Trams claim first victim

The BBC reports that the tram track on Princes Street has upended a cyclist (one of six) and, as a result, TIE is to offer a cycling proficiency test. If I may quote:

"The training is being organised and carried out by independent specialist instructors, and is aimed at training and advising cyclists on how to ride safely in the vicinity of tram lines."

Firstly, how did Edinburgh manage to attract the only cyclists in the country who don't know that tram tracks are absolutely lethal for bikes? Don't they remember Kirkpatrick McMillan's famous exhortation - "Trams? Trams laddie? Gonnae no dae that, just gonnae no?"

As for TIE proposing to organise one cyclist training session - less of the PR fluff, just get some warning signs up wherever the tram traps are going to be, it doesn't have to be complicated, just something like "Here be tram tracks - no eco-friendly means of transport welcome!"

You'll see the rapid degradation of the road surface alongside the tram tracks - I assume that's just because it's a temporary surface laid to get the road open for December but I, of course, wouldn't be at all surprised if the tram tracks destroy road surfaces wherever they are laid.

Before apportioning blame, though, let's look at the guy who fell off his bike - he's riding one of those 'feet in front of you' low-slung things that keep you below most of the sight lines of drivers in cars (never mind larger vehicles) his road discipline, as shown on his website, is incredibly poor, and he has been knocked off his bike by a bee before... Still, at least he appears to have a proper front light, not one of those flashing things.

I prefer Danny MacAskill's style

Mind how you slide!

Labour reported to Electoral Commission - again

I hear that Prestonpans branch of the Labour Party, the East Lothian CLP, and the Prestonpans Labour Club have all been reported to the Electoral Commission for breaching the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

I understand that the donations, set up when Labour was running the council and stopped by the SNP, were illegal because any political party; accounting unit of any political party; or Members Association (like a club) of a political party should check the permissibility of any donation, including whether the donor is a permissible donor. Councils are not permissible donors and the three parts of the Labour Party were accepting these donations illegally for at least the nine years since PPERA was introduced.

The donations were always illegal but it's not clear (to me, anyway) whether it was illegal to accept them before 2000. Perhaps m'learned friends can advise on the legality of accepting a donation which was being given illegally? In any case, it would appear that Marx was correct about history repeating itself.

Mind how you go!

No intentional wrong-doing?

Once upon a time Wendy Alexander said there was no intentional wrong-doing over donations to her campaign to lead Labour in Scotland. History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce, as a chap with a beard once said. Iain Gray must be hoping he was wrong as the dealings of Prestonpans Labour Club start to come to light. That club made a donation to his leadership campaign and offered him the space to launch his bid.

Was it wise?

When Gordon Brown was busy trying to defend his inheritance tax cut on Wednesday, one of the insults he chucked at David Cameron was:

I have to say, that with him and Mr. Goldsmith, their inheritance tax policy seems to have been dreamed up on the playing fields of Eton.

Was that wise? Does it matter where someone went to school? It's not as if going to a private school is a quintessentially Tory thing to do, is it? For example:

• Iain Gray MSP, Labour's leader in Scotland, went to George Watson's, a private school in Edinburgh.


• Alistair Darling MP, Labour's Chancellor of the Exchequer, went to Loretto, a private school in Musselburgh (as did Fergus Ewing MSP).


• Harriet Harman MP, Leader of the House, went to St Paul's Girls' School, a private school in Hammersmith.


• Jack Straw MP, Labour's Justice Secretary, went to Brentwood School, a direct grant school at the time.


• Hilary Benn MP, Environment Secretary and son of Tony, went to Norland Place School (a private school for early years - Conservative George Osborne also went there) and Westminster Under School, a private prep school before completing his schooling at Holland Park School (not private).


• Ed Balls MP, Labour's Education Secretary, went to Nottingham High School, a private school in Nottingham - which is probably where it got its name.


• Shawn Woodward MP, Northern Ireland Secretary, went to Bristol Grammar School


• Tessa Jowell MP, Paymaster General, went to St Margaret's School for Girls, a private school in Aberdeen.


• Jim Murphy MP, Scottish Secretary, went to Milnertown High - a fee-paying school in Cape Town, South Africa (that may be normal in SA, though, I don't know - and the poor guy had to put up with being in a country with a racial divide).


• Peter Hain MP, Welsh Secretary, was educated at Pretoria Boys High School, a private school in South Africa and Emanuel School, a private school in Battersea.


• Lord Adonis, Transport Secretary, went to Kingham Hill, a private school in the Cotswolds.


• Richard Baker MSP, Labour's Shadow Justice Secretary in Scotland, went to St Bees, a private school in Cumbria.


• Jackie Baillie MSP, Shadow Health Secretary in Scotland, went to Windermere St Ann's, a private school in the Lake District.


• Des McNulty MSP, Shadow Education in Scotland, went to St Bede's, a private school in Manchester

Of course, there was Tony Blair who went to Fettes College, as did Ian McKee MSP.

Where your parents sent you to school and whether they paid a fee to send you there doesn't matter a hoot in politics. What does matter isn't where you came from, it's where you're going. What school tie you wore is massively unimportant compared to what your policies are and what you intend to do with power. It doesn't matter whether your policies were conceived on playing fields or fancy restaurants, it's whether you're a desperado.

Image source

Mind how you go!

Putting the record straight

I have seen, recently, two pieces stating, quite categorically, that the McCrone report written for the UK Government in the 1970s was released under the 30 year rule. One was Jim Sillars' paper (not very good) and one was a BBC production (passable).

For the sake of decency and history, can we be clear. This report wasn't released under the 30 year rule and it wouldn't have been. It was the result of the inspiration of a guy called Davie Hutchison who used the Freedom of Information legislation to dig deeper and deeper into the archives, using references in some archives to ask for other documents until he found a gold mine. I know this because I am fortunate enough to be his friend and lucky enough to have been one of the team that worked on his discovery before it was released. I was also the guy who got the text messages while Davie was in the archives, they went something like this:
DH to CC: What did we say about oil in the 1970s?
CC to DH: Dunno exactly, I was just a child.
DH to CC: I was several years away from being born, what did we say generally?
CC to DH: We had a campaign "its Scotland's oil" saying there was a lot of wealth in North Sea Oil and it belonged to us.
DH to CC: And they denied it?
CC to DH: As far as I remember, yes.
DH to CC: I've found something that might be interesting, I'll be up as soon as I've copied it.

I went back to work thinking Davie had got over-excited about something that 'everyone' knew about. Davie, meanwhile, spent about half of what he earned in a week on the huge charges for photocopying at the National Archives and brought us the stuff that has now become famous.

Having grown up in Dundee East, I was delighted to be able to send an embargoed copy to my father for him to share with Gordon Wilson who fronted the 'Scotland's Oil' campaign years before Davie Hutchison was born.

The 30 year rule works on the basis of the date that the last document was added to the folder. If my memory serves me right (and you can check it at the National Archives in Charlotte Square) the last document added to that folder was 1992 so none of it was due for release until 2022 (providing nothing else was added to extend the date). There was nothing blacked out - I'm fairly sure the Scotland Office didn't know what they were releasing - and I think that some people do a good job in keeping it available.

Davie Hutchison, though, deserves respect for the work he did and the dedication he showed. No-one should think that this was an easy release under the 30 year rule.

Mind now!

SNP in massive, unassailable lead!

Well, OK, 2 percentage points up on Labour: SNP 34%, Labour 32%, Con 15%, Lib Dem 12%, other 6% for Westminster, it's 36%, 32%, 12%, and 12% for the Holyrood constituency vote. Interestingly, 12% is the lowest figure that Ipsos Mori have ever reported in Scotland so the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are both in some serious trouble.

What's really strange, though, is the quote from the Labour spokesman as reported earlier today - "If there was a general election tomorrow, the poll shows Labour would beat the SNP handsomely, and that we lead at Holyrood too".

How does that work? Is someone there not paying attention?

We really must improve education in this country.

Independence day

I see that the United Arab Emirates will be celebrating 38 years of independence from the UK today. I wonder how such a small country can have survived on its own for so long - a population of less than three million in 2000 and now only approaching six million - how have they got by without the UK?

Truly amazing...