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: Official endorsement of The Steamie from Alex Salmond's spokesman

Just come back from the weekly Scottish Government briefing that follows First Minister's questions.
Perhaps not surprisingly given what happened in FMQs the main topic of conversation was Mike Russell and unsubstantiated allegations over his supposed connection with a malicious blog run by his former employee.
Kevin Pringle, Alex Salmond's spin doctor in chief, was again reiterating how Mr Russell had no prior knowledge of the blog or its contents.
But, as an aside, Mr Pringle, a regularly reader of The Steamie, kindly took time to highlight it as the sort of blog preferred by the Scottish Government.
"We are into that sort of blog," he said.
It's obviously the season of generosity. So Happy Christmas to you Kevin and all other Steamie readers.

David Maddox: She's back! - Fiona Hyslop breaks her silence

After a couple of weeks of speculation on her future Fiona Hyslop, the beleaguered education secretary, has decided to come out fighting.
The rumour mill began in earnest a fortnight ago when she seemed to be sidelined in a debate on teachers with her deputy, schools minister Keith Brown, opening and closing. And there had been a little quiet speculation that Mr Brown was being groomed for Ms Hyslop's job after she had struggled to defend failed pledges on building schools, maintaining teacher numbers, reducing P1 to P3 class sizes to 18 and paying off student debt.
She was described as "silent and wretched" by Annabel Goldie in FMQs two weeks ago after her no-show in the debate and the main target again for Labour and the Tories in last week's FMQs.
But tomorrow's debate on the school building programme will have Ms Hyslop opening for the defence and finance secretary John Swinney closing.
And for good measure she is quoted in the Scottish Government press release defending the government's record as a preview for the debate.
"This government inherited a legacy of 260,000 pupils in poor or bad condition schools. In just two and a half years that number has dropped by 100,000," she said.
I guess we may hear some replies to that tomorrow.

Hamish Macdonell - Below the belt?

ONE party leader, who really shouldn't be named, was mulling over the following line for FMQs.
"Why is it, Mr Salmond," they planned to ask,"that you are the only person in Scotland who is refusing to tighten his - rather large - belt?"
The question was dropped after consultation with advisers. A good thing too, probably, as Mr Salmond is not one of those who takes ribbing about his weight very well ...
ends

David Maddox: The day ahead - Holyrood tweets, budget cuts and newspapers

It's pretty clear what subject's going to dominate Holyrood today as it has done for weeks before and will do for months to come - the Budget and the cuts/ efficiency savings to the Scottish block grant.

We are still unclear whether the cut to the previously expected amount for 2010 is £500 million as the SNP say or £367 million as Labour say, but it will be the theme of First ministers' questions today whether Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray likes it or not.

You can follow FMQs on Twitter, assuming goes to plan, by following thesteamie profile where I will try to keep you updated.

I should add that I also put comments on my new Twitter profile DavidPBMaddox, every so often, although not running commentaries from Holyrood debates. I felt that if Labour MSP Lord George Foulkes can be First Lord of the Twittery and Green MSP Patrick Harvie can tweet from Gordon Brown's dinner table then it was time to have a go myself.

One other debate of interest will be a debate on the Scottish newspaper industry put forward by Labour MSP and former journalist David Whitton. We live in interesting times in this industry and whatever you think of the various titles its future will form an important part of holding politicians in councils, Holyrood and Westminster to account.

David Maddox: FMQs - Tories first to get unwanted double

Annabel Goldie (pictured right), the Scottish Conservative leader, made it an unwanted double today for her party after she was pulled up for insulting First Minister Alex Salmond with a nickname - "two salaries Salmond."

The strictures from Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson (Conservative) followed a similar lecture to by Speaker Michael Martin to Ms Goldie's UK leader David Cameron in Westminster yesterday for describing Gordon Brown as "phony" during PMQs.

Mr Salmond speculated that this may have been the first time a party has achieved the double.

Ms Goldie's questions were actually directed at the SNP's insistence (supported by all parties except the Tories) to push forward with free prescriptions for all. She claimed this would lead to £40 million of cuts in frontline health services.

Ironically, considering her foray into nicknames, she accused the First Minister of being "more interested in headlines and sound bites."

Mr Salmond gently reminded her that she and her party voted for the measure in the budget.

Earlier Labour leader Iain Gray accused Mr Salmond's government of not acting fast enough on apprenticeship guarantees. He raised the problems of a 19-year-old constituent Lewis Doig who could lose his apprenticeship just three months before he qualifies as a tradesman.

Tavish Scott, the Lib Dem leader, meanwhile pointed out that the UK government's economic recovery plan had the second least amount of green measures of any major economy after Spain. Mr Salmond happily agreed to publish the equivalent Scottish figures to prove his administration is better.

And stop press (although it was already in a popular tabloid this morning) the Scottish and UK governments at last agree on something- introducing legislation to stop more former prisoners from suing for compensation for having to slop out. In answer to a question from Nationalist MSP Stewart Maxwell (a former minister) Mr Salmond said that he would look at deducting board and lodgings from any compensation awarded.

David Maddox: FMQs - Independence defiance

In the face of certain defeat tonight over an independence referendum Alex Salmond made it clear that this is one policy that his party will not be shelved despite the parliamentary arithmatic.
Under attack from Labour leader Iain Gray, Mr Salmond took great pleasure in reminding his opponent that "consistency on the referendum is not Labour's strongest suit."
After all it was Labour less than a year ago, he pointed out, who backed a referendum under the ill-fated Wendy Alexander leadership. And he quoted Mr Gray's own appearance on Newsnight Scotland in May last year when he said Labour would support a referendum "whenever it comes."
But Mr Gray's response may be the historical footnote to the SNP's great missed opportunity.
"It was the First Minister who said 'no!'," he said before underlining the fact that the offer has now well and truly been withdrawn.
Which leaves the question of whether in retrospect the SNP really did miss an opportunity by not going for a referendum when Labour's support was there and Labour was so weak the SNP would have been in a great position to win. Maybe this will in time go down in history as the Nats great missed opportunity.
Both Tory leader Annabel Goldie and Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott asked about the appalling case of the death of the Dundee toddler Brandon Muir, which provoked a strong defence of social workers from the First Minister and an admission that nobody is really sure how many children are in similar circumstances to the little child.
Read more on all these exchanges in the Scotsman tomorrow.

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.

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: 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?

David Maddox: FMQs - the budget recriminations continue

No surprises, FMQs has been dominated by yesterday's events and the defeat of the Scottish Government's budget.

Labour leader Iain Gray went on the attack and said that there was no sign of First Minister Alex Salmond (pictured) and the SNP losing the "hubris and arrogance" that brought them to this position.

But Mr Gray was himself under severe fire for leading the no vote, especially after he seemed to suggest that Scotland could wait until June for a new budget after the new financial year has started.

A furious First Minister Alex Salmond, his jowels rippling withe rage, said the £1.8 billion lost in the budget would equate to 35,000 jobs. Tory leader Annabel Goldie went on to accuse Labour of trying to "stage a bloodless coup to esconse Iain Gray as First Minister."

But, interestingly, given my posting below, the exchanges between Mr Salmond and Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott were in tone, at least, very conciliatory. None of the personal animosity of the Scottish Inter Faith Council and the truth inquiry of latter weeks. Mr Salmond pointed out that the Lib Dems' (now dropped) 2p income tax cut would lead to a net loss of 600 jobs and had no majority across the chamber even if the SNP were "miraculously" converted to it.

As mentioned earlier, the two are set to have talks. There could be some interesting developments.

You can read all the in depth analysis and Rab McNeil's sketch in tomorrow's Scotsman.

Hamish Macdonell - Not much peace or goodwill

THE final bout of First Minister's Questions of the year always has a rather rowdy, end-of-term feel to it, and so it proved today.
Alex Salmond was pinned down on the Scottish Futures Trust by Labour's Iain Gray, on the lack of action on fraud by Tory Annabel Goldie and on the credit crunch by Lib Dem Tavish Scott, but he was ready.
Clutching a survey from The Big Issue, the First Minister lambasted Gray and Scott over their Christmas wish lists (each had been asked to say what they wanted for Christmas).
Salmond deflected Gray's attacks by revealing the Labour leader wanted Barrack Obama style sunglasses and that Scott wanted a seat in the House of Lords.
What Salmond did not say was that he had told the Big Issue he wanted a year's supply of Lucozade for his Christmas (what no Irn Bru?).
However, Miss Goldie was the only one to fight back, in her own inimitable way, scolding the First Minister as if he were a wayward schoolboy.
"Stop talking drivel!" she snorted.
The jousts resume in January.
ends