David Maddox: Aunty's Bloomers

It's been one of those weeks in Holyrood where the main activity has been to spot the various gaffes.

In a week where the shocking level of illiteracy in Scotland was debated by MSPs we had two good examples of the problem. Firstly, on Wednesday, in his statement on the Aberdeen bypass John Swinney's speech writer managed to include the words "pubic transport" which the minister himself avoided saying after a quick intake of breath.

Then we had the SNP press release on Wednesday headlined: "MURPHY ON MANEAUVERS OVER CALMAN COP OUT" - that probably should be maneuvers, manoeuvres or manoeuvers.

Having said that, journalists are in no position to throw stones about typos, including this one.

The real bloopers came from the Labour and the Tories.

On Wednesday we had the extraordinary controversy about the spads (special advisers) - the party employees, usually spin doctors, on the government payroll. Labour claimed to have revealed plans by the SNP to have limitless spads ending the current Scottish Government cap of 12.

This was a great story until the moment we all realised that the reason for this was because of legislation being put through Westminster by the Labour UK government.

There was some irony that the revelation came from a question put to a minister by former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander and the Labour press release attacking the SNP quoted another MSP David Whitton (pictured left). Before becoming MSPs both Ms Alexander and Mr Whitton were Labour spads. Hypocrisy did not really cover it.

Yet despite this farce, even Labour was to be outdone on Thursday by "Aunty" Annabel Goldie and her performance in FMQs.

She went on the attack about the cost of the Scottish Parliament only to be ruled out of order by a rather cross Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson (himself a Tory) because the parliament is not the responsibility of the government. We then had the following exchanges:

Annabel Goldie: Let me clarify for the First Minister that the Scottish Government allocates the budget for the running of this Parliament and that he leads a party that has a member who sits on the corporate body—
The Presiding Officer: That is actually incorrect, Miss Goldie. The Scottish Government does not allocate that budget.
Annabel Goldie: I apologise for any confusion, Presiding Officer.

At which point, somewhat flustered she appeared to be unable to construct a question.

Ms Goldie (pictured right) has many admirable qualities and is well liked, but she has not had a hit in FMQs for some time now. The last time was over links to the Megrahi release and Qatari loans.

It seems that a whispering campaign about her leadership has begun again. It will be interesting to see how things develop after the UK general election. Her job may depend on the Conservatives making some real gains in those 11 Scottish seats they have targeted.

David Maddox: Open Union

After the fuss about Andy Murray wrapping himself in the Union Flag at Wimbledon, it was interesting to see English golfer Ian Poulter go a step further as the Open started at Turnberry today.

His Union Flag top and specially commissioned red, white and blue "Poulter tartan" troosers certainly made a statement in the Borders.

No doubt the local Conservative and Unionist MSP - Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson - would have thoroughly approved of the sentiment, while First Minister Alex Salmond who visited the course the day before would not have found it to his Scottish Nationalist tastes.

But it was interesting that when a Scot wraps himself in the Union Flag in England it sparks far more debate and discussion than when an Englishman does the same in Scotland.

Murray's statement provoked political debate and questions over whether he had been got at by the marketing men to help turn Henman Hill into Murray Mound.

Poulter's just led to the usual raised eyebrows about the now expected flamboyant dress sense of a man inspired by his mother, a former shop manager at Dorothy Perkins.

David Maddox: Has Alex Salmond undermined the Lockerbie bomber decision?

The First Minister faced questions today on whether al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bomb atrocity, should be returned to Libya after that country signed a prisoner transfer agreement with Britain.

He was at pains to say that he could not prejudge the decision which will be made, he said, by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill now that an application has been made.

However, he was reminded by Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott that in a statement to MSPs in 2007 when he fumed about the UK government discussing setting up a prisoner transfer agreement, he said that al-Megrahi should serve all of his sentence in Scotland.

Then SNP bacbencher Christine Grahame alleged that there was a conspiracy by the UK government to stop an appeal going ahead so that further light will not be shed on the murky issue of the Lockerbie bomb.

And Mr seemed to agree with her that it would prefer due process (ie the appeal) to continue.

Former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell made a point of order asking the Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson to look at this, which he is going to do.

The issue will be raised by hacks in the post FMQs briefing shortly. Read the conclusion of this intrigue in tomorrow's Scotsman.

David Maddox: The strange habits of MSPs

Dr Ian McKee is a modest, quietly spoken man who was first thrust into the spotlight when he was wheeled out to prove that the SNP are not anti-English because he has an English accent and has made some thoughtful speeches since, mainly in health debates.

But his contribution in a Tory sponsored education debate this morning will live long in the memories of those who heard him, even though many are trying to erase from their minds.

The debate was on a motion calling for the creation of "second chance units" outside schools to deal with classroom troublemakers.

However, Dr McKee wanted to share something else with MSPs instead. He told them how he had spent a long time last night researching corporal punishment on the web.

According to the good doctor, silk handkerchiefs are helpful for reducing the pain of the cane. He also researched the price of a good cane. It may be he hoped to give his opponents a good thrashing.

The mind boggles at the thought of some of the sites he may have been seeking advice from for his contribution, but even the Tories said they felt "disturbed" although he did offer to give Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw the fruits of his labour.

The Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson, who as an Old Etonian may know a thing or two about corporal punishment, simply suggested that Dr McKee returned to the subject of the debate.

David Maddox: The Numbers Game (9)

The weekend poll which gave the SNP a 10 point lead in list voting intentions and 12 point lead in constituency voting intentions for a Holyrood election has brought about a predictable but nevertheless interesting press release.
The SNP have worked out that they would gain 11 seats overall and actually more importantly should pick up 26 new constituency ones.
This is based on the predictor Scotland Votes, which somehow seems to work out a solution from one of the most complex voting procedures in the world.
The constituency number is always considered more important by parties because it gives them a much stronger platform to build for the future.
According to the latest poll this would see Labour leader Iain Gray and many of the shadow cabinet thrown out.
However, the usual bucket of salt needs to be applied. Like Electoral Calculus this does not take into account local circumstances or personal votes. For example the SNP also claim they will take out Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson, who was number two on their target list last time and actually managed to hugely increase his majority.

Seats that potentially fall to SNP (and their potential victims):
Airdrie and Shotts - Karen Whitefield, Education Committee Convenor (Lab)
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth - Cathy Craigie (Lab)
East Kilbride - Andy Kerr, Labour's Finance spokesman
Falkirk East - Cathie Peattie (Lab)
Cathcart - Charlie Gordon (Lab)
Glasgow Kelvin - Pauline McNeil, Labour Culture spokeswoman
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross - Jamie Stone (Lib Dem)
Ross, Skye and Inverness West - John Farquhar Munro (Lib Dem)
Edinburgh Central - Sarah Boyack, Labour's Rural & Environment spokeswoman
Edinburgh North and Leith - Malcolm Chisholm
Edinburgh West - Margaret Smith, LibDem Education spokeswoman
Linlithgow - Mary Mulligan (Lab)
Midlothian - Rhona Brankin, Labour's Education spokeswoman
Dunfermline West - Jim Tolson (Lib Dem)
Kirkcaldy - Marlyn Livingstone (Lab)
Clydesdale - Karen Gillon (Lab)
Cunninghame South - Irene Oldfather (Lab)
East Lothian - Iain Gray, Labour Leader
Galloway and Upper Nithsdale - Alex Fergusson, Presiding Officer (Con)
Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale - Jeremy Purvis, Lib Dem Finance spokesman
Clydebank and Milngavie - Des McNulty, Labour transport spokesman
Dumbarton - Jackie Baillie (Lab)
West Renfrewshire - Trish Godman (Lab)
Aberdeen Central - Lewis McDonald, Labour Energy spokesman
Aberdeen South - Nicol Stephen, former Lib Dem leader
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine - Mike Rumbles, Lib Dem Chief Whip

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: Budget - the vote

Here it is: 64 in favour and 64 against. The budget falls for the first time in the Scottish Parliament's history. The Greens have not been bought off. The Presiding Officer has used his casting vote for the status quo, last year's budget. We are now in unchartered territory.
John Swinney, the Finance Secretary, has promised to reintroduce the budget as quickly as possible.
Alex Fergusson, the Presiding Officer, will call a business bureau meeting tomorrow to get a new budget timetable arranged asap.
Iain Gray has indicated that Labour may consider a vote of no confidence in the SNP government.

David Maddox: Telling the truth

When Alex Fergusson the Presiding Officer launched his truth inquiry on Thursday, the opposition parties already had their dossiers ready to send out on alleged SNP ministerial lies.
One of them was claims in the main that Linda Fabiani had contacted the Foreign Office after the Mumbai massacre to ask if the Scottish Government could help. Labour correctly said that no such contact had been made, but this has greatly miffed the SNP because it was apparently not through a lack of effort on Ms Fabiani's part.
As one frustrated Nationalist spindoctor put it to me: "Lord Malloch-Brown (foreign office minister) actually refused to take the call from Linda Fabiani about Mumbai!"

David Maddox: The strange case of the Scottish Inter Faith Council money

Before I finally sign off for the day, it is possibly worth relating one episode that happened in Holyrood today, which vexed many of our elected representatives.
No less than five points of order were made about an answer Alex Salmond, the First Minister, made to Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott in First Minister's questions last week.
The issue was over the funding for the Scottish Inter Faith Council. Mr Scott asked why it had not received any funding and why staff had been notified of redundancy.
Mr Salmond stood up and, without even looking at his notes, said it had been resolved, the SIFC would get its money and no staff would lose their jobs. This completely wrong-footed Mr Scott and made him look rather foolish, much to the mirth of Salmond and his faithful followers.
But it emerged quickly that it was not poor research from the Lib Dems that had led to this apparent gaffe. An e-mail went to SIFC staff just before FMQs saying they would have to renegotiate and the author of that e-mail, SIFC convener Major Alan Dixon (Salvation Army), sent another e-mail to Mr Scott the evening after FMQs saying it had not been resolved.
It seems that the final agreement was made yesterday, but the SNP maintain that it was really done and dusted by Justice Minister Fergus Ewing before Christmas.
Today Mr Ewing made a "point of order" stating that point and later correspondence from Mjr Dixon from January 6 before FMQs on January 8 confirming this was passed around.
Counter points of order were made by Mr Scott, his predecessor as Lib Dem leader, Nicol Stephen, and Labour's Richard Baker. All said that as the matter was only resolved yesterday it was clear, in their view, that Mr Salmond had misled parliament.
The Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, gave his stock answer that ministerial answers were not his responsbility but was part of the ministerial code which is policed by Mr Salmond.
Mr Fergusson said he would reflect on the issue and possibly make a statement after voting if there was anything to add. He did not, so we can assume there wasn't, even though Independent MSP Margo MacDonald in a fifth point of order earlier had suggested he was responsible for maintaining standards in parliament.
It has built up some momentum for parliamentary rules to be changed to try to force ministers to apologise if they mislead MSPs in the chamber.
But as one final addendum to the whole sage, the SNP spin doctors have let slip that the real problem was that SIFC was asking for £360,000 next year, triple its previous grant of £120,000.

From all this the following conclusions have been made by various observers:

1. Mr Salmond should not have hidden behind a junior minister today and made a statement himself.

2. Either Mjr Dixon is very confused or he was trying to be clever by playing one party off another to get an awful lot more money.

3. Mr Scott has been made to look a fool even if he was possibly misled.

4. It is not entirely clear if the misleading was done by Mjr Dixon or Mr Salmond or if there was any intentional misleading at all.

5. Parliamentary rules do need to be changed to make ministers more accountable for what they say and give the Presiding Officer, even if he is reluctant, a stronger policing role.

6. Alex Salmond cannot be expected to police himself or other ministers through the ministerial code and an independent body or commissioner may be required.

7. When all is said and done SIFC have enough money to continue and nobody will lose their jobs, which has to be the bottom line in all this.

David Maddox: Laying down the rules

This is a posting for the Scottish political train spotting class.
The morning's Scottish Government briefing to journalists has finally clarified the rules on what happens with budget votes in terms of the Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson's casting vote.
Mr Fergusson has a duty to support the status quo, which is different to convention in Westminster where the Speaker supports the government.
So if this afternoon there is a tied vote, which until yesterday's decision by Labour to not oppose the budget at this stage looked possible, Mr Fergusson would support the Scottish Government. This would be done on the basis that at this point the budget is being discussed, so he would vote to support the continued discussion.
The tricky moment for the Scottish Government comes on the third and final stage vote on January 28. This is the stage where Labour are threatening to join the Lib Dems to vote against the budget and the Greens have suggested they might vote against as well if they do not get their £1 billion free insulation scheme.
If all three parties banded together and the Tories and Independent Margo MacDonald backed the SNP there would be a tied vote- 64 each.
In these circumstances Mr Fergusson would have to vote down the budget on the basis that discussion was over and the status quo is the 2008/09 budget.
All in all it means that opposition parties are better holding their fire for as long as possible, but that their only real weapon is the political nuclear option.

David Maddox: Holyrood and the police

Not to be outdone by their colleagues in Westminster, we have just learnt at the back end of First Minister's questions that MSP want their own protacol on when and how police should be allowed to search their offices and arrest them.
This is of course MSPs trying to spread the continuing furor over the arrest of Damien Green, the Tories' immigration, spokesman by the Old Bill in Westminster.
In the exhanges with labour leader Iain Gray, First Minister Alex Salmond made a quip about how his Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, will not be calling in the police to arrest oppositon MSPs. The unspoken meaning was "unlike the Labour government in Westminster."
Mike Rumbles, the Lib Dems' chief whip in Holyrood, made a point of order at the end of FMQs repeating a request he made to Alex Fergusson, the Presiding Officer, that he should make a statement and issue his guidance, as was done by Speaker Michael Martin yesterday.
Apparently Mr Fergusson is considering the matter.
There was a further intervention by former Labour First minister Jack McConnell asking that the guidance is given as a statement to the full parliament.