Random Thoughts...

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In an appeal to the party to fight hard outside its heartlands in the south of England, Cameron said the Tories are "the proud party of this one nation", able to speak for voters in every part of Britain. And he managed to keep a straight face throughout!

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"I cannot recall a budget that has unravelled as completely and as spectacularly as Mr Osborne's latest effort. It is one thing to raise taxes, quite another to do so while attempting to disguise your budget as a tax-cutting affair. It tarnishes the entire enterprise with deceit."

Alex Massie, Spectator - http://bit.ly/J4QaEp

It appears that while the festivities for the Queen’s jubilee (this is a good article btw) will be in full swing south of the Border, Scots will not so readily be reaching for the bunting. Only three organisations have applied to hold a street party in the country's major cities during the weekend of the Diamond Jubilee. Apparently in England, Cameron has been encouraging people to make a big showing for the festivities, and remarkably at a time when the Health Service in England is throwing people out of hospital in their pyjamas in the middle of the night with no money for a taxi home for the want of funding, Cameron has actually made grant money available for festivities.  Funny old world under the Tories; weird sense of priorities, huh?

Oh yeah, and with weird priorities in mind, Ed Davey’s special advisor, Chris Nicholson, has called for the coalition to slash Winter Fuel Allowance, maternity pay and free bus passes. Why not? If the idea (per the last post) is to kill off all the sick people, why not get rid of old people too? Then they could reduce the top rate of tax for billionaires even further.

Talking of bus passes, I note that the bus companies are whining because of changes to the bus operators grant from the Scottish government. These bus companies would do well to remember that, if it were not for the older and disabled people to take advantage of their services, thanks to the generosity of the government, there would be hardly anyone on any bus apart from in rush hours. Quite apart from the social implications of this for the elderly, this would mean that the companies would only be able to run the barest of services for the rest of the day, greatly inconveniencing the few passengers that they would have, and hugely reducing their profits. They really can't have it all ways, although god knows that's what they appear to want.

Again talking of buses, what the hell is it with National Express drivers? I've probably mentioned this before but it does seem that a condition of employment for bus drivers in this company is that they must be sour faced, miserable, bad tempered, social skill lacking, asses! And while we're on the subject, does this company employ cleaners? If the answer is in the affirmative, do they provide them with hot water, cloths, brushes and detergent? I ask because to describe the buses as clorty would be praise indeed. The buses run by Stagecoach, by comparison, are clean and the staff presentable. polite and cheery. If anyone from National Express management reads this I'd be glad of a hint as to why your service is so bloody awful, your buses are so bloody filthy and your staff so bloody disagreeable!  (PS, before I get slated, I know that there are a few notable exceptions.

GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT JENNY...

This is a video made by Jenny Marra, Labour MSP for North East Scotland. You might not want to watch the whole thing as she has clearly never heard Polonius's advice about being brief.


That said, the meat and bones of the video are that Ms Marra is complaining about the cutting of a bus route, by, she alleges, Dundee City Council. 


The bus route in question is the 4S, which used to take pupils directly from the West End of the town to St Johns RC Academy. That bus has been withdrawn because the company which runs the bus network says that it was not profitable. A separate bus, the 26, is available, however, it makes a more circuitous route and takes approximately 10-15 minutes longer. 


Now apart from the fact that some of the pupils seemed to need to get up relatively earlier than others because of the bus change, that there was a measure of dubiety about how many times pupils had to be late before they were put in detention, and that there only seem to be about 5 or 6 pupils in the video and thus on the bus, I was surprised that Ms Marra appears to be unaware of the arrangements for running buses in Dundee.


Since Mrs Thatcher deregulated the buses in the UK in 1986s, councils have not had direct control over the services provided. At this point public transport ceased to be run for the convenience of passengers, and became profit making organisations, run for the benefit of their shareholders, who probably never used them.  The current situation is that the buses in Dundee are run by National Express, a company which is based in Birmingham, England. It wouldn't be unreasonable at this point to say that during 13 years of UK Labour government and 8 years of Scotland Labour government, no one ventured to re-regulate the transport system.


Ms Marra is, however, calling upon Dundee City Council (an SNP administration) to "reinstate" the bus. Simply put, they can't. Ms Marra would be better employed petitioning National Express. They can. 


Perhaps a subsidy is being sought? But these are hard times; we are all having to do without. Even pensioners can't expect buses to take them exactly where they want to go, directly. Why should school pupils' buses be subsidised when there is alternative transport available? And in any case, if that is what Marra is looking for, why does she not say so instead of demanding something that she must know cannot be done? 


And she knows it cannot be done because various people from the council have told her, including Cllr Will Dawson, the Convenor of City Development. However, it's clearly not her practice to allow the truth to get in the way of a good story.


What is wrong with kids that they can't get up 10 minutes earlier in the morning, or maybe walk, at least part of the way? The pupils on the video looked to me to be around 14 or 15 years old. Marra says that they have PE kit or musical instruments to carry... not that I saw any... but what does she think we used to do with our PE kit and musical instruments?


Really, I can't help feeling that this is just a cheap shot by a Labour politician at an SNP council, which she must know full well is not in a position to do what she is asking.

The English should be pleased that a massive gas find has been reported near Blackpool. Apparently there is thought to be sufficient gas to keep the country supplied for many dozens of years. The bad news is that it is shale gas which can only be obtained by drilling into the shale and creating thousands of tiny explosions. These explosions are thought to have been the cause of last year’s earthquake tremor in Lancashire. Let’s hope the issue can be resolved. Scotland has sufficient gas to last for many years, if England can supply its own.

According to Tesco, 80% of the population is having some difficulty in “putting food on the table”. It is worst, says Richard Brasher, their chief executive, for pensioners, who are having to ration food, heating and light. That’s a proud boast for a country running two wars which are nothing to do with it. Well, Munguin’s Republic has been saying that for at least a year. Inflation may be 5%+ (or using the government’s preferred measure 4.5%), but it is far more for the poor. And even as this is happening the Westminster government is taking away £100 in straight cash from the oldest pensioners. Anyway, Mr Brasher (every little bit hurts... no helps, sorry) is going to cut more prices and start a supermarket war. He wants to replace a philosophy of “charging as much as you can get away with” to one of charging “as little as you can”. Well, good on him and them. Obviously all other supermarkets will follow. But in case you feel too sorry for them, I remember reading that British supermarkets aim for a 5% profit, where continental ones make do with 2% and American/Australian ones with 1%. I don’t know if it’s exactly true, but it would explain the difference in prices on a great number of items. So, they can afford it. Let the war commence!

Is it a condition of employment that Dundee’s National Express drivers be rude, surly, bad tempered and possess appalling driving skills?

France has raised its annual inflation forecast from 1.8% to 2.1%. The difference between their inflation and the UK’s is doubtless that whilst Electricité de France plans to raise prices by 4.5% for Electricity and 15.4% for gas in the UK, and that this will be the second rise within a year. Whilst in France gas price rises have been cancelled and Electricité de France is allowed a rise of only 1.7% on orders of the President. A pity the Queen wouldn’t do the same thing here.

YOU CAN ALWAYS GO, DOWNTOWN (BUT NOT ON THE BUS, UNLESS YOU ARE VERY RICH)

Going on buses is not something I do a lot of because I have the good fortune to have a car...and I'm lazy.

But recently I used a bus to get into town and I couldn’t believe my eyes at the price of tickets.

The fares information from National Express who “run” (and I use the word in its loosest sense) our buses (in their best interests) is as follows:

Cash fares are based upon 'fare stages' – the fare is calculated dependent upon the number of 'fare stages' in the journey.

Each bus route is split into a number of these fare stages, each one of which contains on average 3 bus stops. The fare goes up each time a new stage in reached.

Buses have an exact fare policy and the driver cannot give change, so you’re stuffed if you only have a tenner.

For children the fares are: 1 stage, 70p; 2-3 stages 90p 4+ stages, £1. For adults the respective fares are: £1.20, £1.60 and £2.00.

To be fair to them a child’s day ticket can be bought for £2.00 and an adult one for £3.00. But can you imagine the not unlikely scenario of a mum and dad and 2 children wanting to go downtown? The return journey, even using the day tickets, will cost £10.00.

On the other hand, from anywhere within Dundee the average family car can make the journey to the centre of town and back at a maximum of between 50p and £1.50 in petrol, and I’ve never been unable to find a space in the free car park at Gallagher’s shopping centre. The net saving is for our average family is, therefore, at least £8.50!

So what kind of sense does it make to struggle with you purchases on the bus when you can drive into town for a fraction of the bus cost?

And the added advantage is you miss the surly attitude of the typical National Express bus driver and the likelihood of having to sit on a seat that some ned has had his dirty feet on, next to a old nechter who’s spent the lunchtime in the pub and whose breath would strip paint.

But please note that dogs travel free, so if any canines are reading this.... you know what to do!

Just a thought!

SNP GAINS BACKING OF THE PRESS

Today the SNP received the backing of more Scottish newspapers: the Scottish Sunday Express, the Sunday Herald, and the Scottish News of the World. This is in addition to the Sun who declared for the SNP a couple of weeks ago.

The Express and the Murdoch titles came with little surprise. As Tory supporting papers in England it was never likely that they would actively support Labour in Scotland, however, few could have expected them to actually come out in support of Alex Salmond’s team.

But the huge surprise is that The Herald, which has fairly consistently been a pro Labour paper has written the following editorial.

I thought it was worth a repeat here.

Scottish National Party deserves a second term

Published on 1 May 2011

FOUR years ago, when for the first time in Scotland’s history the Scottish National Party won by a whisker the right to govern, it was rightly regarded as a watershed moment.

Eight years of devolution had done two apparently contradictory things, remarked Alex Salmond, soon to be installed as First Minister. On the one hand there was a sense of general relief; the grass was still getting cut, the sky was still blue ... the land had not been visited by plague. On the other, a sense of impatience had grown. Not enough was being done fast enough. Such change as there was, the improvement in people’s lives that many anticipated had not materialised.

The SNP’s victory signalled that Scotland had changed irrevocably. The public put their faith in the hands of untried politicians in the hope they would not let them down.

In large measure their hope has not been misplaced. Forced to govern as a minority administration the SNP demonstrated pragmatism and maturity. To pass legislation, they had no option but to negotiate with other parties. In the main this has worked to the nation’s advantage. The books have balanced and real progress has been made.

Moreover, in certain areas Scotland has shown the rest of the UK that a little can go a long way. Thus the freezing of the council tax and determination not to introduce tuition fees. Similarly, the removal of charges for prescriptions demonstrates a commitment to a health service that is free at the point of entry for all.

The Government’s most controversial action was the decision to free convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. Regardless of whether you agree with that decision or not, the SNP have faced down their critics and emerged from the whirlwind with two strong moral arguments: first that this was a decision for the Scottish Government to take without outside interference; second, that the moral grounds for the release chime with Scottish values and indeed that those valued are enshrined in our laws. In contrast, other parties were left looking hypocritical, feigning public outrage at a decision they had previously signalled in private was in the national interest.

Inevitably, the SNP did not get everything right and did not win every argument. They did not, for example, convince the Parliament that its policy on minimum pricing of alcohol could be effective in combating Scotland’s drink problem. And it has yet to convince the Parliament, and the public at large, of the need for a referendum on independence. For the moment, they are more important to concentrate on re-energising the economy and creating jobs than on redrawing the constitution.

Despite all of the above the SNP apparently started the election campaign behind Labour in the opinion polls. With four days to go they appear now to be destined for victory. How has this transformation come about? The first thing to say, perhaps, is that polls are not infallible and that elections are not won until every vote is counted.

Having said that, it is obvious that Labour’s campaign has been uninspired and negative. Whoever decided that attacking the Conservative-LibDem Coalition should be the party’s top priority was wrong. If devolution’s brief history tells us anything it is that the Scots know the difference between Holyrood and Westminster and vote accordingly.

Indeed, there is something distasteful about political parties wheeling in the so-called big guns from Westminster for the Holyrood campaign, as if Scottish politicians need help from those who bestride a bigger stage.

The divisions between Holyrood and Westminster are underlined by the more recent Labour attacks on independence. It is one thing to argue against the principle of separation but quite another to suggest Scotland and the Scottish people are incapable of managing their own affairs. Those tactics rebounded badly on Labour at the last Holyrood election and it looks likely that history will be repeated on Thursday.

In an interview with this newspaper before campaigning got underway, Salmond said that he intended to fight the election on two fronts: the “business of vision” and the “quality of his team”. The ensuing weeks have vindicated this strategy. On top of this it has Salmond, who has grown in stature as First Minister. The SNP deserve another term in office, not because the alternative is so poor but because their vision and talent genuinely represent the best hope for our country’s future.

JUST WHEN THEY THOUGHT THE STRIKE WOULD FILL THE FRONT PAGES......

It seems that when Mohamed al-Fayed claimed some years ago that you can hire an MP like you can hire a taxi, he was right.

Stephen Byers, along with some names you might expect to be connected with anything dodgy, Pat Hewitt, Geoff Hoon and dear Margaret ‘Dry Rot’ Moran, (I’m going to sue...erm.... or pay the money back).

The investigator, an undercover reporter for the “Sunday Times” and “Despatches”, posed as a company executive looking to hire MPs for lobbying work. Byers, a former minister, allegedly described himself as “like a sort of cab for hire” for up to £5,000 a day (expensive cab!).

Hewitt claimed she was paid £3,000 a day to help a client obtain a key seat on a Government advisory group, while Hoon said that he had contacts that he could use to make money. He too charged £3,000 a day.

Moran, the disgraced Luton MP , surprisingly not in the dock with the other Labour Party MPs boasted of a “girls gang” of colleagues to help clients, including Jacqui ‘the dodgy lodger’ Smith, Hazel ‘this is my cheque’ Blears, and, wait for it, no lesser a person than Harry ‘you know where to find me’ Harman.

Byers allegedly said he had a deal with His Lordship Adonis, on behalf of National Express, which he said wanted to dump the East Coast rail franchise which was making a loss, without having to pay up in penalties. The deal supposedly was that Adonis would criticise National Express publicly but terms would be agreed which favoured the company. The decision to terminate the franchise last year left the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds in the red. Thanks Byers! Byers also boasted he could and did use his friendship with Peter Mandelson, along with his ability to get information from Number 10.

It is alleged, although denied by the company, that he lobbied Mandleson on behalf of Tescos to have food labelling regulations altered and they were. Needless to say after the allegations became public Byers said that he had been exaggerating what he could do...... Adonis and National Express also denied the allegations and Mandy had "no recollection" of talking to Byers about the issue. I’ve heard that one before! (He thinks he’s Ronnie Regan .... the hair dye and the astrologer are just around the corner.)

Hewitt claimed that she was offering to do the work only after she left the Commons, although that’s not how it looks to me. Nauseatingly she said: “I am always willing to give advice to companies who have something positive to offer our country,” as she wiped her eye on the corner of her union jack hankie. Pass me the sick bag.

Hoon’s lawyer said his comments had been misrepresented. How exactly you can misrepresent... looking to turn his knowledge and contacts into “something that frankly makes money” , I don't know. It all sounds pretty clear to me.

Of course the ever delightful Moran warbled something about 'hypothetical discussions about the future’ and ‘an attempt to rebuild my life.’ But nobody takes her very seriously any more. (Like the type colour...? It matches her hat.) (It is a hat, isn't it?)

But the allegations are serious, implicating, as they do, people still in ‘power’, and not just the headlined has-beens. Perhaps the most serious is Moran’s allegations that Harman is or was part of her “contacts”.

And they ask why people aren’t interested in politics and don’t vote.... Pfffffffffffffffff.


Pictured: Stephen, trying to ward off the collapse of what was left of his reputation; the lovely Pat and the even lovelier Geoff pictured "together" because, I imagine, of their last venture into the disreputable as a twosome; and finally a big fat orange thing that I thought would look amusing on the page... you know... a joke.

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