Thursday 31 December 2020

Nine years on

Calton has wanted to leave the EU for years, long before he started this blog 9 years ago. There were times when he seemed like a lone voice, howling at the moon. Even when Nigel Farage founded UKIP it seemed impossible that the UK would leave the EU. Now, at time of writing, we have already left and are less than 2 hours from exiting the resulting transition period, with a deal in place, which is something else which seemed impossible until Christmas Eve. Truly 2020 has been a year of miracles as well as disasters.

Some things haven't changed, for instance the SNP's love-affair with the EU. This has led them into the ridiculous position of voting against the deal which Boris Johnson has agreed with the EU, in spite of months of warning against a no-deal Brexit. It also means that most of the items on Calton's 2012 wishlist are still valid - just replace Alex Salmond with Nicola Sturgeon and redefining marriage with trans rights.

What has changed is the mood within Scotland. The hitherto silent majority who voted NO in 2014 have now found a voice and a party to vote for in 2021 - Alliance for Unity, headed by George Galloway. The iron grip of the Murrells on the SNP has also loosened and cracks are appearing in what was once a united party. Nicola Sturgeon's pursuance of a highly woke agenda has won her enemies including Joanna Cherry and Stuart Campbell. The former fired a shot across Sturgeon's bows after being elected to the SNP NEC and the latter continues to bombard Sturgeon on an almost daily basis via his blog Wings Over Scotland, which talks so much sense that Calton has decided to add it to his blogroll.

Many still think that an SNP victory next May is inevitable. Hopefully the SNP are among that number because complacency comes before a fall in votes. Defeating the SNP may seem impossible but so did Brexit. It just needs enough people to turn out and make their voice heard. May 2021 be the year that sees the end of nationalist rule in Scotland! Slainte!

Wednesday 23 December 2020

And it came to pass ...

This Christmas, with travel restrictions imposed on us by what sometimes seems to be an increasingly imperial government, let's take time to remember a family who were forced to travel at Christmas by the emperor of the time, because he wanted to do a census for tax purposes. So Joseph had to go from Nazareth to Bethlehem with his heavily pregnant wife, only to find that all the hotels were full when they got there. Talk about a lack of planning on the part of the Roman Empire!

Then, about 2 years later, when the little family seem to have got a house at last, they had to do a moonlight flit to Egypt to avoid the murderous intentions of the local despot, Herod. It was a while before they could return and even then, not to their house in Bethlehem because the despot's son was now on the throne and they didn't feel safe. So it was back to Nazareth.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and the baby born in the manger was bringing light to the people who lived in darkness - the people of Galilee, near where he had been brought up. He healed their diseases and their minds. He brought good news - God in man, reconciling man to God. That didn't go down well with the ruling political/religious class so they had him crucified by the Romans on a trumped-up charge. The local tyrant and the Roman ruler became best friends over a job well done, or so they thought.

But the story is not over, even now. Rulers, empires, kings and politicians may rise but they also fall and through it all God's purpose is worked out. We see a part of the picture he is painting but he sees the whole. So take heart, this Christmas may not be what you had planned or wanted but God is still in charge and his love, embodied in a tiny baby, never fails.

Monday 30 November 2020

Is Nicola Sturgeon good for the SNP?

In times gone by, Queen of the SNP Nicola Sturgeon could have expected standing ovations and lots of opportunities for selfies and self-promotion at the SNP's annual conference. Not this year. 2020 continued its mean girls reputation by serving up to the First Minister a platter of hostile media interviews, a critical front-page article by an SNP MP in The Times and her name trending on twitter for all the wrong reasons. Andrew Marr, in an interview which is unlikely to be forgotten even by a woman who seems to have made forgetfulness a habit recently, told her that "there is a gap between how you present yourself, which you do very well, and what is actually going on in Scotland". One of the most important manifestations of this gap is the way in which Sturgeon has managed to make everyone think that she's done a good job of leading the SNP. So let's look at that.

Nicola Sturgeon inherited a party with a majority in Holyrood, which had been achieved by her predecessor Alex Salmond in 2011 after he successfully ran a minority administration from 2007-2011. Sturgeon lost that majority in 2016 and now presides over another minority government which is not doing nearly as well as the first one. Granted, the number of SNP MPs at Westminster has increased since she took over, however the stunning 2015 result was mainly due to a backlash against the 2014 referendum result and would have happened regardless of who was leader of the party. The SNP lost a lot of MPs in 2017 and has still not got back to the 2015 high water mark in spite of an improved performance in 2019. A similar thing has happened with party membership which increased dramatically in 2014-5 but has recently fallen back again.

Under the leadership of Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell the SNP introduced rules banning criticism of the leadership or any party member or policy. This gave them an iron grip on the party which could only last for so long and is now spectacularly breaking down over the issue of transgender rights. Joanna Cherry has publicly criticised Sturgeon's control as being unhealthy for the party while simultaneously asking that the rule banning criticism be used to protect her from the torrent of abuse she has been receiving from party members. Nicola's response to this today has been rather lukewarm. Calton is not surprised - you only get la Sturgeon's support if you agree with her anti-feminist policies.

Finally, on the real acid test of an SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon has failed spectacularly because, although she's been promising another independence referendum since the Brexit vote of 2016, she has failed to deliver one and shows no sign of doing so any time soon, regardless of what (vague) promises she has given this weekend. She is also failing when it comes to governing Scotland well (which Salmond did from 2007-2011) and building support for independence. It's not enough to have a referendum - the SNP members want to win it and that is in no way guaranteed at the moment. The settled 60% in favour of independence which Nicola very sensibly wanted to see before calling indyref2 has never materialised. Support has been 55% at most. 

Nicola Sturgeon is very good at presenting herself. She's managed to fool at least some people into thinking that she's handled the Covid crisis well, although the facts say otherwise. However she is not good at managing her party or governing the country or persuading No voters to change to Yes. Self-promotion is all she's good at. Nicola is no Boudicca - but will the rank and file in the SNP realise that before it's too late? Hopefully not.

Monday 16 November 2020

Cherchez La Femme

The more the sorry Salmond affair drags on, the more Calton becomes convinced that the former First Minister was right - there was a conspiracy against him instigated by his successor. You don't have to look far in this whodunnit to find the femme fatale. Nicola Sturgeon had both the means (his admittedly poor behaviour) and the motive (his declared intention to return to Scottish politics) to stick the knife into Alex Salmond and #metoo gave her the ideal opportunity. She has rubbished any suggestion of conspiracy, saying that she has nothing to hide and would cooperate fully with the current inquiry however court action has been raised to prevent publication of part of a conversation between Sturgeon and a senior civil servant about Salmond. The Scottish Government has also failed to meet a deadline to provide its legal advice to the inquiry and is treating a parliamentary vote on the same with contempt.

What really stinks about this whole thing is the way in which senior women in the SNP and the Scottish Government seem to have been happy to put up with Salmond's behaviour when it suited them, in the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum for example, but then cynically used the #metoo movement as a vehicle to prevent Salmond making a come-back. That is not the action of committed feminists. Women suffer daily from the actions of sleazy guys in positions of power and are entitled to have their complaints treated with respect and investigated properly, not used in some internecine party war, which, in Calton's opinion, seems to have happened in this case.

Alex Salmond won a court case against the Scottish Government over their handling of the complaints against him and he was aquitted of all criminal wrongdoing at his trial. He is now out for revenge against his successor. Nicola Sturgeon has said that perhaps he is angry with her because she refused to collude with him in covering up his behaviour. Calton wonders if perhaps Alex had good reason to expect collusion from Nicola based on her previous attitude to his actions and was disappointed to find that her attitude had changed. Or perhaps his anger stems from being put through months of hell and a court case. Hopefully we will find out when the man himself appears in front of the Holyrood committee. Calton doesn't hold out much hope of the committee getting anything out of the First Minister, except a plea for our sympathy as a wronged woman.


Thursday 5 November 2020

A Rainbow of Rosettes

Calton can remember the early years of the Scottish Parliament when the ballot paper for the second or list vote was as long as his arm. It was called the Rainbow Parliament due to the many party colours - including the Senior Citizen's Unity Party and the Socialist Party in addition to the current five parties. In 2007 we also had the Scottish Christian Party, the Smoking in Pubs Party, the Christian People's Alliance and Solidarity putting up list candidates. Happy days! Unfortunately that was the year that saw all the smaller parties wiped out and the first SNP government elected. It's been all downhill since then.

Until now. Now we have the iron discipline of the SNP breaking down, spawning new independence parties such as Action for Independence, Independence for Scotland and Scotland's Independence Referendum Party. We also, finally, have a credible pushback against the SNP led by George Galloway and the Alliance for Unity party. The Smoking in Pubs Party has expired in the face of the smoking ban and the SCUP seems to have retired however the Scottish Socialists are alive and kicking - back against Labour it seems, especially since the recent suspension of one J Corbyn.

The Scottish Christian Party still pops up from time to time at by-elections - most recently to split the religious vote with newcomer the Scottish Family Party in Ian Blackford's constituency in the 2019 general election. The latter doesn't have a position on independence so that might appeal to the few people in the country still sitting on the fence when it comes to Scotland in or out of the UK. Alternatively, if Richard Leonard gives in to pressure and changes his opposition to a second independence referendum, they could always vote Scottish Labour.

Whatever your political views, more choice on the second ballot paper has to be a good thing, unless you want a one-party state run by mini-dictator Nicola Sturgeon and her husband. Calton will be voting for Alliance for Unity to stop that eventuality.

Saturday 31 October 2020

On Tactical Voting

Calton is not generally in favour of tactical voting however he is preparing to make an exception for the Holyrood election next year. He has been helped to this decision by a couple of things.

Firstly, it is becoming increasingly clear that the SNP must be defeated at all costs. If they are not, Scotland will become a police state where only views acceptable to the SNP are allowed and we will also have the continued, divisive agitation for another independence referendum while education, the NHS and the economy are ignored.

Secondly, it is highly likely that the current SNP selection process will result in a bunch of woke candidates made in Nicola Sturgeon's image, in spite of the #dontvotewoke campaign being waged by one faction of the party. This makes it easier for Calton to vote for a woke unionist candidate, if they are the one best placed to defeat the SNP in his constituency. Normally he wouldn't touch woke with a bargepole however needs must.

Lastly, the idea of an anti-nationalist coalition is one whose time has come. The silent majority is silent no longer. George Galloway has stirred things up good and proper and Alliance for Unity will be getting Calton's list vote. The traditional unionist parties are so far showing no sign of entering into any election pacts, preferring to split the vote and let the SNP in as usual, however their voters are starting to think differently. If Alex Salmond or the care home scandal don't bring Sturgeon down, her hubris in expecting another term in office may well do the trick. If Labour, the Tories and the Libdems suffer some collateral damage in the process they have only themselves to blame.

Tuesday 27 October 2020

Is the SNP Good for Families?

Nicola Sturgeon is currently claiming that she wants everyone to have a family Christmas but is the SNP good for families in general?

Not if you want to be a stay-at-home Mum. The SNP's policies are all geared around getting women back to work as soon as possible with increased nursery provision. The trouble is, the times don't always suit working Mums and the provision is patchy as it relies heavily on the private sector (and this was before Covid made life even more difficult for nurseries).

Not if you don't want your child to be exposed to pornographic sex education and transgender ideology. The SNP looks with scorn on parents who express concern about these issues, to the extent of calling them bigots for not getting on the woke bandwagon.

Not if you want to raise your children free from state interference. The SNP have abandoned their Named Person legislation due to data sharing concerns however they still believe that the state knows best and parents are not the most important people in a child's life.

Not if you want to choose how you discipline your children - the SNP have now outlawed even the lightest smack and will shortly be criminalising parents, in spite of their promises not to. They are also encouraging children to report their parents. This is state interference in family life on a grand scale and it won't stop with smacking - it will eventually extend to children reporting their parents if they get put on the naughty step, or sent to bed early, or are denied that extra sweetie. Children's rights trump parent's rights in SNP land. That doesn't make for happy families.

Not if you want to have a three-generational Christmas dinner round an actual dinner table - the SNP are warning us to get ready for a "digital Christmas". Calton can't think of anything sadder or more horrible. He also can't think of anything more likely to spark mass civil disobedience!

Not if you want to see an elderly relative in a care home. Having killed off a lot of grandparents by transferring Covid positive people out of hospital into care homes, the SNP are now paranoid and the restrictions around care home visits, not to mention the conditions within care homes, with residents effectively in solitary confinement, are now inhumane for residents and their families.

Not if you want to see your student son or daughter for Christmas. Having bowed to pressure from universities and let students return in September, even although they could have studied from home, the SNP are now faced with the problem of how to let them go home safely after Covid has rampaged through campuses. A problem which could have been foreseen and avoided.

No, the SNP are not good for families.

Wednesday 21 October 2020

Is the SNP Good for Women?

 Calton was prompted to write this post after seeing that one hopeful SNP candidate was not approved by the party because of her views on transgender issues and another was asked who would look after her children if she was elected. Both were women. Now, one would think that, with a female leader who claims to be a feminist, the SNP would be a positive environment for women, supportive of their rights and encouraging of their aims. Not so. In her race to be seen as the most woke leader in the western world, Nicola Sturgeon has abandoned her sex. Let's have a look at the evidence.

She claims that her plans to make it easy for men to self-identify as women do not clash with her feminism, however many feminists would disagree. They think, and Calton agrees, that the radical trans ideaology which Sturgeon is pursuing not only threatens women's safe spaces but threatens the very definition of a woman and all the hard-won rights which go with it. The Scottish Government's Gender Reform Act (GRA) may be on the back burner for now but, make no mistake, it will be back with a vengeance if the SNP get a majority in Holyrood next year. The fact that the First Minister has twice invited best friend and minister responsible for the GRA Shirley-Anne Somerville onto her daily briefing in the last fortnight confirms this. It also demonstrates that if you support the GRA, you get the support of the leader of the SNP in your battle to be reselected. If you don't support the GRA, forget it. (Somerville is being targeted by the #dontvotewoke campaign as she tries to hang on to Dunfermline and West Fife.)

Joanna Cherry is another woman who has questioned the party's policy on transgender issues. She wanted to stand for Edinburgh Central next year but the SNP NEC changed the rules, effectively preventing her from doing so. Much has been made of the Salmond/Sturgeon divisions within the SNP but the real faultline is the woke/non-woke one, which has spawned the #dontvotewoke hashtag on twitter, referring to the current selection contests for SNP candidates. It is well known that Stuart Campbell is no fan of Nicola's however his comments on the candidate selection process are still worth reading. Further evidence that the SNP leader is not good for women is the emergence of the SNP Women's Pledge, which would not be needed if Sturgeon truly supported women. They are supporting non-woke candidates.

Calton could say more on issues such as the child-care question posed to a female candidate, how Alex Salmond's sleazy, but not illegal, behaviour was overlooked by senior women in the SNP in order not to damage the cause of independence and how the SNP have shown a complete lack of trust in women's ability to bring up their own children without government intervention (the named persons and smacking legislation) but this post is already long enough. Perhaps another day ...


Sunday 18 October 2020

Policy-making on the High Heel

 If Calton had to pick one thing which demonstrates that Nicola Sturgeon is making it up as she goes along, it would be Thursday's announcement that masks should be worn in work canteens as of Friday but masks in corridors don't need to be worn until Monday. This is not just policy-making on the high heel, it's stupidity on stilts. If masks were required in canteens two days ago, except when eating, why the delay in requiring masks in corridors, which are usually more enclosed than a canteen? It's no surprise that a large part of the population now has no clue what they are supposed to be doing to avoid the spread of Covid. The clear messaging which the First Minister prided herself on has descended into a fog of stupid rules in spite of her continued daily appearances on our TV screens, thanks to the craven BBC.

Scotland has been locked down harder and for longer than England thanks to Sturgeon's fear and it has resulted in no real difference in infections north and south of the border, and yet she continues with her MacBoris approach - simply putting a kilt on what the Prime Minister does. He is not getting it right and neither is she. Lockdowns only work when they are in operation. When they are lifted, the virus continues its merry way. If the NHS is in danger of being overwhelmed a temporary lockdown will help. Otherwise it's just ruining the economy, putting people out of work and causing excess deaths through cancer etc for sweet nothing. We are not preventing Covid deaths with the current strategy - we are simply delaying them and causing other deaths in the meantime.

We need to stop kidding ourselves on that we can control this virus and we need to stop looking to a vaccine as a magic bullet. We can't afford to keep paying workers who can't work and businesses who can't open due to government edicts and so the edicts need to stop. We should switch our attention instead to protecting the vulnerable as much as we can while learning to accept that opportunistic infections kill the elderly and vulnerable - always have, always will. If we don't, we will end up with millions unemployed, isolated, lonely, sick and dying from diseases which were preventable, unlike Covid.

Friday 11 September 2020

Independence transcends ...

Nicola Sturgeon was being more than a little disingenous today when she admitted to a limited amount of politicisation of her daily "Covid" briefings on the basis that she's only human. In fact she has regularly used the platform to denigrate the Westminster Government and favourably compare Scotland with England, which would maybe not be political if she was a member of any other party but, as the leader of the SNP, this is highly political. It has also been highly effective as the latest opinion polls on support for independence demonstrate. Hence the reason that Nationalists have been howling with rage over the BBC's announcement that they would no longer automatically screen the daily briefings on TV. Sturgeon has been wise enough to distance herself from the criticism but her deputy John Swinney no doubt spoke for her when he voiced his concern over the BBC's decision.

The problem, as Calton sees it, is that those who don't want to see the UK broken up and Scotland plunged into poverty still seem to ascribe some basic moral decency to Sturgeon. They don't realise that when she said "independence transcends" she meant that it transcends EVERYTHING. Not just economics but morals, decency, honesty, integrity. Everything. Nicola Sturgeon would let your Granny die of Covid in a care home if it furthered the cause of Scottish independence ... except she's already tried that and it didn't work. She has no sense of shame and no decency. If she seems to be doing a mea culpa it's only to avoid admitting even bigger failures. This is what Nationalism does to you. It causes women to cover up for sex pests in case it damages 'the cause' and it causes other women to knife them in the back in case they damage 'the cause'. Nothing matters but independence and while Nicola may not have been "enjoying" Covid, she has used the higher profile it has given her to drive a wedge between Scotland and England and increase support for the only thing she really cares about. 

It's time to take the blinkers and the gloves off if we are to defeat the poison of Nationalism in Scotland. No more Mr Nice Guy.

Thursday 30 July 2020

The Smell of Pee

Back in April Calton wrote that Nicola Sturgeon reeked of exceptionalism. Now she stinks of urine - the pee some care home residents had to lie in due to the Scottish Government's mismanagement of the Covid crisis and care homes. Whenever someone dares to raise this issue with the First Minister, she complains that they are trying to make out that she did it deliberately. She plaintively protests that she did her best at the time and that, if mistakes were made, (note the 'if'), they will be examined at some future inquiry. She deeply regrets every death and, really, it's her we should be feeling sorry for because those nasty journalists and opposition politicians are trying to make her out to be a murderess.

No Nicola, the charge is not murder - it's manslaughter. Not intentional, pre-meditated killing but killing through incompetence. At the height of the pandemic you and your hopeless Health Secretary Jeanne Freeman shifted lots of vulnerable elderly patients from hospitals to care homes without testing them while at the same time lots of care home workers were having to stay at home for 14 days. You created a situation where an increase in residents coincided with a decrease in staff numbers and you did nothing to mitigate this. That is incompetence. The results of what you were doing were forseeable - you did not forsee them. The situation was exacerbated by a blanket directive (now deleted) that care home residents should not be moved to hospital if they got Covid.

Sturgeon's hands are not stained with blood - it's pee and no amount of washing will take away the smell.


Wednesday 15 July 2020

Nicola is no Boudicca

Calton has stopped listening to Nicola's lunchtime briefings. Her anxiety is palpable and it's infectious. Instead of leading the Scottish people our First Minister is pleading with the Scottish people. It's not a good look. No wonder some nationalists are casting about for another leader and their eye is falling on Sturgeon's predecessor and nemesis, Alex Salmond. The fact that there doesn't seem to be any other obvious candidate highlights the paucity of talent in the SNP. A leadership election in the aftermath of Salmond's resignation in 2014 might have highlighted what is now blindingly obvious even to some SNP members - Sturgeon's ultra-cautiousness and inability to be decisive is a huge drawback. She is a career politician, not a leader. She's the queen of spin in a sharp suit but she is no Boudicca and it is unlikely that she will ever lead the Scots to independence. She just doesn't have what it takes. If she did manage to take Scotland out of the UK we would be a nation of wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beasties just like her and we would indeed be too wee, too poor and too stupid to succeed as an independent country because that's what she will have made us.

Tuesday 16 June 2020

Basic Geometry for Politicians

Nicola Sturgeon doesn't seem to be very good at maths or science but that doesn't stop her trying to get Head Teachers to square a circle and pour a quart into a pint pot (1.14 litres into a 568ml pot for the young amongst us). She's absolutely wedded to the 2m social distancing rule and so schools have been planning the return of pupils on that basis. Basic geometry dictates that if pupils have to stay 2m apart from each other and the teacher, the maximum class size in an average classroom will be 10 instead of 30. That's why so many schools were, until yesterday, planning on having pupils back one week in three. John Swinney had even invented a term for it - 'blended learning'. Now teachers have had to go back to the drawing board because our populist First Minister realised yesterday morning that the Education Minister's plan was not going down well. You've heard of pester power. Now we have parent power and a hashtag #usforthemScotland. We even have a former First Minister wading into the row.

The result of all this is that Nicola has now learned what happens when two objects collide - the smaller one goes into reverse. Forgetting the 2m rule, Sturgeon now wants kids back at school full-time as soon as possible. If only she wanted businesses back open as quickly, but then economics is another of her weak points. It's not wrong for a politician to listen to people, or for parents to want their kids back at school, but full-time education for all plus 2m separation is an unsolvable equation. Even 1m social distancing makes it impossible. So which is it going to be First Minister? School or social distancing? Calton awaits the answer with interest, as will many businesses.

Friday 5 June 2020

Angels and Demons

Some time ago, when Jackie Baillie was Shadow Health Minister, Calton took a pop at her for being overweight in a blog post entitled Where Angels Fear to Tread... Well, Jackie is looking pretty angelic now in comparison with current Health Minister Jeane Freeman.

This is the woman who (deliberately in Calton's opinion) tried to mislead the Scottish Parliament over the number of NHS patients transferred from hospitals to care homes at the start of the Covid-19 crisis. She had to apologise. Nicola Sturgeon made excuses for her, saying that she was 'tired'.

Under Freeman's direction the Scottish Government bought up care home beds in order to empty hospital wards. What they failed to do was to ensure that the care homes had adequate PPE and adequate staff to deal with a highly infectious respiratory virus. It took weeks and numerous awkward questions from journalists at Sturgeon's daily briefings before Jeane got her act together with respect to PPE for care homes. At time of writing, the Scottish Government has still not got its act together with respect to regular testing of care home staff, in spite of Nicola Sturgeon announcing two weeks ago that this would happen. Freeman has also still not sorted out the problem of care home staff having to survive on statutory sick pay if they test positive.

Early Scottish Government guidance to care homes and the GPs who look after them said that it was not advised that patients with Covid-19 should be transferred to hospital but be cared for in the care home.  This was subsequently amended but only after the Scottish Government realised that the general population actually care about their old folks and want them to receive the best of care, including hospital treatment when required. How many care home residents could have survived the virus if the early guidance had not stipulated that they be refused transfer to hospital? The blanket issuing of DNRs (Do Not Resuscitate notices) in care homes, sometimes to people without capacity to agree them is also a real cause for concern.

Freeman has defended her actions in the ongoing coronavirus care home deaths scandal, saying that she did her best with the information available at the time. Even if this is true, her best was not good enough. People have died on her watch, some of them unnecessarily. Surely that is grounds for her resignation. Sadly there is no-one of Jackie Baillie's calibre in the SNP to replace Jeane.

PS. When she became Health Minister Jeane said she was going to lead by example and give up the fags. Is she still smoke-free?

Tuesday 26 May 2020

Douglas Ross Gets It

When Calton wrote his post on exceptionalism, Dominic Cummings had been the one trying to keep on so-called superforecaster Andrew Sabisky in the light of unsavoury revelations about the latter. Now Cummings has become the story after revelations about his trip to Durham during lockdown and Boris Johnson is desperately trying to keep him on in the face of mounting opposition, not just from the opposition but from members of his own party. Just as Nicola Sturgeon's attempts to keep on Catherine Calderwood made her look weak, so Johnson's attempts are opening him up to ridicule and raising the question of who really governs the country. They also make him look weak.

Cummings has defended his actions in a painful, hour-long press briefing yesterday but a scan through Calton's social media feeds shows very little sympathy for him. He may not have broken the letter of the law but most people feel that he has definitely broken the spirit of it, and the strong government message to stay at home and not undertake any unnecessary journeys. Indeed, at time of writing, that is still the message in Scotland, as Sturgeon was quick to point out in her briefing yesterday.

If the highly unusual briefing by Cummings was intended to draw a line under the affair it has utterly failed, with Moray MP and junior government minister Douglas Ross resigning today and various Scottish Tory MSPs making their fury known. Even Jackson Carlaw has eventually been forced into saying that Cummings should consider his position. Not only has the Domnishambles eclipsed the UK Government's message on Coronavirus, it is preventing the Scots Tories from taking the SNP to task over their poor handling of the crisis in Scotland and is threatening their chances in the Holyrood election scheduled for next year.

Douglas Ross gets that rules apply to everyone without exception, even to pals of the PM. Boris doesn't get it and his ratings are plummeting as a result.

Friday 22 May 2020

Something Rotten in the State of Scotland

There is something rotten at the heart of Scottish politics. Health Minister Jeane Freeman deliberately (in Calton's opinion) misled the Scottish parliament and people with regard to the number of delayed discharge (bed-blocking) patients discharged into care homes since the Covid-19 crisis began. She was forced to apologise and put the record straight after pressure from The Sun newspaper. However she still has the full confidence of the First Minister and, when Jackson Carlaw queried whether anyone else could have confidence in her, he was accused of playing politics in the midst of a crisis. Not something Nicola Sturgeon would ever do, no siree. She's totally focussed on dealing with the Coronavirus threat and if her daily appearances on the telly with not a hair out of place enhance the prospects of a future independent Scotland that is entirely by-the-by.

Accusing the Scottish Tories of being party political was obviously the message de jour from SNP HQ because John Swinney (suitably outraged) used it on Radio Scotland this morning to avoid answering the same question of whether the public could trust a word Jeane Freeman says and Sturgeon was back at it later in an attack on Ruth Davidson, who had dared to criticise the Dear Leader. Nicola is very good at telling us that she is above all these petty considerations and is just getting on with the job. Except that she isn't. Was there ever a Scottish Executive which executed less, and with more moolah from Westminster, than this pathetic excuse for a government? They are still in lockstep with Westminster, except that now they are three steps behind, and they've already had to row back on the stipulation that you only travel 5 miles to visit relatives (once you are allowed to) after a twitter backlash. Now it seems you can go further, provided your bladder has a good mpg.

If it wasn't so serious it would be funny. Scotland's tourist and hospitality industries are facing disaster, we are seeing around 50 excess deaths a week caused by lockdown, not Covid-19, and the First Minister is worried about whether or not you might need to visit the loo if you visit your parents. Maybe she should try treating us like grown-ups. Maybe she and her ministers should also try being honest and straight with the Scottish people they claim to serve. Then we might have confidence in what they say.

Monday 18 May 2020

No-one Said It Would Be Easy

In his last post Calton talked about Nicola Sturgeon making decisions in good faith. Now he just wishes she would actually MAKE a decision. Instead, we were told today, not that some lockdown restrictions would be eased, but that we would be given a route map. On Thursday. The century is young but Calton thinks that this will still qualify as one of its biggest let-downs. On that basis, don't hold your breath for any of the teasingly promised relaxations to actually happen at the end of the month. That would involve Sturgeon actually making a decision, something which she seems increasingly incapable of doing. Think rabbit caught in headlights.

No-one ever said that being a leader was easy but, boy, this virus has a way of separating the women from the girls. The First Minister is the queen of spin but events are spinning out of control and her inability to lead is being exposed. As journalist Paul Sinclair so aptly put it: "If only we had an FM trained to govern rather than just media trained." Ouch. Brutal but true. There are no easy answers in this current situation. Covid-19 causes deaths and long-term ill-health in some people. Lockdown also causes deaths and ill-health plus bankruptcies, job losses and financial hardship. The risks have to be weighed up and balanced. Then a decision needs to be made. Nicola has got stuck at the first step. In a time of crisis Scotland is being led by a frightened little girl. How did we get ourselves into this mess?


Tuesday 12 May 2020

On Accountability

Throughout this Covid-19 crisis, Nicola Sturgeon's attitude has been one of barely concealed irritation at anyone, journalist or politician, who dared criticise her handling of it. She has repeatedly talked about an inquiry afterwards when lessons can be learned but, at the moment, just let her get on with making decisions, which affect us all hugely, without question. Her hubris is incredible. Calton knows that a lot of her followers think she's a saint who can do no wrong and it seems that she has bought into their hype. Unfortunately the opposition parties at Holyrood bought into the idea that we all need to pull together in a pandemic and that criticism of any sort would be bad form, so for weeks Queen Nicola has been calling the shots and no-one has dared to gainsay her.

Thankfully Jackson Carlaw has finally woken up and seen sense. At a time of national crisis it is vitally important that the decisions of those who lead us are subjected to scrutiny. It is not a sign of disloyalty or disunity to do so. Calton would go as far as saying it is actually a civic duty to question our leaders. It may come as news to Nicola but no-one is perfect. We all make mistakes. Hence the need for accountability. Journalists have been trying to hold the First Minister to account at her daily briefings but without the chance to reply to her (non) answers, their teeth have been drawn. The whole thing is staged to make Sturgeon look good.

Calton has no doubt that Nicola Sturgeon has made decisions in good faith in this difficult situation but that does not mean that they were, or will continue to be, the right decisions. We are a democracy not a dictatorship. It's time the Scottish Parliament played its part in the decision-making process. Hopefully today's parliamentary session will be just the start of that, because it seems that Sturgeon needs reminding on a daily basis that she is not God.

Sunday 3 May 2020

The Problem with Care Homes

In one of her lunchtime briefings this week Nicola Sturgeon pointed out, rather pointedly, that most care homes are private businesses. Calton thinks that she was trying to suggest that they pull their weight in the current crisis. Chutzpah on stilts. Here's why:

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, Scotland's care homes were underfunded. This is because local councils do not pay enough to cover the cost of care for those who are not self-funded. They are subsidised by those who are paying for their care out of their savings or the sale of their home. If the ratio of council-funded clients to self-funded clients in a home gets too large the home becomes financially unviable. If a care home becomes financially unviable it may have to close. For years the Scottish Government has been cutting the cash it gives to local councils, causing them in turn to look for savings in things like the cost of care, so the buck stops with the First Minister here.

In normal times, care homes manage infectious diseases like norovirus and they use disposable gloves and aprons, which they procure like any other business on the open market. Now they have been faced with a new, highly infectious, respiratory infection which also requires the use of face masks at time when there is a world-wide shortage of all PPE and associated price-hiking. This is costing them extra, unexpected expenditure when they are already cash-strapped (see above). Health Secretary Jeane Freeman patted herself on the back recently because she had distributed one week's worth of PPE to every care home in Scotland. One week's worth!!! I'm sure it was welcome but it's hardly going to plug the ongoing hole in the dyke!

Care homes have also been asked to take a lot of extra residents at short notice recently as the NHS cleared out its hospitals in preparation for an influx of Covid-19 patients. This was a huge transfer of liability from the state-funded NHS to the private sector. None of these patients were tested for the virus for the first few weeks. Now we have a massive problem with Covid-19 in Scotland's care homes, including one on Skye. Oh but never mind - according to Nicola Sturgeon they are private businesses who need to step up to the plate. Problem solved.

Sturgeon's comments were in response to a journalist pointing out that many private care homes are on their knees and may not survive the current crisis. What Sturgeon needs to realise, and realise fast, is that care homes are essential businesses. ESSENTIAL. If the Scottish Government can find the cash to prop up Prestwick and Ferguson, it should find the cash to support our care homes. Otherwise where are the residents still left after Covid-19 has done its worst going to live?

Monday 13 April 2020

Let the Scottish Government be the Baddie

Although Calton now lives in Edinburgh he grew up on the west coast of Scotland and still has relatives in the Highlands, some of whom earn their livings through tourism. So he has a dog in the fight when it comes to Covid-19 and its effect on the Highlands and Islands. He understands the concern of those who live there when faced with an influx of sasunnachs wanting to escape the virus. Unfortunately the way that concern has been expressed runs the risk of doing long-term damage to the industry which many in the Highlands depend on. Hand-made posters saying "tourists go home" will not be forgotten once this pandemic is over and neither will flat motorhome tyres. Visitors were not buying up all the food in the shops - the locals were managing to do that for themselves quite nicely well before Easter and the traditional influx of tourists (which the shops are geared up to cater for). Fears that sick visitors would swamp local health services were legitimate but, here's the thing, this should have been addressed by the Scottish Government, that SNP Government voted in by a majority of the Highlands, and not left to individuals or communities to deal with themselves.

The Scottish Government closed the schools on Friday 20th March, the forecast for that weekend was superb and yet those in power didn't seem to realise that a considerable number of people might, quite literally, head for the hills (or at least the carpark at Nevis Range). It wasn't until Sunday 22nd that the Government announced a ban on non-essential travel, including travel to second homes, and even then, their Chief Medical Officer thought that the advice was optional. That left vulnerable rural communities across Scotland unprotected for two whole days. It's not surprising that some of them decided to take the law into their own hands but it was extremely unfortunate and unwise.

Now that the travel ban is in place and is being enforced by Police Scotland, Calton would like to see all the unwelcoming signs taken down. Let the Scottish Government and the Police be the baddies, not local people. That's the smarter way to handle this. Covid-19 is decimating the tourist industry right now but it won't last long. A bad reputation will last a lot longer and the effect on the Highlands will be much deeper.

Wednesday 8 April 2020

On Competence

Calton has no doubt that the First Minister was sincere when she said how much she supported health care workers and wanted them to have the correct PPE in her press briefing today. Unfortunately sincerity doesn't provide PPE - competence does and Nicola Sturgeon is a bit short on that quality. She's great at presentation and carefully crafted speeches - her responses are slicker than her hairdo and more pointed than her shoes - but this Covid-19 crisis is showing her up for what she is - all fur coat and nae knickers.

What Scotland needs right now is a leader who gets things done. What we've got is someone who talks the talk but can't walk the walk. Nicola Sturgeon is all show, from the top of her immaculate hairdo to the tips of her stiletto heels. When she was Health Minister some described her as a helicopter - landing with lots of noise and disturbance, staying for a few minutes then taking off again in a flurry of rotor blades. Now we have Jeane Freeman who has provided guidance about what PPE to use and a helpline to report it if you don't have PPE but doesn't actually seem to have managed to provide PPE. Less helicopter more submarine, sinking without trace when what the troops need is a Hercules, full of supplies.

Sturgeon's response to a letter from 100 medics about PPE was basically "I understand and I will act". If she doesn't do the latter and do it soon, she and her Health Minister will look like WW1 generals, miles behind the front line, saying everything is fine when thousands are dying. It's not a good look.


Monday 6 April 2020

The Smell of Exceptionalism

Since Catherine Calderwood is obviously an intelligent woman, Calton is diagnosing her deliberate flouting of the lockdown travel laws not just once, but twice, as a bad case of elitism. Nicola Sturgeon, on the other hand, is suffering from a bad case of exceptionalism. Just as the Prime Minister and other Tories defended Priti Patel on the grounds that she was doing a jolly good job, and Dominic Cummings overlooked the dubious online background of Andrew Sabisky because he was a "superforecaster", so the First Minister tried to keep on CMO Calderwood because seemingly she couldn't do without her and, of course, she was doing a jolly good job. Big mistake.

The current extreme restrictions being placed on the general public rely on the idea that we're all in this together. There can be no exceptions, none whatsoever, because if a single exception is allowed, others will follow. It is an unfortunate British trait that quite a lot of us think that rules are good but they don't apply to us. We all have a tendency to think we are the exception. Police Scotland get this, which is why they didn't waste time hot-footing it round to Calderwood's residence to 'have a word'. Nicola Sturgeon doesn't get this. Even at today's press conference, when specifically asked about the damage done to the Government's message and the need to rebuild trust, she didn't get it. Instead, although she was more in control today, the image of her as a wee girl who can't bear to be parted from her best friend lingers. She didn't show leadership yesterday - she stalled, prevaricated and, finally, about 12 hours too late, reacted to public opinion.

No-one has put a smell on Sturgeon - they don't need to. She reeks of exceptionalism with a whiff of cronyism and fear.

PS. And lest anyone accuse Calton of having  it in for Sturgeon, he's also extremely suspicious of the haste in which more than one Tory MSP, including Jackson Carlaw, is seeking to draw a line under this whole sorry affair. Are there some Tory-voting second home owners thinking "there but for the grace of God" and changing their plans for this coming weekend?

Sunday 5 April 2020

Calderwoodgate

Calton is so mad he could spit nails. After nearly two weeks of looking longingly over the Forth to the Fife coast when all he could do was a once-a-day flight round Arthur's Seat he finds out that the SNP Government's Chief Medical Officer has been nipping across to Earlsferry for the weekend. Twice. During lockdown. She has now, quite rightly, been spoken to by the police and has offered her resignation. Astonishingly, the First Minister has refused to accept it in a colossal error of judgement which is, as Calton writes, turning the episode into a question about Sturgeon's decision rather than the original offence.

Sturgeon is usually a canny political operator who is perfectly willing to throw someone under a bus if they get in the way and so it is a measure of how rattled she has become with the Covid-19 pandemic that she has made such a poor decision in this case. She should have sacked Calderwood immediately or at least accepted her resignation with alacrity. Surely there are other suitably qualified people in Scotland just as able to give her advice? Such as Professor Hugh Pennington?

Presumably the First Minister hoped that today's press conference (described as "excruciating" on Radio 4 news) would put the whole thing to bed. She was wrong. A quick scan down the associated twitter hashtags indicates that far more people think #Calderwoodshouldgo than the minority who see this as a media conspiracy to bring down Sturgeon. More worryingly for the SNP, a number of people are now saying that they will henceforth take their guidance from Westminster, not Holyrood, when it comes to Covid-19. Calton has a lot of sympathy with that view. In a crisis like this, are the devolved powers a help or a hindrance? In Scotland it looks very much like the latter now. Sturgeon's response to the Calderwood incident may well prove to be her Watergate.

Wednesday 18 March 2020

The Post-Resilient Society

Covid-19 is exposing some fundamental flaws in the way we live today. If schools had had to be shut 50 years ago it wouldn't have been a problem as most children came from two-parent families with one parent at home. Shops and industry hadn't yet heard of "just-in-time" delivery and so would have had more stocks available to cope with shortages and panic buying. People still understood the concept of rationing and the idea of selflessness. Most Mums knew how to make food stretch and most kids loved beans on toast and home-made chips from the sack of tatties in the bottom of the larder. We were resilient. Not now.

Now we have a guy filling his trolley with pasta and refusing to give a packet to a pensioner. We have had a run on toilet paper even although Covid-19 does not cause the runs. Parents are panicking because they can no longer rely on schools, nurseries and grandparents to do their parenting for them. Chinese people have been abused in the street and woe betide anyone who coughs in public.

The government has responded by throwing money at the problem. A lot of money, which is devaluing Sterling. It's a quick fix for an urgent problem but the real issues are much deeper. We have a housing shortage which has pushed up prices, forcing both parents in families to work just to afford a home. We have far too many workers on zero hours contracts or in pseudo-self-employment with no sick pay entitlement. Family breakdown and the idea that kids don't need both a mother and a father has meant a rise in single-parent families, which, unless there is wider family support, are less resilient and usually less well-off.

The only positive thing Calton can see so far in this epidemic is the sign that it may kill off or at least weaken the rampant individualism which began in the Thatcher years and has only grown since. For every pasta hoarder there is a selfless helper. May the latter grow in strength!

Monday 2 March 2020

No Place for Workplace Bullying

Having suffered workplace bullying himself, Calton feels quite sick at the way in which Tory MPs have sought to defend Priti Patel on the grounds that she is doing a good job. Others have defended her on the grounds that she is getting a hard time for behaviour which would be accepted in a man. Since when was shouting, swearing and belittling people acceptable behaviour by anybody? Calton realises that often workplace bullies get away with it because they are getting results and that is all that matters to their managers. That doesn't make it right. And bullies are just as likely to be women as men. At the moment we only have Sir Philip Rutnam's version of events, however it is worth pointing out that he is being backed by the civil service union, the FDA, and unions do not back constructive dismissal complaints unless they think they have a case. Calton sincerely hopes that Rutnam will take his case forward. As for the Cabinet Office investigation - he does not have much faith in that.

If you have been affected by workplace bullying you are not alone. See the bullyingUK website and the excellent American website www.workplacebullying.org. Do not continue to suffer in silence. It's not your fault.

Tuesday 18 February 2020

Superforecaster or Neonazi?

Calton is not a fan of shouting for people whose opinions and/or beliefs do not agree with his own to be sacked, in general, however Andrew Sabisky should never have been hired in the first place, if the quotes attributed to him are correct. It seems that Dominic Cummings was so keen to get a Superforecaster on the Number 10 team that due diligence was not carried out and the result was that they got someone whose views are straight out of 1930s Germany. The idea that poorer, less educated people were having more children which would lead to a lowering of intelligence in the nation - check. The advocacy of forced sterilisation through contraception - check. The lie that whites are superior to blacks in terms of intelligence - check. The resurrection of Eugenics - check.

The reason that Calton would be calling for Sabisky's sacking had he not resigned is because we know what the end result was of the beliefs listed above - the extermination of 6 million people in the gas chambers. We should learn from history, not repeat it.

For a more in-depth treatment of the thought processes in 1930s Germany read Chapter XIX Shadow of Tom Holland's excellent book - Dominion. Better still, read the whole book.

PS. Calton regards Superforecasters in much the same way as he regards the so-called Prophets of the modern Charismatic movement and his chances of one of his 1001 premium bonds coming up.

Monday 17 February 2020

Exclusive Faith-based Cults

Jackson Carlaw's recent comparison of the SNP to an "evangelical faith-based cult" may not, and indeed is not, going down well with some evangelical Christians and Calton has some sympathy with them. However Carlaw is quite right in his analysis. Whether it will help him to electoral victory is another matter ...

Meanwhile Christians are patting themselves on the back at the news that "one of them" has just been appointed Scottish Finance Minister, replacing the emotionally immature Derek Mackay, who is apparently now getting medically assessed after bombarding a 16 year old boy with 270 messages. What these Christians don't seem to understand is that cults are exclusive. Mutually exclusive. You can only belong to one at a time. Their leaders demand unquestioning obedience and a total lack of criticism. You have to give your all, 24/7 - you can't be a member of one cult on a Sunday and another Monday to Friday. It doesn't work that way. Which takes us back to Kate Forbes. It is claimed she is a Christian but, from what Calton can see, she seems to be a fully paid up member of the cult of Nicola. Her arrogant tweet on the resignation of Sajid Javid was certainly pure SNP.

With the banning of Billy Graham's son Franklin by SNP-led Glasgow City Council, the battle lines have been drawn. The SNP are ploughing ahead with gender recognition proposals which many Christians (and feminists) are unhappy with and they are promoting porn in our schools. If Forbes doesn't have the sense to get out she may well be pushed out for holding views unacceptable to the SNP cult. (The murmurings have already started.)

In the meantime Calton would like to remind her that a person can only serve one master (or mistress).