Scots' Labour's Lost

Calton is really sorry for Scottish Labour supporters. Their politicians are trying manfully (in the case of Ian Murray) and womanfully (in the case of Kezia Dugdale) to cope with it but the truth is, they have been sold down the river by their party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Even before his latest announcement on Scottish independence, Calton has heard from lifelong, stauch Labour supporters who are planning on voting Conservative. Now, those who don't want a second independence referendum may as well tear up the tactical voting sheet and vote Tory. Even in former Labour strongholds like Fife. It doesn't matter how many caveats Corbyn added to his statement or how Murray or Dugdale try to spin it, the bottom line is that Corbyn is willing to talk to Sturgeon about a second referendum. Given that his chances of getting into Number 10 are slim to none without Scottish Labour MPs, Calton thinks that Corbyn has just thrown the election. And Scottish Labour will be looking for a divorce from the English party on June 9th.

Scrap sanctions targets and keep the bottom rung

There are a lot of things in the Scottish Labour manifesto which Calton does not agree with, however, scrapping benefit sanctions targets is one policy he can wholeheartedly support. It is totally iniquitous to set sanctions targets for job centre staff when they are supposed to be helping folk into work. It is a system open to abuse and is one of the reasons for the rise in foodbanks we have seen recently. There is nothing wrong with sanctions for those who are claiming jobseekers allowance while having no intention of looking for work. Such people are actually a tiny minority. What is wrong is sanctioning people who genuinely want to find work for things like not turning up to the job centre because they were at a job interview! The success or otherwise of job centres should not be measured by the number of sanctions they dish out but by the number of people they help back into work, and by "work" Calton means a proper job with a decent number of hours and job security, not a zero hours contract. Job centres also need to end the practice of pushing the unemployed into self-employment when they don't actually have a viable business plan which will earn them a sufficient income. Starting your own business is not an easy route out of unemployment, as many failed entrepreneurs can testify. It is not for the faint-hearted and what bothers Calton about all the calls for a higher minimum wage from Labour and other parties is that, if implemented, it could well either discourage employers from taking on more staff or put them out of business altogether. We need to be making it easier for businesses to employ people, not harder because, at the end of the day, if we knock out the bottom rung of the employment ladder (ie minimum wage jobs), we will consign ever more people to endless unemployment and that is not a good thing for any of us.

The cost of keeping nothing secret

 The voters in South Dunfermline could be forgiven for wondering which are the parliamentary candidates and which are the council candidates, going by the election leaflets Calton's contact in Dunfermline has sent him. The would-be MSPs all seem to be more exercised by issues such as the proposed closure of a local school, local bus services and the state of the town centre, none of which they would have much control over if elected, than issues of national importance, such as the economy. The Green candidate is even concerned about the ability of Pars fans to buy their club! The Libdems are relying heavily on Willie Rennie's track record as MP for the area, conveniently forgetting that he was comprehensively booted out by Labour's Thomas Docherty in 2010. Calton suspects that Labour will do the same to the SNP this time round, especially with the latter's choice of a recycled Lothians list MSP as candidate to replace the disgraced Bill Walker.

Meanwhile the SNP seem to be increasingly sensitive to accusations that they have been in any way "economical with the truth", leading to journos and other bloggers/tweeters inventing new euphemisms for telling porkies. Calton's current favourite is "saying one thing in public and another behind closed doors". Whether or not the SNP are being honest with the people of Scotland is a matter of debate. What is clear is that a good number of people, including Johann Lamont and Calton, think that they are not being honest, which means that the SNP have a massive credibility problem. The onus is now on them to prove that they are being honest and are not hiding facts which are inconvenient to their arguments for independence. Otherwise they are going to struggle to convince people to vote yes next year. And spending £20k on legal action to keep the fact that they didn't have any EU advice secret doesn't help their cause.

Promises, promises

It seems that the SNP will promise anything if they think it will secure votes. This time it's pensions. Previously it was the council tax freeze, which has resulted in cash-strapped councils cutting services left, right and centre. No longer can voters decide whether they want to pay more for better services or pay less for fewer services when it comes to council elections. The matter is now outwith council control. So much for local government. What Calton wants to know is: what is going to be cut in order to afford better pensions in an independent Scotland? We may not live as long as the English but we are still an ageing population with fewer young people to pay for our pensioners. As Labour's pensions spokesman, Gregg McClymont, says - Nicola Sturgeon "cannot credibly say that something is affordable if she doesn't know how much it costs". Having failed so far to win over the electorate with reasoned argument and hard facts, the SNP are resorting to an appeal to peoples' baser instincts i.e. cash in pocket. Sadly, some people will fall for it and, if we become independent, we'll all pay for it.

Tinkering while UKIP gains ground

It's a bit rich for Labour politicians to go on about companies recruiting more local workers when they (Labour) presided over an education system which has failed to get a generation of young people ready for the workplace and it would seem that they (Labour) deliberately encouraged mass immigration as a way of forcing acceptance of the philosophy of multiculturalism. And we all know how well that worked out. As long as companies can get cheaper, better workers from outside the UK they will do so - it's called capitalism. It's up to the Government to limit immigration if they want to keep jobs for British workers and that will not be possible as long as we remain in the EU. That is why UKIP are gaining support in many parts of England. Unemployed Brits are fed up of seeing jobs go to Eastern European immigrants and it is fuelling resentment, especially when getting a job means that an immigrant passes the residency test and can then get a council house. The three main Westminster parties all realise this but are not prepared to do what is necessary to sort it i.e. leave the EU. Instead they are all tinkering round the edges and fighting with each other rather than dealing with the problem. No wonder the voters are losing patience with them.

They're aff their heids

According to the SNP, the Police have better things to do than investigate the alleged rigging of the Falkirk Labour candidate selection. Calton couldn't disagree more. What is more important than upholding democracy and investigating alleged infringements of it? If we turn a blind eye to vote-rigging and gerrymandering, wherever and whenever it happens, we may as well install Alex Salmond as El Presidente for life and be done with it. Of course, that's probably what the SNP would like. They've certainly shown scant regard for the wishes of the people since they got their majority in Holyrood and Nicola Sturgeon seems to think she rules by some sort of divine right. The Stuart monarchs thought the same and look where it got them. One of them lost his head and the Highland clans lost a lot of good men trying to put his descendants back on the throne. The present-day successors to the Jacobites are off their heads if they think that democracy doesn't matter. It matters a lot.

Brian's boring debate

The Scottish Parliament was designed to give small parties a chance of being represented. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the BBC, which only invited what it saw as the "four main parties" on to the panel of the hustings for the Donside by-election held yesterday under the banner of Brian's Big Debate. Really, Calton would have thought that an experienced political journalist like Taylor should have known better. The excuse was that a "main party" was one that currently had seats in Holyrood. What happened to the Green candidate in that case? And, given that the Libdems are trailing UKIP in the polls, can we really continue to treat them as a "main party"? It's time that the SNP, Labour, Conservatives and Libdems were given a good old kick up the backside - Calton is tired of the same old arguments being trotted out again and again and he is glad to hear that Nigel Farage is planning another trip to Scotland. Yes, sometimes Farage is inexcusably rude but he is also a breath of fresh air compared to the politically-correct, lily-livered liberals and socialists who currently comprise a fair number of our elected representatives. Here's hoping UKIP kick at least one of the "main parties" into touch in Donside.

So predictable - unlike the Donside by-election

Is it any surprise that there is growing support for the idea that we should leave the EU when the European Council, backed by the European Parliament, has just agreed the European Commission's request for an extra £6.2bn to be added to the budget, in spite of Cameron talking tough a few weeks ago. Calton doesn't like to say "I told you so" but ... it was entirely predictable that this would happen, and it completely knocks the legs out from under the Prime Minister's idea that he can renegotiate our position within the EU. We just don't have that much clout. However, it is good to see that one of the three main parties (four in Scotland) is now willing to give the British people a say regarding our continued membership of the EU. Labour and the Libdems are going to look increasingly out of touch with the electorate if they continue to refuse to back an in-out referendum on the EU, especially if, as seems likely, UKIP continue to make gains in elections. The Aberdeen Donside by-election will be an interesting indicator of UKIP's support in Scotland, with the announcement of Otto Inglis as their candidate. (Inglis previously contested Dunfermline and West Fife in the last Westminster election.) Calton awaits the outcome, which is anything but predictable, with interest. (And perhaps, given UKIP's recent share of the vote down south, he should be talking of four main parties, five in Scotland?)

Shake 'em up, Nigel

If taxes are not going to rise to pay for the SNP's welfare proposals, where's the money going to come from? Oil? And when the black gold runs out? Borrow like there's no tomorrow? (Oops - wrong party. Calton is getting confused with Gordon Brown. Mind you, apart from the unionist/nationalist thing there's not much to choose between the SNP and Labour since both are socialist, Europhile, big spenders.) Calton isn't sure that either campaign did themselves any favours today - while Sturgeon dug herself into an ever-deeper hole with her 'natural majority' and 'no rise in taxes', the Great Broon's reappearance on the political stage is hardly an encouragement to vote No if it means going back to the spend, spend, spend of the Labour years. It would be Hobson's choice for Scots, saddled with high spending and the EU whichever way they vote, if today's speakers were the whole story. Fortunately, there has been a sea-change down in England over the EU which might just cause some ripples up here, giving the voters more choice. Anything that shakes up the current stale old slagging match between Labour and the SNP has to be a good thing, in Calton's book.

Sense and sensibility

The decision to postpone the Holyrood debate on Thatcher's legacy is a triumph of sense and sensibility in Calton's opinion. Whether or not there is such a thing as society is a pertinent question in 21st century Scotland and worthy of debate. Delaying it by one day will hopefully ensure that MSPs from all parties can contribute their views and will avoid the slur of insensitivity being cast upon the Scottish Parliament.

There is no doubt in Calton's mind that there has been a marked decline in neighbourliness and a marked increase in insularity in many areas of Scotland since the 1970s, particularly urban areas. Whether this was caused by Margaret Thatcher's policies or would have happened anyway is harder to determine. The decline of traditional industries and the sell-off of council houses certainly broke up some communities but can hardly be blamed for the rise of the individualism which now characterises our society. Communities are often born out of adversity and so it is more likely that the boom years of the Blair-Brown Government are responsible for the me-first-to-hell-with-everyone-else mentality we now have, although it may have its roots in the Thatcher years. Certainly New Labour did little to reverse Thatcher's policies; in fact the gap between rich and poor accelerated under their government. The question now is: how can we create a caring society? It will be interesting to see if any MSPs have the answer to this on Thursday.

Heading for the rocks

It really doesn't matter who is right about Scotland's share of the UK's debt because, if we become independent and the SNP remain in power, however low our debt starts out, it will soon go through the roof thanks to the prolific spending policies of the SNP and Scotland's ageing (and unhealthy) population. The worrying thing is that we are going to have to go into the independence referendum not knowing how the UK's debt is going to be divvied up, and Calton, for one, does not have the same confidence as the Deputy First Minister in the strength of Scotland's position. The same goes for the allocation of UK oil and gas revenues. What is clear is that Scotland has benefited over the years from a greater spend per head than the rest of the UK, partly in recognition of the contribution from her oil and gas to the overall UK economy. This is something which does not appear to figure in Sturgeon's calculations and, if Sturgeon thinks that the UK Government has mismanaged the economy over the last 30 years, she should remember that 13 of those years were under the 'spend, spend, spend' Labour Government of Gordon Brown's Chancellorship and Premiership. Even the Labour Party now agree that cuts need to be made but the good ship SNP is still steaming full ahead on the same disastrous course as the Great Broon - straight for the rocks.

Labour - the party of the squeezed middle class

Calton has absolutely no time for Labour's whinges about the new tax regime. Gordon Brown abolished the 10p tax rate, thereby taking more tax from low paid workers, so his pal Ed Balls does not have a leg to stand on. Under the coalition government, the tax allowance for this year is £9440 and it will be £10k next year, taking many of the poorest in our workforce out of the tax regime altogether. It's easy to score points by complaining about the reduction in tax for the rich but, unfortunately, over-taxing them just causes them to move their money, or themselves, offshore. Better to keep them in this country paying at least some tax and providing employment (Calton is ever the pragmatist). And who are the families who will be £4000 worse off, according to Balls? Not the low paid, that's for sure. The new tax rules are squeezing those in the 40% tax bracket. Better that than squeezing the poor, like Labour did. So much for their working class roots.

Keep politics out of schools

Calton is not in favour of extending the voting franchise to 16 and 17 year-olds for the independence referendum. Yes, some of them may well be mature enough to understand the issues and make a reasoned decision, but many of them will struggle to understand the financial and constitutional arguments and, in the absence of such understanding, will be swayed by peer pressure, emotionalism and how their parents vote. Calton is particularly concerned at the inevitable politicisation of schools if pupils become eligible to vote. At the moment, many schools hold mock debates around the time of elections, which is fine and teaches young people about the way a democracy works, but introducing real politics into the school environment could be a powder-keg. There are also implications involved in adding under-18s to the voters register - Calton would like to know how much it is going to cost local authorities to do this and where the money is going to come from? The SNP are obviously hoping that bringing in this legislation will support their cause. For the Libdems and Labour to be supporting it is something akin to turkeys voting for Christmas.

The Scottish Tories get it

Labour won back control of Fife Council last year on a manifesto which, among other things, included a moratorium on all planning applications for land-based wind turbines pending a consultation. When they tried to fulfil their manifesto pledge, the Scottish Government blocked it. Yet more evidence, as far as Calton is concerned, that the SNP are not interested in the democratic will of the people. He therefore welcomes the new energy policy review paper produced by the Scottish Conservatives which majors on shifting control over energy policy away from central government and back to local communities. Their proposal to cut the current £350 million a year onshore wind farm subsidy is also welcome because it is manifestly unfair to expect people to subsidise this inefficient method of power generation from their pockets, particularly in a time of rising prices and fuel poverty. Nice to see that at least one of the major political parties has their head screwed on right and has seen through the windfarm scam.

PS. If you want to see a nice picture of Scotland's mountains sans windfarms, see @CaltonHillEagle on twitter.

It wisnae the SNP - honest!

It could be said that there are excuses, damned excuses and the SNP's excuses. Sometimes Calton thinks that maybe we should all vote for independence, if only to deprive the SNP of excuses, since their usual strategy is to blame Westminster for everything. The latest example is the reduction in spending on infrastructure under the new NPD (non-profit distributing) programme, which is all the fault of budget cuts by the coalition government down south. (Calton also notes that, in true Orwellian fashion, spending has been 'reprofiled' rather than cut.) It looks like the SNP hoped to get away with this reprofiling exercise unnoticed, however that plan was scuppered by Tory MSP Gavin Brown, ably assisted by Labour's Richard Baker, who surely deserves to win quote of the week with this contribution to the debate: "We were told this new scheme [NPD] would be transformational from the old PFI/PPP schemes. Well, in some ways it has, because at least under the old scheme projects were being delivered." Ouch. Unfortunately, the SNP had enough of a majority to defeat Brown's motion expressing disappointment in the results of the NPD scheme so far. Double ouch.

Try to keep up, Ed

It's a bit late for Ed Miliband to be thinking of bringing back the 10p tax rate. It was a real help to the low paid back in the days when the personal allowance was less than £5k, and Gordon Brown made a huge error of judgement in abolishing it, but now that the Coalition Government has raised the personal allowance to more than £9k next year it has been overtaken by events. Many more people in low paid jobs, particularly part-time workers, pay no tax now, compared to 2008, and middle-income earners also benefit from the higher tax threshold. Calton is all for reducing the tax burden on the poorly paid, especially given the huge gulf between those on minimum wage and high earners, but reintroducing the 10p rate, paid for by a mansion tax, is not the way to go. We should be taxing income, not assets, otherwise we penalise those who work hard all their lives and save for a decent house in a nice area. They were taxed while they were working - why tax them again when they retire just because they've got a nice home?

A great opportunity

If marriage can be bad for your political career, divorce is far worse, as Chris Huhne has found to his cost. Speeding on the motorway has proved to be a fast-track to ignominy as the MP pled guilty today to a charge of perverting the course of justice. Now we have the interesting prospect of a by-election in a marginal seat with the coalition partners at each other's throats (no change there then) and the possibility of Nigel Farage sneaking past them both to become UKIP's first MP. What fun that would be! The Eastleigh voters will have the choice of EU Referendum (Cons), Stay in Europe (Libdem), Can't decide whether or not to have an EU Referendum (Lab) and Get out Now (UKIP). If they want to stay in the EU but don't want same-sex marriage they will be a bit stuck as UKIP is the only party which supports keeping marriage as it is. Still - it's a great opportunity to tell the Government what they think on both topics. Calton is positively green with envy.

The poverty trap

Calton is not convinced that poverty is the cause of poorer health. Rather, poverty and poor health are both symptoms of a deeper malaise - low self-esteem and hopelessness. If you don't have any self-esteem you will find it very hard to get a job and work your way out of poverty. Ditto if you feel hopeless and you believe that there are no opportunities. It's easier in those circumstances to rely on the state for handouts and drink/drugs/food to dull the pain of a miserable life. If we really want to lift people out of a life of poverty and ill-health we need to give them something to hope for and something to work for. An incentive to better themselves. The message that they have a choice, that it doesn't have to be this way. That hard work and effort pay. Somehow that message has got lost in this country, unlike the USA. Our welfare system has turned people into benefit dependent victims totally lacking in initiative instead of giving them a leg-up. The last Labour Government created a false economy where businesses didn't need to pay a decent wage because the government topped it up with working tax credit. Now we are in a situation where many workers are not paid anything like a living wage and so, for many, work doesn't pay. That has to change. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to repair the damage of the Labour years.

Plumbing new depths

Alex Salmond plumbed new depths in FMQs today by dragging in the Iraq War in his attempt to deflect attention from the real question of funding for Scottish colleges. Unfortunately Johann Lamont's questions were so wordy the substance got lost in the detail, and, with it, the killer thrust that might have skewered Slippery Salmond. Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie both made a better fist of it by adhering to the philosophy 'less is more', however even they faced an uphill struggle against the SNP majority. It is understandable that opposition MSPs became rather heated yesterday over the question of corrections to figures and ministerial accountability. It seems to be all too easy for Ministers to make a mistake, go back and correct it later (with or without a 'mea culpa' to the chamber) and think that that is the end of the matter. It also seems that there is one rule for the SNP and another for Labour, given that the leader of the SNP expected his apology for his mistake over college funding to be accepted with 'good grace' but the Presiding Officer has not extended the same 'good grace' to Labour MSP Michael McMahon. Having asked for, and accepted, an apology for his wholly inappropriate outburst yesterday, she subsequently decided that it was not sincere enough because it had been tendered too quickly and has suspended him for a day! McMahon's comment was made in the heat of the debate, he apologised immediately, that should have been the end of it. Instead, it is Marwick, if anyone, who has undermined her position by her heavy-handed actions, in Calton's opinion.

Mike Russell - nil points

What has got lost in all the recent calls for resignations and fulsome apologies is the fact that funding for Scottish Colleges has indeed dropped this year. We have also seen the resignation of a College Head amidst accusations of spying on the one hand and bullying by the Education Secretary on the other. This does not give Calton confidence that the Scottish Government are tackling the problem of the number of NEETs in Scotland. Not that he would have any more confidence if Labour were in power - they were the ones who removed a large number of school-leavers from the unemployment figures by the simple expedient of keeping them in school or further education, regardless of whether or not that led to a job in the longer term. Calton thinks it is high time the Education Secretary got round the table with business leaders and worked out a plan to ensure that our young people are employable when they leave education, at whatever point they choose to leave it, instead of indulging in party political point scoring. At the moment he gets nil points from Calton.

NEET - Not in Employment, Education or Training