In the public interest
I am sufficiently realistic and world-weary to be aware that much of what passes for news in today's media leaves folk less than intrigued.
For example, I do not imagine that families crowd round the wireless, calling Granpa in from the shed, to hear my latest meanderings upon the relative state of Scotland's political parties.
However, there are exceptions. There are certain stories which interest the public - as well as being in the public interest.
The dispute at Grangemouth is one. Folk want to know what's going on.
They want to know if they can continue to get petrol and diesel. They want to know if major public services will be affected. They want the latest news.
They also want their political leaders to act in their interests, to intervene where possible to improve matters.
They will be particularly impatient with grandstanding. Holyrood, I would suggest, mostly rose to the occasion today.
The questions were, mostly, concerned with the public interest. In response, the first minister gave considered replies, appealing for calm.
Labour's Wendy Alexander chose to pursue Mr Salmond with accusations he led a "special access government". He denied the charge.
Public mood
On another day, this might have been a useful exchange on the nature of political power.
Today, with the break-down in the Grangemouth talks to the fore, it was the wrong call.
Annabel Goldie, Nicol Stephen and a succession of backbenchers questioned the FM about the implications of the Grangemouth dispute. That, I believe, matched the public mood.
After all, MSPs are elected to hold the administration to account - on behalf of the people.
Mr Salmond faced competing demands. Ms Goldie wanted him to support ending the strike pending further negotiations over the issue of future pension provision.
Labour's Cathie Peattie wanted him to "support the workers".
The FM trod a careful, cautious path - although I would suggest he was notably warmer towards the approach adopted by Ms Goldie without in any way denigrating the demands of the workforce.
He called for calm, for an end to conflict by soundbite, for focused negotiations. Pretty much, I would guess, what the voting, driving public wanted to hear.
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Actually I think it is time for our elected representatives (and the UK government) to step in and support the workforce. There is nothing to negotiate. The workforce are simply trying to protect what they already have. Ineos are trying to make a unilateral change to employment contracts simply to increase already vast profit margins. That is inexcuseable and should be told this by our politicians (whatever their party is) at Holyrood and Westminster.
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Who is advising Wendy Alexander on her choice of questions?
She may well have a point that the FM is cavalier and Presidential in his decision-making, although many would see it as strong leadership. But raising this today and ignoring the big issue makes her look out of touch with the people of Scotland.
Not only that, she has lost the opportunity to launch this "special access" line of questioning on a quieter news day when it might have generated some decent coverage for her party.
Next time she makes this claim, the FM will no doubt be ready with a robust defence of his own Government and a list of individuals and groups who always had the ear of the previous administration.
But Wendy Alexander wasn't the only one who got it wrong today. Nicol Stephen's whole scaremongering performance made it so easy for the FM to tell him off like a naughty school-boy.
Hopefully the FM's comments and the statement later today will calm everyone down and reassure the country that there's plenty of petrol for everyone. But just in case, I'm off out to fill up my tank!
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Brian
Wendy Alexander once again showed how shallow she is, she just does not understand what is important to Scotland and the population. She continues to nit pick with her mantra everything the SNP does is wrong and we must oppose it. Even if it is worthwile policy like council housing prescription charges etc.
As she has neither the intellect or the intelligence to grasp the big issue, maybe she would be better suited to selling "The Big Issue"
Thought Bella was measured and statesmanlike today with well thought out questions.
Shaking Stevens oh dear, only a complete moron like him could try to make political capital out of the Grangemouth strike. Like the perfect ten his second question is always asked no matter the answer to his first question.
Do the Limp Dems really think people will vote for him???
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I despair at Alexander, she does not seem to know or acknowledge the public mood, in other words, like her master in London she just does not get it. What is happening at Grangemouth is of real import to many Scots.
Salmond has a difficult path to walk on this issue, with responsibilities split between London and Edinburgh. The Tories and the Lib Dems acknowledged that through their questioning, Wendy Alexander, a disaster, completely of the wall. The more perceptive of Labour MSP's (and there are some) must be in despair at this weekly charade.
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i suggest wendy alexander steered clear of this issue today at FMQ's because her and her party are stuck in the middle.one of there core values is of course workers rights. but tony and gordon have sort of added some new ones ,where there new pals who asset strip companys, shut them down and move on are also calling the tune. what's a girl to do? stick up for the workers or stick up for the type people who now fund her party? don' expect wendy to say anything about this unless she is really forced to. sid
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I am sick and tried of hearing about people sticking over changes to their pension funds and damaging every one elses life just because they work in an industry which can do this. I wish they would join the rest of us in the real world where we pay towards our pensions and see it as a part of our working lives now. I agree with both the first minster and Annabell Goldie both sides need to get around the table and resolve this mess now. As both sides are being as bad as each other in terms of this disagreement
In terms of wendy Alexander each time I see her speak now the more I realise I was right to change my vote to SNP and cancel my membership in the labour party. She needs to stop trying to points score and fight for this country and help resolve thinks like the Grangemonth strike
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I hate saying it because it seems like such a cliché week after week- but Wendy really was terrible again. I mean in PMQs sometimes Brown clinches it, other times Cameron is weak, sometimes he gets the better of him, others it?s a score draw. But this never happens with FMQs, Alex Salmond is, admittedly, a very skilled politician. But that is not Labours biggest problem, it?s more that they are bereft of effective politicians, lead by a most unappealing individual and are completely morally bankrupt. To ask about sticking to guidelines and rules so soon after her brush in with the electoral commission and the law was so ridiculous. And as a poster above said, who is advising her on her questioning? Do they live in Scotland?
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Lothian Buses today advise that they will run out of fuel by Sunday evening.
Do neither they nor their fuel supplier not see the possibility of chartering a road tanker to deliver from refineries in either Tees-side or Humber-side? And, let their fuel supplier pick up the tab for the extra haulage. After all, the oil companies have never had it so good. What's a few thousand pounds to a multinational who is making £millions? For goodness sake don't let the oil company pass this charge on to Lothian Buses, they will only raise the fares and Grangemouth workers don't use Lothian Buses. They probably use BMWs and Mercs.
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Big Jim, you are a clown.
You should aspire and strive for better conditions, not complain that those who get better conditions than you should join you in your struggle to get by and worry over how you will continue to get by once you retire.
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The FM said what needed to be said to day. The opposition asked what needed to be asked. The exception, as always, is Wendy Alexander.
Wendy is out of touch with public opinion and out of her class at Holyrood. It clearly can't go on like this.
Westminster has, in Gordon Brown, Mr Bean. Holyrood, unfortunately, has his sister, Has-Bean
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The irony of Wendy potentially standing up for the pension rights of workers after her master stripped the dividend tax credit from those very same pension funds is delicious.
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Yes, this is more like it , this definately is in the public interest.
Grangemouth is the first test of Salmond. He handled it like a statesman. Kudos to him.
Wendy...was woeful....absolutely woeful.
I am glad you finally aknowledged that she made the wrong call.
A democracy needs a strong opposition but I dont think labour have a replacement , so they would rather stick with her .
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Lothian Buses have now announced that they have been assured that their fuel supplies will be maintained and therefore all services will continue as normal.
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I watched Wendy Alexander flounder again at FMQ. The woman is totally out of her depth when dealing with Alex Salmond. It was like watching a one sided tennis match with W.A. weakly lobbing balls over the net only for A.S. to return them with full-blooded smashes. If she doesn?t watch recordings of her efforts at FMQ some kind soul in her party should take her aside and give her some advice. Annabel Goldie was sensible and to the point but Nicol Stephen?s ill-thought out questions received the short shrift they deserved.
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Strathdee47 I have no problem fighting my corner to improve my conditions, the difference is I will always act behind closed and never hold others to blackmail. The other major difference is I realise that in todays world you can't have everything you want you must work together to resolve these challenges through talk. I equally blame both sides to causing this situation.
In terms of the situation at FMQ's we keep seeing the inability of labour to realise what is really affecting the real world of scottish life instead all we see is a weak party, still reelling from being kicked out of power think the public made a mistake. If they keep this up in 3 years time they will lose again.
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Surely the pressing question of the day is this. Did the WENDY use her third question?
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Wendy should have asked today's question last week (it was left to a backbencher to ask it) instead of the nonsense that she did ask or choose not in the end.
It was also very silly to ask about "special access" when you have faced the electoral commission over donations to your leadership election.
She may or may not have a point but as soon as she talks about it the word hypocrite crosses everyone's mind and she gets the putdown that Alex Salmond gave her and that's what people remember.
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Fourth question! Doh.
Brian if you peruse this, can you tell me, is that the first time that wee Jack has spoken in the chamber since the WENDY grasped the mantle?
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Well said Strathdee47, Workers at grangemouth have every right to strike in a concerted effort to protect thier pensions and livlihoods. The Daily Mail undertook a sickening smear campaign of the grangemouth workforce, labelling them "greedy" and "selfish" at wishing to retain thier existing pension arrangements despite earning £40k P/A - Any self respecting hack would recognise that workers in grangemouth are in the same level of demand as our highly skilled offshore workforce - who are rewarded well for thier endeavours - of which includes spending 2 to 3 weeks stuck in a platform in the north sea away from friends and family. The impending skills shortage in the petrochemical sector should serve to further discredit the Daily Mails uninformed view that they are compensated too much for the invaluable work they perform.
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I'm sick of the governments bland reasurances over the risks of fuel shortages, especially when a press statement from the company that own grangemouth tells us that "Scotland is going to run out of petrol." The Scottish Goverment has completely mis-managed this event.
I say PANIC, PANIC, PANIC..!!
Not because of the risks of shortages, rather because the more the government says don't panic buy, the faster the forecourts put up the price.
BUY NOW! FILL UP NOW!....while its still relatively cheap!
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Brian you need to catch up with technology; granddad has at least a radio and in many cases a portable television in the shed/garage; that said I missed today?s debate and your meanderings because I was not at the previously detailed information station; I will hope to catch up this evening.
Now whilst I would affirm that Churchill?s determination that ?to jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war? remains true even today; from the information available I would suggest that Ineos?s choice to shutdown Grangemouth was more about power tactics than the safety concerns they catalogue in what appears little more than a form of subterfuge.
Labour's Wendy Alexander chose yet again to pursue the wrong agenda; no surprise.
Annabel Goldie, Nicol Stephen questions matched the public mood; whilst this was unsurprising for Holyrood?s vixen it is unusual for Nicol Stephen to choose an agenda which is not restricted to a minority view.
Whilst Ms Goldie and Cathie Peattie divided down the Yea Olde lines of employer/ employee I feel I must charge you Brian as an individual with his finger on the pulse to separate fact from sound bite and to bring to us the promises of Ineos made to the workers at Grangemouth, the ones they claim the employer has reneged upon.
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Agreed Brian.In a crisis the FM has always demonstrated a sure touch.Many in Scotland's Labour ranks still seem to hanker after the Class Struggle red in tooth and claw of their student years .Witness Wendy Alexanders promise at The Scottish Conference that Labour is a "Socialist" party.
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The more I find out about this dispute the more my sympathies go to the workforce. It does appear that the company has been the biggest spreader of scare stories. It does seem that the workers are only trying to protect their working conditions. Let us remember that this is not a poor company its profit is measured in £100 of millions. The core is the company trying to close the pension scheme to new entrants, the only reason they can have for this is to increase their profits even further.
The contributory pension scheme is in fact a deferred payment, it is the workers wages paid in the form of payment into a pension scheme, we should be encouraging these not allowing their closing, but of course chancellor Brown had something to do with that, did he not
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Wendy was right. Everyone knew this morning the First Minister was to make a statement on the Grangemouth Strike at
5 p.m. Wendy was right to say the First ScotRail debacle has not gone away. Rail Transport is mega important for all Scots. Why give First Scotrail special access? Wendy was right Brian. This time you are so wrong. Salmond and Stevenson need to come clean - why is big business getting special access. The worker's pensions in Grangemouth are symbolic for every worker in this land. Support the strikers - after all the chairman of this company is no 6 on the Sunday Times Top Ten of richest men in Britain - estimated wealth£3.3 billion!!!
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Wendy is trying so hard to be clever and so hard to put Salmond on the spot that she is missing the plot more times than not but today was an absolute lulu.
The most important incident in this current parliament since the Glasgow Airport car bomb and she chooses to forego any attempts at Statesmanship for a cheap shot at Salmond that nobody outside of Labour fanatics is interested in.
I can see huge changes North and South of the border anytime after May 1st.....unless they need the European Elections to confirm that May 1st wasn't a freak result in which case you can roll those changes on 1 year, but I don't think that will be necessary.
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I'd like to know, who allowed private individuals to own and control our country's energy supplies?. And if the private sector can turn off our basic needs and bring chaos to the country, what do we need the politicians for?.
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Wendy Alexander and I are fortunate enough to use first class rail, I like many other commuters choose the class of travel on my ability to pay,
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" cruiskeen" #26
The answer to your question is, Winston Churchill created the state owned oil company BP, to protect the oil supply for the Admiralty. In the 1980's that great admirer of all things Churchillian, Baroness Thatcher the Snatcher, 'Privatised it along with the Gas, Electric and Water Industries.
Rail was privatised by Tory Bliar, even although his manifesto purported to be against "Rail Privatisation".
As for the 'Grangemouth' dispute, Gordo should tell the 'owners' to keep to there contract or be 'nationalised' without compensation.
Aye an Wendy the Red, McLean and Hardy must be rotatin at a fair rate o' knots at that wan.
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I think the strike is about NEW workers on the site not being given final salary pension schemes. At least this is how the Beeb is reporting it. On that basis, it's pretty hard to understand why the unions are willing to shut the whole place down, when it doesn't actually affect existing workers on the site.
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Yes, not all the ?news? interests folk out there in the ?real world? ? but ?panic at the pumps? certainly gets their attention. Is that why ? almost breathless with excitement ? the Reporting Scotland team has been playing ?panic at the pumps? for all they?re worth all week? Even when the forecourts were quiet and diesel and petrol were flowing they were banging on about it, even more so than the papers. Don?t they have the decency to feel embarrassed at their own antics in talking up the panic? Even with normal levels of supply there will be huge shortages when everyone has been panicked into driving around with full tanks.
So, yes, much of what passes for news may not interest the population at large. But grabbing attention with cheap sensationalized stories, and triggering needless panic, makes the journalists who do it less well regarded and not more interesting.
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Now we will see some action. BP closes forties field supply. So a third of oil stops. Maybe now the ENGLISH Government will 'sort' it out, though why this country should be in this position-relying on private companies- as to supplies of vital fuel is of course a 'wonderment'.
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Non-Labour supporters should simply keep quiet about Wendy Alexander. She's doing a fine job of demonstrating why we shouldn't vote for her and her less-than-appealing party.
It's a surprise - she came into the job with a good reputation for intellectual rigour and new ideas. So far she's demonstrated neither.
To tie this in with the previous blog - the amazing thing is that 33% of the Scottish electorate still say they'd vote Labour. It's absolutely astonishing. Without being too morbid - I think this 'Scottish Labour block vote' will erode over time, as my sense is they're mainly older voters who have the habit of a lifetime. But it's certainly a powerful political phenomenon with which other parties - such as the SNP - have to compete.
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Brian, is right here, as are some other bloggers. A bizarre choice of questions from Wendy at FMQ. That, along with the STUC slanging, just looks bitter and undignified. It isn't opposition, but sniping. I am also unsure what the S. Government can do in industrial disputes. I would doubt that it has legal authority to anything more than take a mediatory role or organise alternative imports of oil in the Grangemouth affair - is this correct?
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I find it particularly interesting that Brian Taylor's assessment is that Ms Alexander made "the wrong call" at FMQs this week following her universally condemned shenanigans last week and numerous other embarrassing performances. Much though I value my own judgment, I defer to the expert.
I had wondered beforehand if she would prove unable to resist the temptation to harp on about "special access" at an FMQ session which clearly required that the most pressing issue of the day, the Grangemouth dispute, be addressed. I confess that I did not quite believe that her judgment could be so flawed.
Carry on the good work of eroding the Labour vote, Ms Alexander. You are a national treasure.
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One useful by product of BP closing their pipeline to Grangemouth it it will hammer home just how valuable Scottish Oil is to BRITAIN in terms of hard cash and fulfilling petrol needs.
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I have to agree with another comment.
The "Don't Panic " from Reporting Scotland team was absolutely ridiculous as it was in ALL scottish newspapers.
Why did they incite panic?
The strike has not even begun yet and Reporting Scotland has spent much energy on telling everyone to PANIC!
Pity they could'nt expend as much energy on reporting fairly on anything which the Scottish Government does!
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While I agree that the media seemed to have 'whipped' this up, I would like to see the press investigating thoroughly, why supplies, ordered as normal, by filling stations, were not delivered AS NORMAL. I admit that I got very worried when I saw the 'NO FUEL' notices, as I needed my NORMAL FILL UP.
WHY? The station said they had ordered as per normal and told that they would be lucky?
WHY? If there are supplies for into next month, are they not being delivered their normal order? If a semblance of normality was maintained, there would not have been as much of a problem.
Sorry, but I am suspecting a hidden agenda here.
Wendy, appearing to be 'unaware' of the outside world only reinforces that view now.
Incidentally, I got topped up for my normal activities like work and getting supplies in for a siege ok. That will be normal until I need 'normally' again.
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As long as Alexander Labour leader the party will continue to die. Simple as that. She must go and go now.
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I don't give two hoots what Wendy or Alex says. I am more concerned about Unite stating that the dispute may escalate.
Ok, so I can understand their point about current pensions being affected, but what the hell has the pensions of people who do not work for the company have to do with it?
The Communications Workers Union tried the same argument.
These left-wing dinosaurs could destroy the Scottish economy.
The only good thing about this whole sorry episode is that it shows Alex Salmond does not have a clue how to deal with it.
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Back in 1984 IBM closed the final salary pension to all new workers. Most large companies have done this a long time ago. I'm afraid it's a sign of the times but companies simply cannot afford final pensions.
They have my sympathy but we lost out back in 1984 and simply had to accept and set up private pensions.
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Brian if the union or their members unilaterally broke or try to break an agreement then the whole lot of the politicians would be on their backs telling them to get real, yet Ineos can break the agreement, can ignore the proper channel to negotiate, and somehow this is ok.
Ineos can scaremonger the public into some panic, ineos management are wholly responsible for the panic buying of petrol and diesel, it was Ineos management that told the media that there would be a shortage of petrol and diesel. Of course the media ever keen to condemn those terrible trade unions were desperate to use this to beat the trade union to submission. No one takes the Ineos management to task for this, in my view this is a criminal act! When will our great and good politicians (either Scottish or UK) take Ineos to task for this!
I in my limited knowledge of Ineos not ever having worked for them or for that matter BP. understand that the plant on occasions shut down for maintenance, this for more than two days plus of course the time lag of the shut down and starting up process, miraculously we don?t run out of fuel.
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This strike is about changes to Ineos' pension arrangements isn't it? Pension schemes all over the private sector have been closed because of tax changes introduced in 1997. The Chancellor who brought these changes in was...
Funny all it all comes back to haunt you!
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Brian,
Name just one instance, that's just one instance, where a question raised by THE BENDY has had any meaningful effect after FMQ??
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I'm with the Grangemouth workers on this. If my employer suddenly wanted to impose an effective wage cut of 6% I would want to go on strike about it too.
And what about all these companies closing final salary pension schemes - what do we tell the school leavers who are walking into jobs with much less in decent conditions than many of us have enjoyed?
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Gordon Brown is in trouble. Fear is in his eyes and the unions smell blood. Hence this opportunistic spate of strikes. The old, hard left is still with us, still hoping. The strike leader's CV puts him up there with all the agitators of the 60s.
Sure, the demise of final salary schemes is bad news. But it was Brown, not employers, who stole our pension funds and caused it all.
Weak government, angry workers, conniving trade union barons... all the ingredients for chaos are there.
Perhaps the workers should reflect on the shipbuilding, steel, motor and mining industries as prime examples. It wasn't Thatcher or employers that killed them. It was their own stupidity in being led into impossible, no-win situations by people who cared nothing for them, but used them shamelessly in pursuit of totalitarian political goals.
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Jings get a grip guys, its blatantly obvious that Wendy has been told by those in the upper elchions of the party not to speak about it because its not a reserved matter?
in many of the party members minds it is felt that they shouldnt talk about anything outwith the current powers of hollyrood so as not to encourage them to mention the fact and give more for their cause (that of independence).
The behaviour of INEOS has been dispicable,they have relentlessly tryed to turn public opinion against the Unions to blackmail their members, to attempt to force them to accept that ne employees are worth less than those already there by giving them a significantly worse deal on pensions than the current employees.
Any fuel shortage has been caused by people running out and usurping as much mpetrol as they can out of fear of lack of supply (Thomas Hobbes may have been right about the natural state of man, waht a selfish bunch) there has beeen no change yet to the supply yet people just need to get a grip of reality
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Re- b_m_edinburgh
I agree with you totally.
What is the worst thing you can do to cause panic? Oh- Just tell them that grangemouth is on strike and to remain calm and not panic buy. Say that lots of times and what do you get. People panic buying.
After hearing the news i certainly went out and filled up just to be on the safe side.
If the news had not made such a big deal about this then i would not have bothered.
The press are really to blame for this.
If they just shut up and gave the mater little coverage then there would be no cause for concern.
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There seems to be an unreasonable climate of abuse from large companies,who wish to exploit workers and in particularly,new foreign workers,it is nothing short than a clear breach of contractual agreement,the idea that a worker who retires without a pension will lead to a progressive society is nonesense,i would urge all workers to support your fellow workers in the fight for the right of dignity in old age.
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Never in the history of industrial relations has a strike been "won." Sure, short-term gains have been made, but always - further down the road - paid for in lost jobs and lost industries. It is ridiculous to see this strike as some kind of SNP v. Labour point-scoring exercise, or good guys against bad guys.
Final salary pension schemes have been closing for years. Brown made them unfundable with his cash grab. This is no different, except Brown is now percieved as weak.
It's clear already that petrol can be brought in from abroad, possibly piped direct to distribution depots. What will the left-wing loonies tell the workers when Grangemouth and district is added to the social wastelands now surrounding formerly thriving industrial sites?
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It is vital to Scotland that pension schemes are properly legislated for. No country today can continue the haphazard way that New Labour treats what can be a very serious issue in years to come.
Contrary to what some right wing posters on these forums claim, it would not be appropriate for only the employees to make contributions to their retirement. Much of the capitol that is generated by business is quite wrongly being taken out of Scotland.
Scotland needs a healthy pension fund system, to finance future growth in it economy. There are returns to be made by both the economy and the retirees. This is the essential ingrediate that Scotland people tend to forget. There will never be steady growth in the Scottish economy until the Scottish Government Legislates for the same system used by countries all over the world. 6% contributions from both the Employer and the Employee would guarantee less financial demands on future generations, who shall inherit a growing retiree base.
Ineos has left a very large 430 million black hole in its pension schemes. This is money that belonged to the employees not the company. Gordon Brown and Tony Blair stuffed up again.
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"I am sufficiently realistic and world-weary to be aware that much of what passes for news in today's media leaves folk less than intrigued".
Well Brian; you must know there are also many news items that the media give inadequate reports on?. You must also know there are many important issues that are left completely unreported?.
As a political commentator for the BBC, who regard themselves as the world best news reporting media; `should you not be using your privileged position to rectify the situation`?.
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Not the most important, but to me the most interesting thing about all the Grangemouth coverage were the figures accompanying the stories, and the total failure of the political analysts like yourself - but you are far from alone -to do some simple arithmetic and draw some highly important conclusions.
Pipeline closure -"£50 million a day loss of which £25 million is loss to Treasury" -"30% of North Sea production"
If true, and certainly its not a loss merely a deferment, that says the Treasury take per year is 3.3*25m*365 or about £30 billion- equal to the total"subsidy" Holyrood gets from London - a subsidy?
And the 70 pence tax per litre and the effect of this and the oil price hike on inflation and regressive taxation - this figure up from some 60 pence a year ago.
These figures say to me that the tax take and the price to the consumer could be reduced by 10 pence and the total tax take would remain what it was, and inflation would reduce. Unless Mr Wickes ourEnergy Minister was correct in asking what cuts should be made to allow for this, which implies that Darling's Budget was predicated on an oil price, and consequential
tax revenue of $120 a barrel - surely not entirely prudent!
And Darling will still have for the UK Treasury the huge increase in PRT, unless, as we were told by those honest politicians in the 70s, 89s and 90s the oil is about to run out and before then it certainly could fall to $30 a barrel again.
Should Taylor, Fraser and McWirter not look at these figures - I dont expect Alf Young to do so.
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