THEY MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT...DESPITE THE UNIONIST PRESS'S CONSTANT CRITICISM

In an email to Munguin from the first minister I noticed the following two paragraphs.

I was both delighted and humbled this week to see that people of Scotland continue to place their trust in the Scottish Government to listen to them and act in their best interests.

The latest social attitudes survey found that 73 per cent of people in Scotland trust the Scottish Government, the highest level since 1999, compared with 23 per cent who trust the UK Government.

Now all we usually hear from the Press and the BBC is "SNP bad" But Holyrood Magazine's poll shows that the Scottish public doesn't actually agree with them.

And it is interesting that 76% of the poll of 1,288 people thought that the Scottish government should have control over most of what happens in Scotland.

We've long believed that the Press had much less influence over the public's opinion than it thinks it has. For example the D C Thomson press in Dundee produces the ultra conservative Dundee Courier, Evening Telegraph, and the once ubiquitous Sunday Post. 

Once upon a time one of these papers, maybe more (and the now-defunct People's Journal) went through the letter boxes of the vast majority of Dundee homes, and yet they stubbornly voted Labour at every election, until very recently, when they have solidly voted SNP.

Any you have to ask yourself how many people who read the Sun actually vote Tory.

The Press and Journal were running a story earlier saying that the Scottish government is the most trusted in Europe, but it has mysteriously disappeared. 

I wonder why.

DAVE MAKES BIG INROADS IN DUNDEE'S NO VOTE

To round off the visit of the Eton Toff prime minister to Scotland, the people in Dundee’s Stobswell cast their votes on Friday at the Courier’s Referendum Roadshow. Given that it is a true blue Conservative supporting paper, this is quite something. This is how they reported it. (Thanks to my mum for bringing this to my attention.)

The large turnout delivered a majority for the Yes vote with 56% while there were 44% votes for No.

Yes voter Robert Milne, 70 said he had been a No voter when the campaign began but had since changed his mind.

He said: “I have listened to so much tripe from the Better Together campaign I changed my vote. There has been a lot of negativity and scaremongering about building a new Hadrian’s Wall with no valid arguments.

“They sound worried about it so there must be something to gain.”

Local business owner Graham Angus, 55, said he was against independence for Scotland but would like to have a referendum on Europe as he felt the global political system was getting a bit like George Orwell’s 1984.

The former young Conservative said he was disillusioned with politics and has since changed his vote to UKIP.

He said: “The wee man has no say on what’s going on in his life. I am totally disillusioned by it all. Alex Salmond has not put a strong enough case for it and has been a bit fluffy on the issues.

“What I don’t understand is why he wants to get rid of the UK government, but I think better the devil you know.”

Retired taxi driver, John Gibson, 73, of Whitfield said he would also be voting No.

He said: “I’m a Labour man and I think Labour will get in again – probably at the next election.”

Mavis Kerr, 76, said she would be voting Yes as she was sick of the political slagging matches taking place at Westminster and wanted to make a chance for the younger generation.

She said: “I’ve got grand-children and great-grandchildren and I think we’ve got to have a better country for the young people. I don’t see the Conservatives doing it.

“We never should have gone to war in Iraq.

“I think we need a change and that’s why I’m voting Yes. Life is uncertain but sometimes change is for the better.

Retired teacher Edith Constable, 71, said she will also be voting Yes because she is against the current government’s policies.

She said: “The one main reason I am voting is is because I am sick to death with Westminster policies, the expenses scandal, the Iraq War, plans to renew Trident at a huge cost to the taxpayer.

“The No campaign have been very negative and seem to use the fear factor a lot in their campaign. I have got every confidence Scotland will cope economically.” 

The Hilltown's vote, it seems, was even more in favour of independence.

Looks like Dave failed to persuade many people in Dundee.

Come back again soon Dave, we're missing you already...

Iain Gray supports David Cameron

Labour leader, Iain Gray, has calls for an apology over the Lockerbie bomber's release. In yet another example of attacking the SNP because that is what Scottish Labour does, rather than actually thinking and being a credible opposition. Elmer Fudd has said that Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill should make a public apology if the Lockerbie bomber survives for a full year after his release from prison. Why after a year Mr Gary? Wouldn’t after the 3 months he was supposed to live have been a better anniversary? And how ghoulish is it of all these Labour apparatchiks to be marking these anniversaries anyway?

Megrahi was the only person ever convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, which claimed 270 lives in 1988. Jailed in 2001, the 58-year-old was released on compassionate grounds by Mr MacAskill, who said medical advice gave Megrahi less than three months to live, on August 20th last year. Despite pleas from the US Government to keep the Libyan behind bars.

US senators are still investigating the decision to release Megrahi. Some US politicians have said they suspect BP, which has a £500 million oil deal with Libya, influenced negotiations accusations that have been angrily denied by First Minister Alex Salmond. How ludicrous is it to suggest that the SNP colluded with Labour at Westminster to facilitate a dodgy deal?

In an exclusive interview with the Dundee Courier, Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said the SNP Scottish Government must provide the US with details of how it reached the decision to free Megrahi, who has always maintained his innocence.

"We have to make it clear to the US what the basis of the decision to release Megrahi was," said Mr Gray yesterday. "I don't believe that lobbying by BP had anything to do with his release. I think it was a decision made by Kenny MacAskill and Alex Salmond and a decision I think they both got wrong.

"If we reach the anniversary of his release and Megrahi is still alive, I think Kenny MacAskill should apologise and admit he made a mistake and should apologise to the families of the victims."

Asked if he believed Mr MacAskill should resign if Megrahi survives until the first anniversary of his release, Mr Gray said, "I think the time to resign was when he made the wrong decision. I think the most important thing now is to get a change at the next election in May.

"But it's not just about the decision to release Megrahi. Just before the parliamentary recess they passed legislation to release short-term criminals from jails. Obviously, these crimes were not the same as Megrahi's but these are all people released by Kenny MacAskill."We need a change of administration, to one that puts the victims before criminals."

Talk about political opportunism? Now David Cameron can count on the idiot Gray to do his dirty work for him. The vast majority of the Scottish public do not like to see the Scottish Government bullied by US politicians with a hidden agenda the size of Texas nor do they like to see a British Prime Minister prostitute himself to that agenda at the expense of the vaunted respect he was due to show the Devolved Administrations (respect that lasted 2 and a half months). How sickening it must be to see the leader of the supposed opposition grab on to the coat tails of that agenda for very short term political gain. Let’s hope everybody sees this for what it is when they come to cast votes next May.

Who is to blame for Edinburgh Tram Fiasco?

I was reading Steve Bargeton’s political diary in the Dundee Courier where I noted with interest his summation of the Edinburgh tram fiasco. I was rather amused because I had also been reading Kezia Dugdale’s blog on the same subject. It seems that the cost and time overruns are going to be monumental.

If we all remember correctly it was the SNP’s manifesto pledge to cancel this great white elephant: a pledge that they tried to implement after their election in May 2007. The opposition parties and Margo MacDonald cried foul. Labour, smarting from the bloody nose that they had just received from the Scottish electorate, were determined to embarrass the new First Minister and so they concerted a campaign to keep the project alive and whipped up a media furore full of deprived people of Edinburgh, etc, etc.

They succeeded in getting the project passed with only the SNP saying that they would rue the day. John Swinney said ‘fine, have your trams but we will have Audit Scotland look at the business plan’. They did and AS said that the plans were robust. So the Scottish Government were forced to give the scheme the required £500 million (one sixtieth of the entire Scottish budget for a year) with the proviso that the City of Edinburgh would have to make up any shortfall.

I am assuming that the Labour administration in Edinburgh up to May 2007 had wanted the project to go ahead and it seemed that the new Lib Dem/SNP one did as well, as they all voted for it.

It seems clear to me that the SNP’s manifesto pledge was based on the fact that the scheme was not a very good one. It benefits only a potential 17% of Edinburgh’s residents and simply replaces a bus route running through the streets and all that for 545 million quid. That does not seem like good value for money to me, you could have got a lot of extra busses for that.

Now as is witnessed on Ms Dugdale’s blog the Labour party, and I suppose the other Unionistas who voted for it, are looking for someone to blame now that cost are overrunning to the tune of £100 million and we won’t see a tram for 30 extra months, until 2014.

Guess who they are hoping to pin the blame on? You got it: the SNP, and why? Because apparently the SNP voted for it in Edinburgh City Hall... and so they must be to blame as they are in power now. How much ground work was done prior to 2007? Well, it goes all the way back to the time of the Great Helmsman in 1999 when a plan to build a line along Princes Street and Leith Walk to Newhaven pier was unveiled by Edinburgh City Council, Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise and the New Edinburgh Tramways Company (NET). In May 2004, the 15-year operating contract for Edinburgh Trams was awarded to Transdev. Trading as Transdev Edinburgh Tram Ltd, the transport company was to operate and maintain the tram network, and support the project planning.

And finally the bill was passed by the Labour/Lib Dem Executive in 2006.The audit Scotland report did pass the scheme as financially sound in 2007 but it was not, as Ms Dugdale claims, on time at that point, because it was not until 25 October, 2007 that Edinburgh City Council gave approval to the final business case.

Approval was given by the Council on 22 December, 2007 for TIE to sign contracts with CAF for the supply of the vehicles and BBS (a consortium of Siemens and Bilfinger Berger) for the design, construction and building of the network. Contract negotiations were concluded in April 2008 with construction of the network commencing in June 2008. So not a sod was actually turned until 2008.

Mr Bargeton’s article lays the blame for this fiasco solely with the Unionist parties and Margo MacDonald. However, I am prepared to say that some should indeed lie with the SNP. Not with the SNP Government that never wanted this appalling fiasco to take place in the first place but with the SNP group in Edinburgh for jumping into bed with the Lib Dems in order to get their hands on the keys to the city chambers.

An alliance between Unionists and Nationalist just does not seem to work. It did not in Aberdeen and it does not in Edinburgh. All that it allows is for people like Kezia Dugdale to blame the SNP for everything.