Thursday, September 04, 2008

25 Reasons Why 'The Scotsman' Is Rubbish, And 1 Reason Why It Isn't

The Scotsman, as part of the stable's protracted girnfest about the Local Income Tax, today gives us 25 reasons why LIT would be a bad idea. Suffice to say, most are complete twaddle, and I'll be rebutting every single one later this evening when I have time.

However, it's difficult to be overly critical when they also have the stout good sense to publish letters such as the first one here.

Sir Kenneth Calman says of his commission of the great and the good: "It is quite wrong to imply we are not interested in engaging with all shades of Scottish opinion" (Letters, 2 September).

The annexe to the commission's first set of minutes, from 28 April, 2008 and available to all on its website, states that "the commission starts from the position that Scotland should remain a distinctive part of the United Kingdom", which rather contradicts the statement in the next bullet-point that "the commission will consider the distribution of powers between the Scottish Parliament and Westminster without preconceptions".

Indeed, it even goes on to suggest that any change to these bounds for deliberation would "be justified only if it serves the people of Scotland better and secures the continuation of the Union".

There you have it. No preconceptions at all, except perhaps for those it already had when it began. Extraordinarily, given the commission's conceit of being "evidence-based", we learn that even if it could be proven beyond all doubt that independence would serve the people of Scotland better, that option would be discounted instantly by the commission because it does not secure "the continuation of the Union".

Since we must assume these minutes represent a true and accurate reflection of proceedings, it is clear that nationalists need not apply, at least not if they want their views to be considered in any meaningful way.

So, is Sir Kenneth being deliberately disingenuous in his claim that he wants to engage with all shades of opinion or does he genuinely not understand the contradiction at the heart of these statements? I must say, none of the possible explanations bodes particularly well for the quality of the final outcome of his deliberations.

RICHARD THOMSON
Western Avenue
Ellon, Aberdeenshire



I really couldn't have put it better myself. Oh, wait a minute...

11 comments:

Jeff said...

I thought you'd beaten me to the punch when I saw your title there Richard.

I have a very rough and ready rebuttal of the 25 points raised by The Scotsman over on my own blog, points which you're of course welcome to skim through before you do a more thorough job of taking The Scotsman to task.

I'm amazed how quickly people write things off as "unworkable" before giving it a try. Sums up the slightly pessimistic attitude in some quarters of Scottish life I suppose. Quarters where the optimistic, can-do SNP light is yet to shine brightly dare I say!

Liked the letter by the way. The Calman Commission is fast becoming a waste of considerable time. (How long has it been up and running for now? Feels like years...)

Richard Thomson said...

Cheers Jeff. My heart sank a bit when I saw you'd already done it, but there's no harm in someone having another crack, I suppose.

And you know what Harold Wilson said about the Kilbrandon Commisison, in which I suppose Calman follows in the footsteps of? It's purpose was to spend years taking minutes...

Jeff said...

"It's purpose was to spend years taking minutes..."

Great line! I had university lectures that could be summed up that way too...

And shame I stole your thunder slightly but to keep the analogy going I went through it at lightning pace (most of which at a bleary-eyed 7am) so I hope you go for it as it's bound to be a better job...!

Richard Havers said...

You boys are having a bit of a LIT love-fest; although you have to I know....something about being on message :)

It's Loco not Local!

Richard Thomson said...

Don't locos of the more conventional kind have a habit of arriving? :-)

Richard Havers said...

Good one Richard.... sometimes to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.

And of course the true success is to labour!

Richard Thomson said...

Providing it's on track and can negotiate some of the remaining points, I'm confident it'll arrive on schedule without hitting the buffers.

Richard Havers said...

If it does, in substantially the form that has been laid out, i'll buy you lunch!

Somewhere civilized too!

Richard Thomson said...

As long as it's not a National Express East Coast buffet car, you've got a deal!

Richard Havers said...

Certainly not! How about the Malt Whisky Society?

Richard Thomson said...

Sounds grand. I'll hold you to that :-)