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.

David Maddox: On the road to ruin

We all know the dangers of alcohol causing fights and unseemly scenes and in politics there seems to be no difference. It seems that, as predicted in my Inside Holyrood column this week (http://news.scotsman.com/politics/David--Maddox-AntiUnion-sentiment.4792210.jp), Labour have not even waited for the drink driving debate on Thursday to snap at the baiting by First Minister Alex Salmond on the issue.
In last week's First Minister's questions Mr Salmond bemoaned the way the recent UK road safety survey had not included a question on lowering the drink driving limits. The underlying message was clear - innocent Scottish lives are being lost because the nasty UK government refuses to change the drink driving laws. In other words the First minister is using yet another reserved issue as a stick for which to beat the Union.
But the premise of Salmond's argument is not true, the UK government has said. Following my column on Monday, a rather agitated spindoctor from the Scottish Office has been in touch with me to correct Mr Salmond's version of events.
"The link here is to the executive summary of the consultation document – could not be clearer about drink driving as one of the five issues, and explicit in that section about question of changing limit. Even with the strictest reading of Salmond’s words, I still think there are two questions which constitute 'direct' reference to lowering the drink driving limit - http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/compliance/executive."
He went on: "I would have thought that if there is a specific Scottish dimension to this (which I am not convinced there is particularly) then the time of civil servants in Scotland would be better spent in providing a decent, evidence-based submission to the consultation rather than providing briefing material for a debate in the Scottish Parliament which is little more than a cynical use of a sensitive issue to foster separatist thinking."
Expect this to rumble on on Thursday afternoon.