How many must go to make way for Wendy?

How many people do you think will be expected to lay down their political careers to save Wendy Alexander?

She's already thrown Charlie Gordon to the wolves to save her own career - just how many wolves and how far she had to throw him will be revealed later when Charlie's redundancy package has bee worked out - interesting take on this in the North to Leith blog where Anseo, who shall forever more be known as "old Mr Cynical boots", is asking whether Charlie's off to be High commissioner to Jersey

So, anyway, Charlie's taken the bullet for Wendy-poo (well done that good and faithful servant), next up as it becomes clear that the stink has not cleared is an air-freshener known as David Whitton. Remember him? Spin-doctor, not very good, shouts at journalists - even when they're trying to help him. There's a rumour he said to one of the scribes about a week ago "Are you calling me a liar?" Wonder if he wants to ask that now?

Get back to the subject Cashley. Super Wendy of the amazing photies has spun out a little about how she never knew (the 'big boy did it and ran away' defence), and now, out from the shadows has appeared a 'legal expert' with impeccible credentials who is suggesting that, since the cheque was made out to the Wendy Alexander campaign rather than to the Grate One herself, David Whitton as treasurer is the one who'll go to jail.

I say send them all to jail, it was obviously a conspiracy to hide dodgy donations.

Who is this legal expert who tells the BBC that Wendy is as pure as the driven snow and David Whitton is Fagin?

He is Edinburgh University public law lecturer Navraj Ghaleigh. Hang on, Navraj Ghaleigh? Not the same Navraj Ghaleigh who was Labour's candidate in Edinburgh West in 2005? It wouldn't be, would it? Well, I think it might be, so does Tartan Hero.

So a Labour loyalist is wheeled out to say "Snow Wendy is innocent, it's that nasty old spinner who's to blame" - so long David Whittering, you served her well - got to pick a pocket or two ...

Will it end there? When the long arm of the law reaches out to collar Her Wendiness will Tom McCabe be flung in our faces (please don't) as another sacrifice worth making to preserve her tender dignity?

Is this the plea in mitigation being made now, before the court cases start, to try to limit the damage? "Wendy never knew what those nasty men were up to, she shouldn't be punished for their indiscretions" unfortunately for the Alexander, the sins of the spinner are to be laid upon the dodgy leader, she is at the very centre of the spin and mistrust over illegal monies.

As a wee aside to my musings - why is it that John Maxton and Irene Adams are so angry that their support for Wendy Alexander has been made public? Why is it such a dodgy and shameful secret that they want it kept secret? I can understand why the campaign team want their shady dealings kept secret, but why are these two so ashamed?

Students - doncha love em?

I have just returned from attendance at a demonstration organised by Josh MacAlister (Labour party member, president of Edinburgh University Students Association).

I was delighted to see so many students there supporting the SNP Government in its determination to rid Scotland's students of the Graduate Endowment Tuition Fee. I was also delighted to meet Kezia Dugdale (Labour spinner) who told me that everything in the SNP briefing being handed out was "factually accurate, but ..." Her point was that there aren't all that many part-time students claiming a student loan.

Does that mean that we shouldn't give them a grant? The transformation from loans to grants is to begin with part-time students. Scotland is changing for the better, lets keep going.

Here's the briefing which Kezia said was factually accurate (cheers for your support, by the way):

What the SNP Scottish Government is doing in Higher Education

The SNP believes that access to education should be based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.

Scrapping the Graduate Endowment Tuition Fee

The SNP Government intends to scrap the Graduate Endowment Tuition Fee introduced by Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The Bill to do this is before Parliament now. To get this Bill passed and remove this unfair burden from Scottish students will need the support of other parties. MSPs from those other parties should be encouraged to support the SNP Government in this.

Grants not Loans

John Swinney’s budget statement made it clear that the SNP Government is continuing to move towards grants instead of loans for Scotland’s students, starting with part-time students.

Investing in our students

The SNP Government is investing £509.1 million in the Student Awards Agency for Scotland this year.

Investing in our Universities and Colleges

The SNP Government will be investing £1.673 billion in the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council this year - £40 million more than was invested last year.

Investing in the Future for Universities and Colleges

By 2010/11, investment in our universities and colleges through the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council will be £1.812 billion per year – higher than it has ever been before, thanks to the SNP Government – £5.24 billion over the CSR period, and £100 million capital investment in the first year

All of this in spite of the tightest spending settlement Scotland has ever had under devolution and in spite of the opposition parties wasting £500 million on one tramline in Edinburgh earlier this year.

Briefing by SNP research staff. Figures from Scottish Government budget - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/13092240/0
See the woman standing to the right with the yellow umbrella? She thinks I'm cynical. Me - cynical - I ask you!

Full confidence

Wendy Alexander has the full confidence of the Labour group at Holyrood

Whoops, is that like when the board has full confidence in the manager of the football team?

She said

I have never sought to mislead. I am not dishonest in any way and I have always believed that politicians should have the highest standards of integrity.
My campaign did not set out to intentionally mislead or break the rules.
Mistakes have been made.

Right then - that's an easy sort, why didn't she say so before? Simply lay out in public what went on: who contributed to the non-campaign, how much and when; how she went about checking their eligibility to donate; when she realised that she had illegal money; and whether or not her campaign, and therefore she herself, broke the law.

Maybe if she just clears this up by being honest we can get back to politics in Scotland instead of this nonsense.

Come back from Neverland!

Government goes on

While the Labour party is mired in sleaze, the SNP Government has carried on governing.

With the furore looking like it will be dying down, here's just a few things done recently:

Better financial support for foster and kinship carers

Move to re-establish the Campbelltown to Ballycastle Ferry

Schools dental service

£10 million investment in eyecare services

£1.6 billion rural development programme

Increase in funding for voluntary organisations

Asking people to submit their views to the broadcasting commission

Housing supply task force meets

Malawi vocational education project launched

New fisheries money

More effective community penalties

Action plan to tackle hospital infections

Acting for the people of Scotland instead of for politicians. Not a bad wee record in a week.

Gavin Yates - spare a thought

At this festive time of year, we should all spare a thought for those less fortunate than ourselves - bairns who thought they were getting pressies but just ended up with ashes.

Like our old friend Gavin Yates, for example.

Remember Gavin? He was the chap who got a new job and then turned out to have been less than complimentary about his new employer.

He's supposed to start with Wendy Alexander this week - walking into the middle of a perfect media storm. Oh well, at least he'll have the smug feeling that comes from knowing you were right about your boss

Wendy Alexander, a former Minister who fell from favour with the so-called Labour ‘West-Coast Mafia’ is in pole position but her abrasive style might not prove popular with everyone. Also, she is seen very much as a Brown acolyte and that won’t go down well with MSPs that want a separate Scottish Labour identity from Westminster.

Ah well - at least she isn't Jack McConnell, eh?

Meanwhile, Labour find themselves still stuck in a post -electoral malaise with a lame-duck leader.

Gavin will also have the extreme delight of getting to see his mother-in-law every day and entering into those deep philosophical discussions he so enjoys in the Eadie household - what more could he want for Christmas?

It might not be long until he is rediscovering old interests:

the risks of becoming ill from smoking cheap resin cannabis are more realistic than developing mental health problems from smoking skunk

Lying in state

Tom Brown, Labour polemicist who masquerades as a journalist from time to time wrote in today's Scotland on Sunday about Labour's corruption. In that article he tries the usual Labour tactic of tarring everyone with the same brush, implying that other parties are as rotten as Labour.

It's simply not so. The problem is Labour's problem - not politics' problem. Labour's contempt for Scotland and for the people they are supposed to represent is incredible and is matched only by the disdain they have for proper procedure and an obvious opinion that they have a divine right to rule and to browbeat the rest of us.

The casual attitude to lying is symptomatic of the systemic corruption of the Labour party. The vitriol and sneering derision that Labour pours at people on the other side of any debate indicate an organisation with tendencies equivalent to sociopathy.

The sociopath will tend to exhibit glibness and superficial charm, while being manipulative and underhand. They will have a grandiose sense of themselves, have a lack of remorse, shame or guilt, and be pathological liars who are callous and irresponsible. Their shallow emotions and poor behavioural controls often lead to uncontrolled verbal outbursts, a contempt for people around them and a criminal versatility. Just like the Labour party - which is sad because there are still a lot of people in that party who believe in what it used to stand for and who would like it to return to those core beliefs.

Lets look at the case - today's revelations that Wendy Alexander knew about the invalidity of the donations to her campaign fund is merely further evidence of the guilt that many of us suspected she bore. Brian Taylor, BBC Scotland political editor, blogs about Wendy today and suggests that she has integrity. I think Brian is being too generous in believing the best of her, I think she has no integrity at all.

It is now clear that Wendy Alexander and her campaign team conspired to evade scrutiny and deceive the Electoral Commission. The donations solicited under the £1,000 threshold for public declaration, the ghost body set up to run her leadership campaign to try (unsuccessfully) to avoid declaring donations to Parliament, the donor shifting in reporting to the Commission, the soliciting and accepting of donations from people who were not allowed to donate, the evasiveness when challenged on it, the sheer full-face lies in answer to questions, the sacrificing of one of their number, the hiding from journalists, and the continued insistence that there was no "intentional wrong" in spite of the overwhelming evidence are indicative of a woman lacking personal integrity and a party lacking collective integrity.

That defence of 'no intentional wrong' - the apparent belief that they can do no wrong - is incredible. Applied to any other crime it would appear as fatuous as it is (except, of course, in the case of burthensack). Put quite simply, Wendy Alexander and her campaign team sought to avoid the law, they have admitted to committing crimes in the pursuit of the leadership of the Labour party, and it would appear that the particular methods they used are not unknown elsewhere in the Labour party.

An interesting aside was the rebuke from Labour party HQ delivered to Charlie Gordon et al regarding Paul Green. The implication was that the donations would never have been accepted had party HQ known about them. This, of course, simply points to the fact that Labour's internal reporting systems are not operative or party HQ would have known about at least one of the donations.

The entire farce smacks of the same kind of contempt that epitomised the Lanarkshire Red Rose dinners - see here, here, here, here, and here for more information on those. Similarly, the impromptu press conference held by Labour last week was party political in nature but was held on Scottish Parliament premises - against the rules - and was convened by Tom McCabe - Labour's representative on the Corporate Body, responsible for the running of Parliament.

It's the casual and easy way they indulge in petty corruption that suggests a far deeper and far more cynical attitude that is at odds with representing the people of Scotland.

Let's get this over with, for Scotland's sake - Wendy Alexander's political career is over and the corpse is lying in state. For the sake of decency, bury the body now and have done with it all.

Scottish Traditional Music Awards

I was at the Scots Trad Music Awards last night in Fort William. What a thoroughly fantastic night - they're in Glasgow next year, book yer tickets.

The entertainment was fantastic, artistes performing were: The Unusual Suspects, Shooglenifty, The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, Sylvia Barnes, Kathleen MacInnes, The Marian Anderson Scottish Dance Band, Kintyre Schools Pipe Band, Feis Rois, Catriona Watt, and the Anna Massie Band.

It was a succession of fantastic performances and got me thinking - if Last Night of the Proms gets shown on telly, surely this can be as well?

I'm thinking of writing a letter ...