Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Scottish Parliament

It was supposed to be a celebration of 10 years of Holyrood, instead we had the sight of  empty seats as nearly half of the SNP’s MSP’s failed to turn up for what should have been their celebration. As the Times puts it.

What a lamentable affair. A day that should have been rich in ceremony, and joyful in celebration turned into a limp and vacuous occasion, with more than a third of the MSPs whose role we were meant to be applauding, simply absent. The tenth anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, snubbed by its own members, turned into an ill-mannered comment on the democracy they represent.

Quite what the Queen made of it was hard to see. Her voice was distinctly croaky, her expression inscrutable. She peered through her spectacles at the empty seats wondering, just possibly, whether she had got the date right. The Duke of Edinburgh looked round him with cheerful resignation, as if to say: you chumps have made a bit of cock-up, haven’t you?

The Queen added a touch of reality to the proceedings by saying

“Your challenge … is to ensure that [the Parliament] continues to reflect the priorities and aspirations of all Scotland’s people (her emphasis) and to retain the public’s confidence and trust.”

Maybe a slight dig there at Alex Salmond and how many people really want Independence.

Alex Salmond also made a speech, according to the Times

To add insult to injury, Alex Salmond, in his speech, had the temerity to mock Westminster. He suggested that the Queen might find some “words of encouragement for another parliament elsewhere” – a bad joke at the best of times. Any suggestion that Holyrood enjoys some moral superiority over the House of Commons was wiped out yesterday. Over the Queen’s face, as Mr Salmond made his comment, there passed the merest shadow of a grimace. Some of of us felt something far worse.

All in all it sounds like a very poor celebration.

Want to know why the MSP’s couldn’t attend have a look here for the full details.

Makes for interesting reading on what our MSP’s are up to. By the way I’m interpreting Constituency Business as “Couldn’t be arsed to turn-up”.

My local MSP, Mike Rumbles, is apparently on holiday in Italy, though the Dordogne seems to be the favoured hidey-hole of MSP’s taking advantage of cheap prices before the kids are on holiday.

The SNP appear to have 7 MSP’’s who had “no reason” not to be there. An appalling indictment of their commitment to Holyrood.

Strangely it is the Conservatives who have the best attendance record, pehaps this more because of the respect they have for the Queen rather than for any other reason.

Truly a poor show from all our MSP’s on what should have been a celebration day.

Bad jokes and worse manners play to empty seats – Times Online.

I see my esteemed Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles has been using the vagaries of the publicly funded Edinburgh accommodation allowance (EAA), which helps MSPs to buy property in Edinburgh, to race up the property ladder purchasing three flats in eight years. He is the first MSP to achieve three Mortgages in this particular trough.

Not bad that and according to the Scotsman:

Mr Rumbles sold two properties and reinvested in larger ones with help from the public fund, eventually making a £40,000 profit. He now owns a £300,000 flat in an exclusive district of the capital, and claimed about £10,000 a year to help pay off his mortgage.

They go on to report

Yesterday, Mr Rumbles defended his use of the allowance.

He said: “I have bought three flats in Edinburgh. I made a loss on the sale of the first flat. And on the sale of the second flat I paid a capital-gains tax of 40 per cent.

So now he’s complaining he had to pay Capital Gains Tax on money he got from us the taxpayers, what a bloody cheek.

One can only hope that he will soon be joining the ranks of the unemployed, rather than the underemployed at Holyrood.

This is not the first time some of the Lib Dems have been found out for using this particular trough

The Scotsman – Taxpayer subsidies help Lib Dem to buy three flats in capital

I made a promise to myself yesterday I wasn’t going to do Holyrood blogs anymore but this one is a beezer.

According to the Scotsman:

A SENIOR lawyer to the Holyrood inquiry has been disciplined by the Faculty of Advocates over a remark about a civil servant involved in the project.

John Campbell, QC, was found to have breached the faculty’s code of conduct after giving a speech in 2004 which referred to Barbara Doig, the Holyrood project sponsor, as a “librarian”.

Mrs Doig lodged a formal complaint with the faculty about what she believed to be disparaging remarks about her. Yesterday, the faculty confirmed it had ordered Mr Campbell not to make any more comments on the case.

Well isn’t that terrible after managing (or not) to waste more than 400 million of our money she doesn’t want to be called a “Librarian”. A very restrained tag in my humble opinion. On the Dole would be a more suitable job.

Perhaps we could seek compensation from her for wasting our money.

Some more details on Mrs Doig:

Barbara Doig was the project sponsor of the Holyrood building during the formative years of the project, taking over in March 1998. She was at the centre of the decision to reinstate Bovis Lend Lease to the shortlist to manage the project. Bovis went on to win the contract.

She was publicly criticised for her role in the project by Lord Fraser.

Mrs Doig returned to the Executive’s research department before retiring early at the age of 58 two years ago on a good final-salary, civil service pension.

One comment from JayJay in Glasgow on the story says it all.

Mrs Doig could have perhaps explained, in mitigation, her extensive experience in managing large scale building projects.
Since she presumably had zero skills to offer in the construction sector, and is presumably a Civil servant of some sort, I think it would be fair comment to liken her to a librarian. She’s certainly closer to that than to a construction professional!

The Scotsman – Jibe earns lawyer rebuke

Apparently, as well as being pig ugly, the final bill for Holyrood will be 414 million pounds, but lucky us they have managed to save 16 million on the final total.

Not bad considering the initial estimates from this inept parliament were between 10 and 40 million pounds. So they have managed to save what it should have cost, what an achievement. Best of luck in governing this Country.

Here’s a masterful understatement from the Presiding Officer George Reid:

“The Holyrood saga has been a long haul, it’s been wearing, it has also been damaging, in my view, to Scottish self-confidence in our ability to run our own affairs. And that is why I use the word ‘closure’ today in its full double meaning.”

Reading a little further it is revealed that

No-one responsible for the rise from the first estimate of between £10 million and £40 million to the eventual total lost their job.

If this had been anywhere in private industry the people responsible would have been sent on there way without thinking, but when you and I are paying nobody takes responsibility.

Just as a final note it’s interesting to note that the total VAT payable to Mr Brown was in excess of the 40 million top estimate.

Holyrood seeks ‘closure’ over its £414 million fiasco

I see the pigs trough that is Holyrood managed to increase expenses for MSP’s by double the rate of inflation despite the following warning last year from Tom McCabe, the finance minister:

“We do not want to consume any more precious resources or employ any more staff than necessary. We will be looking at cutting duplication and bureaucracy to ensure we have more efficient and effective public services.”

Obviously these words were taken to heart by our wonderfully useful MSP’s.

The Scotsman – MSPs’ expenses soar by twice rate of inflation to £9.8m