OLD PILOTS AND BOLD PILOTS

               In the early days of aviation, it was said that there were old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots; this should translate into modern parlance as old suicide bombers and bold suicide bombers.   However, something is not quite right here, as there are no old suicide bombers; all suicide bombers are young, and while there are old people involved, recruiting suicide bombers, they don’t do the job themselves, they are the “fly lads” as we used to say in Dundee, always on the lookout for mugs.

                It would seem that the first essential of a suicide bomber is that they must be stupid; this is not an attack on religion, but on the twisted logic that indiscriminate murder, and an inclusive suicide will open the pearly gates.  We have to ask ourselves what kind of God would accept that attitude, and while no one has yet seen God, a goodly proportion of people in the world today believe he exists, and if he approves of this philosophy, I for one would not look forward a life after death!

              And we must also ask what it is that they want?  During the reign of  Saddam Hussein in Iraq, thousands of Muslims were slaughtered, but there was no jihad against the regime, no suicide bombers protesting about  the inhumane injustice.  Why was that?    And even now, the terrorists are railing against the slaughter of Iraqis, but it is al Queda who is killing them; what a weird outlook.   It is saying “If you don’t get out of Iraq, and leave good peace loving Muslims alone, we will keep on killing good peace loving Muslims.”    The terrorists hate democracy, human rights, women who refuse to be chattels, and anyone who does not conform to their peculiar beliefs, and that includes nearly all of the Muslims! 

          
ANOTHER MEA CULPA

 
          In my last Flag, I said that George Reid, Presiding Officer, was the only Privy Counsellor in the Scottish Parliament; I then received an email from Stewart Stevenson, SNP MSP for Banff and Buchan, pointing out the error of my ways!  There are a number of Privy Counsellors in the Parliament, but I was sure that George was the only one who had been appointed as a Scottish Parliament Privy Counsellor; I had read this somewhere, as I am not normally guilty of making things up (well, not when I can be found out!) so I was surprised that Messrs McConnell and Wallace were also Privy Counsellors.

            I think I must have read the statement about George in the Scotsman newspaper, which I no longer read, as they made a number of gaffes; just shows you that you should never believe all you read in the papers (or the Flag!).   A number of MSPs carried their Privy Counsellorship with them from Westminster; I think that once a Privy Counsellor, always a Privy Counsellor.    If I continue to make mistakes I could become a Government Minister – oh no – I admit them – so that rules me out!

              The title Privy Counsellor always reminds me of one of Oliver Brown’s comments on the Palace of Westminster, and the titles thereof, Black Rod, Sergeant at Arms, Woolsack, etc; Oliver said “The Lord Privy Seal, who is neither a Lord, a privy, nor a seal………..”

CHEEK BY JOWELL

            Rather intrigued by the recent release of information concerning Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, and the operators of casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City; the article in question started by going into rhapsodies about the Venetian  luxury casino in Las Vegas, with its faux canals, gondolas etc.  I was there in November, and when the gondolier said he would sing some Italian songs, I jokingly said “OK, but remember, I’ll know the words”.  He sang, I knew the words, and he didn’t, but I wasn’t cruel enough to tell him; he was just a lad, earning a crust.

                   I visited the hotel, but did not stay there, but now we know that in October last year, four civil servants did stay there, at our expense, and held meeting with the casino bosses before the bill to shake up the UK’s gambling industry went through Parliament.    There were many such meetings, and the main thrust was that the casino bosses wanted a bit taken out of the bill; namely the part that said if anyone wanted to spend more than £700, then they had to supply their name and address.  This was included at the behest of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Scotland Yard and the National Criminal Intelligence Service;  it was feared that criminals would find this an easy way to launder money.  The casinos, on the other hand, would find this very limiting.  There was a great public outcry about the advent of super casinos, and eventually the bill was watered down, and there will not be a mass of casinos.

         The point of all this is that Tony Blair was asked if there had been any meetings with the casino operators about relaxing the money laundering rules, and he denied this indignantly; a day or two before that, Tessa Jowell, Culture Secretary, and a strong supporter of more and more casinos, had also vehemently denied in Parliament that any consultations with the gambling industry had taken place.  She had civil servants working with the casino operators to amend the money laundering rules, while denying any contact in the House of Commons.  The term “misleading Parliament” springs to mind.

           And strangely enough, just the other day I came across a report about David Mills, an international lawyer, and by coincidence, the husband of Tessa Jowell; back in March he was accused of misleading Italian investigators by destroying documents to obstruct an inquiry into the affairs of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
From the early 1990s, Mr Mills provided legal and financial services to Berlusconi’s Fininvest Group; Mr Mills is accused of suspected tax fraud and money laundering.  According to the investigators, Mr Mills seems to have been torn between his duty towards an important client, and the demands of Italian justice.  I don’t know how far this one has gone but misleading seems to run in the family, does it not?

         
RURITANIA RULES

             There are times when I am ashamed of our Scottish Parliament; correction – there are times when I am ashamed of our Scottish Executive, which is not the same thing.  At this time I am referring to the pusillanimity of them, and the Minister  for Rural Affairs, Ross Finnie, in particular;  Jack McConnell, First Minister, is not daft.  He has left Fisheries and Agriculture with the Liberals, and will do his Pontius Pilate over the Ferguson debacle.

                  To explain to the uninitiated:  Ferguson Shipbuilders of Port Glasgow put in a bid to build a Fisheries Protection vessel and a Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry.   These ships will ply in Scottish waters; the ferry will carry passengers to and from Scottish Islands, will have a Scottish crew, and will have a subsidy paid by the Scottish Executive; the Fisheries Protection vessel will also be crewed by Scots, will act to protect any Scottish fishing stocks left, and will be paid for by the Scottish Executive.  The other bidder was a Polish shipyard, who undercut the Ferguson bid, and who are being investigated because of alleged hidden subsidies from the Polish government, which is illegal under European Union rules.   So Ross Finnie, bleating that his hands were tied, has awarded the contract to the Polish yard.

     One problem appears to be that the fishery cruisers are operated by the Scottish Executive, unlike English fishery cruisers which come under the Royal Navy; there were two solutions  - either transfer the ships to the Royal Navy, not acceptable, or make them a part of a Scottish Navy – hysterics among the Unionists.  No other country in Europe puts its fishery cruisers out to tender, including England, so what is wrong with our people?  The shipyard, Ferguson’s, has lodged a complaint with the European Commission that the Polish bid is being unfairly subsidised ;  Alyn Smith SNP MEP, has been told by the European Commission that it has had no formal discussions with the Scottish Executive or the UK government since June 2003!  So our bold Executive have told Ferguson’s they are backing them all the way, and have taken no action at all.  They could at least have asked some of the other countries about the best way to bend the rules; it looks as if they did not try.

                One factor not taken into consideration was raised some time ago by Nicola Sturgeon, MSP, now the Deputy Leader of the SNP; Nicola pointed out that whereas the difference in the price quoted for the two vessels was some £2 million, the unemployment and redundancy costs involved for Ferguson’ would amount to some £5 million.  Makes a mockery of the public interest.

                Mr Finnie and his cronies on the Executive have never heard the old Scottish expression “Keep yer ain fish guts for yer ain sea maws.”

ROBIN COOK 

              The political world will be the poorer after the sudden death of Robin Cook, MP for Livingston, and former Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons.  He is most remembered for his savaging of the Tory Government over the Scott Report into the Arms for Iraq scandal, and for resigning from the current government after the invasion of Iraq.

             Many tributes have been paid to him, and sudden and unexpected death is always tragic, particularly in someone still in the prime of life.  I only met him twice, both times in 1974; at that time he was an Edinburgh councillor, standing for Edinburgh Central, and after a heated debate at Telford College, where he and Councillor Malcolm Rifkind knocked lumps out of each other , metaphorically speaking, on the platform, I was astounded at how chummy he and Rifkind were after the debate.  As was evident from the obituary penned by Sir Malcom Rifkind, the friendship continued, but never became a social one. 

             I did find a rather surprising comment in another obituary; Anne Simpson, writing in the Herald, said that Robin Cook had considered becoming a Church of Scotland minister.  In February 1974, at a meeting in St Mary’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, he told the audience that he was an atheist; as his funeral is being held in St Giles’ Church, perhaps his atheism was a temporary phase.

 
FOOT IN THE MOUTH NOTES

              Just wondered why, if it was secret, I was reading about in the newspapers?

           The Office of Fair Trading (?) has cleared the supermarkets of using aggressive tactics bargaining with suppliers; in particular they said that lower prices were benefiting customers.   Mind you, as complaints from suppliers cannot be made anonymously, and suppliers who complain get blacklisted, not many supplier complaints are registered.

          Scottish dairy farmers are blockading milk depots, as the prices paid by the milk companies to get the supermarket contracts are too low, and are forcing dairy farmers out of business; something doesn’t add up.

 
         The Army was planning to spend three quarters of a million on new kilts for soldiers in the new Royal Regiment of Scotland, the amalgamation of six of Scotland’s regiments; this was forced through in the face of bitter protests from the regiments.

          It looks as if the Army is going to save some money; nobody wants to join the new regiment.  Nae sodgers – nae kilts!

           Six years ago, £13 million was included in the Scottish Prisons budget, to eliminate the practice of slopping out; this was diverted by the Justice Minister, Jim Wallace, a Liberal, to drug prevention, and vanished without trace.

           The Scottish Prison Service has now budgeted £44 million for breaches of prisoners’ rights due to slopping out, and there are fears this could rise to £180 million; Mr Wallace has now been transferred to Enterprise, where no doubt he will be helping the legal profession to cash in on this bonanza.

         DSM, a Dutch company, cut 200 jobs in Dalry, Ayrshire, last year; Agilent, an American company, “downsized” a pile of jobs in South Queensferry , just outside Edinburgh, around the same time.

          This year, DSM received £6 million in Regional Selective Assistance grants to safeguard jobs in Dalry, and Agilent got £3 million to create 40 jobs and safeguard 320 in South Queensferry; 02, based in Berkshire, got £7 million to create 1552 call centre jobs in Glasgow, not exactly a business with a long term future.   Possibly all authorised by the Enterprise Minister?

            Sainsbury’s Bank has stated that some £46 million is being borrowed this year by parents to pay for private school fees;  Edinburgh’s Fettes College (Tony Blair’s alma mater) costs £14,895 per year.  Gordonstoun (Prince Charles’ alma mater) costs £14,703.

           I don’t mind if parents who have the cash want to fork it out for an exclusive education; what sticks in the craw is that these schools are all registered as charities!

          And speaking of charities – the other night on television, I saw John McAllion, former Labour MSP for Dundee East, now working for Oxfam Scotland, and I have also noticed that David Stewart, former Labour MP for Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey is now assistant director of rural affairs at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations ( a cool £40,000 a year funded by the Scottish Executive.)

        Wonder why ex SNP MSPS don’t get these sinecures?   (No I don’t.)

       The former Liberal MSP and Tory MP  (same guy) Keith Raffan is still billing the taxpayer, while his expenses overclaim is investigated; he claimed £108,826 for the year 2003-2004, and his car mileage was high enough to take him three times round the world.  He also claimed mileage while he was abroad on Scottish Parliament business; his current claims are for his winding up allowance, and include a packet of shortbread and a chocolate bar.  (You couldn’t make this up.)

             If he is found to have overclaimed for expenses he will be asked to repay, and the police will not be involved; it would seem that theft by a politician is not a crime then?