Beef

For the first time in ten years, Sandra and I have managed to visit France for our fortnight's holiday. And it has been quite revealing.

Every restaurant has to display where they source their meat. So when we stopped for a snack at a motorway service station, there it was – meat from Brazil, Germany and France.

None of our prime Scottish beef anywhere.

But that was not all. I picked up a well-produced leaflet about all the steps being taken to ensure that French customers eat safe meat. It described many of the types of beef available in France – including Irish “Aberdeen Angus” beef, described as superior beef – but no mention of our fine meat.

Any why is this? Yes – because of BSE – but mainly because of our government's inaction.

We know that failures in government administration of beef in England were largely the cause of the BSE problem. But that need not have been a major problem for Scotland if the Dutch approach had been adopted.

With regional variations in the incidence of BSE across the Netherlands, they broke their country into beef regions and allowed farmers in areas not much touched by BSE to continue exporting.

But for Scotland's Labour government the idea that Scotland should have a distinctive solution to a very different situation to that in the South-West of England was abhorrent.

And the result? – a very successful export trade killed off at a stroke and the French now believing that Aberdeen Angus beef comes from Ireland.

Trains

The failures of the Tory rail privatisation are too well known to be worth revisiting. But the return to the idea that infrastructure – the big networks of roads, rail, communications and the like, that enable other things – should be created as a result of government action has to be welcomed.

As Sandra and I motored across France we saw just how different things can be when government takes such responsibility on to its shoulders.

The TGV [Train Grand Vittesse] is a model of effective, high speed rail travel. And would not have happened without government action.

But it does not stand alone. We saw that the TGV station for Lyon was integrated with the local airport terminal and the bus station was adjacent. Even the car hire rental facilities were there. So true “inter-modal” transport in action.

Meantime we see a West Coast rail link from Glasgow to the south being delayed and possibly abandoned in its original form.

For us in the North-East, the most vivid demonstration of a failure to support railway infrastructure relates to freight facilities between Aberdeen and Dundee. To accommodate modern container traffic on our railway we need £2.6 million of upgrades. That is less than the cost of a small suburban railway station such as that built on the west of Edinburgh at Edinburgh Park.

The return on investment for our modest upgrade is way above that delivered by current railway projects. But progress? A study but no commitment to do the work.

One cannot help noticing that the announcement of additional powers for the Scottish Parliament in relation to our rail network was made in London – and without comment from the Scottish government. That does not exactly fill me with confidence about their preparedness for the additional responsibility.

But it is a start, even if light years away from the French approach to railway, road and communications development.

Scottish Water

As with most people who live in the country, we do not have access to mains sewerage facilities. We rely on our own drains and septic tank.

And last week we needed a blockage in our sewer cleared before I could have a bath. This happens occasionally because the pipe has a slight dip where it should not. When the problem recurs, the remedy is obvious and relatively quickly implemented.

But for people in urban areas, the option of the septic tank and direct control over their own facilities, is not practical.

So they have their sewerage provided by Scottish Water. Or not. Because the investment guidance provided by the Scottish government has directed money away from domestic housing developments.

We therefore have the spectacle of new house building across Scotland being delayed by Scottish Water's inability to provide connection to the mains sewer.

Too much time wasted ignoring problems of waste.

Uncivil Servants

At long last one has the feeling that the building of the new Parliament is sticking to an agreed schedule.

I actually have a time and date – 10. a.m. on Monday, 30th August – when I move into my room in the MSP block at the “real” Holyrood – G.19 it is. The ersatz version at the top of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh has lasted five years when about 18 months was the plan. And the new building has cost about £430 million when the original figure was £40.

But the real issue has been the obfuscation – that is a fancy word some people use instead of saying “lying” – about the true cost.

I arrived at the Parliament in 2001 after two years in which Alex Salmond had represented us there.

For both of us the frustration of a “done deal” for our new building – stitched up even before any MSPs were elected – has overhung anything that could be achieved within the walls of our new institution.

I had worked within a brick shed, of no architectural distinction, on the industrial outskirts of Edinburgh for some 20 years. About 110,000 square feet in size and housing nearly 1,000 staff, it had cost approaching £100 million long before Parliament was in prospect. So I had always thought £40 million was fantasy.

Civil servants with no project management skills and, it seems, even less common sense, were put in charge of the building works. Being 8 weeks behind schedule after only 20 weeks into the project meant nothing to then manager, Barbara Doig.

For me a slippage of that size that early would have been a firm red light signalling “STOP” until we understood what was wrong. But to the civil servant in charge, the conclusion was very different – there was plenty time to make up the slip.

A distinguished American author on computer project management, Professor Fred P. Brookes, poses a key question in his book “The Mythical Man Month” – “How do projects get late?” and gives the answer – “One day at a time”.

This was clearly not a book read by our civil servants.

There are many excellent and professional civil servants around. I meet loads of them in my day to day business.

But the Holyrood incompetence virus seems to be spreading. And to our disadvantage in the North-East.

It has been two years since we won the battle to save Peterhead prison. Looking at the behaviour of the Scottish Prison Service senior management, it seems that they are determined to thwart government minister’s policies. And damage our local interests.

As long ago as 2000, the local staff put forward a proposal that, at modest cost, would avoid the legal mess now surrounding “slopping out”.

The suggestion has been “safety proofed” but not acted upon. And the recent court case on the issue brought by a Barlinnie remand prisoner has shown the SPS senior managers as incompetent.

These were also the people who could not recall how much their private prison cost when asked in parliament in 2001. Who could not answer provide the information necessary for Reliance to take over prisoner transport. And who blame everyone but themselves for the many problems throughout their service.

So far, Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson, has carried the can but we can expect to see her patience snap shortly. I have invited her to visit Peterhead in August, and she has agreed to come.

The only question is whether the necessary changes at the top of the SPS will have taken place before or after that visit. But there seems little doubt that changes there will be and that they will benefit us.

Change

The North-East has much more to offer people than our friends in the South seem to realise.

It was a real coup for Turriff when they persuaded the British Pipe Band championships to come north. On a warm day it was a magnificent sight and sound.

And later the same day I was at a Deveron Music Festival event in Banff Academy.

A new work based on the mathematics of the shape of the bay between Banff and Macduff and the rhythms of oil exploration did not strike me as an appealing theme. Wrong! A magnificent piece of music performed to a high standard.

But underpinning important events in Banffshire is Duff House. An outstation of the Royal Scottish Academy it depends very largely on support from our local council.

Like at Scottish Opera, a meanness of spirit – and wallet – is threatening this valuable local asset. With visitor numbers on the up after last year’s excellent Vetriano exhibition, it seems an act of philistine folly to be planning winter closure for Duff House. Just like the Scottish government’s apparent determination to end full-scale opera in our country.

New Votes for Old

When the Scottish Parliament was first elected in 1999, Scotland was first introduced to a proportional voting system But as it simply required two votes on two separate papers, it did not require much new thinking by voters.

This week we finally passed a Bill that will change forever the face of local government elections – and local government councillors.

At the next election, we shall elect councillors in “multi-member” wards and by a system of single transferable voting. What it will undoubtedly achieve is a break of the electoral stranglehold that Labour has over councils across Scotland. No longer will they win 9 out of ten seats with only half the vote. So it will undoubtedly be a fairer reflection of public opinion.

So how does it work?

For electors in Fraserburgh, for example, we shall probably see a single ballot paper to elect four councillors for the town. People will rank their choices. Instead of an single “X” against one choice on the ballot paper, they will put “1” against their favourite, “2” against their second choice and so on until they have put a number against each of the perhaps 12 to 20 candidates there might be for the four places.

Now if someone is particularly unpopular with an individual elector, then one won’t be forced to put any number against their name. That will mean, “I will never support this person”.

My political party, the SNP, has supported this voting system for many years. For our internal decision-making we have used it for many of our elections. The whole membership of the SNP will use it to elect our new leader shortly.

If the EU election results indicate the outcome for the next Council election, the SNP will gain somewhat and will be the biggest party on Aberdeenshire Council. In Angus, we might lose a bit.

But it whether we gain or lose is secondary to the importance of having a “fair votes” system.

Local Fraserburgh Councillors will have to represent the whole town. And our current crop will be judged in about three years time by how they have supported the entire community in the meantime.

Good luck colleagues!