David Maddox: Another barnie over Barnett

Some of the noble Lords sitting on the upper chamber's Barnett Formula Committee were in town today taking evidence from Finance Secretary John Swinney and leading economists such as Professor David Bell, and business organisations.
But in some ways you have to wonder whether they were wasting their time.
The committee's chair Lord (Ivor) Richard, Tony Blair's first Leader of the House of Lords, was joined by former Aberdeen district councillor and academic Lord (John) Sewel, former Tory fundraiser now Welsh cross bencher Lord (David) Rowe-Beddoe, and the last Conservative Secretary of State for Scotland Lord (Michael) Forsyth (pictured right).
But as noble and well intentioned as these lords and their absent colleagues(including Lord Nigel Lawson, the former Chancellor and more recently diet book author)you could not help but feel that their purpose has somewhat been overtaken by events.
The committee has a very narrow remit, which is to look at how to make the Barnett Formula fairer, which would be a very popular move in Wales and the north of England. However, if one looks at the Calman Commission's work and the messages coming from Gordon Brown and his allies, it seems that the Barnett Formula may be on its way out.
The clear push for assigned taxes and some sort of small grant to supplement that seems to underline the SNP suspicion that Calman has become a front for scrapping Barnett.
But one thing the grilling in the MacDonald Holyrood Hotel did provide this morning was for those old adversaries John Swinney and Lord Forsyth to take up the cudgels again.
Once, after about two minutes, it became clear that Mr Swinney was not going to talk about Barnett, Lord Forsyth with a look towards the journalists, decided to poke fun at some of the Nationalists' deepest held beliefs, especially on how Scotland loses out under the current system. And it was clear that Mr Swinney had forgotten what it was like to face such a clinical interrogator.
You can read more about those exchanges in tomorrow's Scotsman.

David Maddox - FMQs: Who is to blame for bankers?

There is nothing more likely to get politicians going than to find out that some industry fat cat has managed to manipulate the system to get a big pay-off. The same logic rarely applies to themselves.

So it was not surprising that FMQs today was dominated by the £650,000 a year pension for life that the former Chief executive of RBS Sir Fred Goodwin (pictured left), still just 50, has been awarded affter he led the once great bank to ruin. That would pay for more than a dozen MSPs afterall.

But in the fine tradition of finger pointing it took just a couple of questions for the blame game to start on who was responsible.

Labour leader Iain Gray suggested that it was Sir George Mathewson (pictured right), Sir Fred's predecessor, who also happens to be the "chief economic adviser" to Alex Salmond, the First Minister.

He asked Mr Salmond "which side are you on?" and went on to point out that Sir George was a supporter of short selling that had led to the collapse of some banks and bonuses.

"Iain Gray should remember that he's here to question the actions of the First Minister," countered Mr Salmond. He then went on to state that it was the UK Government in October which arranged Sir Fred's pay off, a view backed later by Lib Dem leader tavish Scott.

Only Annabel Goldie steered clear of the topic, perhaps mindful of the often made accusation that hers is the party for fat cats. Afterall who else would be willing to attend dinners to raise £530,000 for the party, like the one which was declared in yesterday's Electoral Commisions donations.

Eddie Barnes - Pension Scandal

The pack are out in force against Sir Fred Goodwin this morning, following the news that he is already drawing a £650,000 a year pension, despite being only 50.

My e-mail basket is filling up with politicians jumping on the bandwagon. Alastair Darling says it can't be justified, bearing in mind Sir Fred's failures. Labour MSP John Park says the pension should, at the very least, be stopped until Sir Fred reaches normal retirement age (I wonder if he extends the same view towards former Labour First Ministers who also got their pensions the moment they quit).

Coincidentally, an e-mail from the Taxpayers Alliance also dropped into my e-mail basket this morning. The Alliance has produced new research showing that local government pensions, excluding teachers and firemen, have now reached £4.5bn, or equivalent to every £1 in every £5 of council tax raised.

Somehow, I doubt Messers Darling and Park will summon up quite the same level of outrage towards their Local Government friends as they are doing against Sir Fred. It is shoot-a-banker month after all....

Gerri Peev: Oh dear

The internet is a dangerous thing for MPs. Maybe loyalist Labour MP Nick Palmer will slightly regret this comment on politicalbetting's website:

"Labour has suspended all campaigning nationally today in view of the Cameron news. This messes up our final leaflet for our by-election tomorrow (we wanted to rebut a LibDem barchart), but as noted above the news puts that sort of thing in perspective."

by Nick Palmer MP February 25th, 2009 at 10:39 am

http://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/02/25/does-this-say-that-the-end-is-nigh/#comments

Gerri Peev: Sad day at Westminster

News of the death of Ivan Cameron, the six year-old son of David and Samantha Cameron, has shocked and depressed all of us who work in the Commons.

It is a grim day at Westminster and the mood is being reflected by the Prime Minister cancelling PMQs. Instead, Gordon Brown, William Hague (who stands in for the Tory leader in his absence at the Dispatch Box) and Vince Cable will offer tributes at noon.

The House of Commons will then adjourn until 12.30. The unveiling of Margaret Thatcher's portrait at Number 10 this afternoon has been postponed.

Our deepest condolences go to the Camerons.

David Maddox: Whitehall whitewash

If you can't beat them and joining them is even worse then the only other option is to pretend they do not exist.

This seems to have been the tactic adopted by the UK Labour government in dealing with those "pesky Nats running Scotland."

Having launched the realhelpnow.gov.uk website the UK government got its fingers slightly burnt when it realised (after the SNP pointed it out) that the real help highlighted in Scotland such as the council tax freeze was the responsibility of the SNP administration in Holyrood rather than Labour one in Westminster.

But rather than merely taking an ostrich like head in the sand view of pretending the SNP do not exist the cabinet office went a step further and actually whitewashed the Scottish Government out of existence on the website. Now the Scotland link only takes visitors to a three-week old press release from the the Scottish Office.

Maybe, as the picture (right) suggests, Gordon Brown has taken some tips from his predecessor, although, by the looks of it, Tony Blair seemed to be more interested in painting things Tory blue rather than whitewash.

Kenny Farquharson: Do you Twitter?

The Steamie is now available on Twitter (www.twitter.com/thesteamie).

If you have no idea what that sentence means you are:

a. not in tune with the zeitgeist

b. not paying attention

or

c. a High Court judge

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a micro-blogging site where posts are limited to 140 characters.

Everyone's doing it, from Barack Obama to Gordon Brown to Andy Murray to Stephen Fry to, er, me (www.twitter.com/KENNYFARQ).

There's even a rather good spoof Alex Salmond site www.twitter.com/Alex_Salmond (sample posting from the past few days: "Got to love American portion sizes...")

Get tweeting...

Hamish Macdonell - the price of a photcall

WORD has just reached The Steamie of what really went on behind the scenes ahead of the ground-breaking meeting between Alex Salmond and Hillary Clinton in Washington yesterday.
Apparently, officials for the US Secretary of State decided not to release details of the planned meeting ahead of time, just in case Mr Salmond couldn't make it, which would have left Ms Clinton looking desperate.
ends

Hamish Macdonell - Mike Russell, part II

YOU have to feel just a little bit sorry for Mike Russell.
The new arts minister was pilloried in yesterday's Daily Record for his embarrassing descriptions of parts of Scotland (can't go to Glasgow without stepping over a drug addict, that sort of thing).
Despite his fury at the Record, he then had to go on the BBC yesterday evening to support those very same Record journalists who had given him a kicking in the face of threatened redundancies by the Record management.
Being a minister must be a constant trial ...
ends

Hamish Macdonell - Salmond's defence of the Union

ALEX Salmond is currently in the United States pushing the case for Scottish independence.
In a speech on Monday he took the time to praise Abraham Lincoln.
This is what he said: "A man whose spirit and example will light America’s path for centuries to come. And a man whose name evokes, in the minds of your friends worldwide, the very highest image of America."
It did not take long, however, for Labour spin doctors to point out that Lincoln was, of course, the one man who did more to keep the Union in America together, even going to war and winning that war to prevent part of the country from separating and becoming independent.
This part of Lincoln's legacy was strangely absent from Mr Salmond's address.
ends

David Maddox: So it's all alright then... (Glenrothes that is)

When it emerged last month that all the documents with the records of who voted in the Glenrothes by-election last November there were dark mutterings from the Nationalists about possible dodgy goings on and that a cloud would hang over the result.

From some corners there were even suggestions the by-election won by Labour's Lindsay Roy (pictured) should be run again.

You may remember that having expected to win the SNP was roundly thrashed by Labour by almost 7,000 votes.

But a report has come out this afternoon from the Electoral Commission saying that it was "a very well run election."

Andy O’Neill, Head of the Electoral Commission in Scotland, said: “All stages of the election – from registration of electors to the counting of votes – went smoothly despite many challenges faced by the electoral administrators responsible for running the poll. Fife Council also ran an extensive campaign to get people registered to vote, even though there were only seven working days between the writ being moved and the deadline for registering.”

He was particularly pleased with new safeguards for postal voting, which apparently worked well, including applicants having to provide a signature and date-of-birth for the first time.

He added: “We’re concerned at the loss of these documents and welcome assurances from the Scottish Courts Service that they are investigating the matter fully. Access to the marked register is important to ensuring transparency and every step should be taken to ensure this does not happen again."

So that's that then. Shame Glenrothes will have a harder time getting rid of the cloud over its reputation after it was branded Britain's ugliest town.

Hamish Macdonell - The things he said

MIKE Russell, Scotland's new arts minister has had quite an artistic past himself, and that includes his book 'In Waiting: Travels in the Shadow of Edwin Muir'.
Its fair to say that this tome would hardly have been required reading for anybody in politics, let alone the Labour Party, before Mr Russell assumed ministerial office.
Now, though, everyone is reading it or, to be more precise, everyone is going through it to pick out bits which might embarrass the new minister.
So far Labour have found such gems as these:
Russell suggests Glasgow is too dangerous to get out of a car, and that tenement closes were covered with the bodies of unconscious drug addicts
He claims the flag on Edinburgh Castle is "an awful mutant tablecloth"
He bemoans that Dumfries is full of "skinny, ill-dressed women", he brands Aberdeen as "inhospitable" and Stirling as "less desirable".
Such revelations might cause Mr Russell's civil servants a few palpitations but the new minister is made of sterner, and more arrogant, stuff than that.
He is also pugnacious enough to take on any Labour MSP prepared to argue the case on any of these descriptions (he might also be pleased that such interest in his book might add a few copies to the sales figures).
ends

Eddie Barnes - Habeus Papam. Maybe.

The Pope might be coming to Scotland next year. Or the year after. Or he might not be.

We hear that Gordon Brown, visiting the Vatican earlier this week, extended an invitation to Benedict XVI to come to the UK, potentially to mark the beatification of the famous 19th century Catholic convert, Cardinal Newman. Number Ten suggested that such a visit might include a trip up to Scotland.

The Vatican has declared that there are no plans whatsoever for a trip to Britain, and the PM's invite has been met with derision by some, including Scotland on Sunday columnist Gerald Warner. Certainly, as this particular Pope has not exactly clocked up the air miles since his election, it's unlikely at present.

If he does, I wonder if I might drop in on Iona. I understand that Brown's gift to the Pope was a small Iona cross, brought from the tiny island off Mull from where St Columba spread Christianity to these shores. Might Brown have planted a seed? This Pope likes to remind people that Europe is a Christian continent - I wonder if he'll be heading for the Oban ferry?

Gerri Peev: Let Gordon eat cake

While the rest of the political blogsphere seems to be plunged into speculation about Gordon Brown's future, the PM is spending the day in his constituency doubtlessly dreaming up more initiatives to stave off the worst excesses of the recession...Perhaps it seems a bit churlish to be talking about his imminent demise on a day when Brown should be celebrating his 58th birthday.
Let's hope Sarah has shredded the papers and put a firewall on the internet so he can enjoy his day in peace.

Eddie Barnes - Hazel tells it like it is.

Finally, somebody in the Labour cabinet has had the guts to say something on-the-record on the great "What-do-we-do-with-Gordon" dilemma. Step forward human dynamo, leather-clad motocyclist Hazel Blears.

In a speech to constituents, the Communities Secretary declares today: "My message to my colleagues is simple: get a grip. Our first loyalty is to the British people. If they think we are more interested in our own jobs than theirs, they will not forgive us."

She adds: "If the mindset is all about what happens after some future election defeat, then the game's up. All this political positioning just helps the Tories."

Hi Ed! Hi Harriet!

Blears's comments will not be welcomed in Number 10 because they finally stand up what everyone knows to be true but which up till now could be dismissed as media tittle-tattle; that with Labour's poll ratings doing even worse than the FTSE and with defeat looming, Cabinet ministers are indeed trying to position themselves as the successor to Brown. It's hilarious to see the petty machinations of these ambitious ministers outed by Blears' guileless honesty.

Two points to make. One, I suspect that the public will respond very well to Blears' kind of straight-talking. Two, I bet plenty that David Cameron would absolutely hate to face her at the next general election.

Just a thought....

Gerri Peev: SNP member defects to British cause

Well not quite. But it caught your attention. It seems Gordon Brown is not the only one losing talent.

The SNP's business manager at Westminster, Anne Harvey has been appointed as head of policy at VisitBritain.

Legally-trained Harvey was one of the brains behind the cash for honours inquiry, having dug up an obscure piece of legislation - the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act.

She scooped a Researcher of the Year award for her efforts and in this humble hack's opinion, is formidably clever and decent. Little wonder she never ended up in frontline politics.

Having worked as head of research at Which? for a decade, she will now bat for Britain's £114 billion visitor economy, according to a statement about to be released by VisitBritain.

Patricia Yates, director of strategy at VisitBritain said that the organisation was "very fortunate" to have Harvey on board. "She is a familiar face to many political figures and her experience, background in policy formation and knowledge of parliamentary processes will complement our existing expertise."

Harvey said she looks forward to engaging with the "challenges and opportunies" presented by the difficult economic climate "and to championing the tourist industry by taking the case for prioritising sustainable tourism right to the heart of the government and the devolved administration".

VisitBritain's gain is Westminster's loss.

Hamish Macdonell - Pressure on Smith

IF the old adage hat bookmakers never lose money is true, than maybe Home Secretary Jacqui Smith should start packing up in both her houses.
According to William Hill, Jacqui Smith is now odds-on to cease to be Home Secretary during 2009. Hills now offer 4/6 that she will leave office THIS year - and 11/10 that she is still Home Secretary on January 1, 2010.
And Hills have also made her odds-on to lose her seat in Redditch at the next General Election - making her 11/8 to retain the seat, with the Tories 8/15 to win it.
'Ms Smith's travails refuse to go away and she now risks embarrassing the Government, which has plenty of other controversies to deal with. Gordon Brfown may well feel that he needs to resolve the issue and that he can best do so by dumping her' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.
The Conservatives are now 1/7 favourites to win the next General Election with Labour 4/1 - respectively the shortest and longest odds they have been since Margaret Thatcher was in power.
ends

Gerri Peev: PM on Jade Goody tragedy

Gordon Brown has just been asked at the Downing St press conference about Jade Goody's battle with cervical cancer. While he paid tribute to the reality TV star's bravery, he missed an opportunity to urge women to ensure they go for a smear test. Slightly awkward topic for a mature male to raise but it is literally a matter of life and death. And there is still a discrepancy in treatment between England, where women are not screened routinely until they are 25 and Scotland, where tests are offered from age 20. Surely time to lower the age south of the border, given that Goody is only 27?

Eddie Barnes - TB GBs lives on

Essential reading for all political junkies is an article in this morning's Times by Tony Blair's former speechwriter Phil Collins (of SW1, not Genesis). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5754901.ece

The piece dissects the Brown leadership style from someone who has seen it on the inside. Collins' central point is that the PM's obsession with political positioning - with finding clear water between him and the hated Conservatives - has ensured that Labour has vacated the centre-ground to David Cameron. "Labour defined itself against what the Tories said. So it is that Labour now finds itself just to the left of sensible on everything," Collins declares. Blairite education reforms from the dog days of TB's empire were dumped to satisfy a few backbenchers and merrily nicked by the Conservatives, he points out. Now, the government has got "bogged down in guidelines for rhubarb crumble recipes and instructions for playgrounds to be painted". The "crumbling empire" of the Home Office has "no policy to speak of" because "the government thinks of crime as a political event....the strategy is clear; close down the topic, stop talking about it, somehow it will go away." It's damning stuff, personal stuff: "He (Brown) doesn't like equality because it's a good idea. He doesn't like it because it's right. He likes it because it's political useful." Ouch.

Damning stuff, and Collins doesn't even sugar the pill with a closing "of-course-he-could-still-turn-it-around" paragraph. The message is that, under Brown, all is lost. I guess the piece might well be written off as a predictable attack from an uber-Blairite (who now is a full-time writer for the Times), but the fact that such a senior former member of Team Blair has chosen to speak out like this is fascinating for tea-leaf readers like me. The constant feuding between Brown and Blair were known as the "TB-GBs" - as of this morning, it appears the feud lives on.

Hamish Macdonell - toast on trial

HOT news (literally) from the Scottish Parliament canteen.
Canteen staff have suffered from complaints for years that the one product they do not serve is toast.
The problem, apparently, has been that toasters would set off the fire alarms if they were used.
Now though, there has been a breakthrough and the fire alarms have been upgraded hopefully to an extent that they can differentiate between toast and a real fire.
The first slices will be trialled on Thursday. If anyone passing by the parliament sees everyone waiting outside and the alarms wailing, they will know the trial hasn't worked.
ends

Tom Peterkin on Alex Salmond MP

That thorny issue about Alex Salmond being both an MSP at Holyrood and an MP at Westminster has raised its head again.
His so-called "dual-mandate" earned him the wrath of the Tories in the papers this morning. The Conservatives released figures showing that he voted less often at Westminster than any other Scottish MP.
He also had the third worst record of speaking in Commons debates and was joint last when it came to submitting oral questions.
Annabel Goldie gleefully pointed to Salmond's website, which claims he consistently ranks in the top 10 hardest-working MPs.
Salmond has already made it clear that he won't stand at the next Westminster election - whenever that is. Nevertheless, his insistence on carrying out two jobs (and that's without counting his third job as First Minister of Scotland) is clearly beginning to rankle.
It is one thing for Alex Salmond MSP MP to annoy the Conservatives, but he should take heed of how this issue is playing in his constituencies of Banff and Buchan (Westminster) and Gordon (Holyrood).
This morning the Press and Journal, the oracle consulted by most of his constituents, said: "There is no doubting whatever Mr Salmond's workrate, but even he cannot possibly give sufficient time to each of the three roles he now has to perform.
"He has already announced his intention to stand down as an MP at the next general election. Perhaps he should give serious consideration to doing so earlier than that." Ouch!

Eddie Barnes - Labour's power is draining away

David Freud, the former government welfare adviser on whose transfer to the Tories we reported at the weekend, explains today why he chose to go. "I got on incredibly well with (Work and Pensions Secretary) James Purnell, but you have to assess where you can make the most impact."

So, it wasn't a difference in policy which made him go. It wasn't a clash of personalities. The reason is far worse for Labour than that. It was that Freud decided to head over to where the action was (or will soon be). Once that kind of thing starts happening, it usually spells curtains for the government.

You can be pretty confident that there are lots of people right now - civil servants, donors, celebrities -who are also assessing where they can make the most impact, and deciding that they too, like Freud, should throw in their lot with the Conservatives. You wouldn't want to be a Johnny-come-lately to the party after all would you?

Just when it looked like it couldn't get any worse, it's been announed today that Tony Blair - fresh from beating Brown to an audience with Barack Obama - has won $1m for his leadership on the world stage. He won the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University in respect of his "foresight", "exceptional intelligence" and "steadfast determination" to end conflicts.

It looks increasingly the case that Teflon Tony got out at the right time.

Hamish Macdonell - who is counting II

ONE final aside on the Commons voting records. David Mundell, the shadow Scottish Secretary, hosted yesterday's press conference to blame Alex Salmond for his tardy participation record at Westminster.
Something to do with stones and glass houses comes to mind given that Mr Mundell hardly boasts the best record in this regard.
Over the last four years, Mr Mundell's record puts him in 28th place out of 59, with 288 contributions (questions, motions and so on). To put this in perspective, the leader, the Lib Dems' Danny Alexander made 2,038 contributions over the same period.
ends

Gerri Peev: Clegg wants to spend more time with his family

I know, I know, two Lib Dem posts in a day...please stay with me. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, has suggested that the recession may have a silver lining: it will allow/force men to spend more time with their families if they happen to be laid off.

This is a time to shake of entrenched gender stereotypes, says Clegg, who is preparing to take time off for the birth of his next off-spring. The Tories are privately pointing out that if one of their frontbenchers had tried to cast a rosy light on the recession, they would have been slated for it.

But Clegg does make a serious point. Make parental leave interchangeable and give fathers and mothers the choice as to who stays at home and who works.

Of course this can only work if at least one parent still has a job. And as the recession is hitting the female- dominated service and retail sectors the hardest, it is probably women who will be first to be given their p45s.

On that subject, should the Lib Dem leader want to request flexible working after enjoying his stint at home, can one suggest a job share with his deputy, Vince Cable?

Hamish Macdonell - voting, who is counting?

WITH little going on at Holyrood while the parliamentarians are on recess, attention has been focused on Alex Salmond's participation record at Westminster.
The Tories published the statement which the First Minister still carries on his Holyrood members' register, claiming he is one of the top ten hardest working Scottish MPs at Westminster.
They then contrasted this with the First Minister's record on voting, motions, questions and amendments since he came back at Holyrood in 2007, revealing that, ove the last two years, he has one of the worst records of any Scottish MP.
But the SNP spin machine is nothing if not efficient and Nationalist officials quickly dug up their own record showing that, if the data is taken back to 2005, then Salmond still has an excellent record at Westminster, much better than the Tories claimed.
It was all spin, spin and counter spin, that is until Labour got involved and stated (very off the record) that over the last two years Salmond actually had a worse voting record than their former MP, the late John MacDougall, who died last summer, prompting a by-election.
That was pretty unsavoury territory for Labour, particularly when it was pointed out to them that one of reasons John MacDougall had a decent voting record was that he very graciously acceded to the appeals of his whips on several occasions and made it through the division lobbies of the Commons when he really wasn't very well at all.
I think that's probably enough on voting records for all the parties now, or I hope so.
ends

Hamish Macdonell - election odds

THE smart money appears to be rallying behind the Conservatives, if the latest odds are to be believed.
Having taken account of the latest polls, which give David Cameron a substantial lead over Labour, bookmakers have cut their odds to win the next General Election to the lowest they have been since Margaret Thatcher was in power.
The Tories are now 1/7 favourites to be the largest single Party after the next General Election. 'At 1/6 they were already red-hot favourites but if the new poll is to be believed they are virtual certainties' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.'We have not seen a significant bet for Labour to win the next Election all year.'
Meanwhile, Hills have lengthened Labour's odds from 7/2 to 4/1 - the longest they have been since Neil Kinnock was Leader, with the Lib Dems at 100/1.
Hills now make the Tories 2/5 favourites to have an overall majority at the next Election, with a Hung Parliament quoted at 5/2 and Labour 7/1 to do likewise.
Hills now believe that it is a virtual certainty that Gordon Brown won't risk a General Election until the last moment, so have cut the odds for the next poll to take place in 2010 from 1/3 to 2/9. They also offer 9/2 that it will be held between July and December this year and 8/1 in or before June 2009.
Gordon Brown is now odds-on to be the first of the three current Party Leaders to stand down - Hills make him a 4/7 chance to be the first to go, with Nick Clegg at 5/2 and David Cameron 9/2. Brown is 8/11 to cease to be PM during 2010; 5/2 during 2009.
Hills make him 4/11 to lead his Party into the next General Election, 2/1 not to.
ends

Gerri Peev: Poll blow for Labour?

SKY has been flashing an IPSOS/Mori poll which shows that Labour is now TWENTY points behind the Conservatives. The network reports that Labour is on 28 per cent, the Conservatives on 48 per cent and the Liberal Democrats are on 17 per cent.
One shocking aspect of this is the tumble that the Lib Dems have taken since a weekend poll put them on 22 per cent.

It is not surprising, then, that the party's Treasury spokesman amusingly admonished Sky for misreporting the poll, pointing out that the figures it quotes are only for people who say they are certain to vote at the next election.

So it means that Tory supporters are more likely to turn out and vote while Lib Dem supporters are sitting on the fence...

Hamish Macdonell - Not playing ball (II)

IT is all getting a bit murky in this spat between the Greens and the SNP.
Now the Nats have hit back by drawing attention to the actual agreement between the two parties which states that the Greens will support "ministerial appointments", not just the first ministerial appointments.
According to the SNP, the Greens have now broken the agreement by abstaining on today's vote on the new ministers.
The Greens insist, however, that the agreement also committed the Scottish Government to favourable treatment of green issues which, they claim, ministers have not done.
Not worth the paper it was written on? Certainly, but it helped Alex Salmond get his government approved back in 2007 and that was all that mattered then, and probably now.
ends

Hamish Macdonell - not playing ball.

THE Greens really have taken a huff over last week's budget.
They have just decided not to endorse the appointment of the three new SNP ministers. Such votes are usually passed without comment or controversy, but not this time. It really does seem as though the threats of Green non-co-operation over the budget vote (which saw the Greens as the only party to vote against the Budget) with the Scottish Government have come to fruition.
Their decision is all the more surprising, however, given that the Greens actually have an agreement with the Scottish Government to support certain votes, including the appointment of ministers.
The Greens and the SNP signed up to a deal which guaranteed Patrick Harvie a committee convenership in return for Green support for the appointment of SNP ministers.
Now that deal has broken down but, as the Greens were keen to point out yesterday, their agreement only covered the appointment of the original ministers in 2007, not any subsequent votes.
Alex Salmond is probably wishing he never bothered negotiating with them at all on the budget, so difficult have they become.
ends

David Maddox: FMQs - Local Income Tax recriminations

As might be expected Alex Salmond, the First Minister, was having to fend off attacks over his humiliating decision to dump LIT yesterday.

Opening the salvos against the Mr Salmond was, as usual, Iain Gray, the Labour leader.

He said Mr Salmond was "throwing the Scottish Government's programme for Scotland in reverse..." That the FM "has been caught red-handed selling short Scotland's voters..." and was "retreating in the snow from LIT like Napoleon from Moscow."

He went on to ask if the FM would drop his last remaining manifesto promise on a referendum on independence and for good measure tore up a copy of the SNP manifesto with some effort (I heard he had been down at the gym lately).

A combative Mr Salmond refused to take up Mr Gray's request to apologise to voters (or impressed by the tearing antics) and hit back reminding Mr Gray that it was the £1 billion cuts for Scotland's budget planned by Labour in the Treasury that did for LIT.

He said that apologies should come from the "council tax cabal of Labour and the Tories" and the Treasury for chopping Scotland's budget. He reminded Labour of the "Duncan McNeil declaration" of last year where the chairman of Labour's parliamentary group said they would support a referendum whenever it came.

Tory leader Annabel Goldie asked if the LIT policy was so good "why he didn't go to the ramparts to fight for it?"

She asked if he will now cut council tax bills.

Mr Salmond mocked her for her party having five policies on the council tax in recent times and said that a cut was now impossible because of the cuts in the Scottish budget from Westminster.

Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott reminded Mr Salmond of his election address to the people of Gordon (the FM's constituency) which showed smiling people saying they would vote SNP because it would abolish the council tax. "Are they still smiling?" he asked.

"We did not have the votes," said Mr Salmond.

Then Mr Scott changed tack. Why is there not a minister for economic recovery from the ministerial reshuffle but a new super minister for independence? Drop the independence bill he demanded.

Mr Salmond said Mr Scott can't have it both ways complaining that he dropped one manifesto promise and then demanding he drops another.

And he reminded him that on the day Mr Scott was elected Lib Dem leader he said "I'm not intuitively against" the Scottish people deciding their own future.

"Go back to your first day," he called, and "let the people of Scotland have the democratic right to decide their own future."

David Maddox: Keeping the troops' spirits up

The e-mail below was sent out to SNP members just after John Swinney announced that the Local Income Tax was to be dropped until the next Holyrood election in 2011.
It seems to confirm that the real reason for dropping the controversial policy was because it would have been defeated in parliament and an attempt to keep party spirits up.
I am told by a source in the Greens that "the penny dropped" during the budget negotiations, when LIT was dropped into the conversation in a fishing exercise in a thinly veiled attempt to see if greater financial support for the Green's free for all insulation scheme would see them backing the policy. The Greens said "No!" And there subsequent decision to vote down the budget confirmed that it did not stand a chance.

Here is the e-mail:

Subject: Member Alert: SCRAPPING COUNCIL TAX DELAYED AS OPPOSITION MSPs BLOCK FAIRER SYSTEM Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:08:36 -0500

The experience of the budget process over the past fourteen days has provided us all with a reminder of the limitations within which our minority government is operating. In the last few minutes, John Swinney has announced he will postpone the introduction of legislation to abolish the unfair Council Tax until after the election in 2011.
The plan now will be to fight the 2011 election to win the necessary parliamentary majority that backs the abolition of the unfair Council Tax. The Cabinet, of course, remains totally committed to abolishing Council Tax and replacing it with a Local Income Tax based on the ability to pay.
But as John Swinney has just outlined, both the political and financial climate make that impossible at present. In the meantime, the Scottish Government will continue with its policy of freezing the Council Tax through to the next election.
This, as John Swinney says, will “serve as a down payment on our commitment to abolish the Council Tax.” Two weeks ago, I emailed to say Alex Salmond had put the Party on election alert.
Now we have our first campaigning issue of that election. Let’s set about working to win in 2011 with a determination to secure the necessary parliamentary majority for our fairer system of local taxation. For John Swinney's full speech, click: http://www.snp.org/node/14844. For more background on the decision, facts and figures, click: http://www.snp.org/node/14843

Regards Peter PETER MURRELL Chief Executive, Scottish National Party

David Maddox: Nicol Stephen returns to his political roots

Amid the turmoil of the SNP's volte face on local income tax a small act of defiance by one of Holyrood's more notable MSPs went largely unreported.

Nicol Stephen (pictured), former Deputy First Minister, ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats but still MSP for Aberdeen South, voted against the local government finance motion. He was the only MSP to do so.

The reason for this was not that he wanted councils to be denied their money (which is what would have happened if a majority had done as he did), but because he wanted to register a protest against Aberdeen's continued chronic under-funding at the bottom of the local authority league in terms of cash per head of population.

As he said in his speech yesterday: "If Aberdeen received the Scottish average funding support, it would get more than £60 million extra per year; if it received the same as the city of Dundee, it would get more than £100 million extra; and if it received as much as Glasgow, it would get more than £160 million extra each and every year."

It is interesting that Mr Stephen's political career was originally built on him being a champion of Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland. This is how he won the Kincardine and Deeside by-election for Westminster in 1991.

But in Holyrood many of his colleagues in the North East felt that he had forgotten what made him. As Deputy First Minister he seemed to do nothing to deal with the imbalance of funds for Aberdeen allowed the Labour dominated Scottish Executive to continue to divert money to the West of Scotland.

There are some who still blame him as Enterprise Minister for failing to make sure the bid for the multi-billion pound Energy Technology Institute was not based in Aberdeen. Eventually the open competition he allowed meant that Glasgow was chosen under an SNP government to lead the ultimately failed Scottish bid instead of the Granite City, the UK's energy capital.

In the last election Mr Stephen's majority was slashed from 8,016 to 2,732 by the SNP's Maureen Watt, even though she spent much of her time helping Alex Salmond win Gordon.

But now free of the fetters of power Mr Stephen is back as a local champion. Yesterday's small act of diefiance may be the first of many and should also confirm that, contrary to rumour, he intends to fight his seat again.

But the question remains - one that may be asked of SNP Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead about Elgin bypass in his Moray constituency - is that why does power obscure an MSP or MP's need to fight for their constituents?

Hamish Macdonell - LIT dead? Yes it is, at least for now.

JOHN Swinney has just confirmed he will ditch the LIT until after the next election.
He said: "We cannot put together a stable majority to enable us successully to steer detailed local income tax legislation through this parliament."
And he added: "The Cabinet has therefore decided not to introduce legislation to abolish the unfair council tax and replace it with a local income tx until after the election in 2011."
Mr Swinney did stress, however, that the SNP would fight the next election on a platform of scrapping the council tax and replacing it with the LIT.
ends

Hamish Macdonell - Local Income Tax dead?

RUMOURS are flying around the Scottish Parliament this afternoon that John Swinney, the Finance Secretary, is about to kick his much criticised local income tax scheme into the long grass.
The plan, to scrap the council tax and replace it with a local income tax set at 3p in the pound, has run into a hail of criticism from business leaders, some unions, student leaders and opposition politicians.
The SNP insisted it would drive on with the scheme, hopefully in partnership with the Liberal Democrats who also want to see a LIT introduced, except they want councils to be able to set their own rates.
There is strong speculation that Mr Swinney told the SNP group today that he had decided to put off the LIT until after the next election.
He apparently is ready to insist he will continue on with his plans, just not in this parliament.
If that is what transpires then it will mean the biggest u-turn in this administration's two-year history and one of the most surprising in the history of the Scottish Parliament.
Watch this space...
ends

Eddie Barnes - the Leakproof SNP

A SNP contact informs me that yesterday's reshuffle was known about by quite a few people within the party for the last two weeks. And yet not even the merest sniff of a story snuck out until Alex Salmond and his team wanted it to yesterday morning. Reshuffles always leak out, even if the details beforehand are usually inaccurate. Not this time.

This all suggests that the iron internal discipline which has characterised the SNP since May 2007 is just as strong as it ever was. That should fire a warning to the party's opponents who have felt increasingly in recent months that the slick Nationalist operation is beginning to show a bit of wear and tear. Perhaps not so.

Either that or we hacks just aren't doing our job properly. SNP 1; Journalists 0.

Ross Lydall: The ties have it

The bosses of the "big six" energy firms appeared at the first meeting of the Commons energy and climate change committee today. But the most illuminating thing, if you'll excuse the weak pun, was the tie sported by Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy.
It was black, with a bold pattern of giant yellow light bulbs. A man with a sense of humour, or possibly children, methinks. But are his green credentials harmed by the fact that the lightbulbs weren't of the low-energy type?
There was a good stooshie between Mr Marchant and John Robertson, the Labour MP for Glasgow North West. Robbo reckoned the energy firms were making excess profits out of people (generally those on low incomes) who have pre-paid meters. Mr Marchant exploded with rage when his denial was dubbed an excuse. "These are not excuses! These are the facts!" he stormed, in a most unparliamentary way.
As for bills, Scottish and Southern will cut electricity bills by 9 per cent, and gas bills by 4 per cent, from 30 March. Expect reductions from Scottish Power too. "We don't want to lose any customers," said its chief executive, Nick Horler. "We are likely to move soon."

David Maddox: Classic reruns

It did not take the Tories long to dig this old nugget out of the archives (circa 1979 election) when today's unemployment stats showed that about 1,970,000 people in the UK - under the International Labour Organisation (ILO) figures (the UK government's preferred method). According to today's figures, there are around 108,000 in Scotland claiming Jobseekers' Allowance, apparently up 47 per cent from a year ago.
It should be said the ILO figures (just in case this was not confusing) are even worse for Scotland with 137,000 unemployed.
Needless to say the Tory UK press release today rehashed the 1979 message with the word "still" added in for good measure.
But, with David Cameron and the Conservatives well ahead in the polls he may not wish to remind people what happened after this poster campaign when the Tories took power and unemployment shot up to record levels, topping 3 million.

David Maddox: Welcome to the Greens' new keeper

One small aspect in all today's excitement over the reshuffle which has largely gone unnoticed is who has taken over the newly promoted Housing Minister Alex Neil's (pictured right) unofficial job as the doorkeeper to the Greens.

As mentioned previously in the Inside Holyrood column, Mr Neil shared a small section with the Greens, known to some as the SNP pocket, at the end of one of the SNP's corridors in the MSP tower of parliament.

The interesting dynamic here is that since the budget debacle - the Greens voting down the first attempt, then being publicly humiliated in the second when Finance Secretary John Swinney effectively dumped their free for all insulation scheme - the SNP can no longer rely on the two Green MSPs to get them out of a hole in tight votes.

But, with the combative Mr Neil now occupying a ministerial office, the Nationalists have obviously decided to persuade the Greens back on board with kindness.

Step forward Linda Fabiani (pictured left), who the Greens have always seen as one of their own in all but name - "a fellow traveller" as one Green source put it to me. Added to that there are few nicer politicians to be found in Holyrood, with the possible exception of the Greens' own Robin Harper.

So Ms Fabiani may have lost her job as Minister for Freebies (cultural events and foreign trips), but she may well have the comfort of finding herself among friends with the unofficial job of coaxing them back to the SNP corner.

Eddie Barnes: Mea culpa, mea culpa

THE gang of four who presented themselves to the Commons Treasury Select Committee this morning - Sir Fred Goodwin, Sir Tom McKillop, Lord Stevenson and Andy Hornby - were falling over themselves to say sorry during their grilling by MPs. There wasn't the usual mealy-mouthed formulation you tend to hear at this occasions ("if people feel that we have done something out of place, then of course we are sorry about that") but full-frontal, no-nonsense embarrassed apologies for getting everything so horribly wrong.

Good. But now the mob want more. David Cameron hit the airwaves this afternoon to declare that, now that the banks have said sorry, it is time Gordon Brown did so as well. "I think it is now time we had some apologies and admitting to mistakes from the Government," he declared.

Don't hold your breath. Despite efforts from within Downing Street - where aides are said to be eager for Brown to show some humility- Brown has so far resisted the urge to offer up his own mea culpa. The closest he came was his statement last week that plans to toughen up banking regulations could be seen as "an acceptance that it wasn't strong enough" beforehand. Not exactly crystal clear is it? I very much doubt Brown is capable of standing up and simply saying sorry; he is hard-wired to resist giving such presents to his hated political opponents.

This is all very well, but, in this scenario, it won't wash. Something truly enormous has gone wrong and to simply blame it on America or the global banking system -as Brown has tried - will not convince people. To press on in this way, is to put the short-term political game before the far-greater prize of restoring some trust between him and the public.

So rather than jerking his knee in response to Cameron's words this afternoon, Brown should ask himself this: Why is Cameron demanding his apology? Might it be because the Tory leader know it is the one sure fire way to ensure Brown won't make one? Might Cameron actually want Brown to carry on in this manner? Why does Cameron continually bangs on about Brown "not being straight with people"? Because it works?

The PM should give Cameron what he asks for. The Banking chiefs have shown the way. Time to 'fess up.

Tom Peterkin: Russell and referendum

Mike Russell's promotion from Environment Minister to Minister for Culture, External Affairs and Constitution seems to me to be an astute move by Salmond.
Although the two men have had their differences in the past, it has long been acknowledged that Russell is one of the most able SNP politicians and one of the "big beasts" of the Scottish Parliament.
It will fall to him to steer through the SNP's plans for an independence referendum next year - a task that will be fraught with difficulty.
Whether the nation has the stomach for a vote on the constitution during a time of economic difficulty is questionable. Gathering the parliamentary support for a referendum bill would be an achievement in itself.
With his rumbustious style this will be a challenge that Russell should relish. The elevation of Russell could also be a smart move by Salmond in another way. By setting aside any differences that may have existed between them in past, he has now shown that he is more prepared to recognise talent over blind loyalty.
The same applies to the elevation of Alex Neil and Roseanna Cunningham, two other politicians who have had a tricky relationship with Salmond in the past.

Hamish Macdonell - Ministerial reshuffle (2)

THE full results of the ministerial reshuffle are as follows:
Mike Russell is promoted from the environment to minister for culture external affairs and the constitution, with special responsibility for the planned referendum on independence next year. He replaces Linda Fabiani who is sacked.
Minister for schools and skills, Keith Brown is promoted from the backbenches (possibly as a reward for his leadership of the standards committee which punished Wendy Alexander and led to her resignation).
He replaces Maureen Watt, who is sacked.
Minister for housing and communities is now Alex Neil, (formerly the self-styled minister for Newsnight and someone who said hell would freeze over before Salmond gave him a ministerial job). He replaces Stewart Maxwell, who is sacked.
Minister for the environment is now Roseanna Cunningham, who replaces Mike Russell.
ends

David Maddox: more Ministerial Reshuffle

The reshuffle announcement is happening in the next few minutes but it is clear that there will be no new names at the top table with all the cabinet ministers keeping their jobs.

Some will question why Mike Russell (pictured right), the official keeper of squirrels and trees (environment minister), will continue to gather dust outside the cabinet while lesser talents remain.

A Labour spin doctor has just sent me a quote from November 12 2006, which might explain it:

Mr Russell described Alex Salmond as: "A leader brilliantly suited to guerrilla opposition but much less well attended to the disciplines and demands of any new politics."

Mr Salmond has the memory of an elephant it is said.

Then it seems that Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop (pictured left), the perennial loser of votes in parliament, will survive.

But, while she fails to impress political correspondents our education colleagues think she is often unfairly maligned. There is also a feeling that she was dealt a duff hand by Mr Salmond, especially on the dropped SNP manifesto promises to reduce P1 to P3 class sizes to 18 and match Labour's proposed school building programme "brick for brick."

What she has done, apparently, is charmed much of the education world, including universities and parent groups, which has taken the heat off the SNP government and is possibly worth a few lost votes. The feeling is that Mr Russell's more "arrogant and dismissive" approach (as opponents describe it) would not have the same effect.

Hamish Macdonell - Ministerial reshuffle

THE Steamie understands that Alex Salmond is about to reshuffle his ministerial team.
The ministers have been told and the new shape of team Salmond will be unveiled at 11.30am today.
The Steamie understands that while Fiona Hyslop, the Education Secretary, was seen to be in danger of being axed completely from the ministerial team, she is likely to survive.
Stewart Maxwell, the housing minister, however, is rumoured to be a likely casualty, with his workload expected to be given to Shona Robison, the public health minister.
Roseanna Cunningham, who has been languishing on the backbenches, may be in line for a move to a ministerial job, possibly at environment, with another move sideways expected for Mike Russell, the current minister for squirrels, forests and meadows.
ends

Ross Lydall: Home Sweet Home Secretary as Swinson fails to deliver

So, did Jo Swinson come up with the goods? Alas not. Rather than daring to quiz Jacqui Smith on her expenses (see previous post), Ms Swinson tried to open up a new flank on alleged wrongdoings in the House of Lords.

Last week, her Lib-Dem chum Chris Huhne (the party's Home Affairs spokesman) wrote to the Met police to ask it to investigate whether there were grounds to press bribery charges against four peers named in a second round of allegations in the Sunday Times "cash for amendments" row.

So, for that reason, Ms Swinson asked Ms Smith: "Will she tell the House what discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues and the police about whether the police currently have adequate powers to investigate Members of either House of Parliament who are suspected of the common law offence of bribery?"

A relieved Ms Smith quickly replied: "No, I have not had any discussions with police colleagues about that." End of story. Ms Swinson may not get such a good chance of doing some political point-scoring for quite some time.

David Maddox: Bad day for Grays (not just the squirrels)

Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader (pictured right), might think that he has enough on his plate taking on Alex Salmond and the SNP, while still trying to sort out the mess his party North of the border was left in after Wendy Alexander vacated the leadership.

But, if this was not difficult enough he seems to have had to contend with everything that UK Labour Party leaders have had to throw at him too.

First there was the suspension of his East Lothian constituency party over the argument surrounding the reselection and attempted deselection of the local MP Anne Moffat.

Then just as he was preparing to give a major speech today on the economy at Ravenscraig where he was to deliver a withering attack on the SNP Scottish Government, then up pops UK Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform Tony McNulty (or McNumpty as one Scottish Labour activist called him today) (pictured left) on Sunday's Politics Show to praise the SNP.

Here's a quick competition, spot the difference:

McNulty on Sunday: "Broadly I think they (the SNP) are doing all they can and they are working – certainly in as far as my brief in terms of employment is concerned – they are working with us in common cause."

Gray today (Monday): "I say very clearly today that, if and when the SNP decide to focus on the economic challenge, concentrate on the actions they can take with the powers they have the Labour Party I lead will not shirk from working with them in the Parliament."

No wonder the Nationalists could hardly stop laughing. Their official spokesman on this occasion, John Mason, the hero of last summer's Glasgow East by-election, suggested that Mr Gray was "overtaken by events" mainly from his own party and perhaps "should have rewritten his speech."

I wonder if this is a picture of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's reaction when he was told how things were going in Scotland.

David Maddox: Going nuts

You can almost hear the chants - "British trees for British squirrels" - wildcat strikes and questions in the House over whether Britain should withdraw from parts of the European Union treaties that allow unfettered freedom to roam to foreign immigrant squirrels.

But the demands may not be in vain. One of the highlights of the Scottish ministerial diary this week is the launch of the first national project to "Save Scotland's Squirrels" tomorrow. (Yes, it's that sort of pre-recess week.)
As aficionados of the bushy tailed vermin will know, this is not about rescuing any ordinary squirrel, but the native British red from the wicked greys which have "invaded" the British Isles.

Indeed, as these pictures reveal the reds are really up against it if they hope to throw back the invaders.

However, I understand that the Scottish Government is not proposing a re-armament strategy.

Putting aside the fact that no squirrels will be present tomorrow out of fear that the speech from Environment Minister Mike Russell may turn the red ones grey, the whole squirrel issue has some neat parallels in modern Scottish politics.

Other than the angry workers on strike under the "British jobs for British workers" banner, there is also a Celtic synergy with the oppressed reds which appeals to the Nationalist heart.

I have heard at least one SNP politician muse that the gradual pushing back of the reds to the fringes of the British Isles is not too dissimilar to the injustice inflicted on the Celts by the Anglo-Saxon hoards as they colonised much of Britain.

This 2005 map from Scottish Natural Heritage shows just how serious the matter has become. The grey and red areas are self explanatory.

Yet this 1998 map perhaps shows that there is hope that differences can be settled and the different parties can co-exist in a Union. The orange areas show where the two varieties live side-by-side, not least in Scotland's central belt.

But perhaps the greys are not the real enemy. To the British wildlife lovers, they may be as popular as an Italian worker at a Lincolnshire refinery, but they have been in Britain since 1929, which means many generations of greys have grown up as British.

And last year it was revealed that a "mutant, testosterone loaded" black variety of squirrel is wiping out both reds and greys. So perhaps the Scottish red in this picture should watch out.

Ross Lydall: Has Jo Swinson the nerve to demand home truths of Jacqui Smith?

Interesting to see that Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire and champion of openness and transparency, is due to ask the first "topical" question to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith this afternoon.

By a quirk of bad timing, Ms Smith has to face the Commons a day after finding her living arrangements splashed over the front page of the Mail on Sunday. By living with her sister in south London and nominating her constituency home as her second home, she is able to claim up to £24,006 a year in the second home allowance (entirely within the letter - if not the spirit - of the rules, it should be added).

Commendably, and in contrast to most other MPs, Ms Swinson publishes all her parliamentary expenses on her website. But will she have the nerve to take on Ms Smith, and secure for herself a few headlines?

One wonders what advice she might be receiving from her Lib-Dem colleague and shadow Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael. The MP for Orkney and Shetland, a canny chap, is due to be appointed to a new parliamentary committee overseeing members' allowances, as is Labour MP and government whip Tommy McAvoy, who represents Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

Ross Lydall: David Cameron's non-answer on an independence referendum

A few interesting lines from David Cameron's monthly press conference, which was held this morning. He wants the bankers to "wake up and smell the coffee" with regard to bonuses, and understand that they wouldn't be in jobs - never mind thinking about how to spend their bonuses - if it wasn't for taxpayer support.

However he focused his wrath on top executives - saying he had no wish to deprive the "woman who runs the branch at Auchtermuchty" from receiving a top-up to her basic wage.
Any bonuses that are issued should not be in cash but in shares that could only be redeemed when any taxpayer-funded loans are repaid, he added.

He dodged yet another question about suspicions that Tory donor Lord Ashcroft remains a tax exile: "Someone's tax status is a matter between them and the Inland Revenue."
However he did indicate support for Lib-Dem peer Lord Oakeshott's private member's bill that is currently proceeding through Parliament, which would ban donations from donors not registered in the UK for tax: "I think that is not a bad idea. I'm very happy to see that bill progress."

And he did just enough to increase the pressure on Jacqui Smith when he declared that "she may have some questions to answer" over her decision to claim up to £24,006 a year in parliamentary allowances by living with her sister in south London rather than a "grace and favour" property normally used by the Home Secretary.

Finally, one for the conspiracy theorists. Asked whether, if he became Prime Minister, he would consider an early referendum on Scottish independence to "shoot the SNP's fox", Mr Cameron steered clear of repeating the R-word.

Instead, in reply to the question, (from Conservative Home's Jonathan Isaby) he pledged to "do whatever it takes" to maintain the Union (note the irony in the number of Scottish seats he expects to win).

For completeness, here's what Mr Cameron said: "If we win the election and if, by some miracle, we don't have 25 seats in Scotland and have slightly fewer, then I would be a Prime Minister who would want to govern in the interests of everyone in Scotland.
"I would recognise the shortage of mandate, if you like, in Scotland by getting straight up there and meeting the First Minister and saying, look, anyone who wants to try to work with me, I will work with them. I will make sure my ministers go to Holyrood and listen to committees there. Likewise, Scottish ministers should come to Westminster and engage with the committees here.
"I would do whatever it takes to govern in the interests of the whole of the United Kingdom and to try to make sure, that over time, that we can strengthen that United Kingdom. I would be prepared to consider anything to enable us to do that."

David Maddox: Still chums then?

A little bit of gossip from Wednesday evening after John Swinney's "glorious" victory in passing a budget at the second time of asking this month.

You will remember that he went out of his way to humiliate the poor Green MSPs (both of them) for having the audacity to join with the former executive partners (Labour and the Lib Dems) to vote down the budget. The offer of £33 million for a free for all insulation scheme was chopped down to a wholly inadequate means tested scheme for £15 million.

Afterwards the Greens' spin doctor (and general dogs body) James Mackenzie (pictured, left) could be seen in the White Heather Club (Holyrood's bar) drowning his sorrows with glasses of Peroni and muttering darkly about the SNP. For all it seemed that the Greens "love affair" with the Nats, propping them up in difficult votes was over.

But as fate would have it, or rather a seat arranger with a sense of humour, within an hour he was to be seated next to Kevin Pringle (pictured, right), Holyrood's lord of spin and the chief special adviser to First Minister Alex Salmond, for a delayed Burns Supper. And at the end of which the two were seen hand in hand singing Auld Lang Syne. So maybe "auld acquaintance" has not been forgot and they have made up, but only time and a few tight votes will tell.

One more ironic twist was that the Burns Supper in question was arranged for MSPs and hangers on by Energy Action Scotland and Scottish and Southern Electricity, two of the biggest supporters of the Greens' insulation scheme.

No doubt they reminded those of the 123 MSPs present who voted against it that had the Greens got their way 1.8 million households in Scotland would have bills of £340 a year less, less old people would have died of cold, at least 1,000 jobs would have been created and carbon emissions would have been reduced in Scotland by six per cent.

Perhaps it was with this lecture in mind that the Labour MSP Jackie Baillie noted as she gave the reply to the toast to the lassies: "Regarding insulation, we have all missed an opportunity this week."

David Maddox: Don't mention the "G" word

Why is it that in Britain we shudder when a politician wears his or her religious faith on his or her sleeve?
It was interesting to see the coverage of Tony Blair this morning giving the sermon at President Obama's National Prayer Breakfast and some of the comments he had to make.
In particular there was the disdain shown by civil servants when he wanted to end a speech as Prime Minister: "God bless the British people." Similar to the closing line of almost any presidential address in the USA.
"The system was aghast," he recollected "As I sat trying to defend my words a senior civil servant said with utter disdain, 'Really prime minister, this is not America you know.'"
It is not as if the distaste for religion is not well known among many people employed by the state. You only have to look at the annual round of town hall bashing at Christmas because Nativity displays or school re-enactments of the birth of Jesus have been banned by the local council.
It was noticeable too that Mr Blair was extremely reluctant to talk about his faith while he was still PM, and delayed his formal conversion to Catholicism until after leaving office, even though he attended Catholic mass most Sundays. Then there was the famous spat with Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman when he asked, in his usual sneering fashion, if he had prayed with George W. Bush.
But the British reluctance to have religion on display is also true in continental Europe where overtly religious politicians also are distrusted. Even in Italy, the home of Catholicism, many state schools too will not have re-enactments of the Nativity for fear of offending some minority religious group.
However, the antipathy towards religious expression is strange in Britain considering that 44 million lay claim to believing in God, about two thirds of the population. In Scotland it is 3.3 million, 67 per cent.
In Scotland the reluctance to talk about religion seems to be less than in other parts of the UK. There is a small fringe party, the Greens, that has become a focus of anti-religious sentiment and hardline secularism, while the others are happy to engage with religious leaders on issues such as nuclear disarmament and even ethical issues like abortion. Alex Salmond has noticeably cosied up to the outspoken Catholic church leaders and there are MSPs happy to put their church affiliation on their profiles. But you will be lucky to find one who talks about how their faith shapes their lives and their politics.
The problem is that when a person makes a lot of their religious belief then it is assumed that he or she is an extremist of some fashion which is why politicians, with rare exceptions like Anne Widdicombe, avoid talking about it.
Which brings us back to Tony Blair and the Prayer Breakfast. In his speech where he mentioned the word God 31 times, he alluded to the "unholy alliance" of aggressive secularists and religious extremists. His message was that the danger is that if moderates are not willing to talk about or even be identified with their faith, then the extremists will become the image of all believers and the anti-religious lobby will have all the justification they need.

Next Year's Budget - Eddie Barnes

I realise everyone has had read quite enough about the SNP budget negotiations, but here's one final word as the parties look ahead to next year's round.

As Alex Salmond said in the chamber yesterday, the budget for 2009-10 is going to involve real cuts in the Scottish Government's coffers. This is an entirely new development for our MSPs who have only had to decide since 1999 on how exactly they are going to eat their way through an ever-bigger cake. It means that the focus of opposition parties needs to change from what they can get from the SNP government to what they can the SNP Government to save.

The LibDems look signed up for this, and it is clearly fertile territory for the Tories (if they are prepared to risk looking nasty). Who knows, even Labour might have the courage to do what it knew it had to in government but lacked the political will.

They should start work now on what bureacracy and waste can be hacked off in the next 12 months so that, when the axe falls this time next year, it isn't our schools and hospitals that suffer.

Ross Lydall: Murphy's blog is first with his news

It attracted a few snide comments at its launch in October, but Jim Murphy's blog has built a regular following, it seems.

According to figures supplied in a Parliamentary written answer to the SNP's arch inqusitor Angus MacNeil, the Scottish Secretary's blog attracted 5,077 hits in its first month, 4,910 in its second, 4,450 in its third and experienced a New Year revival with 5,142 hits in January.

Recent entries range from Mr Murphy being delayed in Scotland as a result of snow at Heathrow - and then going sledging with his family - to his visit to the Gorbals with Gordon Brown, during which time the Prime Minister received his long-awaited first call from President Obama.

He has also used it to break news about initiatives to develop a cross-border approach to tackling football hooliganism and to give his thoughts on the "British jobs for British workers" row that saw wildcat strikes across Scotland. Well done, Jim - if only your press office were as keen to publicise your activities, you'd be securing double the press coverage. The blog can be found at: www.scotlandoffice.gov.uk

David Maddox: FMQs - end of the cosy consensus

After yesterday's budget love-in which spilt over into this morning's Lib Dem sponsored debates on borrowing powers and the financial services industry it seemed like we had entered some Never Neverland full of politicians giving each other consensual mutual massages - really quite nauseating.

But, thankfully, First Minister's Questions (FMQs) has at last brought us back to normal. Labour leader Iain Gray has picked one of his old favourites, the Scottish Futures Trust, to attack Alex Salmond on.

"Just PFI with window dressing," said Mr Gray quoting Professor John Kay from a Scotsman article. "Where are the schools, hospitals and jobs?"

As this is third or maybe fourth time Mr Gray has now chosen this subject for FMQs, Mr Salmond's response is well practised. This goes as follows: Yes the SNP is building schools ("started by Labour," cry out Labour MSPs, as they have done on the other occasions), the problems are Gordon Brown's recession or depression as we must now call it, and just wait for Gordon Brown to cut £1 billion from the Scottish budget to pay off his £1 trillion recession debt.

Tory leader Annabel Goldie was keen to find out how many times Mr Salmond had met the Prime Minister. However it was clear she was more keen to promote the Conservative's new helpourhighstreet.com website launched after the SNP agreed to the Tory/ Labour idea (depending which party you are speaking to) of having a town centre regeneration fund of £60 million. She was to be disappointed though, Mr Salmond made it clear he would rather meet Mr Brown than log on to her party's website.

But, the spirit of love (for the Nationalists) has not been dropped by the SNP's new bedfellows, the Lib Dems. Tavish Scott, Scotland's fourth party's leader, chose to use his questions to attack Mr Salmond's greatest enemy Gordon Brown especially his line on "British jobs for British people."

"Would the First Minister use the phrase Scottish jobs for Scottish workers?" he asked.

"Not in the manner the Prime Minister did," answered Mr Salmond.

Which poses the question, what manner would he use it in?

Tom Peterkin: The Budget

So the SNP budget has finally secured parliamentary support after an unseemly week of huffing, puffing and posturing. With the support of the Tories, the Lib Dems and Labour, Alex Salmond has once again come up smelling of roses despite his combative approach to minority Government. What about the poor old Greens, who seem to have rejected the deal of the century?
Salmond's original offer of £33 million for home insulation to the Greens was cut to £15 million. At the weekend, Harvie warned that if ministers wanted the SNP/Green relationship to "seriously deteriorate, they will find our position over the next two years much more difficult to try and reach agreement, vote by vote, week by week".
So we're in for two more years of legislative battling - courtesy of two Green MSPs. Unless, of course, Salmond can rely on his new pals in the Lib Dems to keep riding to the rescue as they pursue their shared dream of borrowing powers for Holyrood.

Hamish Macdonell - Brown-ed off

SOMEONE please tell Conservative MSP Gavin Brown about mixed metaphors and how anybody with aspirations to be any kind of public speaker should avoid them.
He has actually just said this: "Labour and the Liberal Democrats are attempting to run the four-minute mile on the road to Damascus."
Worst line of the day? Worst line of the year so far.
ends

David Maddox: Budget - the end of the affair

Patrick Harvie, the leader of the Greens, is on his feet looking very glum. He has said the SNP "just don't get it" when it comes to carbon emissions.
As mentioned before, poor Mr Harvie is suffering after snubbing the SNP budget last week. Not surprising for a man who has seen his scheme lose £18 million in a week and changed from a free for all to a means tested one, he has said that the budget is "still inadequate."
There was a bitter swipe at the Lib Dems who dropped their £800 million 2p income tax cut for measures worth nothing to back the budget, which in effect ended the Greens chances of getting more for free insulation.
He doesn't care that the two Green votes will be the only ones against the budget today.
"It doesn't matter about numbers," he said defiantly. "There is a wider movement out there" being failed by the middle ground of politics "which the Greens will continue to represent."
According to Mr Harvie President Obama and most European governments are taking not of that movement and bringing in green projects to boost their economies and try to save the planet. Parliament would not even consider his reasoned amendment on the principle of free insulation.
It seems that the close relationship enjoyed by the Greens and SNP for the best part of two years may have come to an end. The only question now is have the Lib Dems supplanted the Greens in the SNP bed?

David Maddox: The Scottish X Files

It did not take the conspiracy theorists long to pop up when it emerged that the marked voter register for the Glenrothes by-election had mysteriously disappeared from Sheriff's Court in Kirkcaldy, as can be seen from the comments after today's piece in the Scotsman.
Perhaps we should call in Scully and Mulder (pictured top right) from the X Files to see if Gordon Brown has made a secret pact with aliens to get them to cast an extra 7,000 votes and then spirit away the register just to keep the Union intact. But let us not pretend that conspiracy theories are limited to the fevered imaginations of cybernats.
Labour at the moment believe that there is a conspiracy going on currently to sway voters in another election. I speak, of course, of the fascinating twists and turns in the campaign that is the election for the new Rector of Edinburgh University.
The three candidates are George Galloway, the Scottish exile, former Big Brother cat and some time Respect MP for Bethnal Green in London; Lord George Foulkes, Baron of Cumnock, MSP for the Lothians, former minister and First Lord of the Twittery; and Ian McWhirter columnist and commentater on Scottish politics who has promised to visit the Scottish Parliament on occasions.
The two latter candidates are believed to be the frontrunners. Lord George is Labour's candidate and the non-party political Mr McWhirter has been backed by the Tories, SNP, Greens and Lib Dems.
The election is coming to its climax with staff and students due to vote online on Wednesday February 12 and Thursday February 13.
But, Lord Foulkes' campaign team have cried foul over a prominant article about him which appeared in a West coast weekly publication (The Sunday Herald) claiming that he had been referred by ana anonymous academic to the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Jim Dyer for having a consultancy arrangement with the law firm Eversheds.
MSPs cannot have consultancies, but Lords can, and Lord Foulkes has always claimed that his arrangement was only connected to his work in the Lords.
What the article failed to mention was that the same complaint had been made last year by an SNP student activist (Andrew Harlick) and Lord Foulkes was cleared in quick time by Mr Dyer because there was no evidence against him. Lord Foulkes has claimed that the Sunday publication knew this before printing the article, but chose not to mention it. Added to that apparently he has not been referred because the referal was done by e-mail, which technically makes it inadmissable. But these complaints can be put down to editorial judgement and technicalities.
The article was then rewritten as the front page piece in the student paper by a student called Liz Rawlings. On the face of it nothing wrong with that considering it was the best Edinburgh University story around at the moment.
But here is where the conspiracy clicks in, the puff of smoke over the grassy knoll, the mysterious Fiat speeding away from the mangled car wreck in the Paris tunnel: The Sunday publication is the same one that Mr McWhirter writes a column for and Ms Rawlings has a picture of her with SNP leader and First Minister Alex Salmond taken in his office in the Scottish Parliament on the front page of her Facebook (she's the one on the left in the picture).
Perhaps not surprisingly, Lord Foulkes's campaign team spot a conspiracy to undermine their candidate's chances and have made allegations of dirty tricks.

Like all good conspiracy theories it has a ring of truth to it and circumstantial evidence. But why would anybody go to such lengths to decide the result of a Rectoral election? Maybe it was those darn tricksy aliens again.

Hamish Macdonell - When its all going your way ...

ON the day when he is poised to record a substantial budget success, nothing, it seems can stop the First Minister.
He took part in a golf photo-call this morning with Sam Torrance. The former Ryder Cup captain had three putts on the icy surface and missed all three.
The First Minister, on the other hand, sank his third, to his obvious delight.
Does he need his ego massaged any more?
So to the budget and a little reminder to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill that there is a pecking order - Mr Salmond on the top and everybody else somewhere far behind.
Mr MacAskill strode down to the front of the chamber before the start of the debate and sat in the vacant seat next to John Swinney.
At that point Nicola Sturgeon leant over and told him he was sitting in the seat which the First Minister.
MacAskill didn't need a second invitation. He picked up his files and retreated to the backbenches, leaving the seat free for Mr Salmond to occupy.
But if anyone thought today's budget debate was going to be all dull and boring, at least Tory Derek Brownlee decided to spice it up.
In the soundbite of the week, he declared: "At Westminster, the defeat of a Budget would bring down the government. At Holyrood, it seems, it brings down the opposition."
ends

David Maddox: Budget latest

After last week's excitement we have a day of near complete consensus ahead of us 126 - 2 in favour of the budget.

The news is that the Finance Secretary John Swinney (pictured) has taken his revenge on the Greens, best served cold apparently (revenge not Greens). There decision to vote down the budget last week now looks costly.

Having got everybody else to support his package - the Lib Dems yesterday at no extra cost and Labour today for 7,800 apprentices - Mr Swinney knows that the Greens are isolated.

So instead of offering them £22 million plus £11 million from social partners for their free insulation scheme, he's putting in just £15 million for a different means tested insulation scheme. I gather he told Green leader/ co-convener Patrick Harvie in an e-mail at quarter to midnight last night - ouch!

The Greens have put in a reasoned amendment putting back the principle of a free for all scheme, but it looks like they have little support. We shall see when voting happens 5pm. Meanwhile there will be much self-justification and finger pointing on display when the budget debate starts in half an hour, and maybe even some consensus.

One final thought. If the Greens are right royally, for want of a better word, stuffed by the SNP in this vote, then it will be interesting to see what happens next time the Nats want them to support them in a tight vote. Maybe I am wrong, but Swinney's vengeful spite could be the start of a two year Green strop.

David Maddox: The numbers game (3) - Tory response

It seems that the one guaranteed way to wind up people and get comments is to run pieces on polls. In response to the briefing below from the SNP on the recent Yougov poll, the Tories have quickly responded (nice to know they are reading the Steamie), to point out that the Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson (pictured), may not be in such danger as the numbers suggest.
"Let's not forget that, going into the 2007 elections, Alex Fergusson was defending a majority of just 99 against the SNP. Galloway & Upper Nithsdale (GUN) was their number one target seat," said the Tory spindoctor. "And in a year where the SNP made significant advances…Alex (Fergusson) increased his majority to 3,333! National trends don't always take into account local politics and personal popularity.
"Interestingly, to back up what I'm saying, did you know that the SNP's top three target seats in 2007 were GUN, Cumbernauld & Kilsyth, and Tweeddale, Ettrickdale & Lauderdale. Of those three, how many did they win? None. Exactly ;-)"
As I may have mentioned before, it all goes to show the only reliable poll is the one on election day.

Hamish Macdonell - Knowledge of economics?

DAVID Parker, the leader of Borders Council, is showing a worrying lack of financial knowledge.
This is what he said, partly to justify the probable loss of 75 jobs in the council because of the straitened economic times.
"If I’d stood up last year when we announced the budget and said that within 12 months our country would be bankrupt, the Royal Bank of Scotland would be privatised ... you would have thought I’d been drinking the funny stuff."
The Royal Bank of Scotland privatised? From where I sit that's progress. Keep drinking the funny stuff David.
ends

Hamish Macdonell - Tories put a kilt on it, again

HOW to turn even the remotest story to your local advantage, part II.
After their embarrassment in trying to turn the election of Barrack Obama into a story about the kilt and the Royal Mile, the Tories have now decided to use the snow falls across southern and central Britain to make another point, this time about Prestwick Airport.
In doing so, they managed to publish one of the most convoluted statements of the year, here it is, from Ayr MSP John Scott, on Prestwick Airport's busy time in coping with flights diverted from elsewhere.
He said: "It's an ill wind that blows no good, so the heavy snowfall and the unexpected guests it has brought to southern Ayrshire as a result of their enforced diversion has certainly brought a welcome boost to local hoteliers at what would otherwise be a quiet time of the year."
Whether those travellers aiming for Manchester, Liverpool or London who end up in Prestwick instead feel quite the same way is another matter.
ends

David Maddox: The numbers game (3)

The Yougov poll mentioned in Saturday's posting had some interesting results, as you may have seen in a Sunday publication.

Despite apparently gaining in popularity from the 2007 election, though, on the basis of this poll in a Holyrood election the SNP would stay on their current 47 seats with Labour (44, -2), Lib Dem (13, -3), and Independent (0, -1) losses being taken up by the Tories (18, +1), Greens (5, +3) and Scottish Socialist Party (2, +2).

But, a briefing I have received from a senior SNP strategist shows that gains in pure numbers does not tell the whole picture. What is more important, as far as he and his colleagues are concerned, for long term success is the significant gain of nine constituency of first past the post (FPTP) seats.

This would see defeats for some big names - Labour's finance spokesman Andy Kerr (pictured left, in a different sort of tough race) in East Kilbride along with former Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen in Aberdeen South would both go. Even the poor Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, would be swept away in Galloway & Upper Nithsdale.

Other SNP gains would be: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross; Ross, Skye and Inverness West; Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale; Aberdeen Central; Airdrie & Shotts; and Linlithgow.

As the senior SNP strategist explained: "My point would be that it’s better to win FPTP seats than list seats (although obviously good to win both!) – constituency MSPs are better able to dig in, build the base, etc.
"2003 was interesting – we fell back overall but won more FPTP seats than in 1999 – which was a healthy pointer to the future. And of course we won a pile of FPTP seats in 2007.

"Basically, the SNP used to be good at winning votes, and not good at winning seats (eg. the ’92 election). Now we are good at both – which in turn bodes well for the next Westminster election."

David Maddox: The Italian Job

The dispute over foreign workers coming in to work at the Total-owned Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire has been handled with kit-gloves by the media generally in this country. But it has had an altogether different portrayal abroad.

As my wife is Italian, we have Italian satelite TV broadcast to our house and watch the news on RAI (their version of the BBC) most days. Over there the dispute, which of course is about Italian workers coming into Britain, has put the UK as a whole in a very poor light.

It has made the British look like a xenophobic, racist nation, for which even Scotland is not exempt, not least because of the sympathy strike at Longannet. And Gordon Brown's now infamous "British jobs for British workers" line has not exactly done wonders for Britain's image either.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute, the Italians think they have won the contract fair and square and take exception to the fact that their countrymen are forced to live under the protection of armed guards for doing no crime except trying to earn an honest crust for their families.

They also have not been short of examples of Brits working in Italy, not just David Beckham (pictured) at AC Milan, but in jobs that ordinary Italians might realistically think they could do. It is worth noting that in Italy unemployment is running at 6.7 per cent compared to 5.5 per cent in the UK.

Memories here are short. Have we forgotten how angry we in Britain felt when our lorry drivers were attacked by French farmers not so long ago?