A New Year "to do" list but will it ever be a "now done" list...

My New Year predictions were not that accurate last year (something of an understatement actually!), so I thought instead I would try some resolutions instead; at least I would have some chance of making them happen!


so here goes;

1. get fit; from the low starting point of my rapidly atrophying body this should be achievable; I hope its not too late
2. loose weight; a perennial of many folk but as my son asked if my now rotund figure constituted a 12 pack something must be done!
3. Spend more time with said children who already say "who's that man" when I walk in the door, though they are not alone in uttering that fearful cry when I appear....
4. Read more political history. In the end all my political mistakes are my own but at least this way I might avoid repeating others as well!
5. Remind myself that sometimes silence speaks more than words, (though not for a blogger!), so also to to really try to blog at least once a day, every day, on my return from the New Year break. I nearly managed it last year but I can always do better...
   
6. Find something positive to say about the SNP/Libdems.. a harder task but I do believe in forgiveness even for them...
7. Search for a new political language that takes me away from the bear pit of conflict without loosing the edge of scrutiny. No easy journey but I am even more convinced than ever before that the present political system of power held tight against an opposition who attacks whatever is said does no-one, least of all the voters, any favours.
8. Campaign for restoration of the cuts to the No 42, 12 and 13 buses, defend school budgets against more swinging reductions and find a solution to the traffic problems at Craigentinny avenue, both ends..(oops, almost broke number 5 already!).
   
9. Get to see Dunfermline Athletic live this season. Its been too long since I was actually at East End Park (over 2 years now) for me to even claim to be a fan, more of a follower of the scores...still, with a good chance of promotion....woops, that was too close to a prediction, lets not jinx them whilst they are doing so well,,,
10. Keep on going to Edinburgh Rugby, easier to achieve and after that great win against Glasgow, may be this second half of the season will see some more great scores down Murrayfield way.

So we'll see how I get on. On revisiting last years predictions again, I didn't do as badly as I thought but still, this way I should be able to get closer to 100% which should really be my target! Sure I can... Happy new Years to you all.

p.s.-any resolutions that you'd like to use aitkensedinburgh to announce to the world....?

The wean in the manger is with us again

There is a deep irony in the interviews of radio and TV financial commentators when they say that the hoped for sales at Christmas have failed to materialise and more businesses are under threat. Its an irony because had the banks applied Christian ethics of meeting others needs not our own greed and prioritising people not pounds we would not be in this economic melt down adn these sales would not be so vital. Its also an irony that so many businesses have built their survival on a consumerist culture, based it would appear, in large part, on maximising profits driven by the commercialisation of the celebration of the man who came to tell us that sacrificial love, forgiveness and care for the stranger and our enemy made the world a better place not the "more, many and mine" world view that is the capitalist paradigm.

I have just read back that paragraph and my goodness I need a holiday! Here ends the sermon. I won't be blogging for a few days but will be back before the New Year. I hope that whatever Christmas means to you, it is as you hoped it will be. God be with you.

The Pope teaches death not love

The Pope has crossed the line when he suggests that "saving the world from homosexuality" is more important than saving the environment. There is nothing more important than saving the planet. The human race is in self destruct mode at the moment but not over who we love and how we make love but how we are treating the planet without which there will be no place to make or be in love (or even both).

The Pope should spend what moral authority he may have calling people to consume less and care more about their carbon footprint than worrying yet again about who is sleeping with who. I believe that God made the world and it is sacred and should be treated as such. I also believe that God gave us the power to love another and we should celebrate human love in all its forms not decry a minority for their love for each other whilst all around the world in dying.

Where will I get my pick and mix now!?

The demise of Woolies is a sad day for the nation, at least in many folks eyes. The chain, famour for its pick and mix sweet selections, played a part in many people's upbringing. In my case I had a job sweeping the floors in Dunfermline's Woolies for about a year before the chance to play rugby for the school called again. Yet Woolies closure is a classic example of how capitalism has no place for emotional attachments which is why, in the end, it cannot truly meet human need as it suggests. For our humanness, our identity and our sense of belonging all revolves around our emotional attachments, our relationships and our sense of what matters in our memory of who we once were. The market will never meet our human needs, only some of our material ones and even then not always when we actually need them. Woolies death is a parable of why we need to do much more than find a new place to get our pick and mix....

This lot never cease to amaze me...

I was wrong. The Council meeting only lasted 8 hours... but it was still 8 hours of uninterrupted chaos and a leadership free zone.

We did manage to vote through the next stage of Portobello High school being rebuilt and the next stage of trams but not without great fudging and stumbling from the SNP/Libdems. In those 8 hours those "listening parties" (aka the SNP/Libdem mal-administration) also managed to;

• try to stop one delegation from being heard on a technicality
• limit the time the public up on delegations has to speak to 3 minutes, (it was 10 minutes when we were in charge and we still had vastly shorter meetings (there were 14 delegations, all angry about their proposals on several issues!)
• shut a community centre that had been only opened 8 years ago
• vote through cuts to voluntary groups that will mean job losses
  
• refused to let some members of delegations answer questions put to the by councillors
• not understand what is meant by putting a question and instead just made statements to delegations
• ask questions of delegations and then chat to their mates instead of listening to the answers
• blame me for the funding debacle at Inverness airport, (I am not making that up!)
• consistently ignore what was said and mis quote at will, even when the words were said in front of everyone
• get very defensive when challenged on their performance on responding to the global credit crunch
  

It would have been funny of it wasn't sad that their lack of leadership continues to mean the city struggles to play its role in what are tough enough times anyway.

10 hours of my life that I will never get back again

Tomorrow, or actually later today I face yet another 10 hours or more of a full council meeting dominated by the incompetence of the SNP/Libdem. 11 delegations, the good news of a new school lost in a badly articulated argument about the site, an astonishing u turn on school meals, anger over cuts to community groups and an over unnecessary stubborn refusal to consider providing more time home care shows the complete lack of political leadership and an astonishing ability to make even good stories into bad ones. I know I stood for election and so I can expect no sympathy but I do expect to be loosing the will to live before mid-day....!

Surely not....

Now I have heard it all! Tonight I learnt that there is a proposal from the SNP/Libdem mal-administration to rename librarians as "audience development officers"!

What mad mind thought this up! I cannot believe that they would be so stupid, but then given their track record over the last 20 months, there is every possibility that they would be....

When democracy needs to prove itself worthy of the task

Brian Taylors excellent post about health board elections is provocative and captures the issue. Democracy is not an end in itself. It is a tool to an end and its application in any given circumstances must to tested against the outcomes hoped to be achieved.

In the case of health boards that must be; accountability, scrutiny, transparency and good governance. There is nothing about direct elections that will inherently deliver these things any better than other systems that avoids the dangers of single issue campaigners or decisions about serious clinical issues being taken by people with no clinical training or expertise. This is case where democracy in the form being suggested must prove itself rather than been seen as a ethical good in no need scrutiny.

Is there no end to this man's idiocy

It says something that shoes were thrown at President Bush at his press conference. What is even more worrying however, is Bush's response, (see video in the link above), where he says "so what the guy threw shoes at me" As the piece says, the soles of shoes and of feet are the most extreme of insults. To compare it to heckling at a political rally or people gesticulating at him when he drives past is to, as is so often the case with the 43rd president, utterly miss the point. No wonder the world is a seriously less safe place than it was when he took office.

another libdem broken promise

The Laotian buses fare increase is not good news. It is a result of a number of pressures but whatever the excuses, its more cash flowing from peoples pockets for the same product.

Although I understand the pressures that Lothian Buses are under, I also turn to the libdem manifesto for the 2007 election where I see a commitment that bus fares would increase under their administration only in line with inflation. Compare that promise to the real world where they have risen by much more than inflation which is actually falling.

Yet another promise at best naive and undeliverable, at worst broken beyond all repair. But then we expect little else for this lot these days.

Choose a stamp for Christmas

I am not someone who tends to believe in conspiracies, even, perhaps especially when they are accredited to big organisations. So I was a little suspicious when I received this message;

Some information you might like to share with as many people as possible.

This Christmas the Post Office are to issue both secular and religious stamps; but just like last year, you have to stipulate if you want religious stamps!
Apparently each Post Office has been asked to send to HQ the totals for each (possibly to say there is no demand for religious stamps).

Please make as many people aware of this as possible

But given my experience of those who, in their desperation to be inclusive, manage to exclude everyone for not being the same as everyone else, whilst at the same time trying to tell us to celebrate diversity, anything is possible. I don't know if this is true but just to be on the safe side, I'll be asking for those religious stamps....just to keep the numbers up you understand!

We are still in the land of the Chocolate teapot when it comes to schools!

Something purporting to be good news for Portie High was released by the less than competent SNP/Libdem administration this afternoon. The press release was headed;

"Go ahead for Edinburgh’s Portobello High school"

which sounds great. Sadly the release then went on to confess that its not the go ahead for Portobello at all but "A proposal to invest an estimated £41.5m in a new Portobello High School" that is "the subject of a report to be considered by the City of Edinburgh Council next week". and that its "part of a programme that will be at least 14 years to deliver and will represent a significant challenge". which means that "it is estimated that construction work (on Portobello) would start in 2011/12 with the new school being open in 2013/14".

Which tells us three connected things

1. They don't even have the £41.5m for one building far less the £182m they need for their whole 14 year programme,
2. which means that despite getting more cash from Westminster, the SNP Government is still offering no more cash for Councils
3. which means that the SNPs Scottish (no) Futures Trust (SFT) is still a chocolate teapot of an idea.

So there will be no dancing in the streets of Portie tonight methinks and I wonder if even the conservative estimate of 13/14 opening is achievable given the paucity of cash support from the SNP Government, the dysfunctional nature of the SFT and the incompetence of the SNP/Libdem coalition. Not a combination that gives anyone a great sense of confidence.

Roll on the zimmer squad!

Tonight I witnessed something special. I was at a public meeting in my ward which has a long track record of heated debates about "Youth disorder" and what was I going to do about it.

The police gave their report which said youth calls were dropping to much muttering and shaking of heads... and then this elderly gentleman who had arrived using a "zimmer on wheels' contraption, (what my grannie called her birdcage!). I waited for the harsh words. Instead he said this; "The trouble is we don't talk to these kids. I speak to them, tell them my name and they tell me theirs. They like that. Now they hail me from a cross the road, and check up that I'm ok. They ask what I am doing and I ask what they are up to. Its not complicated. Its just a wee bit respect".

The whole tone of the meeting changed and one person told a story of how she had been told that this chap had been seen "surrounded by teenagers" and the police had been called. only to discover that this chap was just standing talking with the kids and they with him!

What a wonderful example of some-one seeing past the prejudice and looking at the human being. I was inspired as was the rest of the meeting. It was a brilliant moment of hope and challenge to us all and I will drink deep of its strength for some time to come.

Another broken promise..

In the Libdem Edinburgh manifesto, a commitment was made to produce a fully costed and financially viable plan for the south suburban railway by summer 2007.

Today we see that their plan was to ask the SNP govt for more cash. Like that was ever going to happen! Having been knocked back, they will now "look at more options" which is a long way from a costed plan by 2007.

What I want to know is why they wrote the promise in the first place? Had they no idea about what it would involve to get a plan in place? Its a classic indication of why they are so incompetent in power. They have no idea of how to deliver what they promised, they just said whatever they thought would get them votes...

We should have seen it coming...

Advent, waiting and wondering

Fighting my way through Christmas shoppers this weekend, that consumerist army who seem no fewer in number than usual, I find myself reflecting on Alistair Darling's pre budget package to stimulate the economy and I am torn between two thoughts; the truth of stats and what I feel is true.

Statistically its a great package. Despite the hysteria from those who just want Labour to fail, it is well within our debt limits; at 40% our public debt to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the G7 and will remain so even if it goes up to 57% as one scenario suggests it will.

On the other hand, in some ways, at 1% of the national income, £20b might not be enough rather than be too much, (The US package is 4% of national income). In my guts I wonder if 45% on earnings over £150,000 is enough, was £2.5% off VAT enough, will public works in themselves restore confidence and much more?

Advent is a time of waiting in hope. Never was a moment in a liturgical year more apt for political circumstances, but just as Advents waiting is an active time so our waiting to see is Alistair got it right requires action too, the action of consumption. But will more consumption really be the answer to over consumption. The numbers might tell us so, but I worry that some deeper, more significant change needs to happen to really bring us the peace we desire...and that will always take more than tills tinging and sleigh bells ringing. Welcome to advent waiting with a difference.

A time for big thinking

The Scottish Governments Council of Economic Advisers are saying what others have already been banging on about for some time, "lets build our way out of recession" That we are all Kensynans is not news, (well nearly all, save a few bampot tories who are so thurled to the market that any intervention is ideologically unacceptable, even if it helps stave off human suffering, but that's Tories for you!). What we need to be news is how we achieve this programme of public works.

We need three things:

1. The Scottish Government to make its Scottish (no) Futures Trust actually work.
2. Local Authorities (LAs) given cash not just as capital but also to borrow( forget new borrowing for Holyrood, LA's have more than enough powers to get what we need, they just need the cash).
3. The political will of those in power at LAs to make tough choices about what can be built and what will have to wait.

This is a time for risks, for big ideas and for serious leadership over decisions that might not be popular. History will show which we had in what quantity and tht consequences for the rest of those leaders that were lacking one or more of each department.

Holyrood Climate Change bill is good news....

The new climate change bill announced today in the Scottish Parliament is astonishing for its vision and willingness to put environmental issues at the forefront of everything we do. No, not a quote from a SNP press release but what I think about this SNP proposal. There is no issue more important for our society and on this one, I have to say, no matter how hard it is to type these words, the SNP have shown some real leadership. Infact, so much so, that at a gathering of "green and environmentalist" journalists this week the complaint was "what are we going to do now because the SNP have rolled over and given us all we wanted"! Who said politics was about giving the people what they wanted.

There are 3 things that flow form this however , that are crucial to understand

1. That word s are easy, making it happen will be what matters and having set high standards, the SNP will be judged by high standards
2. This needs to be embedded in all parts of political life, so, for example, where class sizes of 18 can be achieved by the redrawing of catchments rather than the building of new classrooms, that should happen, no matter how unpopular that is locally
3. the Bills objectives will only be achieved by radical changes in our lifestyles. that needs modelling by Government and unpopular choices. especially over cars and road building. Are the SNP brave enough to be unpopular now for a better time to come... Their track record so far would suggest otherwise, but we shall see.

This Christmas listen to those who are not usually heard

I was honoured to once again MC the lighting of the Christmas tree in our community. Over 200 people turned up to sing songs led by a joint Choir from Craigentinny and St Ninians Primary school, hear the Christmas story and prayers and do the count-down to the lights on.

Every year we get some-one significant to do the lighting up but this year was some-one with a different type of significance. I have met many famous and powerful people in my life but the ones I am really in awe of tend to be ones not in the headlines. Today was no except. Lynn Roberston lost her 5 year son Adam at the beginning of November to a pontine glioma (Brain stem tumour). She is one of the bravest people I know. She shared her journey from when Adam was diagnosed 6 months ago with the world in an astonishingly powerful blog which spoke volumes to all of us who read it.

It might seem odd to mix bereavement with Christmas celebrations but part of the Christmas message is about seeing hope in tough times and the idea that by sharing our struggles together we are stronger. Tonight our community stood with Lynn and the boys as they light the tree. In do so we said that we are with them in their sadness. We know we cannot take it away but we also know that community that shares pain of its members is a stronger place. And we were also inspired by their bravery in being willing to stand up and do such a public act of celebration when their pain is so great. As has been the case for the last 6 months, they were an inspiration to us all.

Tonight more than ever, I was proud of the community I have the privilege of representing for being so fully human in giving yet again a glimpse of the power of the divine, of undefeatable love.

Talk about the wrong priorities...

At a parent council meeting in my ward tonight, one of the ruling SNP/Libdem councillors admitted that school budgets are likely to be cut up to 2% in next years budget. This is on top of the last years 1.5% cut they were hit with. Those cuts translated into cuts of about £90k per high school and £20k per primary school which schools won't get back again as well as whatever 2% will mean.

We then find that the SNP/Libdems say reserves are their priority. So lets get this straight, kids education will suffer so they can get money in the bank. Its a scandal.

Despite what the present administration claim, we left £50m in the bank. we protected schools from cuts and built or refurbished 34 buildings. They are offering cuts on their previous cuts, an ever increasing overspend and no new schools so they can squirrel away cash for some, as yet undeclared purpose. I don't know how they sleep at night.

Calman, a work in progress perhaps hindered by itself..

The interim report from the Calman commission does not have a lot of hard proposals but then, given that it is a "work in progress" that should not be a surprise. This is about the future of Scotland and so seven months of listening and reflecting, whist not insubstantial, is not enough time to do justice to the task. That being said, the two serious issues that the commision has excluded, a second chamber and full fiscal autonomy, need a wee comment or two.

A second chamber was never going to happen when there is still a view by some that we are already over our quota of layers of government and politicians., Despite the fact that this is not a actually true if we are compared to other countries of a comparable size, in politics perception is all and a conclusion that we needed more politicians, was never going to be popular.

Fiscal autonomy is another story altogether, ruled out because it is "inconsistent with the union" is not helpful. The message it send's out is that, in the most crucial of areas, we are not going to consider all the options.

I have long agreed with the view that the most significant theological decisions are made in the finance committee and so it is the same with political decisions. The block grant model cannot stay. It feels like control from London. It isn't, but it feels like it, and because it feels like it, the case for devolution as an effective expression of self identity is undermined. We many not be yet at the stage of moving to full fiscal autonomy but to rule it out at this point was not wise for it suggest a lack of confidence or ambition which is not helpful to the Unionist cause of which I remain a committed member.

Great news for Portie!

The announcement today that the Council has had legal advice which means that it is possible to build a new high school for Portobello school on Portobello Park even though it is common good land is great news.

the key quote is:

"In terms of the scheme, no private finance or third party partner will be involved. Accordingly, no interest in title to land passes to any other party. No other party will accordingly acquire interest in title to land such as to constitute a disposal within the meaning of s.75(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

The advice of Senior Counsel in their Joint Opinion is that the Council do not require the prior consent or authorisation of the Court under s.75(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 to the proposed appropriation of part of the park at Portobello for the construction of a new Portobello High School."

What is interesting is that this is what we said two years ago based on what our legal officers had told us, but it has taken the SNP/Libdems two years and two QCs to get to the same point. Speaks volumes really!

On the subject of school buildings, I see the SNP are winging on about PFI allegedly costing more and that's because it involved private sector cash . This is the party whose so called Scottish Futures Trust is a private company who job it is to lever in private sector expertise and private sector cash... and the difference is...?