Gordon Brown, Tories, and Climate

Gordon Brown denied "double dealing" over the Lockerbie row after it emerged that he had privately backed the bomber's release. Prime Minister insisted the final decision to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi had been taken by the Scottish Government, and UK ministers had not sought to influence it.

"There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no private assurances by me to Colonel Gaddafi," Mr Brown told an audience in Birmingham.

But Mr Brown stopped short of confirming explicitly that he had favoured releasing Al Megrahi from prison before his death. The decision to free Al Megrahi, eight years into a life sentence, was made by Kenny macAskill, the Scottish Justice Minister, on compassionate grounds because he has terminal cancer. Mr Brown defended his refusal to voice his opinion publicly saying he had "minimised" the pain for Lockerbie families and he was quick to describe the scenes accompanying the bomber's return to Libya as "despicable".

It has taken Mr Brown 13 days to issue this statement, which is still ambiguous after all that time. Of course, we must remember that he gave up a few minutes of his precious holiday time to send congratulations to the England cricket team on their momentous achievement in regaining the Ashes.

Talking of ashes, that might be very well what is left of his Party at the next general Election, if the latest YouGov survey is anything to go by. It shows the Tories on 42%, with Labour trailing at 28%. Translated into seats, this would give the Conservatives a 96 seats majority.

While the UK ponders over those matters, it’s nice to know that scientists at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia, are concerned about serious global topics as well. They have proposed that we should have six seasons instead of the current four to better describe the climate. They have suggested adding “sprinter” for an early spring, and “sprummer” for the period between spring and summer. Methinks that “springer” might be better for the first one, and “scunner”, that good old Scots word, for the second, given the amount of rain and wind that we’ve had in the past few months. It all sounds like a complete bummer to me.

Pensions, Wages, and Water

Just as I thought that I might have a couple of days with my blood pressure down to normal, I hear on the airwaves that The Royal Bank of Scotland is being given more billions in order to help it on its merry way, but what really scunnered (a great Scots word) me was the fact that the main culprit for getting them into a mess, Sir Freddie Goodwin, is to receive a yearly pension of £650,000. Our Prime Minister is only on a measly salary of £194,000, for goodness sake. It works out at £12,500 per week for that Goodwin guy, while folk who put in an honest 40 hours work on the minimum wage have to exist on £11,918.40 a year. He (Goodwin) laughed at the idea that he should not accept that amount – in effect, he is mocking, not only the ordinary people of Britain, but its elected Government as well. If Gordon Brown and his Cabinet do not, or cannot, deal with this fiasco, quite a few of them will find themselves signing their autographs for Jobseekers’ Allowance after the next election.

 

I thought I’d have to get rid of dark thoughts for a couple of hours, so decided to have a look at some of the lighter offerings in the media. I noticed in one local paper that punctuation didn’t come into use until the advent of printing in the 15^th century. When I browse through certain publications nowadays, I might be excused for wondering if their editors have been made aware of the fact that puctuation does, in fact, exist. 

 

Looking through the ”Situations Vacant” page in the same paper, I came across an advert asking for folk to apply for the post of “Raining Officer”. Requirements include excellent interpersonal and communication skills. I was always of the opinion that simple chanting, combined with frenzied dancing, did the trick.

 

Still on the subject of water – it seems that there was a significant drop in the number of fish caught last year from the Tweed, Scotland’s top salmon river. Lack of water, one might think; no, it was actually the wettest year for almost a century. It seems that the drop in numbers came about because nearly a month of fishing days were “lost” because of the rain. Where have all the hardy anglers of yesteryear gone?

 

“Where have all the owners gone?” I asked myself when I saw some of the items that have been left behind by guests in hotels owned by the Travelodge chain. Keys to a Porsche, artificial limbs, false teeth, and a horse have all been found. If you happen to notice a one-legged jockey with no teeth trying to get into a Porsche, please show him the way to the nearest Travelodge Inn.   

That Was The Week That Wasn’t

Well, it wasn’t a week to be fondly remembered in Scotland by either Dundee United fans, or by the Scottish Nationalist Party, with both sets being involved in draws that didn’t end in draws at the end of the day, if you catch my drift. United managed to keep the score level with Celtic in their CIS semi-final tie until after extra time, but succumbed to an 11-10 defeat in the penalty shootout. The Nationalists failed to get their Budget through Parliament, as the parties were level, with 64 votes for, and 64 against. This meant that the Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, had to cast his deciding vote against, as protocol required that he go for the status quo. If it does not go through at the second attempt, the government will be forced to resign – this prompted the quote from Alex Salmond that the normal thing then would be to have an election. Actually, it would be up to Labour, the second largest party, to try and form a coalition –if they failed to do so, then that would force a fresh election. It actually requires a two-thirds majority of the Scottish Parliament to call one.

IT hasn't been the best of weeks for Mr Salmond. He's been on about Homecoming 2009 for months now, but it was revealed last week that tourist chiefs sent unplayable DVDs across the Pond to market the event. As most people are aware, DVD players have regional restrictions, and discs made in Europe will not work in Canada or the United States. Ah well, they can always take them back, and send them to the ex-pats in Poland.

We’ve had plenty of Polish workers over here for a while now, without any major problems. That was probably partly due to the fact that their unskilled workers were willing to carry out jobs that British workers were unwilling to do for the same wage, and that their skilled workers were very good at their own trades. However, we now have a different problem, with protests and strikes across the UK, prompted by a decision to bring in hundreds of Italian and Portuguese contractors to work on a new £200m plant at the Lindsey oil refinery, in North Lincolnshire. Unions claim Britons were not given any opportunity to apply for the posts.

Gordon Brown’s spokesman said the government would hold talks with the construction industry in the next few days "to ensure they are doing all they can to support the UK economy". When asked about the growing unrest, Brown - speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland - said he "understood" people's worries.

In an interview with the BBC's Politics Show the Prime Minister condemned those threatening wildcat strikes, saying "that's not the right thing to do and it's not defensible." He also said that when he had talked about British jobs for British workers (2007, in his first speech to the Labour Party as its leader) he was referring to "giving them the skills" so that they could get jobs that were going to foreigners. Whatever the rights and wrongs in this present situation, the British workers who are wanting, and willing to do, those jobs actually have the necessary skills

He (Mr Brown) is having talks today with his Chinese counterpart in order to encourage further trade links between the two countries. I would suggest that any agreement between the two will be mostly one way traffic, as China has plenty to export, but Britain has very little. Ah so!