” and insist that “Alba” politicians and leaders be in the leading group at every public event. It from that entity that a leader might well emerge.
The Scottish National Party? No, The Party has lost it’s way. The “before” 2014 politicians are growing old and retiring from the fray, the fire of independence in their bellies has been extinguished.
The 2015 intake of Amazonian “wanabee” politicians promoted well beyond their capabilities by the SNP leadership are now running the show and independence is not the motivating factor that drives them politically.
They are not prepared to game the system preferring to stick with the status quo which provides them with all the taxpayer finance they need to progress their WOKE agenda to the detriment of the nation.
Nicola Sturgeon’s Speech at the Doors of Westminster
“The SNP will be the principled opposition in this place to the Conservative government. The SNP has worked long and hard in this election to make Scotland’s voice heard. To have people in Scotland in such overwhelming numbers put their trust in us is fantastic, but also is a big responsibility. We are determined to make Scotland’s voice heard here in Westminster, but we are also determined to be that voice for progressive politics that we promised to be during the election. To stand up to policies from a Conservative government that will damage Scotland and to make common cause with others of like mind from across the UK.”
No mention of independence from a Party leader who preferred set the tone by committing the Party to the promotion of progressive politics. Whatever that meant!!!
Beguiled by Westminster Largesse
The House of Commons is a comfortable place to be. The terrace bar, with Big Ben bonging into the night, has the best view in London: to the left, the soaring faux-gothic buttresses of the Palace of Westminster, to the right the London Eye, straight ahead a scene of double-decker buses crossing Westminster bridge. It’s like the opening scene of a Hollywood film set in London. And all around, arresting sights such as Michael Gove drinking heavily subsidised white wine and large groups of men (Tories? Maybe not…) getting in the even cheaper champagne it’s the best workplace ever. There’s a ton of bars and restaurants where MPs hang out at all times of the working day. SNP MPs have colonised the Sports and Social Club, which is where a lot of the parliamentary staff go, and which has a karaoke night. And there are always colleagues around to gossip with. People keep having conversations about “the Tories’ evil plan”, which I only belatedly realise is actually their EVEL plan. It’s only been a couple of months, but the consensus is that the SNP MP’s are fully institutionalised and chastised where needed. Firmly in the past is the “clap-gate” incident when – instead of uttering “hear hear” at something they agreed with, as if they were 18th-century landowners – they broke into the new fangled concept: applause. The Daily Mail piped in: “Show some respect! Furious Speaker Bercow rebuked new Scots Nat’s MPs for breaking strict Commons protocol by clapping during the Queen’s Speech debate.” Portrayed by the Unionist Press as ignorant ruffians unworthy of a seat in the Commons they now comply with all parliamentary traditions and procedures. (Carole Cadwalladr)
The Commons sews its seeds in all who enter it. In an instant raw politicians are made to feel they are no longer simply human. They are “special”. Accompanying their large salary there is a budget for staff hire, generous allowances affording the lease or purchase of luxury accommodation in the most expensive capital city in the World, travel and subsistence and other allowances totalling well in excess of £150 annually. Head spinning stuff!!! Its beguiling influence is addictive and its destructive power has compromised many SNP MP’s who first went there in 2015.
The Westminster trap – another view
You go there full of cocksure rebelliousness. Stupid rules – who cares about the rules. You get into fights in the playground with the older boys, and take no crap about clapping in assembly. But “Westmonster” as some SNP people call the UK Parliament, has been around a long time. It has seen off socialists like Keir Hardie – who caused outrage because he wore a deer-stalker to parliament. It dealt with Parnell’s Irish nationalists, with Suffragettes, Militant Tendency and grade-A parliamentary delinquents like our own Alex Salmond, the first MP to disrupt a Budget Speech in 1988. And it’s still there, with all its fripperies and anachronisms, like the cloak room hook to hold the Hon Member’s sword. The Palace of Westminster is a powerful institution which uses its own often archaic rules and conventions as a means of diffusing political discontent. You see it with Scotland’s MPs. Suddenly they are wearing ties and suits, speaking respectfully to Mr Speaker, agreeing not to clap and promising to be “good parliamentarians”. (Iain McWhirter)
The Sewel Convention Con Trick
The Sewel Convention, under which Westminster supposedly refrains from ruling on devolved issues without the consent of the Scottish Parliament, is froth, mince, tripe, baloney and codswallop. It has no legal force. The clause in the 2016 Scotland Act, which supposedly placed Sewel on a “statutory footing”, was just there to fool the natives into thinking their Parliament’s powers were “entrenched” and irreversible. Holyrood’s legislative powers are clearly and explicitly on loan from Westminster and liable to be over-ridden as and when the UK Government chooses. No one will believe a word UK ministers say in future about the powers and constitutional standing of Holyrood; not that many of us did in the past. (Iain McWhirter)
English Votes for English Legislation (EVEL)
English Votes for English Legislation (EVEL) breached the fundamental principle that all members of the house are equal . Non-English MPs, by Commons convention, no longer vote on “English” bills. This means that Scottish MPs are excluded from whole areas of legislation where they are denied a vote. A change slipped through by parliamentary sleight of hand and the English Grand Committee will gradually extend its influence. But the Scottish Government opposes the change because many supposedly “English” bills on the NHS or income tax, have financial consequences for Scotland. It also means that Scottish MPs are second-class citizens.
Gerrymandering the Scotland Bill
Scotland’s only Tory MP and Secretary of State for Scotland, Mundell, proposed 80 technical amendments to the Scotland Bill , stating: “some are amendments in terms of the usual changing of commas and apostrophes and these sort of things. However, the bulk of them relate to technical procedures and a rearranging of previous proposals. In three cases the amendments will reserve additional powers to Westminster. Under clause 43, the Scottish Parliament will not be able to raise levies on postal operators, electricity or gas for the purpose of funding consumer advocacy.”
Scotland Bill: the 3rd reading at Westminster Allocated 6 hours of debate to decide on 253 amendments.
The Scotland Bill was rushed through without adequate discussion before SNP MPs parked their bums on the green benches of the House of Commons ensuring that the legislation would be on the statute books well before the next Holyrood elections. The bill as it stands is a stitch-up and places a fiscal time bomb under Holyrood.
SNP Welfare Improvements Rejected
Proposed amendments to the Scotland Bill submitted by the SNP giving the Scottish Parliament the power to design its own welfare system were rejected by the Unionists. Unionist politician and Scottish Secretary Mundell insisted that the Unionist’s stance was fully in accordance with the Smith Commission’s recommendations. The rejection came after the Unionists also voted against proposals from the SNP for an “Economic Agreement” between Westminster and Holyrood which would eventually lead to full fiscal autonomy. They also voted against a proposal for an independent commission to examine the effects of full fiscal autonomy. Responding, Angus Robertson MP said: “This is typical Unionist arrogance. Mundell, the only Tory MP from Scotland arrogantly refuses to listen to the representatives of the people of Scotland and supported by his Unionist colleagues vetoed without reason or explanation every single proposal submitted by the SNP. And this at a time of savage cuts to the welfare state by Unionists causing real hurt to hard working families and vulnerable people, forcing hardship on and driving increasing numbers of Scots to food banks. Welfare powers should be transferred to Scotland honouring the spirit of the 3 Party Leaders’ Pledge to the people of Scotland just before the Scottish Independence Referendum.”
It is Time to Boycott Westminster
I monitored debates, discussions and voting in the House of Commons from the time the 2015 General Election landslide which returned 56 SNP MP’s. Day after day the SNP group took their places on the benches and participated in fruitless discussions and debates. Their presence in the Commons was mocked, abused and ridiculed by the Speaker and Unionist politicians who protected their vested interest by ensuring the SNP group were side-lined and rendered irrelevant. The response from the SNP contingent should be to withdraw participation from all business of the Commons including committees. This should be done while retaining all rights and privileges (office, travel subsistence, staff, etc) the right of MP’s. The boycott of the House of Commons would enable SNP MP’s to spend more time in Westminster resolving their constituents problems and concerns. The foregoing could be implemented without any financial detriment to the Westminster SNP group. Political business between Scotland and Westminster would then be completed through the offices of the Scottish First Minister (advised by the MP group), who would be permitted permanent use of a committee room at Holyrood.
Devolution powers shelved at the last minute from Smith Commission report
New powers were formally committed to in the heavily promoted Unionist “Vow” made in the last few days before the 2014 independence referendum.
The Smith Commission Panel subsequently agreed to a full devolution of abortion law, the creation of a separate Scottish Health & Safety Executive, lotteries, asylum and a much greater say in the governance of the BBC.
Devolution of income tax personal allowances, bands and rates, employers’ National Insurance contributions, inheritance tax, the power to create new taxes without Treasury approval and a raft of other taxes were also agreed.
But all of the foregoing changes were axed, in the final day, at the instigation of Unionist parties, without explanation.
So what happened?
There were nine cross-party meetings over seven weeks prior to the publication of a agreed draft of “Heads of Agreement” proposals on 21 November 2014.
It was later confirmed that Commission panel members of Unionist persuasion, MSP members of political parties incorporated in Scotland and allegedly independent of Westminster were frequently on the phone taking instructions from their UK party leaders in London, with the LibDems and Tories particularly exercised about welfare proposals and Labour more focused on tax.
The Commission chairman, Lord Smith of Kelvin, also gave impression he added weight to the views of the three main Westminster parties over panel members.
A source said: “The position that Lord Smith took was that if the parties who were either in the current UK government or might be in the next refused to budge on something, he went with it. The Unionist votes counted for more.”
The BBC inadvertently revealed that the draft version of the agreement included late proposals submitted by the Scottish lib/Dem leader, to devolve power to vary Universal Credit a key plank of the Westminster Coalition government welfare reform. But the commitment to permit the Scottish government to vary its components were dropped after the UK Cabinet was informed.
Universal Credit is supposed to merge Jobseeker’s Allowance, Housing Benefit, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Employment and Support Allowance. Only a power to vary the housing cost element remained.
The decision to devolve abortion policy had been agreed on a 4-1 basis, with only Labour opposed to it. In the draft version of the report dated 11.15am on November 26 – the final day of negotiations – stated: “Powers over abortion will be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.” But throughout that same day, Labour kept pushing its opposition in one-to-one meetings with Lord Smith, who then raised it again with the other parties. The Tory members then sided with Labour and the commitment to devolve abortion was removed.
Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Greens, who sat on the Commission, said: “The reaction against devolving abortion in the final few days surprised and disappointed me. Concerns that Scotland would do the wrong thing and undermine women’s rights are misplaced. The real threat to women’s reproductive rights comes from the voice we hear at Westminster.”
The draft also stated: “Power to establish a separate Scottish Health & Safety Executive to set enforcement priorities, goals and objectives in Scotland will be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The body would be required to operate within the reserved UK health & safety framework but would assess, set and achieve the health and safety objectives of most relevance and importance to Scotland.”
The policy, long supported by Labour and the trade union movement in Scotland was struck out and relegated to the “additional issues” annex of the final report, which said the Scottish and UK governments should merely “consider” changes.
Also included was an agreement that: “The power to permit the creation and regulation of new lotteries in Scotland will be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.”
But the final report devolved only the power to “prevent the proliferation” of highly addictive gaming machines known as fixed-odds betting terminals.
Also missing from the final draft was a statement that had said: “There will be greater Scottish involvement in BBC governance beyond the current right to have one Trust member and the current Audience Council Scotland.”
And a year later
SNP’s leader in the Commons, Angus Robertson, asked David Cameron about “The Vow”, stating:
“One year ago today, to the day, the Prime Minister made a “Vow” to the people of Scotland. Promises were made to deliver Home Rule and as-near-to-federalism-as-possible.
However, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown now says that the UK Government is, and I quote, “falling short on the delivery of the recommendations of the Smith Commission on Scottish devolution”. When will the Prime Minister deliver on the promises that he made to the people of Scotland?
2005 – The Who’s Who of the Tory apparatchik organisers of “Fever” the largest upper class only sex orgy ever held in Britain
The principle organiser was self made millionaire Eddie Davenport who gathered his made his first £m in his teens through his organisation of the infamous underage sex Gatecrasher balls and is now a property tycoon worth £133m. He spends six months a year in Monaco as a tax exile sharing £200-a-night hotel suite with two women and shares a £15m London pad with three more. He was seen kissing and fondling a girl on the orgy bed at his latest sex orgy venue, a luxury property in central London which he purchased from the Sierra Leone government in 2002 for a knock-down price of just £50k.
David Russell Walters: By day the ex-Tory candidate is the boss of the anti-Europe Democracy Movement. By night he is the orgy master tending to guests. At the party he looked on as four girls, one a Dutch rowing champ, pleasured each other.
Jonathon Friedman:– The brains behind Fever’s image. Spends hours “dressing” rooms with pink satin, chocolates, fruit, and jelly babies to energise the participants. Was seen canoodling on a bed with a stunningly beautiful American blonde.
Emma Sayle: A diplomat’s daughter. Dad, an OBE, was a colonel with the Welsh Guards. Regarded as one of Britain’s best and most upmarket swapping party organisers “Killing Kittens” she did not participate in the orgy.
James Hayter: A professional rugby player, around 6′ in height and weighing around 15 stone he was hired as a bouncer but lust got to him and he stripped off and got stuck into the action.
Dougie Smith: Senior Conservative Party strategist. A founding member of “Fever” the 42-year-old, who preached the Tories’ morally-focused back-to-basics policy, was forced to cut his links with “Fever” and now advises and writes speeches for senior Tory MPs.
Wealthy Good Looking Punters
The Charity Boss: International charity director had sex with a female TV production company boss.
The Crime Boss: Heir to a multi-million crime empire, bonked French, Russian, Italian models and a well known fashion designer.
The Wild Child: Raunchy daughter of a legendary rock star had public sex with a top media lawyer.
The Film Director: Movie bigwig and his catwalk model lover had sex with at least seven other couples.
Michael Bates: The Architect of PFI (Rewarded with a life peerage by John Major). As Lord Bates was responsible for administering overseas aid through the Department for International Development (DFID)
Geoffrey Robinson, Labour Party Paymaster General (expanded PFI with a vengeance)
Private Finance Initiative (PFI) –
By 1997 the Tories had exhausted most of the possibilities for the direct sale of state-owned assets. Public transport, utilities, energy and communications infrastructure had all passed into private hands, raising £123bn. What remained was services – health, education and local government – impossible to privatise without guaranteed profits.
Facilitating the changes required the state to continue to levy charges from every individual taxpayer for the service concerned in the form of taxation and passing the collected revenue to the private sector as profit.
Gordon Brown talked of ‘risk transfer’ to the private sector, but, in reality the state retained the real risk so far as the private sector was concerned. That of getting the money out of the taxpayer.
Multinationals did not have to worry about whether or not they would collect payments from the ‘taxpayer’ the state would continue to take care of that.
This was not a problem for the new owners of gas, electricity and telecommunications industries: they would simply cut off consumers if they failed to pay their bills.
In education or health this was not acceptable but private capital still needed to make a profit from running these services, and that required cuts, whether in services, or in the pay of the workers providing them, or both.
Universal provision would be further eroded since it was services to the working class that bore the brunt of any cuts.
Unelected Now Lord Dunlop Arch Right Wing Tory Minder at Scottish Office for Mundell
PFI – Rejected by labour in opposition but embraced just as soon as they took office in 1997
When Labour first came to office in May 1997, PFI under the Tories had stalled.
On taking up office New Labour appointed Geoffrey Robinson to the post of Paymaster General.
Working with Gordon Brown’s Treasury team he proclaimed his and the labour Party’s support for PFI and contracted Michael Bates, (later knighted for his services to privatisation) then head of global finance services organisation AMP, to complete a review of PFI. His report presented a glowing future for the country under the PFI banner.
Tony Blair & Gordon Brown soon kick-started a programme of change through the establishment of a dedicated Treasury taskforce to handle the process across government.
From £7bn in April 1997, the value of PFI contracts rose to over £25bn by October 2000 with a further £11.5bn in the pipeline.
The first £14bn of PFI would yield the private sector a guaranteed £96bn income over a 26-year period and estimates were that PFI contracts could be worth £30bn per annum to the private sector, £5bn in education alone, including one in five schools.
To promote it, new quangos were formed. The New Local Government Network (NLGN) and its equivalent for the NHS, the New Health Network (NHN). Connecting them was the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) and part-privatised Treasury taskforce, Partnerships UK.
Previously, public-private partnership used to be called corruption. Now it became the norm – private companies no longer needed to bribe public officials to influence policy; they worked openly with the enthusiastic support of said officials in deciding what service was next for sell off.
A typical example was the plan to close down Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and associated financially lucrative premises in the middle of Edinburgh, and replace them with a new hospital built by a private enterprise consortium on the outskirts the city. The area got a new hospital, the consortium got the business, but the people of Edinburgh got a hospital with 300 fewer beds than originally planned and substantial cuts in staff.
John Major and his secret lover Edwina Currie. John sent the first PFI team to Scotland to kick-start the PFI process in Scotland (shades of the Poll Tax. Try it on the Jocks first)
1996: John Major Sent Civil Servant John G Henderson (Civil Servant) to Scotland to Develop PFI – These are his memories of the Early Days of PFI: “When I arrived as head of the Private Finance Unit PFU it was just after the 1997 General Election. I had some experience of PFI in my previous job funding further education colleges, but I had much to learn. Fortunately, most other people had as well. It was a time of rapid change. There were doubts about the ability of local government and health bodies to undertake PFI, and the policy had yet to deliver its potential. The first Bates Review was quickly upon me, and I had to quickly assess its implications for Scotland. The key recommendation was the establishment of a Treasury Taskforce under Adrian Montague. I was very lucky over that first summer in having a mini-taskforce in Edinburgh in the Shape of Charles McLeod, who was at the time working with the Panel Executive. Charles was both a source of information and an inspiration with his can-do attitude. That, of course, led to his later success heading the 3ED team in the Glasgow schools project. Once Adrian was in post I recall meeting him in London when he came to brief the late Donald Dewar with Geoffrey Robinson, at the time Paymaster General. This was the beginning of a very constructive relationship with the Taskforce. Particular mention needs to be made to the assistance that David Goldstone and Lindsay Watson gave to pathfinder projects such as the Glasgow and Falkirk schools. On the delivery front a key requirement was to get PFI established in local government. It was natural that the focus should be on schools, with the new Government’s emphasis on ‘Education, education, education. To achieve success in schools projects we had to roll-out a system of revenue support, called level-playing field support. This helped make projects affordable and incentivised authorities to develop schemes. That combined with the skills in project teams, consultants and bankers led to breakthroughs such as the £65m Falkirk schools project, the first large bundled deal in the UK. http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/1069/0005211.pdf
Labour Lib-Dem Coalition Government in Scotland – Scottish Executive Private Finance Unit – The Key Role of Captain Charles McLeod MBE
McLeod’s employment record is chequered. Born in London, he spent his first seven years in Rhodesia, before moving back to England and Kent, where he spent much of his childhood. A spell in the army preceded his attendance at King’s College, London, where he gained a BA (Hons) in German, after which he went to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He served as a platoon commander with the British Army for 10 years, and saw service in Northern Ireland. He eventually became captain in the Queen’s Regiment and was later awarded an MBE for his services in Northern Ireland. He left the army after 10 years and joined the Foreign Office (diplomatic service) taking up a post as monitor (spook) for the European Community Monitor Mission in the former Yugoslavia, and went on to work as a political adviser to the International Conference in the region.
September 1995 – September 1997: On return to the UK from Europe he joined the Tory government’s “Private Finance Panel Executive”, working out of the Treasury Office developing with others the concept of using private finance to fund public utilities. Still with the team and now a civil servant he was seconded to the Scottish Office where he helped the Inland Revenue and West Lothian College with restructuring projects. He then worked out of the Scottish Office restructuring local government funding. He also worked with Falkirk Council procuring their first schools project for five new schools, the first grouped schools PFI project in the UK. Still with the Scottish Office he went on to prepare and introduce local government restructuring policies for the distribution of local government finance.
The Ugly truth of the labour Party and PFI – Typically the unitary charge is three to five times the capital cost, and on more egregious PFI projects as high as seven.
May 1996: PFI conference in Edinburgh: The conference discussed what the establishment of a devolved Scottish Parliament meant for joint projects. Would a Scottish Parliament look to private finance to play a role in its plans for Scotland’s infrastructure? Speakers from local government, the construction industry, finance and business brought their views on current arrangements and possibilities for the future. Charles Mcleod, MBE Alistair Darling MP led discussions outlining Labour Party’s proposals. https://mars.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/egenda/images/att45923.pdf
1997: In Scotland the Directors of Education Services and Financial Services submitted a joint report to the “Scottish Executive Private Finance Unit” on a feasibility study for a PFI project in education.
February 1998: Glasgow City Council decided to reduce its secondary school estate from 38 to 29 secondary schools and reinvest the savings. An outline business case was prepared to assess the affordability and value for money of a PFI for the modernisation of its secondary school estate. Subsequent developments relating to the modernisation of Glasgow secondary schools buildings and the introduction of an ICT programme were based on this Council strategy.
August 1998: In November 1999 the 3ED Consortium was selected as the preferred bidder to provide accommodation services for 30 years and ICT services for 12 years. The agreement was titled Project 2002.
September 1997 – January 2001 (3 years 5 months): Captain Mcleod resigned from the Scottish Office quango and transferred his employment the newly created 3ED Glasgow private Consortium. He assembled then guided his team setting up the award winning Glasgow Schools PPP.
The £225million construction programme of change included, establishing a 30-year maintenance and a 12-year programme of Information Technology Services for 29 secondary schools and one primary school. He further delivered 10 additional new secondary schools within the client’s affordability. Won Project of the Year Award at the 2001 PPP Awards and Education Project of the Year at the 2002 PPP Awards.
October 1997 – August 1998 (11 months): Captain Mcleod Departed 3ED and joined Miller Construction as Business Development Manager.
June 1998: Captain Mcleod directed the development of Group strategy, establishing a new division to secure major PPI regeneration and partnership projects. Teams were quickly formed and trained and bids submitted for a number of PFI projects.
Brian Wilson (Labour) Minister for Construction – Given a Key role implementing New Labour’s PFI policy
April 1999: The row over Scottish Labour’s support for the Private Finance Initiative deepened after the party treasurer called on it to ditch the policy.
Bob Thomson’s appeal came just days after leading Unison union official Mark Irvine resigned from the party over policies, including the use of PFI to build hospitals and schools. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/scotland_99/news/321519.stm
June 1999: The Scottish Administration promised reform of the controversial private financing of public sector projects in Scotland. Finance Minister Jack McConnell told MSPs new measures would be introduced to protect public sector workers’ pension rights and prevent revenue from surplus land being lost by the government. He also said the government would make it possible to buy back buildings when PFI contracts expired and return them to public control. In a debate initiated by the Scottish National Party, ministers were accused of allowing privatisation of school, hospital and transport projects “by the backdoor”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/377145.stm
November 1999: 3ED Consortium selected as the preferred bidder to provide accommodation services for 30 years and ICT services for 12 years. To start at the beginning of 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/502582.stm
January 2001 – March 2003 (2 years 3 months): Amey inc: restructured creating a Scottish corporate presence (Amey Scotland PLC) allowing it to “focus more closely on Scottish business opportunities, reducing operating costs”.
Amey: A FTSE 250 construction company metamorphosed into a support services business. Scottish turnover was c.£100m, generated by 1,400 employees.
Amey was the lead partner in the 3ED consortium formed specifically to provide £1.2b for the Project 2002 schools’ modernisation programme in Glasgow, the largest PFI scheme in British education.
The project included a £225m capital construction programme, establishment of 30-year FM and 12-year ICT services for 29 secondary schools and one primary school and delivered 10 additional new secondary schools.
Amey then won a £360m schools contract from the City of Edinburgh Council. Under the 30-year contract, 10 new primary schools, two special schools, two high schools, a secure unit and a community centre would be built, and three high schools and one special school would be refurbished.
Amey was also involved in running a large number of public sector services, including Railtrack (it was a contractor at the time of the Hatfield crash).
Amey also planned to expand into the health sector, specialising in the provision of back-office and administrative systems for hospitals rather than front-line medical care.
Amey won the right to provide road maintenance projects including a 176m contract to maintain eight motorways and 16 trunk roads from Perth to the Borders.
In addition, Amey won an 8m a year contract for 10 years to maintain all roads in North Lanarkshire.
Labour Party Minister of Construction PFI Brian Wilson (Now semi-retired from politics and a Multi-millionaire) Nice one Brian
August 2001: an article in the Guardian reported that teachers at a Glasgow PFI school were threatening strike action due to the poor standard of rebuilding and refurbishment work.
Staff complained that on returning to the school for the new term building materials and equipment still lay in the corridors. Five schools involved in the scheme failed to open on time and teachers reported that classrooms were much smaller than promised and that there were fewer of them.
Poor school design led to soaring temperatures in classrooms. Children fainted in the heat. The highest recorded temperature was 38 degrees in Home Economics department. It was later identified that designs did not take into consideration that departments had ovens. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1500052.stm
March 2002: Amey announced radical changes in its accounting policies. Under the changes, Amey would write off all bidding costs and similar costs incurred in winning work as and when they were incurred. In addition Amey committed to spreading income it would have received on the closure of a project over its early years, so deferring this income. Previously, it had deferred or capitalised costs only when it was named preferred bidder. The changes led to a 17% decline in Amey’s share value and turned the company’s £55m profit for 2001 into a pre-tax loss of £18.3m. It also highlighted concerns that Government’s PPPs could be jeopardised by the City’s concerns over new accounting standards.
November 2002: Amey reversed an earlier decision, announced to the City, to pay a 1.16p interim dividend costing £2.9m because it had “insufficient distributable reserves”. Shares in Amey slid a further 15% to 26p; meaning 90% of the company’s market value had been lost. Amey tried to offload its equity stakes in all of its PFI contracts – with the exception of its one third share in the Tube Lines consortium.
Poor building standards blamed for the collapse of PFI built building wall at Oxgangs Primary School in Edinburgh
December 2002:Amey announced plans to slash £85m from the book value of its assets and warned shareholders that pre-tax results would take a further hit because of contract delays on the London Underground public-private partnership. Amey hoped to offload its PFI contracts to John Laing before the year end raising around £50m – some £30m less than book value.
January 2003: Amey sold its stakes in eight PFI projects to rival John Laing, including 30-year building and maintenance contracts for Glasgow and Edinburgh schools, but retained sub-contracts to provide cleaning and IT services.
January 2003: Leading PFI firms including Amey, saw their share price fall. An investor who brought £100 worth of shares in each of 9 leading PFI education firms would be left with just £371 worth of shares – a loss of £529.
March 2003: Amey posted a pre tax loss of £129.5m for 2002 compared with £18.3m in 2001. Amey sacked its Chief Executive and two finance directors. The company stated it had incurred exceptional charges of £110.2m in 2002, mainly through writing down PFI investments such as the Croydon Tram-link. Figures illustrated the fluctuations in the stock market which characterised and influenced private companies’ performance and viability. This made clients of the consortium 3ED, which included schools in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk and other Council operations, very vulnerable. Private companies have no statutory responsibility nor public duty to provide education services nor are they democratically accountable to their communities. They are bound by contracts which can be varied or broken. Profit to the private sector from outsourcing to contractors arises from money previously ear-marked for the benefit of schools and their pupils. This is achieved by reducing the service through efficiency gains or reductions in provision. But the addition of a profit margin and the providers’ management and staffing costs to the contract mean that the real cost of providing services increases.
April 2003: Amey goes bust Sold for £81m to Ferrovial, a Spanish construction and business services giant, which assumed debts of £190m.
Ferrovial Servicios, whose British interests had been limited to a half-share in Bristol Airport, said it intended to use Amey as a stepping stone into the world of PPP in the UK and further afield.
April 2003: The board of troubled Amey PLC – once one of the biggest PFI firms – agreed to an £80m takeover offer by Spanish construction group Ferrovial. Amey was until recently a construction and services powerhouse worth £1bn. But it squandered its advantages – contracts to take over parts of London Underground and various Ministry of Defence and Network Rail deals – through mismanagement and too-fast growth. A black hole was found in the accounts, leading to the exit of two finance directors and, finally, the removal its of chief executive.
May 2003: The Glasgow Herald, reported that that the Financial Services Authority would investigate possible insider dealing following unusual share price movements before the takeover of Amey by Ferrovial Servicios. Shares in Amey had changed hands in unusually high volumes prior to the takeover by the Madrid.
Meanwhile, the torrent of academic papers critical of the PFI continued. Inveterate critic Allyson Pollock, head of health policy at University College London, shredded the performance of a PFI scheme for the new Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh.
In the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary a 24% reduction in numbers of acute beds was supposed to have been offset by efficiency improvements and greater use of care outside the hospital. But these aims had not been met, claimed Pollock and co-author Matthew Dunningan, writing in the British Medical Journal. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/482840.stm
In the Glasgow City Council schools project charges for accommodation in year one grew from £24m in the feasibility study to £36.7m in the Full Business Case (FBC). Seven swimming pools were lost along with classrooms and staff common-rooms. The original requirement for refurbishment of 26 schools and the construction of two new schools changed to the construction of 12 new schools as this would be more profitable for the construction company.
Allyson Pollock – Head of health policy at University College London
The National Audit Office – the spending watchdog, called for more transparency in PFI bond issues, while the Conservative Party accused Gordon Brown of being the “Enron chancellor” because he used PFI to push spending off his balance sheet. A recent study by consultancy “Capital Economic” suggested that £22bn had been moved in this way. The labour government insisted any criticism was simply petty politicking. Brian Wilson, Minister for Construction (in executive control of PFI policy in Scotland) claimed it was ludicrous to highlight as typical a few PFI deals that have gone wrong.
Did the labour Party set up it’s own PFI then sell Scottish utilities back to the party
A company that made many millions from the Scottish taxpayer was Amey’ It soared into the new PFI market, strongly backed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (Putr), the biggest accountancy firm in the county. It was PwC, for instance, which persuaded Glasgow and East Renfrewshire councils in Scotland to hand over the running of their schools to a consortium led by Amey. The public private partnership (PPP) for the Glasgow schools led to widespread protests in the city, especially over the closure of swimming pools. To make matters worse for the company, the Scottish government auditors were unhappy when they studied the “public sector comparator” in which private consortia bidding for PFI contracts are expected to show that their project is cheaper than additional procurement would have been. The auditors concluded:
“The result of the public sector comparator test does not indicate compelling evidence that the PFI deal offers the most economic option compared to conventional procurement.”
Few paid any attention to that warning. Amey and PwC were a convincing double act and went on winning PFI contracts to run schools all over the country, most notably in the London borough of Waltham Forest.
Into the bargain, and just to prove the firm’s close association with the government, Amey was awarded a £35million – 35-year contract to run an “accounts service” for the department of trade and industry.
A Closer Look at Amey PLC Scotland
Meantime there were warning signs that all was not well with Amey. At the beginning of 2002′ Amey was knocking at the door of the Footsie top 100 companies in Britain. But by late summer the share price had slumped. The firm was obliged to admit that its stated profits of £55m were in fact losses of £l8m. How had such a glaring mistake been made?Amey put most of the blame on something called Urgent Issues Task Force Note 51, a note issued by the accounting standards board. This specifically prevented an accounting trick which companies like Amey had used to massage their figures into something very different to the reality. One way they did this was to pretend that the vast costs of bidding for a PFI contract were “investment” and therefore need not be set against profit figures’. This was nonsense and should not happen again the auditors note insisted. So Amey said publicly that because of the accounting standards note, with which it obviously disagreed, it had to admit that a hefty profit was really a hefty loss. Even this turned out to be deception. ln August 2002 David Miller, Amey’sfinance director, resigned. He was replaced by Michael Kayser. Kayser soon discovered that the Amey accounts were worse even than had appeared in the summer crisis, and that the firm’s prodigious losses were caused by much more than just a note from the accounting standards office. As soon as he absorbed the state of the accounts, Kayser resigned. The remaining directors brought in a partner from Deloitte and Touche who insisted that £122m – an enormous sum for a company the size of Amey – should be written off. The 2002 Amey accounts indicated that the huge write-off was necessary for reasons far wider than the accounting standards note. The accounts referred to “write-downs of construction work in progress balances and forward loss provision for which previous optimism as to the recovery. .. has not been born out in Practice”.
Amey charged Council £2000 to plant a tree
Amey had set up “a subsidiary appropriately called “Treasure Park,” half-owned by another company run by a businessman not entirely unknown to Brian Staples, Amey’s chief executive. Because this management was known as a JANE (‘joint arrangement not an entity’)
Amey hoped to avoid Losses on its Croydon Tramlink PFI catastrophe and at the same time book some profits to close the £55m hole.” This it plainly failed to do. Chief executive Staples took a pay off of a quarter of a million quid and went to join the board of a company called “IMI” and sat on the audit committee there. Amey, however, had lost an enormous sum of money, not just by fiddling the PFI books but also as a result of the deranged optimism that plagued a lot of construction companies at the time.
Part of the reason for this was the absurd faith placed in the company by the PFl – crazed New labour government. For instance, just as its 2002 financial difficulties were being unveiled, the Amey board was joined by a New Labour leader of utmost prominence. Baroness Jay had been New Labour’s leader in the Lords and a member of the cabinet. She joined Amey when the company most needed her prestige. Among her fellow directors was former Tory secretary of state for education, John Patten whose abilities had been questioned by John Major, former Tory prime minister, who suggested his problems in the education department had brought about something close to a nervous breakdown. Patten’s job at Amey was to keep a reliable eye on PFI contracts in schools.
The three Amigo’s Falconer, Mandelson and Jay (chairman of Amey)
In 2003, Amey posted a loss of £130m and was duly gobbled up by a Spanish building company called Ferrovial. Sceptics in the City were surprised that the Spaniards would want to buy a clapped-out loss’ maker like Amey. But the Spaniards’ enthusiasm was easy to understand. Amey was still part of a consortium bidding for a PFI contract to run the London tube. The cream from the tube would easily drown the losses of the past. Thus was Amey’s survival due in no small part to the chancellor, Gordon Brown, described in the Eye as “the only person left in the country who still believes the London Underground should be flogged off to companies such as Jarvis and Amey“. There was, however, one other Person who, despite all the evidence to the contrary, continued to believe in the magic of Amey. In August 2003, at the depth of Amey’s misfortune, Nigel Crisp, head of the NHS, put Ken Anderson in charge of Tony Blair’s ‘fast track’ hospitals”. Texas born Anderson, former development director of Amey, (now the new commercial director of the NHS) whose job included tempting private entrepreneurs with records as impressive as Amey’s to run newly privatised diagnostic and treatment centres. So Amey owned Scotland’s public utilities and New Labour runs Amey!!!!!
Gordon Brown when Chancellor sold Scotland’s public utilities to the private sector for a pittance then committed Councils to entering endless leasing schemes at exorbitant cost to the taxpayer. Many people made multi £B’ns from the sweat of Scottish taxpayers. The buck rested at the doors of the Labour Party which was complicit in the transfer of massive amounts of real estate and services from Public ownership to the private sector. Adding insult to the injury is that the bulk of the money is now in the hands of foreign countries and off-shore hedge funds. Crazy.
It is just over a century since women first gained the right to vote. Today their female descendents in Scotland continue to shape the evolving SNP.
Nicola Sturgeon is the first female First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party. On the importance of equality for women, she said:
“Celebrating a century of women’s suffrage is a great occasion. Not only does it remind us of women’s achievements – it provides the opportunity to inject new momentum into encouraging more women into politics and public life. While we’ve come a long way since 1918, much still needs to be done if we are to eradicate gender inequality and create a fairer and more prosperous country. Equality for women is at the heart of our vision for an equal Scotland. Our resolve is to use the powers we have – powers which in many ways we owe to the suffrage movement.
But Sturgeon’s rhetoric and the politics of her Party don’t match since her efforts and those she has gathered around her are evidenced by Scotland’s reputation as the fastest growing most unequal society in Western Europe.
Sturgeons Women
Mhairi Black:
MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South and the youngest MP in 350 years. Her message to young women who want to get involved in politics today is: “Have courage of conviction. Know your stuff inside and out and don’t be intimidated.”
Leader of Glasgow City Council said: “While I am leader, the administration of Glasgow City Government will be an unashamedly feminist one.
We will have women and women’s priorities and family priorities absolutely at the centre of our policies, in the political decision-making process.”
The Reality is Derelict libraries, shuttered museums and austerity max. Take a look at what the SNP administration has done to Glasgow, if you can stomach it.
Destitution, litter, fly-tipping, drug deaths, pothole-strewn roads, shuttered shops — and a city centre locked in a seemingly unstoppable downward spiral…
Of course Covid has contributed to these dire straits, but it only accelerated a process already well under way — and there’s even worse to come with a fresh round of swingeing cuts.
The city famously hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2014, but now it’s emerged that 40 sports venues or pitches, five libraries, and 11 community centres or halls will stay shut following lockdown. Three museums are also listed as not due for re-opening, including the city’s historic Scotland Street School, though it will ultimately be turned into a nursery under plans approved as the second lockdown hit. (Graham-Grant)
Kirsten Oswald:
As Business Convener for the SNP she was responsible for overseeing operational matters and chairing the National Executive Committee and National Conference on female representation:
SNP Chair and East Renfrewshire MP Oswald was slammed for her party’s lack of co-operation with the Scottish Parliamentary inquiry into the Scottish Government’s botched handling of alleged harassment complaints against Alex Salmond. Asked repeatdly to clarify exactly when she became aware of the Peter Murrell, SNP Chief Executive texts advocating “pressure” be put on Police Scotland to investigate Mr Salmond and if she informed other party officials and what other action, if any, she, as chair, took. There has only ever been silence.
Oswld and SNP financial matters: Another scandal in which Oswald attacked long serving and loyal officers of the party for daring to expose potential fraud:
Question Time – Sturgeon lied and no amount of whataboutery from Oswald can save her
When challenged over the First Minister’s misleading of the Scottish Parliament, Kirsten Oswald MP did what the SNP have been getting away with doing for years — shifting the blame;
Changing the subject and making irrelevant comparisons with others. Oswald quickly pivoted to say it would be “inconceivable” to imagine the Prime Minister taking part in an eight hour committee session as Sturgeon had done.
Her clunky gear change caused Private Eye editor and fellow panellist Ian Hislop to pounce. With his trademark quizzical expression, he asked: “Do we have to change the subject, can we get back to Nicola Sturgeon please? I know it’s very impolite to interrupt but why are we talking about Boris?
Oswald repeated her wholly irrelevant comparison.
Hislop fired back: “He hasn’t lost £500,000 of public and given it to Alex Salmond. Can we never talk about Scotland, does it always have to be referred back down here? This tactic has got a name — whatabooutism (or whataboutery) — and has its roots in Soviet Russian propaganda. The SNP are its modern-day masters. The Nationalists came to power in Scotland in large part by relentlessly blaming everyone else, especially the UK government, for all of Scotland’s problems. For years under Sturgeon, the SNP have presided over a series of unmitigated scandals and incompetence. Our once world-leading education system has fallen down international rankings; infrastructure projects arrive late and massively over budget; the justice system is at breaking point. I could go on. But whenever anyone dares challenge their woeful record of misrule, whataboutery is deployed with a shameless zeal that would make the Politburo blush.
The sick kids’ hospital in Edinburgh late and over budget … what about English NHS waiting lists? An SNP MP travelled between England and Scotland knowing she was Covid-positive … what about Dominic Cummings? Sturgeon misled parliament … what about UK ministers? The difficulty is that after being in complete control of large swathes of devolved power for so long, the SNP’s finger pointing routine is wearing a bit thin. With power comes responsibility. (Lucia Gomez)
Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse and Minister for Older People and Equalities and Shirley-Anne Somerville, MSP for Dunfermline and Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People rake in an extra £65k and 50K on top of their near £70k salaries as MSP’s yet neither woman has raised a single motion relating to the elderly or the scandal of 1,949 Covid-19 deaths in Scottish care homes. And adding insult to injury they refused to support calls for the appointment of a Commissioner for Older People in Scotland to safeguard human rights, despite the creation of a similar post in England and Northern Ireland.
Elderly rights campaigner Helen Biggins said: “What is the point of having these ministers if they are not going to do their jobs and stand up for old people? Both Shirley-Anne Somerville and Christina McKelvie have said very little that I have heard to stick up for the citizens they are being paid well to represent. They have been missing in action. It is as if they think the part of their job to represent older people is a thing tagged on the end that they would rather forget about. The past six months have seen horrific deaths in care homes and in the community, as well as thousands of people really struggling in isolation. Serious questions need to be answered, yet these ministers don’t want to appoint a Commissioner for Older People. I think they should at least have to explain why that is and also explain why they have failed to table motions relating to older people since the beginning of this pandemic.”
Serious concerns have been raised over the elderly being pressured to sign Do Not Resuscitate notices and the transfer of Covid-19 patients into care homes, and hundreds of families remain furious at restrictions on care home visiting rights.
Just for the record: McKelvie and Somerville have lodged a series of motions with the Scottish Parliament since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis. But none of them relate to the plight of older people, despite their job titles and the loss of life in nursing homes and hospitals. Since March, none of Somerville’s nine motions or McKelvie’s two have related to the elderly. McKelvie’s ones were calling for Parliament to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and in support of new laws on female genital mutilation. Somerville, meanwhile, lodged a motion calling for Parliament to support human rights for ethnic minority groups through Covid-19, for better social security support for children and in support of civil partnerships. A no comment response was received in answer to a request for comment from the persons concerned. The Scottish Government confirmed that a Commissioner for Older People was not under consideration (Daily Record)
Councillor Mhairi Hunter, Convener for Health and Social Care Integration on Glasgow City Council and Carer for her dad: On why she’s involved in politics, she said: “I was brought up in a political household in London so it was quite normal to be involved in politics and be active. What makes me continue to be involved is just believing people together can achieve a fairer society and can improve the quality of life for people.”
So square that with this: Mhairi Hunter and Jennifer Layden are both senior councillors in Glasgow whose roles are regarded as a full-time commitment because of their additional responsibilities over a backbench councillor who is paid at two-thirds of the full time rate. The full-time rate can vary depending on the nature of the role and according to Glasgow’s Register of Interests Layden is paid a salary of £35,000 while Hunter receives £26,000.
Yet both SNP councillors have other paid jobs – Layden works in Humza Yousaf’s office having previously enjoyed a similar role in Margaret Ferrier’s, while Hunter has a role in none other than Nicola Sturgeon’s office and a separate paid commitment as a member of Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board.
But of course councillors should be properly remunerated – The independent (SLARC) committee recommended a new salary structure for elected councillors in Scotland in 2006. But the committee is being systematically abused because no one has been scrutinising its work since the former SNP finance minister, Derek Mackay – who resigned in disgrace of course, decided that independent oversight was no longer necessary and that the SLARC committee should be disbanded. The upshot is that we have large sums of public money being used to pay Glasgow councillors decent salaries to perform a wide range of part-time and full-time jobs – yet these salaries are also being topped up by Holyrood and Westminster SNP MSPs and MPs employing councillors in their offices. The system is being ‘gamed’ when the public interest demands independent scrutiny, openness and transparency.
Kirsty Blackman MP for Aberdeen North – former Deputy Westminster Leader. On the importance of diversity in politics, she said: “I am so passionate about trying to improve parliament to make it better reflect the diversity of those who live in our country. Being a member of parliament should not be a job only for middle-aged men. I believe better laws and decisions are made if they’re proposed and scrutinised by folk from a wide variety of backgrounds. I first became an elected councillor in Aberdeen when I was 21. Politics isn’t about making speeches in parliament or in council chambers – it’s about the people we help every day and the positive impact we can make in our communities.”
But what about Scottish nationalism?
She is markedly less keen to talk about Scottish independence, the SNP’s founding principle. She says she is not in Westminster to pressure the government for a referendum. “I don’t think most folk in their daily lives give two hoots about whether Scotland is a member of the union. The constitutional issues are not the biggest concern for an awful lot of people and, in fact, I very rarely talk about Scottish independence in the chamber.”
One of the most disturbing group of exchanges between women and Blackman revealing just how dangerous Sturgeon, Blackman and her ilk are to the future of Scotland.
Blackman embodies everything that is wrong with the SNP. She gives the petulant children a voice and sees no consequences for using ‘Feelings as Facts’.They egg her on and she likes to liked by them. Expertise and ability are nothing compared to ‘likes’. No doubt she will retreat into her personal problems as so many of the OutforIndy crowd do when confronted and it dawns on her what she has done. She was not up to her job as deputy Leader and the difference in competence between her and Cherry is so wide as to be ridiculous when you think of the role she had. Perhaps she got a few home truths as to her abilities and productivity? Like so many of her ilk she sees clever troublesome women as a problem. Better to all support each other’s incompetence and say how nice they all are. After that is what matters apparently. ‘Be kind’ Kirsty, that is the mantra isn’t it? Except when you are setting the hounds on a colleague with your shrill dog whistle. I know who I would want in my corner in the existential battle for Scotland and its people and it isn’t a woman who speaks, dresses and behaves like a overwrought toddler.
Joan Sturgeon Mother of Nicola, a long-standing SNP activist and former Provost of North Ayrshire Council. On women leading the way, Joan said: “As the mother of a female political leader I have seen how difficult it can be to be taken as seriously as men in the political arena. Through history it was mainly women though who kept the home, saw to the children and dealt with the tasks thought to be beneath men….that takes strength and determination.
The North Ayrshire PPI Scandal
A contract was signed by North Ayrshire Council (NAC) for a PPP/PFI deal to build 4 schools. The council is now paying £1million a month to service the debt, and will be until about 2038.
At the time and leading up to its signature there were concerns amongst councillors about lack of transparency and procedures. A police investigation was launched in 2006 and “found no criminality”.
But the investigative skills of reporter Campbell Martin exposed clear evidence casting doubt as the probity of the bidding procedure (one of the two competitors was clearly a shell company created to give impression of multi-bidding. So there was no competition. Goddness and the police missed the obvious!!! Did they really investigate as they claimed they had?
Campbell Martin’s exposure rattled cages in the council and wiider afield and in February 2018, the Council, despite an amount of obfuscation and delaying tactics by senior Council officers asked the police to investigate the allegations again.
Feedback from the police revealed nothing new and reporter Campbell Martin submitted a number of Freedom of Information requests to the police whichlargely went unanswered. And despite a formal intervention from the Data protection ombudsman to release full details of their investigations not a lot was released
But the ever dogged Campbel Martin kept on digging and finally revealed a “can of worms” so rotten even Sturgeon would not take the bait.
A bitter pill for the taxpayer to swallow was the action of a senior civil servant who, as a member of the government’s PFI team responsible for the imposition of the then Coalition government’s PFI policies attended a meeting with North Ayrshire Council councillors armed with with a brief to practice “mushroom management” and reveal little information of any consquence. Best for all concerned if theu councilllors were to be stonewalled. Which they duly were. The civil sevant was Leslie Evans!!!
Fast forward a few years and a slap in the face for Nicola Sturgeon’s mother,(Provost of North Ayrshire Council) when her daughter chose the self same Leslie Evans to be her Permanent Secretary in the Scottish Government. A decision without logic!!
Councillor Rhiannon Spear represents Greater Pollok on Glasgow City Council and is an elected member of National Council. On her own personal experience in politics, Rhiannon said: “My experience of being a young woman in politics is the very reason why I will continue to campaign for change. My experiences of sexism has been frequent and at times severe. No party is immune but within the SNP I have found a space that allows my voice to be heard and allows me to encourage more young women to let their voices be heard, long may that continue.”
Personality
She is strikingly attractive, highly intelligent and gifted with a natural ability to attract attention, unfortunately not always to her benefit. She is feisty, strong willed and determined to succeed at any task she is minded to take on. She is media savvy and possesses first class skills including the production of excellent graphics for social media presentation and discussion. One of her many character weaknesses is her abject inability to accept criticism and her single-minded approach to her work. She needs to learn that political life is not a Religion and she is not the Pope.
WOKE
She is the driving force behind informal WOKE campaigning individuals, groups, charities and formal groups promoting and implementing WOKE agenda’s in all of the state schools in Scotland. The bulk of WOKE activities, including resources and staffing, (£3-5M) is funded by the Scottish taxpayer through the SNP government. The unhealthy influence of WOKE minded politicians is being planted across all aspects of Scottish society as each day passes.
Politics
Joined the SNP in 2011. Jointly founded Generation Yes, the national youth campaign for independence in the run up to the 2014 referendum. National Convenor of YSI for two years from 2015–17. Elected to the SNP’s NEC in 2016. Scottish Parliament Candidate for the Glasgow List in 2016. Elected Councillor for Greater Pollok in 2017. Successfully proposed motions at SNP Conference on all female lists, inclusive education and raising the age of military recruitment to 18. Chairs TIE an LBGTI government funded charity which is remitted to support Scottish Education bodies providing LGBT-inclusive education in Scottish Schools. Actively promoted the #Metoo movement denouncing sexual harassment on campus at University of Glasgow.
Charlotte Armitage is an SNP activist and National Equalities Officer for YSI. On her personal experience, Charlotte said: “As a young woman in politics, I know how it feels to be dismissed, or valued only for how I look rather than what I say. It is this reason why it is so important that we continue to campaign for gender equality and societal change, just like our suffrage sisters did before us. We have achieved hugely notable changes in the last 100 years and it is encouraging to see many strong female leaders in Scottish politics today. However, women remain underrepresented, harassed and in threat of violence. To me it is clear there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve absolute gender equality, but I am confident that the SNP is paving the way for an Independent Scotland that has gender equality at the forefront.”
Australian-born Deidre Brock is MP for Edinburgh North and Leith. On helping other women, Deidre said: “A century ago some women got the vote. It took ten more years to get the same terms as men. In 2018 politics is a better place, but still an unequal place, and the best tribute to the women who led the way is to keep the campaign rolling.
Reach out a hand to help another woman up; be a role model so girls growing up today know it’s normal to have women in politics; stretch the hand of sisterhood across political divides – you don’t have to agree with her to defend her right to speak; look to the future and work for a better and more equal tomorrow.”
WestminsterCareer politician: Front-bench MP in the SNP group with responsibility for Devolved Government and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Sits on the Scottish Affairs Committee and is a member of a number of cross-party groups. Not a great deal of evidence to support any claims that she is interested in campaigning for Scottish independence. Most likely leans towards federalism.
Lari Don Born in Chile, and travelled widely in South and Central America as a child, before her family settled in North East …is a children’s author and a local activist in Edinburgh North and Leith. On creating our future, Lari said: “As a writer, I spend a lot of time talking to kids about characters solving their own problems. I also tell lots of myths and legends where the girl doesn’t wait for a boy with a big sword to save her from the dragon. My feminism and my support for an independent Scotland come from the same determination not to wait for someone else to define and sort out our problems. Now, the ‘big boy with the sword’ next door is the one causing most of our problems. It’s time to use our votes to create our own future…”
Farah Farzana is an SNP activist and Women’s and Equalities Officer for her local branch. On her personal experiences in politics, Farah said: “As a local election candidate, I became aware of the lack of equal and proportionate representation in local authorities. The SNP have led in gender balance but more work needs to be done to create an ethnicity balance too. If we don’t speak up for justice and fairness, then we will only hinder our progress.”
But BAME is what drives her politics. A summary of her argument in support of centralised directed selection
The 2021 election saw the first use of an equality mechanism in candidate selection. Not all members agreed with the strategy, posing the question, should selection of candidates come down to the person most capable, or is there more to it? But there are a fair number of people within the Party from minority ethnic groups who are more than capable of becoming an elected member. So why so are there so few? This is evidenced through each election campaign; most recently the constituency selection process saw one new ethnic minority candidate come through from a possible 22, plus an incumbent. As branch members, office bearers and executives we must examine our internal structures and ask, why? Be prepared for uncomfortable truths.
Inclusion, diversity and equity for a truly representative Parliament, was my maxim for the campaign as it will be for the upcoming Council elections. In an ideal world, there would be no need for any sort of equalities mechanism because our governments would be populated with, at least, minimal proportional representation. So how to do we get there and what has this issue got to do with the Independence referendum? Voters considered ‘hard to reach’ may feel like outcasts due to negative schooling, neighbourhood, employment, benefits, police or local authority experiences. This leads to another question: why would an individual participate in societal matters when that same society has marginalised them? The simple solution would be to reach out and be inclusive. However, if this were the case we wouldn’t have the problem in the first place. So we must continue to address the issue. The strength of the SNP BAME Network lies within proposed strategies to maximise voter and membership engagement:
Actively involve identified branch members in discussions and encourage their participation. There is no such thing as a stupid question.
Overcome communication barriers by using everyday English, and where possible, provide written and oral formats.
Provide alternatives to the pub to show respect to those who don’t drink or feel uncomfortable in an alcohol environment.
Encourage diverse members to come forward for office bearer positions or vice positions. This helps provide experience, confidence and guidance as they learn.
Listen to their perspectives with an open mind; these members have valuable lived experience, and chose the SNP to bring about political change. Let them know their opinion matters.
Being active within the Party helps activists communicate within their communities – a skill necessary to promote conversations around Independence and build rapport. If local people see a member of their own community elected then they are far more likely to engage in conversation, thereby encouraging trust and helping us gain support. We all have the same goal. Experiences from the BAME Network add quality to our efforts to spread our message of Independence, peace, respect and hope further than ever before.
Clare Adamson WOKE, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw and Convener of the Education and Skills Committee. On breaking down barriers in the workplace, Clare said: “Thanks to the tireless work of thousands of women over the last hundred years, we have achieved great progress. However, it is still obvious that today women from all women from all walks of life still face institutional bias and we have to continue to move forward towards true equality. “Prior to becoming involved in politics, I worked in the male-dominated IT industry and became all too aware of the issues women still face in the workplace every day. I’m really proud that the SNP remains committed to empowering young women and I am pleased to see more women represented in politics and in STEM than ever before. We must remain steadfast until we see true equality in representation, pay and in the boardroom.”
Erin Mwembo is a WOKE SNP activist in East Lothian and local branch office bearer. On getting involved in politics, Erin said: “Over the last 100 years, we have made huge progress in equality. I’m so lucky to live in a time where strong, inspiring women are in positions of power and challenging the status quo. These women have made me feel like I have a place in politics, a place to make my voice heard, a voice that is as valuable as any one else’s. I joined the SNP to make my voice heard, after feeling incredibly empowered by the likes of our first minister. Although we have made progress, there’s still more to be made. We are only going to near genuine gender equality by getting more and more women involved in the decision process and in male-dominated industries. To people interested in getting involved: Do it. For the now and for the future.”
Michelle Campbell, Councillor, represents Erskine and Inchinnan and is the Council Group Secretary. On her hopes for the next 100 years, Michelle said: “As a women in politics, I work hard to rid gender typical views when I am working with some who may be assumptive – that is the challenge and I will always push for progress. My hope for the next 100 years is this becomes a history lesson and is no longer a relevant issue. In Scotland, we are at the helm of this progress and I am proud to be a women in politics within the SNP.”
Kirsty Jarvis is an SNP activist in Fife and local branch office bearer. On the importance of this centenary, Kirsty said: “100 years ago women won the right to vote, today we can vote, stand in elections and become the First Minister of our country. Women have just as much of a platform and as much of a right as men to make a difference to our society and have their voices heard and to represent the voices of other woman.”
Eva Bolander is Lord Provost of Glasgow. On her personal experience, she said: “The experience of becoming a mother in Scotland made me more politically aware and later active. Having had the experience of growing up in Sweden, being young when the universal childcare reform and other equalities legislation were introduced there made me realise what a fundamental importance these political decisions had for creating a progressive, prosperous and inclusive society. And that is the Scotland I am working for now.
Councillor Michelle Campbell represents Erskine and Inchinnan and is the Council Group Secretary. On her hopes for the next 100 years, Michelle said: “As a women in politics, I work hard to rid gender typical views when I am working with some who may be assumptive – that is the challenge and I will always push for progress. My hope for the next 100 years is this becomes a history lesson and is no longer a relevant issue. In Scotland, we are at the helm of this progress and I am proud to be a women in politics within the SNP.”
Gillian Martin is MSP for Aberdeenshire East and Convener of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee. On improving the political environment to encourage women to get involved, Gillian said: “It’s getting slightly better but more female voices on television, radio, in newspapers and events panels talking about political issues is an absolute must – if we’re not seeing women represented in any of those arenas it needs challenged. The Holyrood press pack is overwhelmingly male and I think it has an effect on the discourse. I hope in a future independent Scotland we’ll be able to leave the adversarial patriarchal style of politics behind that despite efforts to be different we seem to have inherited from Westminster and have a more can-do collaborative progressive style like our Nordic friends seem to have and that will encourage more women to stand.”
Ruth Maguire is MSP for Cunninghame South and Convener of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee. On how it is ‘deeds not words’ that matter, Ruth said: “We’ve come so far since 1918 but we’re not there yet, amongst the myriad of inequalities girls and women are faced with we remain stubbornly underrepresented in politics and public life. If you are a women who cares about her community, her country, know that your voice, your ideas and your opinions matter and need to be heard.
“And for me and my colleagues in Parliament and Council chambers, it is not good enough for us to say, ‘Well, I’m here, so that’ll do.’ We need to do everything in our collective power to break down the structural barriers that are in the way of others, in particular BME women and women with disabilities. Deeds not words as our sister suffragettes would have said.”
Nicola Sturgeon has been asked to clarify the Scottish National party’s stance on transgender rights following the leak of private messages between three prominent female MSPs that claim the first minister is “out of step” with her party.
The conversation, which was tweeted as a screenshot on Tuesday evening but timestamped February, appears to have been prompted by Sturgeon’s comments in an interview that she recognised some women had concerns about the implications of her government’s proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA), such as allowing individuals to change their legal gender by means of self-declaration.
Cathie Johnston represents Cumbernauld South on North Lanarkshire Council. She said: “Women over 30 getting the vote in 1918 was a positive step. Since then, women have became more confident in their own abilities. However, I would like to see women being stronger in their own beliefs and acknowledge their own strengths more. Always believe in yourself, work hard and don’t forget your roots – or those without a voice.”
Ash Denham is the MSP for Edinburgh Eastern and Minister for Community Safety. On representation, Ash said: “It’s 2018 but still neither Holyrood nor Westminster Parliaments have 50/50 representation. Gender balancing measures work, so the political parties that haven’t introduced them should be compelled to.”
An SNP junior minister is facing deselection amid unrest among activists over her hotel bills and decision to school her children privately. Community safety minister Ash Denham is engaged in a bitter fight for the party’s nomination for Edinburgh Eastern in the face of a challenge from a high-profile city councillor. Holyrood figures show the MSP, who lives in the Borders, claimed nearly £16,000 from public funds for Edinburgh accommodation and meals between 2017-18 and 2019-20, even though the parliament is in her constituency. Opponents have claimed Denham gave an undertaking to transfer her children to a state school, although she denies this.
The Scottish National Party has backed changes to prostitution laws to criminalise those paying for sex, but not those who sell it. Delegates at the party’s conference in Aberdeen voted in favour of a motion proposing a “Scottish model” to handle prostitution, similar to the “Nordic model” used in Scandinavian countries. The resolution, proposed by MSP Ash Denham, stated that “commercial sexual exploitation, including prostitution and human trafficking, is a form of violence against women”.
Rona Mackay is MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden and Deputy Convener of the Justice Committee. On delivering a better Scotland for future generations, Rona said: “I have been very lucky to have had strong, inspirational female role models throughout my life, leading me to feel able to be involved in politics. I am particularly proud of our party and how many female representatives we have. To me, it is so important we all work together and have as many women as possible in leadership roles to achieve a better and fairer Scotland for future generations.”
Maree Todd is MSP for the Highlands and Islands region and Minister for Children and Young People. On how far we’ve come and how far we’ve got to go, Maree said: “We have come a very long way in 100 years. My grannies had only two choices for careers – domestic service or following the herring. Not only did I have the chance to get a science degree at university, I now serve in Government!
“We still have a long way to go though. I hope that my doing this job, inspires girls growing up in the Highlands and Islands to believe they can do anything – including politics. We might be a bit reluctant to put ourselves forward still, but when we do speak up, we speak well and make a difference.”
Julie Hepburn is a long-standing SNP activist and member of the National Executive Committee. On her motivation for political activism, Julie said: “I’ve been a member of the SNP for almost two decades, and while political activism can be tough at times, for me it’s been an overwhelmingly positive and empowering experience. “Politics is the vehicle through which we achieve change, and I am determined to help change our communities and our country for the better. Securing independence for Scotland is the single most important change we can make to deliver a fairer society and better life for everyone who lives here. That’s why I’ve dedicated my adult life to campaigning for independence.”
I vividly remember attending my first SNP Conference 20 years ago in Dundee. The whole conference was alive with debate, ideas and personalities, and there was some stooshie over housing policy. It was fantastic. Like a number of people, I was hesitant about joining a political party, but was immediately reassured by the vibrancy of debate and room to contribute to those positive discussions. I felt genuinely empowered as a new member, and excited about my involvement. One of the huge strengths of the SNP is our internal democracy. So that’s why I was surprised to read the suggestion that the party should take a “command and control” approach to the selection of our parliamentary candidates. (https://www.thenational.scot/news/18264156.julie-hepburn-not-snp-hq-decide-will-stand/)
I’m running to be the SNP’s depute leader for a number of reasons. I’ve made this choice because I was asked by so many activists across the country. They’ve asked me to stand because of my proven track record of service to the party, my previous commitment to driving forward internal reforms, and my work in supporting others across the SNP. However, most significantly for me, I want to use the skills, experience and networks I’ve built up over almost two decades in the SNP to help prepare us for another independence referendum and indeed future elections. (https://www.thenational.scot/news/16036107.julie-hepburn-use-experience-ready-snp-indyref2/)
The Trust runs intensive, four-week Fellowship Programmes twice a year in the UK for emerging leaders from 12 countries of the former Soviet Union. The Programmes are built around three pillars – unique insight into UK institutions, personalized meetings and leadership skills development – which together offer both a broad picture and an individual focus.
What is really happening
The political psychology programmes delivered by the Trust are designed to influence the thought processes of individuals confronted with a wide range of political situations so that they select options that most reflect the political system chosen by the Trust. Achieving success means that it has imprinted on the minds of course participants that the ideal is the western-style democracy, with its human rights legislation protecting individual and minority rights and good governance. Shades of “The Manchurian Candidate”.
The Board
Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill: Board member of a number of organisations with interests in Russia and FSU countries. Very influential politically has had a very long career near the top of the British secret services. Widow of the late John Smith, Labour Party Leader.
Catherine Smith: An Advocate. Daughter of Baroness Smith. Vice Chair of JUSTICE Scotland, the Scottish arm of the London NGO. Involved in work promoting the rule of law and human rights in developing democracies and sustainable development in societies in transition.
Stephen Gethins: Former SNP Member of Parliament for North East Fife. Worked with Craig Oliphant in Eastern Europe before entering politics for the SNP.
David Charters: Former diplomat. Particular personal interests include cyber security and evolving forms of conflict.
Alex Just: Transitioned from law to high-level strategic communications.
Prof. The Lord Alderdice: Liberal Democrat member of the Lords since 1996. Currently Director of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
In 2006, NATO Special Advisor Chris Donnelly co-founded a charity, the “Institute for Statecraft and Governance” (IfS) together with Daniel Lafayeedney, a man previously condemned as untrustworthy in business matters by a judge.
The IFS which authored and published articles on threats to NATO imperialism, the biggest being Russia, was registered to a semi-derelict mill in the Fife constituency of Board member and ex-SNP MP Stephen Gethins.
In 2015, the IfS established the Integrity Initiative, an organization that also received Tory Government funding from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, initially to the tune of many millions.
The Integrity Initiative is described by the British government as a counter-Russia-disinformation campaign, which, in typically Orwellian language, means that it is a U.S.-British disinformation campaign.
This is what the Scottish Charity Regulator thought of the organisation:
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator opened an inquiry into the Institute for Statecraft the 13 December 2018, which after 10 months found that “one of its most significant activities, a project known as the Integrity Initiative did not provide public benefit in furtherance of the charity’s purposes”. It also found that trustees had “breached their trustee duties to act with care and diligence in the interest of the charity, some of them to a serious extent”.[28]
The 77th Brigade and Scotland’s Independence
Black Watch soldier, Brigadier Alastair Aitken, formed the 77th (CYOPS Brigade, referred to in the media as ‘Twitter troops‘ or ‘Facebook warriors‘, which he described as the largest integrated government communications organisation [in] Europe.
Scottish Labour has links
A Scottish Labour Party candidate and former “Better Together” boss has been called on to explain her links to a “military propaganda unit” within the British Army. Kate Watson is believed to be part of the Berkshire-based 77th Brigade, which was described by one newspaper as a “special force of Facebook warriors”.
She declined to comment, but David Miller, a professor of political sociology at Bristol University said: “The 77th Brigade is involved in manipulation of the media including using fake online profiles.
Respected elder statesman of the SNP give warning and advice
In an article published in the “National” (Dec 2018) George Kerevan wrote:
“In any future Scottish independence referendum will the 77th Brigade be neutral or see the yes campaign as a threat to national security and conduct a campaign to protect the constitutional status quo? SNP MSP’s and MP’s at Westminster should ask these questions now before it’s too late.”
The Glasgow University hosted John Smith Centre
The recent purge of left wing politicians and their leadership brought about the return of power and influence to the “Fabian Society” and its right wing socialists, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Ian Murray and many other Unionist Labourites. One of the most insidious objectives of the Fabians is to create a One World (‘Third Way’) government linking with the “New World Order” (NWO) project financed and controlled by the USA. In furtherance of their aims the Fabian’s developed and implemented the highly secretive “educational charity”, “Common Purpose”, which now effectively controls many facets of local and mainstream politics and the media (BBC). More on “Common Purpose” here: http://www.stopcp.com and here: http://www.cpexposed.com .
With Blair then Brown in charge of government the NWO/Bilderberg movement enjoyed guarantees that the UK government would manipulate the electorate and parliament to support their efforts without question. War and War and yet more War. All unjustified. Scots need to be alert to the dangers of unwarranted and misleading statements designed to cause political instability, from persons who actively support the “new” venture which was sprung of Scots without warning. It should be remembered that the late John Smith was a leading Unionist politician and a Bilderberger to boot!!
The Centre’ public sales pitch
A Board comprising members of the Smith family, University of Glasgow alumni, public service practitioners and academic staff oversees the conduct, leadership and management of the Centre. It sets the priorities; benchmarks best practice; and reviews performance to enable the Centre to achieve its aim to promote trust in politics and public service and to empower and attract more people to contribute to public life.
membership of the fluctuating Board
Catherine Smith (Chair): Catherine is John Smith’s youngest daughter.
Professor Anne Anderson OBE: multi disciplinary educational activist.
Rt Hon Ed Balls: Hard right rich boy and “new Labour” politician
Dr Matt Carter: Blair’s man. Right wing “New Labour” political strategist.
Rt Hon Ruth Davidson MSP: Baroness Ruth. Her rise from nowhere is being guided by ??
David Muir: Ultra right wing “New Labour” strategist. Gordon Brown’s man.
The Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill: Very influential politically has had a very long career near the top of the British secret services. Widow of the late John Smith, Labour Party Leader.
Andrew Wilson: Held a number of posts, including Deputy Chief Economist and Head of Group Communications. at the financially incompetent and ultimately disgraced RBS Group. Founder of the increasingly influential political media company, Charlotte Street Partners.
Kezia Dugdale: Former leader of the Labour Party in Scotland is the Director of the Centre.
Tony Blair’s cynical epitaph to the career of John Smith
Blair told his wife that John Smith would die prematurely and he, not Gordon Brown would win the race to become the next Labour leader. The statement was made in April 2004, only a month before Smith suffered a fatal heart attack. Blair woke his wife, Cherie, one morning and told her: “If John dies, I will be leader, not Gordon. And somehow, I think this will happen. I just think it will.” Smith had suffered a serious heart attack in 1988 and Blair argued this was thanks to his lifestyle and, in particular, his heavy drinking. Branding Smith a “stupendous toper”, Blair wrote: “He could drink in a way I have never seen before or since. If there was an Olympic medal for drinking, John would have contended with such superiority that after a few rounds the rest of the field would have simply shaken their heads and banished themselves from the track.” (The Telegraph)
In 1995, when Scottish nationalism began to find increasing favour with Scots as their preferred choice of government Robertson, then Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland said:
“let them have their way. Devolution now entrenches the Scottish parliament in the UK’s unwritten constitution, power devolved from Westminster is power retained by Westminster. It will kill Nationalism stone dead.”
In the years that followed the SNP gloated that the party had destroyed that fallacy by winning the Scottish Parliamentary Elections in 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2020. But “wise seer” George was right.
But his vision of Scots being “fitted up” with a poorly equipped and reversable devolved governance structure proved to be entirely accurate.
As at 2020 Scottish Nationalism is “stone dead” under the auspices of Labour Party apparatchiks, led by Daniel Defoe’s successor, Nicola Sturgeon who joined the nationalist cause falsely proferring to be committed to fighting tooth and nail for independence.
Scots will need to find a way of starting again only this time led by bone-fide Party members who declare “fealty” to a Scotland free and independent of any political interference from Westminster or any other country.
caltonjock 