The Truth about Scotland

Too ill to blog

2008-11-09T16:44:00.002Z

I'd hoped to blog a bit more today on the Glenrothes situation but have come down with a horrible cold - could it have been something I caught in Kinglassie on Thursday? When I'm up and about I'll be back on with my latest thoughts on what's been happening. Til then here are three interesting things about our weekend .....................

We have not listened to Kingdom FM.

We have been cheered by the sight of thick black clouds scudding over the river to Fife.

We've been wondering how long it would take to reintroduce tolls on the Forth and Tay Bridges.

Excellent anlaysis

2008-11-08T08:58:00.001Z

If you haven't done so already, take a look at Richard Thomson's blog for a thoughtful analysis of the Glenrothes result.

http://scotsandindependent.blogspot.com/

Roy boast betrays hollow Labour victory

2008-11-07T10:23:00.010Z

Lindsay Roy's boast that Gordon Brown has delivered the lowest interest rates in fifty years underscores how hollow Labour's victory actually is.

What Roy may or may not understand is that the Bank of England has had to lower interest rates so far because all the data points to a very severe and prolonged recession in the UK. It is in order to mitigate some of the effects of that recession that the BoE has been forced (belatedly many would argue) to take such dramatic action. Interest rates at this level only serve to advertise how badly the UK economy has been managed. This week the European Commission and the IMF have both said that the UK is worse placed to deal with the global economic crisis than any other developed country.

It is this backdrop that makes the Glenrothes election result so frustrating. Brown claims that voters supported Labour because he and his party have ideas about how to get the UK through these difficult times. The truth is that Brown remains clueless. His success recently has been in managing the news agenda. He has dominated it to such an extent that there has been no space for any other narrative to develop. His key success to date is to have packaged the bank bailout as the action of an audacious and decisive leader rather than the only course of action available to someone looking at the imminent collapse of the whole system. Brown has spun the line that the crisis is international in origin and for Scottish audiences has insinuated that small countries in particular are struggling.

Brown has a couple of advantages over other politicians. First Labour are in power in Westminster - with your hands on the machinery of government it is always going to be easier to look like you're doing more than anyone else. This coupled with an improved spin machine gives the impression that Brown is not only on top of the crisis but on the side of ordinary people - witness the daily demand from the erstwhile free market devotee that petrol prices are lowered or bank charges reduced. Brown has begun to look like he can deliver change when he is doing no more than timing his demands to fit in with, for example, already falling oil prices. His media management has been remarkably successful and he has left the other parties looking like also rans.

The SNP like the Tories in England have been sidelined by this dominant narrative. The SNP's problems have been compounded by the apparent difficulties facing some small countries. Taking Iceland out of the picture, the reality is that small nations are no worse off than anyone else. While some like Ireland face recession this makes them no different to the UK. Others - Norway and Finland, for example - seem likely to be able to ride out the recession. The issue for the SNP is that Labour has been able to reprise its tactic of engendering fear in an electorate which lacks confidence and is highly sensitive to "evidence" which appears to confirm their suspicions that Scotland is a place which will always struggle to be a success.

In the face of an agenda setting UK Prime Minister and a bedazzled press the SNP has struggled to communicate an impression of decisiveness and engagement with the economic crisis. There are limits to what the devolved government can do particularly in the face of the worst economic situation for 80 years. Some voters will interpret this as an indication of government failure rather than as evidence of the inadequacy of the present constitutional settlement.

Putting more money into people's pockets is something the SNP has done. The nationalist government's action in cutting business rates and freezing the council tax gives citizens more money to spend - vital in stimulating the economy and increasing consumer confidence. Somehow the message that the SNP is taking practical steps to create conditions conducive to economic good health has not been effectively communicated.

Glenrothes has been a Goldilocks election for Labour - the conditions have been just right and they've got their electoral porridge. Sooner or later events will overtake them and the election will be seen as a blip.

Temporary recovery for Labour

2008-11-07T01:33:00.005Z

Labour has held Glenrothes

Here are my first thoughts:

First, my own view about the level of popular belief in the "Brown as saviour of the capitalist system" narrative was wrong.
There has been a Brown bounce.
Labour very successfully punted a story about being resigned to losing the seat to make the victory seem remarkable.
As the full impact of the economic contraction becomes apparent Labour's recovery will start to falter.
Creating fear is still an effective tactic for Labour.

I'll write more tomorrow. In the meantime keep your spirits up. In this stormy economic climate it seems like anything can happen and the most bizarrely contrarian results can emerge. Like the markets, political parties may find their stock rising one day and crashing the next.

Obama wins

2008-11-05T09:35:00.002Z

Congratulations to Barack Obama

Here's a nice video to celebrate with.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2gLVvsy7TXE

Thanks too to Scots cultural activist, Billy Kay, for letting me have this extract from his book, The Scottish World:

This is from the chapter, The Scotch South

There, in the Cape Fear district in the baking flatlands of Scotland County, I also discovered that as recently as 1907 a book titled Lyrics from Cottonland by John Charles McNeill was published. Descended from Kintyre folk, McNeill's poetry reflects the voices of the black, Indian and white people of the area. He is regarded as the poet laureate of North Carolina. In ‘On the Cape Fear’ he condenses the history of the Argyll colony in a Scots voice which rings true:

Prince Charlie an I, we war chased owre the sea
Wi naething but conscience for glory.
An here I drew sawrd, when the land wad be free,
An was whipped tae a hole as a Tory.

When the Bonny Blue Flag was flung tae the breeze, I girded mysel tae defend it:
They warstled me doun tae my hands an my knees
An flogged my auld backbane tae bend it.

Sae the deil wan the fights, an wrang hauds the ground,
But God an mysel winna bide it.
I hae strenth in my airm yet for many a round
An purpose in plenty tae guide it.

I been banished an whipped an warstled an flogged (I belang tae the Democrat party)
But in gaein owre quagmires I haena been bogged
An am still on my legs, hale an hearty.

Labour's Away the Day

2008-11-03T09:46:00.000Z

Thanks to "Gorbals" for alerting me to the scan of the minutes of the now notorious Fife Labour Away Day. You can read them at

http://www.order-order.com/2008/11/glenrothes-internal-minutes-show.html

Remember to activate the full screen mode in the top left hand corner of the screen. Some of the best bits are a bit difficult to read if you don't.

Halloween brings no magic for Labour

2008-11-02T20:44:00.000Z

Since May 2007 Labour have been looking for the magic spell that will make the SNP disappear. Having relied solely on the "sums don't add up" formula to see them through years of competition with the SNP, Labour has searched since for something that will do the trick as effectively.

Wendy - she of the planet sized intellectual pretensions - was supposed to be able to conjure up a suitable scheme. Struggling from the start to find an easy solution to the SNP problem, Wendy conscripted to Labour's cause an army of vulnerable two year olds; "socialism"; Jackie "Nuke-em" Baillie and a score of other temporary human shields and fly by night substitutes for policy.

In recent times Scottish Labour must have felt its luck was on the up. Global economic collapse, Brown's dead cat bounce, press gullibility and the problems of Iceland seemed to have combined nicely to create the magic potion that, in a puff of smoke, would make the SNP disappear forever – the thing devolution was supposed to do but didn’t.

As they stand round the cauldron stirring together these ingredients Labour seem to be unaware that they are doing nothing more than bringing back to life the two monsters – let’s call them Fear and Negativity - which overwhelmed them in the first place.

For at the heart of Scottish Labour there remains an enduring unanswered question - what are they for? To be perpetually against something is just not good enough – for one thing it is extremely unattractive to voters. To revel in the misfortunes of others and to make electoral capital at the expense of confidence in Scotland’s economy is evidence of moral and political bankruptcy.

If stories in today’s papers are to be believed, Glenrothes is already won for the nationalist cause. If that is true then we must be grateful to the huge effort that so many thousands of SNP members and supporters have put in to make it possible. I hope the predictions are right. If they are they will confirm what I said in an earlier post - Brown has already been bounced.

Interestingly Iain Gray, the leader of the Labour members in the Scottish Parliament, has been relatively quiet on the attacking Scotland front. Maybe he has had the nouse to understand that running down the country plays badly with voters – after all, the tactic lost Labour the election last year. In the event of an SNP win, it would be interesting to speculate on Mr Gray’s views on the role played by Jingo Jim Murphy in bringing about such a result.

Norwegian Ambassador slaps down Daily Mail

2008-10-30T10:17:00.000Z

I've just received this e-mail and letter from the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Dear ,

with reference to your e-mail to Bjørn Jahnsen at the Norwegian Foreign Minister's press office, pleased be advised that the attached response letter from ambassador Bjarne Lindstrøm was sent to the Scottish Daily Mail this morning. We very much hope this will appear in tomorrow's edition of the newspaper in order to avoid further misunderstandings.

Kind regards,

Stein Iversen

Stein Iversen
Minister Counsellor
Head of Press, Information & Cultural Affairs
Royal Norwegian Embassy
25 Belgrave Square,
London SW1X 8QDWork
(+44) 020 7591 5521Mob.
(+44) 0777 55 24 737
sti@mfa.no http://www.norway.org.uk/

Sir,

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

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

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

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

Yours sincerely,
Bjarne Lindstrøm
Ambassador of Norway

Norway says nothing about Scotland

2008-10-30T09:25:00.000Z

Yesterday (29 October), the Daily Mail "Scotland" reported that Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere had torn into First Minister Salmond demolishing his argument that Scotland could be as economically successful as Norway. Apparently the arguments were devastating and destroyed the claims that Scotland could build the kind of prosperous society that the Norwegians have produced through the careful management of their oil resources.

To be honest I was reading the article on the newspaper stand in Tesco and had to try to digest the arguments in the piece without attracting the attention of the staff at the lottery and fags kiosk. I have to say I searched and searched but couldn't find anything that resembled even marginally an attack on Salmond, the SNP or the notion of Scottish independence. In fact the Norwegian Foreign Minister said, as is the wont of foreign ministers, precisely nothing about the domestic affairs of a foreign state. What Mr Stoere did say was that Norway and Scotland were different. One had been independent for over a hundred years and the other hadn't. One had completed the process of nation building and the other hadn't. One had had many years to build up an oil fund and the other hadn't. Norway had discovered oil at a different stage of development from Scotland and therefore it was difficult to make direct comparisons.

Daily Mail journalists and editors believe their readers are stupid enough to fall for this propaganda - and in its construction it is beyond even the usual level of Unionist duplicity and double speak that we in Scotland are used to. It is hard to imagine what the Mail wants from this exercise. To damage the SNP? To make it more likely that Scottish voters will support its party of choice, the Tories? There may be short term gains for Unionism in this tempestuous period but in the long run the outcome will not be to the British nationalist taste. English voters will again be asking themselves why they are being asked to subsidise Scotland and Scottish voters will be asking the Unionists what they can offer Scotland other than a permanent state of penury and dependency on the alleged generosity of the UK state (i.e. England).

Goebellsesque propaganda of the type we saw yesterday may satisfy the Unionists desire for revenge on the SNP and Salmond in particular but in it lies the seeds of their own destruction. Unionism like Brown may be experiencing a bounce but it's a dead cat bounce; as the Unionists over stretch themselves in mounting hysterical attacks on Scotland the true nature of the bounce will become apparent. Brown claims this is his Falklands moment. He's wrong; this looks much more like a Diana moment to me. Readers will remember that the former Princess of Wales died about ten days before the referendum on Scottish devolution. Some ultra unionists called for the vote to be postponed. Nationalists feared that the Britishness fest that followed Diana's demise might lead to a loss of support for the Yes side in the vote. They were wrong - the vote came out more strongly in favour of a Scottish Parliament than even the most optimistic had hoped for. Glenrothes might provide similar surprises.

And finally, news this morning that Scottish house prices are holding up better than any other part of the UK. At least until now. Prices here never rose as fast or to such dizzying levels as they did in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Prices remain amongst the lowest in Western Europe - Edinburgh still looks cheap compared with neighbouring capitals like Dublin, Oslo, Amsterdam and London - even after the price falls there and here. Avoiding the serious crash of other parts of the UK is important for the country - a correction may be necessary but the type of meltdown that's happened in E,W and NI is not desirable. How do you avoid a meltdown? Well, one way is by encouraging a sense of confidence in the economy and its future prospects. Why then have the UK prime minister and his chancellor been so intent on doing the opposite. In their desperate attempt to stay in power they have been finding every possible way of sacrificing that sense of confidence for the sake of votes. In the long run they will pay the price.

Gordon Brown undermines Scottish economy

2008-10-28T16:42:00.000Z

Ever seen a headline like this in a Scottish newspaper?

One of the main problems we face in creating a democratic culture in this country is that the Scottish press seem incapable of dealing with the notion of alternative narratives. In most democracies the press provide expression to a range of views and political positions. But not in Scotland where the press accept and collude in the widespread dissemination of the Unionist world view.

I wouldn't mind living in a community where the Unionist position was given wide exposure - after all it is a legitimate if sometimes perplexing position . What I do object to is the wholesale censoring of any alternative point of view. Where, for example, are the newspaper headlines like the one I suggest above? During this crisis the UK prime minister has sought every opportunity to undermine Scottish self-confidence and insidiously to question the country's ability to "survive" without support from the UK tax payer. Of course this is what politics is all about and only the naive would complain about him using this opportunity to advance party interest.

What bothers me is that the prime minister's clearly partisan position has been allowed to pass without comment. His views have been reproduced as if they were self-evident facts and the reporting on them has been suffused with the journalist's own sense of belief in Brown having somehow or other exposed the fallacious nature of the SNP's claim that Scotland could prosper as an independent state.

What we lack in Scotland is an alternative to this position. It is hard to imagine any action more designed to undermine self-confidence than Brown's attack on Scotland's present economic position and its future potential. That the "leader" of our country can get away with mounting such an attack is extraordinary particularly when sustaining confidence is so important at this critical time. That he can get away with such an attack without anyone suggesting that he might have some responsibility for Scotland's alleged deficiencies is even worse.

Why has no-one thought it worthwhile questioning Brown about the source of the support that has been given to the Scottish banks? The way this issue has been reported in Scotland you'd think Brown had personally gone round Surrey with a hat asking people for contributions "to save Scotland". And why is it that he has been able to get away with suggesting it is small independent states that are in trouble when clearly largeness or smallness has no part to play in a country's ability to ride out this economic storm. After all, the UK is suffering a currency meltdown because of the widespread belief that it will be particularly badly hit by the global problems.

As long as the Scottish press is unable to present an alternative narrative we in Scotland will continue to suffer from a serious democratic deficit. The Unionist position is not deconstructed in the mainstream press and the job of providing alternative views is left to bloggers.