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Maurice_Minor

Listed below are comments made by Maurice_Minor between Wednesday, 4th June 2008 and Thursday, 29th October 2009.

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It's FMQs, stupid 3:36pm on 29 Oct 2009 Pity the SNP doesn't view Housing and Regenration as meriting a dedicated front bench portfolio. Perhaps that explains the 37.1% budget cut being proposed by the SNP's draft budget. Good on Iain Gray for giving it the prominence it deserves.

P.S. 13 out of 46 MSPs does not constitute "most of the Labour group" but presumably these are mere details.
'OK pal, outside, now' 1:28pm on 08 Oct 2009 The fifth question being why is Alex Salmond refusing to take part in a St. Andrew's Day debate with Iain Gray. Why indeed?
Trusting the trust 3:22pm on 01 Oct 2009 Was presently surpised to see the Presiding Officer step in to remind Nicola Sturgeon what the question was about. This was not Nicola Sturgeon's finest hour and Johann Lamont was more than a match for her.
Different perspectives 10:08pm on 01 Sep 2009 The SNP have clearly calculated that they will limit the damage to themselves if they implicate Labour Ministers in the decision to free Megrahi even if they officially deny any collusion. If Gordon Brown did not want Megrahi to die in jail why would he push for transfer? The SNP can't have it both ways. If granted Megrahi would have died in a Libyan jail.
Schools of thought 5:51pm on 19 Mar 2009 Brian,

Your update has stolen my thunder somewhat but I offer some tedious but neverthless important facts (my previous attempt above was ruled out to have breached the house rules as it included the weblinks to actual documents.)

As you point out, all of the first schools (Dunning to St. Kentigerns) bar one were approved by the respective Councils before the SNP took office in May 2007. Kingspark in Dundee was approved in October 2008 but, as tradionally procured, it is by definition commissioned by the local Council, not the Scottish Government.

All in the second list (Our Ladys & St Annes to Douglas) are all contained in the South Lanarkshire Schools Modernisation Programme, again pre-dating and approved before the SNP's election.

The next bunch are part of Glasgow City Councils pre-12 strategy, the fourth and final phase of which was approved in February 2007. Again before the SNP took office.

The ones in Dumfries and Galloway were also all approved by the previous Council administration prior to May 2007.

Seaview, as you note, was approved in 2006.

So every single one of those schools except Kingspark in Dundee was left over from before the SNP took office and, as a traditionally procured school, by definition Kingspark was commissioned by Dundee City Council, not the Scottish Government.

Fact: the SNP Scottish Government is yet to commision a single school since it took office nearly two years ago. Not one.

So much for "brick for brick".
'Rip it up and start again' 3:36pm on 12 Feb 2009 The SNP are shamless in blaming a lack of a parliamentary majority for their U-turn when they didn't even bring forward a draft bill. As for "cuts from Westmninster" the pre-budget report has been around for months and was welcomed by the SNP when it was made. It's all a fig leaf to cover up a "policy" which just didn't add up.
Deferred for reports 3:35pm on 25 Jun 2008 What is going to happen to the Standards Committee Clerks who gave out what turned out to be wrong advice? And will there be an inquiry into who leaked the findings a week and a half early? My understanding is that only Mr Dyer, Ms Alexander, the (SNP) Convener Mr Brown and (SNP) complainant where privy to the report's findings. It shouldn't take long.
Reserve strength 5:24pm on 04 Jun 2008 As somone who's family moved to the North-East with the oil boom, the tired old argument about who's subsidising who completey misses the point. Tax revenue should be spent where it's needed not where it comes from. The Nationalists argument appears to be predicated on high oil prices. When the price of oil is as low as $10 a barrell as it has been in the past decade, the proposition of basing an economy and public services on such an erratic commodity seems far less attractive. Let's be fair, we're more than happy to expect the UK's tax revenue to be shared across the whole territory when oil prices aren't so bouyant.

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