August 2009 diary column
31 August 2009
Diary column — August 09
Decisions, decisions…
Even compared to voting down a £30million budget, recalling Parliament was something of a momentous decision to have to make. It had only happened on two previous occasions following the deaths of Donald Dewar and The Queen Mother, and therefore never because of a political decision. It was mine alone to take, albeit with the benefit of much advice, and I wrestled with it for quite some time. Everything that happened thereafter vindicated my decision and I have no regrets whatsoever.
The actual recall came less than two days after the conclusion of our annual ‘Festival of Politics’, and it is hugely to the credit of Parliamentary staff that the building’s festival ‘clothing’ had been completely removed on the Sunday, leaving Parliament in its working clothes for the recalled chamber. The Festival itself was another great success, and I had the pleasure of interviewing both David Owen (he of the Gang of Four fame) and Annie Lennox, the singer/songwriter who now devotes much of her time campaigning against Aids/HIV in South Africa. My staff will tell you that I am now somewhat besotted by Ms Lennox. How dare they? Just because she asked me to call her Annie…
Licencing disaster.
Ever since becoming aware of the problems relating to the likely impact of the new liquor licencing regime, I have been pestering the Cabinet Secretary for Justice with letters from constituents who were likely to give up their licences — all of them small businesspeople offering alcohol as part of the service they offer in deli’s, tearooms, corner shops etc. Now I appreciate that the Cabinet Secretary has had a lot on his mind recently, but the news that over 30% of licence holders in the Stewartry are giving up their licences (and that is bound to be replicated across the region) will, I hope, come as a considerable shock to him. Alcohol related problems will not be affected one iota by this new regime, but it will hit our tourism efforts badly and put many businesses on the brink of disaster. I do not expect Mr MacAskill to change his mind on the matter which has made many headlines of late, but he could act to change this disastrous new regime. If he did so, he would be universally applauded.
Sun shines…
On the righteous, or so they say. It follows therefore that the organisers of the 4 main agricultural shows across the region must be feeling most righteous, given the very decent weather that accompanied their events. What’s more, the ‘buzz’ matched the weather at all the shows, and I felt that there was a decidedly upbeat atmosphere about them which cannot all be attributed to the fact that, dairying apart, agriculture has borne the recession better than most other sectors. Long may that last, and long may our agricultural shows continue to provide the splendid shop window for the very best of Dumfries and Galloway, in all its guises.
Another tourism blow.
What the local tourism industry did not want, on top of the liquor licencing changes, fire regulations and yet another pretty dreich summer was a raft of highly detrimental changes in the tax rules. So the news that HMRC are changing the rules to no longer allow holiday letting to be treated as a ‘trade’ has been greeted with stunned silence. So holiday letting businesses, which do a lot for our local economy, will no longer be able to offset losses or obtain relief for improvements and investments. This takes away the incentive to ensure that the ‘product’ is as good as it can be, and can only serve to downgrade the overall quality of the cottages on offer. Short-sighted — you bet it is, and just another fine example of a stealth tax from a desperate Treasury.
YANA — R.I.P.
Regular readers will know of my support for YANA — the ‘You Are Not Alone’ family support group that operates out of Stranraer. I am greatly saddened to hear that a decision has been taken to cease its operations at the end of February next year due to a lack of funding. Scotland will be the poorer for this decision, never mind Dumfries and Galloway, because YANA’s influence has rippled out across the whole country. Originating from the need to recognise the plight of families of drug addicts and the vital role played by members of those families in looking after the children of addicts, YANA branched out and embraced the benefits of a properly staffed helpline service and, latterly, the role of kinship carers. In both these fields, YANA have received nationwide recognition, and their work with kinship carers has led to Scotland being in the forefront of providing financial support for such care — I venture to suggest that this would not have happened without YANA, and I very much regret that ongoing financial support cannot be found for their work. I fear that it is organisations such as YANA that will feel the full force of this recession whilst other more ‘officially recognised’ and therefore less challenging organisations will carry on as usual. YANA has been a huge part of the last decade. It will not be forgotten.
Words.
I am a great believer in organisations, such as the Campaign for Plain English, that seek to ensure that the ever-increasing plethora of rules and regulations which engulf our everyday lives are, at the very least, easy to understand. It is a fact that one of the most basic instructions given to mankind is the Lord’s Prayer, which contains some 60 words whereas the European Directive on the Export of Duck Eggs has over 5 million! Need I say more?
Well, I would like to say more to the officials at Transport Scotland, to whom I recently wrote on behalf of a constituent who had asked me to look into why a certain plant seemed to be bearing the brunt of a weed-spraying operation on the verges of the A75 (Yes — we MSPs get asked about all sorts of things!) Anyway, I duly made the necessary enquiries, but was quite taken aback when I was informed that the weed-killing policy pursued by Transport Scotland was, undertaken in order to, and I quote, “encourage a more ecologically diverse soft estate”. So now you know — the next time you pull over onto the verge you’re actually trespassing on the soft estate. I give up!
Ballast.
I had the good fortune to attend the opening of an exhibition from New Zealand within the National Museum which has great resonance within this year’s theme of Homecoming. John Edgar, the artist, was drawn to the different rocks and stones that early sailing boats to New Zealand (and other colonies) used as ballast on the outward journey, to be replaced with goods on the way back. Thus Scottish rocks, in their hundreds of tons, were left on foreign shores. Some were used to build with, as in the old town of Quebec, but others lay where they were put, and John Edgar became fascinated by them. His resulting sculptures have a strong Scottish theme, and I found the whole explanation behind the exhibition highly intriguing, especially when a Maori told us of the beliefs his people still have in the rocks and soil of their homeland. There’s something very appropriate in these stones coming home, if only on a temporary basis, in this particular year.
That was the recess that was.
I don’t really know where it went, but our summer recess has now been and gone. I am very seldom jealous of Westminster colleagues, and do hope they enjoy the 2 months recess that still remain to them as we MSPs head back to the Capital this week!! As always I’ve greatly enjoyed what makes a summer in Galloway — the gala days, the flower shows, the garden open days and the agricultural shows. Even when the weather could be better, it’s hard to beat, and it never seems to last long enough. No matter, won’t be long ‘til next year!
And finally.
Great story to cheer up the gloomiest of individuals from my school teacher son who was home recently on holiday. A small boy arrived in his class with his shoes on the wrong feet. “William, your shoes are on the wrong feet” my son explained. “No they’re not, Sir” said William after carefully inspecting his footwear. “Yes they are” said teacher patiently — “No they’re not” replied pupil. This happened several times. Eventually teacher somewhat testily said “William, listen to me, your shoes are on the wrong feet.” “No Sir”, said William — pause “these are definitely my feet”. I love that!