David Maddox: Holyrood not Hollywood

Behind the scenes in the Scottish Parliament this week an interesting battle has been fought on a vital issue for the good of the nation.

I am of course talking about the issue of whether MSPs should be allowed to film themselves within the parliament.

It seems that in June this year the parliament's Corporate Body - the group of MSPs that decide how it is run and what should rules apply - banned MSPs filming themselves.

I understand this was less to do with filming and more to do with new SNP Glasgow list MSP Anne McLaughlin being accused of stalking various people and photographing them in parliament without their permission. She then posted some of the pictures on her Indygal blog. Admitedly this was done just before she was elevated to being an MSP after the death of Bashir Ahmad.

Rather typically of the Corporate Body, it did not tell anybody about its decision, but did ask parliament staff to search Youtube for breaches of the rule.

The whole issue only became better known when Labour MSP Elaine Murray asked permission to film a guided tour of the main chamber (which was always out of bounds) for an information video for her constituents.

The answer came back quickly - no, not in the chamber, and whilst you are at it not anywhere in parliament as well!

This caused some anxiety among MSPs many of whom have started their own regular Youtube broadcasts and film themselves at work. The garden lobby, pictured above, is a popular filming venue. Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott and Labour leader Iain Gray both have their own channels.

The idea was pioneered in Holyrood by that bete noir of the cybernats Lord George Foulkes, Baron of Cumnock. He has made it a point to try out new media first, which is why he also has the unofficial title of First Lord of the Twittery because he was the first member of the upper chamber in Westminster to join the social networking site.

The noble lord was so infuriated by the new rule that he told me: "I hope to become the Scottish Parliament's Youtube martyr."

He had decided to defy the new rule and continue with his weekly broadcast from the Scottish Parliament, but a meeting on Wednesday of the Corporate Body has ensured that he will not be hauled up before them.

I am told that the CB members decided to relax the rules as long as parties and MSPs are not trying to make party political broadcasts and not filming people who surreptitiously.

Interestingly it was a double victory for his lordship, who also persuaded the parliament to allow his wife's name to go on his Scottish Parliament Christmas cards. Previously spouses had been banned because they were not officially part of the parliament, but as MSPs pay for the cards themselves the CB members this week finally relented to pressure from Lord Foulkes.

If only he were as successful for the 500 Bausch and Lomb Livingston workers losing their jobs.

David Maddox: Back to the grind

Today marks the end of the summer recess, so obviously Holyrood is crawling with eager MSPs delighted to be back at the chalk face....
Well actually there's hardly an MSP to be seen this morning, because they have decided to extend their holiday a little by delaying all the committee meetings this afternoon.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, not that Scotland's short of them, I would think the committee meetings were deliberately timed to clash with the publication of the Megrahi papers, when obviously political hacks will be otherwise engaged.
So to the main event of the day, the publication of those papers by the Scottish and UK governments. Great anticipation and all that, which means they will inevitably contain virtually nothing of interest. If there was a staggering revelation in them then you can bet they would not see the light of day. What may be more interesting is what is not published.

David Maddox: Keeping MSPs in the picture

Scottish photographer Stephen Scott Taylor has created an interesting online gallery of 30 of our 129 MSPs.
If nothing else it just goes to show that almost anybody can look good in an arty black and white shot whether it is a chisel jawed Finance Secretary John Swinney, matronly Tory leader Annabel Goldie, slightly shifty looking Deputy Presiding Officer Alasdair Morgan or mildly depressed former Labour leader Wendy Alexander.
Green MSP Patrick Harvie looks like he's trying to swallow a cough, while Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott appears to be comatosed.
Former Sports Minister Stewart Maxwell at least looks happy though playing with his balls, which may explain why Nationalist backbencher Christina McKelvie seems so amused.
To take a look click here or see them at the Fine Art Library (within the Central Library), George IV Bridge, Edinburgh.

David Maddox: Poor timing

We are in the middle of the first budget debate of the year. It is also the first debate where the one minute warning from the Presiding Officer for when MSPs are running out of time has been stopped.
No doubt this is because of pressure from broadcasters who were fed up with "one minute" booming out in the middle of decent quotes.
But what it has meant is that many of our MSPs, including some front benchers, have not had a clue when they were supposed to finish only for their m,icrophone to be cut off in mid-sentence.
The official report tomorrow will show some interesting ends of speeches and should perhaps end with "..." in many cases.
Not least was Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee whose last words in his speech were: "Let us now here the case against..."Against what? We may never know, he was literally cut off in mid-sentence.
I guess some have not practised their speech beforehand for timing and others have been caught by interventions, but for an important debate it is a bit of a mess.
The reason speeches are timed out is to stop Westminster style waffling, but conversely, it means that, unlike in the Mother of Parliaments, there are few if any Holyrood speeches that will be considered great pieces of oratory.

David Maddox: talking of eccentric MSPs....

I feel that my previous blog on Chris Harvie where I decried a lack of colourful characters in Holyrood unfairly failed to mention the Nationalist MSP Christine Grahame.
If there is one MSP who can be relied on to come up with something completely from left field it is Ms Grahame. We all remember her drive to reclaim Berwick for Scotland and she has not given up yet on trying to repatriate the bones of Scotland's exiled monarch Mary Queen of Scots.
Her Christmas gift for hacks is a Christine Grahame classic - a motion exalting the greatness of the Australian rock band AC/DC.
Some may say that MSPs should concentrate on more important and indeed genuinely Scottish issues, but at least nobody could accuse Ms Grahame of being boring.
Here is a full copy of her motion:

AC/DC, We Salute you. That this parliament recognises the significant musical contribution of the rock band AC/DC, whose founding members Angus and Malcolm Young moved from Scotland to Australia, joined with Bon Scott, another Scottish imigri to create what has become a musical legend with the band selling an estimated 150 million albums worldwide and establishing themselves as the best selling rock band of all time; notes that the popularity of AC/DC continues to grow and welcomes their forthcoming performance at Scotland's National Football Stadium on June 30th; and finally acknowledges the musical inspiration the band has provided to thousands of Scottish musicians who have themselves gone on to great international success.

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.

David Maddox: Iraq stamps

An interesting motion has been put down in Holyrood by Nationalist MSP Aileen Campbell. She is supporting a campaign for stamps to be issued with the faces of the military personel who have lost their lives in Iraq.
The motion is timed for the powerful Queen and Country exhibition by Steve McQueen, which has mocked up stamps with the faces of the dead soldiers faces on them and is currently on show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. Mr McQueen is campaigning to persuade Royal Mail to actually issue his stamps.
It all goes to show that whilst other major issues such as bank collapses and the economic crisis have pushed the war well down the political agenda it still remains a niggling issue that resonates in Scottish and UK politics today.

Hamish Macdonell - post-budget slumbers

THERE have been better debates in the Scottish Parliament than this afternoon's on the pre-budget report - more than a week after the fact.
John Swinney churned out numbers for the SNP, Andy Kerr bolted through his speech as if he was in a race to get it finished and although Derek Brownlee for the Tories was as rousing and caustic as he could be, he suffered the worst indignity of all.
Just when he was at his loudest and most passionate, one of his fellow MSPs fell soundly asleep.
It would be un-gallant to mention the member's name because it could be said that he showed remarkably good taste, falling asleep just when Mr Brownlee had reached his umteenth almost identical attack on Gordon Brown.

David Maddox: Time for Harper to blow his own trumpet

It's amazing what releasing the burden of leadership does for an MSP's social life. Robin Harper, who has just stepped down as the co-convener (joint leader in normal parlance) of the Scottish Greens has just told me over an interesting looking plate of lamb goulash in the Scottish Parliament canteen, that he is to join Edinburgh's famous Really Terrible Orchestra.
The RTO was set up by Sandy McCall Smith in 1995 and has been described by a colleague in Holyrood as "a collection of Edinburgh worthies with musical instruments."
Robin told me that the organisers had been asking him to join the RTO for years.
He added: "I haven't touched my trumpet in eight months, but I have a little more time on my hands now."