Surprise, Surprise?

Straight from the school of "tell us something we didn't already know."

"ALMOST a third of people in England think Scotland receives more than its fair share of government cash, a survey revealed today. The latest British Social Attitudes report found 32 per cent of people in England felt that was the case. That compares with a total of 22 per cent in 2003, revealing growing concern about the amount of public spending north of the Border."

Keep On Moving.

One story that might have slipped the attention of Mr Smith's readers, but which Mr SMith finds quite worrying. The fact that Scotland's population is up 3% is welcome, but the fact that one in ten of Scotland's population is "new" on top of 385,000 Scots leaving raises worrying questions about the transient nature of the Scottish population, especially when all of this happened in just one decade.

"PEOPLE moving to Scotland from other parts of the UK have boosted the population by more than 150,000 over a decade, new figures revealed. The Bank of Scotland report showed that 542,524 people moved to Scotland from other regions between 1998 and 2007, while only 384,767 left. This increased the country's population by 157,757, a rise of 3%."

One In Ten.

A story which should be of massive concern to all of Scotland's politicians and something that is worthy of further investigation as a matter of urgency.

"NEARLY one in 10 Scots are on anti-depressants, the NHS revealed yesterday. The country's annual bill for the drugs was more than £40million last year, despite a fall in costs. The number of anti-depressants prescribed has more than tripled in the last 15 years, prompting claims Scotland is becoming a "Prozac nation". NHS Scotland statistics revealed prescriptions had grown from 1.16 million items to 3.83million between 1992/93 and 2007/08."

Scotland these days is not so much Brigadoon as Brigadoom. And it will probably only get worse the further we get into the economic recession.

Scotland For Obama.

Good to see that Scotland is playing such a prominent part in the Obama 08 campaign.

Getting Sporty.

Video Killed ...

... One of Scotland's Members of the European Parliament.

"The cross-party campaign to retain Scotland's representation in the European Parliament has been snubbed by the UK Government, with the suggestion that the falling number of MEPs could handle the extra workload by more video-conferencing."

Mr Smith liked the Eighties. He suspects that one of Scotland's MEPs won't. But it is probably the first recorded case of political assassination by video-conferencing.

One in four.

That's the proportion of Scotland's employment that is now acounted for by the public sector.

"In quarter 4 (Q4) 2007, there were 578,300 people employed in the public sector which is an increase of 45,400 (8.5 per cent) since 1999 but a decrease of 4,300 (0.7 per cent) since 2006 ... The public sector currently accounts for 22.8 per cent of employment in Scotland which has decreased from 23.1 per cent both in Q4 1999 and Q4 2006."

Mr Smith isn't a great believer in the old adage that "public is bad and private is good," anymore than he subscribes to the reverse, but does Scotland really need to have 22.8% of its emplyed accounted for by public servants and doesn't that put a major stumbling block in the path of any necessary reform of public services?

Mostly "Superfluous" Politicians.

Mr Smith read with interest the article by Tom Brown in this week's Scotland On Sunday.

"11-a-side is too many in political game ... PSST! Need a new £10,000 kitchen, a luxury three-piece suite, the latest widescreen plasma TV, even free dry-cleaning? Don't be a mug and pay for them yourself, become a MP. Want to make a killing on the Edinburgh property market? Get in quick, because a number of MSPs have. Fancy £145,000 to spend on scams? Easy, get the initials MEP after your name ... Every Scot has no fewer than – count 'em – eleven elected representatives at his or her beck and call. Every Scot can now call on one local councillor, one Westminster MP, one directly elected first-past-the-post MSP, seven regional list MSPs and an MEP. We should be the best-served and most utterly contented constituents in Britain, if not the world."

Much as Mr Smith agrees with Mr Brown's general assertions he has to point out that since last year's council elections in Scotland, most Scots have four locally elected councillors meaning that the average Scot actually has no fewer than fourteen elected representatives ... even worse than Mr Brown suggested. And that ignores the fact that all of Scotland's seven MEPS cover the whole of Scotland and are voted for using PR, so arguably we actually have twenty elected representatives for every Scot. Way too many.

Scotland for Obama.

Mr Smith reads that "John McCain, the Republican presidential contender, and Barack Obama, his Democrat rival, are both descended from the same Scottish king, it has been claimed. According to research by an American genealogist, they share a common bloodline that can be traced to William I of Scotland, or William the Lion. It was disclosed last year that Mr Obama was a descendant of the monarch who ruled Scotland from 1165 to 1214, and his background and upbringing spans the globe ..."

Its a small world afterall. Mr Smith seems to recall that Mr Obama also has connections with current American Vice President Dick Cheney. But Mr Smith's preference is still for Mr Obama to be the next Scottish President of the US.

At the weekends.

So Secretary of State for Scotland and Defence Secretary Des Browne has admitted what everyone already suspected.

"DES Browne has admitted he carries out his duties as Secretary of State for Scotland in his spare time as he attempts to fight claims he is a "part-time" Defence Secretary. His dual mandate at the Ministry of Defence and the Scotland Office has sparked anger from former military chiefs and opposition MPs, who say he needs to devote his entire time to defence matters. Although Mr Browne was in Glasgow yesterday attending a conference on regenerating the city, he made clear that defence took up most of his diary. "I would put my record on commitment and delivery up against anyone's," he said. "The amount of time that [the job of Scottish Secretary] takes comes out of what was my private life, my family's life and my constituents' time."

So much for work life balance. And what about British jobs for British workers? Mr Smith thinks that Mr Browne should give another MP a chance at Ministerial office and stand aside.

Chalk chuckers.

In his youth, Mr Smith's teachers were infamous for one thing and that was chucking chalk at you in class if they heard talking whilst they were scribbling on the blackboard.

But apparently things have improved, "Only three of Scotland's 53,000 primary and secondary teachers were sacked on grounds of incompetence last year despite pledges by previous ministers to clamp down on poor performance in the classroom."

Mr Smith is reassured that there were only three bad teachers in all of Scotland's schools and that they have now all gone, leaving no chalk chuckers. On the other hand he probably thinks that the three teachers sacked were the unlucky ones who's incompetence was so extreme that even their fellow professionals weren't prepared to put up with them anymore. No more chalk chucking then.

Turkeys and Christmas

Straight from the "turkeys voting for Christmas" category come the latest comments from Labour peer and MSP George Foulkes in the House of Lords on 15th October 2007:

"Lord Foulkes of Cumnock: My Lords, I thank my noble friend for not giving a birthday present to the noble Baroness. I tell my noble friend, the noble Baroness and her colleagues that the introduction of proportional representation in Scotland has been an absolute tragedy. We have seen chaos, confusion and cuts. At local government level, we see the Liberal Democrats in an unholy alliance with the Scottish National Party. Will my noble friend assure us that, because of this experience, we will stick to the tried and tested system of first past the post, which has given us stability in this country for decades and centuries?"

Hang on wasn't our George elected to the Scottish Parliament as a Regional List MSP ... using a form of proportional representation? Obviously not a personal "tragedy" for our George then.

We're still empty.

As Billy Connolly famously once said: "Scotland is empty," at least in population terms. But according to the Registrar General, we just got a little less "emptier."

"The number of deaths during the second quarter of 2007 was the lowest ever recorded at that time of year—4% lower than last year—while the number of births was 1.6% higher than the previous year, and the highest at the time of year for a decade."

Gees, soon you won't be able to move without bumping into someone.