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Archive for Holyrood Herald
Holyrood Herald… or should that be Aviemore Angle? w/b 31 March 2008
With Holyrood in recess for a fortnight, it seemed sensible to make this more of a ‘bite-sized’ effort, summing up what’s been going on.
Scottish Labour met in Aviemore - hence the Aviemore Angle, as this is where the bulk of the stories come from - last weekend, for the first time since the party’s defeat in the Scottish and Local Elections last May. While this is the first (and only) chance for a post mortem, that wasn’t what conference-goers appeared to get. Instead it was used to attack the SNP Government - a recurring theme at Scottish Labour Conferences, and one which led this one to be described as the “Not the SNP Conference” - and re-energise the party’s left wing by proposing to offer Socialism as an answer to the SNP’s Nationalism. Des Browne MP also took the opportunity to remind people that Labour still do run Scotland through Westminster. Time and the next election will tell whether or not they really ought to be talking up that fact.
Holyrood Herald w/b 24 March: Constitutional Conversations and Commissions
Welcome to this week’s Holyrood Herald. In one sense, this is quite an easy Roundup to put together as there has only been one big story, and it’s Scotland’s place in the Union. Momentum has been gathering on this matter since before the election: when an SNP-led Government looked like a possibility (around the Summer of 2006, after the Moray By-Election which saw the SNP not only hold the seat but increase their share of the vote, aong with the collapse in the Labour vote in a handful of Council By-Elections), pundits began discussing independence in the most serious terms since the 1970s - even the constitutional discussions of the 1990s centred around devolution.
The Nationalist approach
As the SNP went on to form a government - albeit a minority one - the same pundits kept going back to the SNP’s manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on independence (supposedly planned for 2010) and it was the fact that this would even be discussed which the Liberal Democrats cited as their reason for not entering Coalition negotiations with Alex Salmond’s party. However, this did enable the Government to launch a White Paper on Scotland’s constitutional future and launch the ‘National Conversation’: lauded by supporters as a chance to take the debate directly to the people, and hear their views; but opposed by critics as a partisan talking shop.
And regardless of the outcome of the Conversation, plans for a referendum would have to come up against one Parliament. Westminster would be an obvious non-starter, so Holyrood would have to provide the route. Even if the legal problems are left aside - Holyrood cannot legislate on constitutional affairs though the SNP believe that they’d found a wording of the referendum question which would get round that - then parliamentary arithmetic comes to the fore. The SNP have 47 seats, and would get the support of the Greens (with two seats) and, one assumes, Independent MSP Margo MacDonald. That makes 50 seats. In opposition to a Referendum Bill would be Labour with 46 seats, along with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats with 16 MSPs each. That makes 78 seats, so the Bill would not get past Stage 1 - the vote on the general principles of the legislation.
The Unionist answer
Nevertheless, the genie was now out of the bottle, and Alex Salmond has since taken every opportunity to challenge Unionist parties to support a referendum if they believe - as they assert - that voters would reject independence. And with the Conversation underway, the momentum looked like it was moving in the SNP’s favour. Therefore, the Labour, Tory and LibDem MSPs decided to set up their own body to consider the issue: the Scottish Constitutional Commission. The ostensible rationale, as outlined by its supporters, is simple: they argue that after eight years, it’s appropriate to hold a review of how Holyrood works, but that people don’t want independence. Critics say that it’s a Unionist talking shop, freezing out the SNP and ruling out what nationalists view as a viable (indeed, the most viable) constitutional status without even considering the option.
The difference between the Conversation and the Commission is that while the Conversation was established by the Government, the Commission was endorsed in a vote of the Parliament. However, one aspect of the Commission is that it would include input from Members of the Westminster Parliament. This has led to accusations that it has been hijacked by the UK Government. As it is, plans have continued, and this week, Alex Salmond announced that the Conversation was entering ‘phase two’ - consultations with civic Scotland - and the Commission presented its Chairman: Sir Kenneth Calman, Chancellor of Glasgow University. The two bodies are now moving, but it appears as though it will be some time before they collide.
Paychecks, polls and paintings: Holyrood Herald - w/b 17th March 2008
Welcome to the second Holyrood Herald. This week:
- Plans to give different MSPs different expense rules cause a stooshie
- The SNP is still being nice to Councillors
- Why Alex Salmond has a better figure than Wendy Alexander
- And what have MSPs done to annoy Jack Vettriano?
More on Holyrood expense rules
Last week, the Holyrood Herald flagged up the rule on Holyrood expense rules, and proposals to change them. The most controversial aspect of the plan involved giving Constituency MSPs more money to hire staff than their Regional counterparts. Former Tory MSP James Douglas-Hamilton, who took part in the review, has dissented from the proposals, arguing that too little evidence was collected beforehand and that this would widen an already unfortunate gap between the 73 MSPs elected by First Past the Post and the 56 elected on Regional lists. SNP MSP Christine Grahame agrees, arguing that it was unfair to measure a Regional MSP (in a region where his party only got 15% of the vote) who had only been elected in May against one constituency MSP who had been in her post since 1999, along with another who’d held the Holyrood seat since then AND been a Westminster MP from 1987 to 2001, after having been one of the SNP’s ‘First Eleven’ MPs in the 1970s. To really stir things up, Parliamentary researchers have themselves intervened, with staffers from all parties (and one working for an Independent MSP) have joined together in protest at the plans.
The Council-Government love-in continues
Elsewhere, the Government has announced its intention to give local Councillors (who, as we noticed last week, are getting friendly with the SNP) an extra year in office. This comes as part of plans to ‘de-couple’ the Scottish and Local Elections, whose combined polling day caused a lot of organisational headaches in last year’s vote. After the combination of a new-look ballot paper for Holyrood and a new voting system for Councillors conspired with other factors to cause chaos on Election night, the SNP announced that they intended to separate the two polls, and Parliamentary Business Minister Bruce Crawford confirmed the Government’s intentions on Sunday. Councillors will, if the plan goes ahead, not face the electorate until 2012.
Wendy Alexander has a rubbish figure
Meanwhile an opinion poll gives Alex Salmond an approval rating of +53%, while Wendy Alexander is saddled with a score of -22%. The forthcoming Scottish Labour Conference at Aviemore won’t be a barrel of laughs, I suspect.
Antagonising artists
And finally, artist Jack Vettriano has taken the huff at suggestions that MSPs might want to borrow his paintings. He wants them to buy his works instead. Clearly neither side in this argument has heard of that stereotype of the Scots at a tight-fisted people. If they have, they’re trying to live down to it.
Taxing issues: Holyrood Herald - w/b 10th March 2008
Summary
This week Will Patterson writes his first column for the Wardman Wire about events at the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. This is a new one for both of us - a regular article on a Derbyshire-based blog about Scottish Politics, so comments are very welcome indeed about the “Holyrood Herald” weekly report.
This time:
- The Lib Dems and the SNP go speed-dating.
- The Edinburgh property market may ease after MPs Accommodation Allowances are reviewed.
- The Labour/LibDem-controlled Stirling administration - the only Council in Scotland to cut it’s level of local taxation - is rewarded with a vote of no confidence.
- Wendy Alexander’s Deep-Throat turns out to be Jackie Baillie, who gets roasted in return.
- And the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has a pow-wow after last year’s punch-up.
Burying the Claymore
Could this be the start of a beautiful relationship? After months of Scottish LibDem Leader Nicol Stephen refusing to speak to SNP First Minister Alex Salmond, the two have started to talk. After about a year of the Lab-LibDem Coalition being in effect continued into opposition, Stephen appears to have turned his guns around, criticising Labour and making nice with the SNP.
What’s prompted the change? Why, it could only be local taxation. The SNP managed to get 31 of Scotland’s 32 Councils to freeze their Council Tax rates. The 32nd Council - Stirling - actually cut it, though the Labour-LibDem administration there has been rewarded with a no-confidence vote, which they lost on Wednesday night.
Council Tax vs Local Incomes Tax
Anyway, the SNP and LibDems agree that the Council Tax is a bad thing, and they both agree that a Local Income Tax (LIT) should replace it. So with the SNP moving to implement a major part of their 2007 manifesto, it was only natural that the two parties would bury the hatchet and start talking. Problem is, they’ve stopped talking: the SNP want to set the LIT at 3% nationally, and the LibDems say that if it’s set nationally, it’s not a LOCAL income tax, and they want the rate to be set by Councillors. But they started talking at all, so progress has been made, and no legislation has actually been proposed yet: the Scottish Government is still consulting on the matter, so Finance Secretary John Swinney and LibDem Finance Spokesman Tavish Scott have four months to come up with something.
Yet if firm proposals do come to Holyrood, and the LibDems do support them, the vote will be tight, and there will be pressure on the Greens - who don’t support an LIT but aren’t too fond of the status quo either - to declare their hand, as the outcome could be in their hands.
Meanwhile, back at Holyrood
Meanwhile, Holyrood is allegedly the home of ‘new politics’, where MSPs don’t just simply ape Westminster practices. Which is why there have been three major expenses scandals since 1999, and why MSPs have panicked and agreed to a review of allowances.
Well, the review board have reported back, and if they have their way, membership of the Scottish Parliament will not be an easy way into property speculation, but MSPs will be able to hire more staff. Or at least, some will, and different parties will take different positions on the review depending on whether the bulk of their MSPs were elected in Constituencies or on the Regional Lists. In a way, it shows that Holyrood is different from Westminster, where in the aftermath of Derek Conway’s appointment practices, the parties fell over each other to look like they were the best at cleaning up their act and opening up their records. MSPs, on the other hand, will probably support whatever makes life harder for the other side.
Brothers, Sisters and Comrades - Apparently
And why need they bother, when Labour Leader Wendy Alexander has enough problems with her frontbenchers? Shadow Health Secretary Margaret has been caught briefing against her leader, and she wasn’t overly subtle about it, which makes her look both treacherous and rubbish at the same time.
She’s probably in line for an ugly punishment, but Convenership of the Equal Opportunties Committee is not in Wendy Alexander’s gift - a Tory is destined to exile in that end Scottish Parliamentary Siberia - and the LibDems have been lumbered with Convenership of the Subordinate Legislation Committee. So Curran will, I suspect, get sent to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, where she’ll find herself dealing with the Parliament’s procurement and expenses rules that have got people so wound up. If it does come true, it will be a cruel and unusual punishment, but it may be too tempting for Wendy Alexander to resist.
But what does Wendy Alexander do about Labour Councillor Pat Watters, President of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, who has been getting on rather better with the SNP Government than Councillors did with Labour Ministers before the election? Maybe she should set the Leader of North Lanarkshire Council, Jim McCabe, on him. Or she could see if he’ll step aside in favour of Corrie McChord, one of COSLA’s Vice-Presidents, and Leader of the aforementioned deposed administration in Stirling. He probably won’t be all that enamoured with the SNP - who suggested getting rid of him - right now.
New Weekly Report - Scottish Parliamentary Roundup: Holyrood Herald
Today “Parliamentary Roundup Thursday” gains another report. In addition to Sadie’s “Westminster Watch” report, today Will Patterson - who writes the J Arthur MacNumpty blog and contributes to the Scottish Roundup - has done the first weekly roundup with news from the Holyrood Parliament.
For now I’m calling the column “Holyrood Herald“, but we may come up with a better name (suggestions are welcome).
Over the next several weeks a roundup from the Welsh Parliament (”Senedd Scan“?) will be added, and I’m working on similar roundups from Stormont and Brussels/Strasburg.
The Roundup of the Papers will be out in the early evening today, and will be - shall we say - idiosyncratic.
As a final note, I have added mobile websites to the Scottish Politics and Welsh Politics blog aggregators, and to the Comment from the Senedd Welsh Assembly AM Comment “blaggregator”. The links are, respectively,
These are experimental at this stage, so there may be some glitches - and I welcome comments.
