Tradition.

"GORDON BROWN will hit the campaign trail in the crucial Glenrothes by-election. He has insisted in the past that he supports the tradition of Prime Ministers not getting involved in by-elections. But in the wake of a rousing conference speech, he is set to campaign in the constituency before a date for the contest - believed to be November 6. That way he will not be breaking the tradition."

Tradition probably doesn't apply when you are the Member of Parliament for the seat next door. Tradition will be even more difficult for the voters to understand when Labour loses the seat. Then again Labour losing elections is actually becoming a bit of a tradition.

Another Fine Mess?

Alex of Arabia.

Mr Smith was interested to read that the Scottish Government is apparently approaching middle eastern bankers based in Qatar to try and borrow the cash to keep its spending plans on track.

"ALEX Salmond, the First Minister, has been accused of going cap in hand to the Middle East for money because his schemes to pay for Scotland's infrastructure have failed. It has been revealed that Mr Salmond will visit Qatar to ask for loans for projects such as the new Forth Road Bridge. The practice of borrowing Middle East money is being considered by many Western governments, because there are religious-based laws there against charging interest on loans."

Others have questioned the human rights record of the government of Qatar but that doesn't appear to have put off Mr Salmond. He appears happier to deal with a middle eastern regime, rather than the UK Government.

Sold Short.

"THREE MORE of Alex Salmond's economic advisers work for firms that profit from a form of share speculation the First Minister has blamed for the decline of Scotland's oldest bank. One of the companies that "short-sells" shares, Morgan Stanley, last year received a £6 million grant from the SNP Government to boost jobs in Glasgow. It has also emerged that the Scottish Government is funding another business, Timberpost, which creates artificial intelligence for short-selling firms."

Mr Salmond was wrong in his comments that "short selling" brought down HBOS. The reality was that it was bad management by those running the company which resulted in the bank's demise, but the involvement of Scottish Government advisers in the very practice Mr Salmond condemned illustrates that the Scottish Government is more obsessed with style rather than with substance than it ever has been before.

Sorry.

And another dodgy councillor who had to apologise.

"A TORY councillor has been forced to apologise after using the phrase "n***** in the wood pile" during a public meeting. George Turnbull made the comment while discussing a planning application in his home town of Hawick, Roxburghshire ... Turnbull said yesterday: "For the avoidance of doubt, it was an inadvertent, insensitive and stupid thing to say for which I apologise unreservedly."

But he shouldn't have said it in the first place.

Sexist Cop?

"AN anti-terror police chief is being probed over sex discrimination claims by a high-flying female officer. Chief Inspector Allison Strachan complained about her boss and former flatmate Superintendent Keith Chamberlain."

The rest of the story makes interesting reading, and gives a tremendous insight into the life and times of the modern day police officer.

Dodgy Again.

It appears that our elected representatives just can't control themselves.

Is he another dodgy councillor?

"A POLITICIAN has been charged by the fraud squad over his expenses claims. Tommy Williams, 55, faces court after a two-year probe. The Sunday Mail revealed in October 2006 he was one offive Renfrewshire councillors being investigated."

P.A.T.S.I.E.s

Very strange article in Monday's Scotsman about the latest acronym to grace the Scottish politicial scene ... PATSIES. Yes. That's right. PATSIES ...

"THIS week MSPs will be considering a motion by Keith Brown, the Nationalist MSP, into the welfare of veterans across Scotland. While the former Royal Marine's motion is about veterans of the military variety, some of the more grey-tinged MSPs might reflect that political veterans need some protection too.Holyrood may not immediately be associated with 1980s Yuppie culture, especially after the roasting they gave financial speculators in the aftermath of the HBOS disaster. But the Scottish Parliament has its own form of Yuppies, probably better termed Patsies (politically ambitious twenty somethings) who form the backbone of research and media staff employed by MSPs."

An alternative view might be offered by the online dictionary Mr Smith consulted.

"patsies –noun, plural -sies. Slang.
1. a person who is easily swindled, deceived, coerced, persuaded, etc.; sucker.
2. a person upon whom the blame for something falls; scapegoat; fall guy.
3. a person who is the object of a joke, ridicule, or the like."

Which one is it? You decide.

Wizard Idea.

"MILLIONAIRE Harry Potter author JK Rowling has given a £1 million donation to the Labour Party, the party announced today. The donation comes as a major boost to the cash-strapped party and its leader Gordon Brown as the annual Labour conference starts in Manchester. Rowling, whose fortune was estimated at £560 million in this year's Sunday Times Rich List, is known to be a personal friend of Mr Brown and his wife Sarah. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "I am delighted that JK Rowling, who is one of the world's greatest ever authors, has made such a generous donation. "I thank her for supporting the Labour Party and our values of social justice and opportunity for all."

But the People's Party is still in debt to the tune of an estimated £17 million.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to write a cheque for one million pounds as a political donation?

He's A Fire Starter.

Is it just Mr Smith or were the comments last week by new Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray in his first First Minister's Questions in relation to the demise of HBOS rather intemperate?

Suggesting that speculators, whom Mr Gray thought brought down HBOS, deserved to be heading to "the fire" seemed more worthy of a middle eastern totalitarian regime rather than an allegedly enlightened western democracy.

Here's hoping Mr Gray learns how to tone it down a bit, or we might just find that we have ended up with a religious fundamentalist in sheep's clothing.

Parking Bays.

Mr Smith is all for equal rights for people, but Jackie Baillie MSP's proposals for legislation on strengthening the powers in relation to the misuse of disabled parking bays may be one idea that goes to far.

"Plans to hammer able-bodied drivers who park in disabled spaces could have big financial consequences for Scottish councils. Dundee City Council has revealed that the cost of setting up and running the scheme would be around £330,000 in the first year."

If it is going to cost Scottish councils millions of pounds to enforce the new legislation and the actual benefit of the moves may be quite limited by comparison, this seems to be going to far. The whole point of disabled parking bays is to make it easier for disabled people holding blue badges to park, but that is not a right, it is merely an additional benenfit which society has chosen to create.

To Mr Smith this smacks of the Dog Fouling Act and the Breastfeeding Act which were well intentioned measures when the Scottish Parliament passed them but which have generated minimal public policy benefit.

Go West Young Man.

Mr Smith thinks there are probably a lot of youngsters who didn't think through fully the implications of becoming councillors last year, with the result many of them are now having a serious change of heart.

"A 20-year-old deputy civic leader was urged to quit his post he prepares to return to university. John West, who at 18 became Scotland's youngest councillor in May last year, is due to begin a degree in history with politics this month at Aberdeen University. He previously studied law at the university, but dropped out last year."

Mr Smith thinks the bottom line is that if you have committed to being a Councillor and are drawing at least £16K a year as a salary for doing it, you should do it to the best of your abilities. If that isn't possible then you should resign and let someone else takeover.

After all, no-one was forced to put their names forward for election. We do live in a democracy.

Bread And Butter.

Wouldn't it be nice to forget about constitutional politics and get back to the nitty gritty of public policy? More jobs, better schools, better healtcare, lower taxes .... on yourself Annabel. You're onto a winner ... at last.

"ANNABEL Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, yesterday took her party's campaign to Northern Ireland, with the message that Conservatives on both sides of the Irish Sea want to work on "bread and butter issues" instead of the constitution. "

Big Government.

Mr Smith was interested to read the latest figures relating to public sector employment in Scotland.

"THE number of Scots working in the public sector has risen by nearly 50,000 since devolution. As new figures revealed unemployment creeping up, statistics also showed nearly 576,000 people worked in the public sector in the second quarter of this year."

That's 576,000 people that don't have to worry about losing their jobs in the forthcoming economic recession, at least compulsorily. But does Scotland really need a public sector that big?

Tax And Spend.

"FORMER First Minister Henry McLeish claimed Scotland's power to vary taxes by 3p will never be used. Henry McLeish told the Calman Commission on devolution that he believed the tax varying power should be scrapped. And he told the Commission that the power was a "real problem" in negotiating further powers for the Scottish Parliament."

Hang on. If the Scottish Parliament won't ever use its existing tax varying powers and they should be abolished ... what would the point then be in replacing them with different powers over other forms of taxation?

If the Scottish Parliament doesn't feel it can use its powers to raise or cut income taxe rates why should they should be trusted with powers over even more forms of taxation?

In The Bag?

Another dodgy Councillor?

"AN ABERDEEN councillor is at the centre of a police investigation into an alleged theft at the city’s airport, the Press and Journal can reveal. Conservative Alan Donnelly, who works part-time for a baggage-handling firm, has been reported to the procurator fiscal’s office. The member for Torry and Ferryhill last night described the allegations as a “big hullabaloo”, which had been “blown out of all proportion”.

The Times Are Changing.

It would appear to Mr Smith that the landscape of Scottish politics is shifting.

Last week we had Conservative Leader Annabel Goldie MSP call for cuts in Council Tax, and over the weekend we had a call from Liberal Democrat Leader Tavish Scott MSP for the Scottish Parliament to use its powers to cut two pence off the basic rate of income tax in Scotland to alleviate some of the pressure from increasing household bills.

Suddenly, Scotland is being offered tax cuts by politicians who haven't offered that choice before. Mr Smith finds it all very strange. But the sad thing is that Mr Smith doesn't think they are actually being serious.

They've Been Tango-ed.

They are the boys in orange.

"ID photos of new recruits are causing police bosses a headache because they are too orange. Some warrant-card photos for the Strathclyde Police rookies have had to be electronically adjusted because of their lurid colour."

You couldn't make it up. Too much Tango perhaps, or fake tan?

Baby-Face.

And he's a former Catholic priest to boot. It makes it more difficult for people to question his motives.

"TO HIS colleagues, he was an unlikely assassin. A former Catholic priest who quit his vocation to pursue his political ambitions, David Cairns was a loyal Labour MP who had never voted against the government and had been rewarded with a ministerial post in the Scotland Office. But last night, he became the most senior member of the party to call for Gordon Brown to go, after he was outed as the minister who, 24 hours before, had threatened to resign if Labour lost the Glenrothes by-election. That forced him to step down. His resignation from the Scotland Office came as a surprise to those close to him: only 12 hours earlier, he had not been planning to quit."

And ironically it managed to overshadow the appointement by new Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray MSP of his first Shadow Cabinet. The curse of Wendy Alexander is still alive and well.

He Fought The Law.

Proof that there is indeed life after Holyrood and controversial court cases ... at least for the moment.

"TOMMY SHERIDAN is to start studying to become a lawyer this month. The firebrand ex-MSP, who defended himself against sex and drugs claims, won a place at Strathclyde University."

Given all of his experience of courts and prison cells, the exams should be a walkover for our Tommy.

Mr Harper.

Mr Smith was sorry to read of the imminent departure of Green MSP Robin Harper as one of his party's Co-Leaders and as a Member of the Scottish Parliament in 2011.

"Robin Harper, the veteran leader of the Green cause in Scotland, is standing down from the party leadership with a reform plea to his party. The Lothian MSP, 68, became the first Green parliamentarian in Britain when he won a seat at the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999. He gives up his leadership role in November, when a replacement will be elected, and he is to stand down from parliament at the 2011 election."

Who would want to the Leader of a Scottish political party? Only SNP Leader Alex Salmond and the Conservatives' Annabel Goldie still remain from before the last Scottish Parliament elections of just last year.

Mr Smith thinks the Greens will have a hard time holding Mr Harper's Regional seat in 2011 and the Scottish Parliament will be a more boring and less colourful place than it already is. Any chance of changing your mind Mr Harper? Please?

That Sinking Feeling.

From today's Edinburgh Evening News.

Iain's The Man.

Mr Smith is not sure whether to congratulate Labour's new Leader at Holyrood Iain Gray. The position is a bit of a poison chalice as attested to by the fact Mr Gray is Labour's fifth Leader in Scotland since devolution, but what did surprise Mr Smith is that Cathy Jamieson MSP came second to Mr Gray who eventually won with 57% of the vote having knocked out Andy Kerr MSP on the first ballot.

"JUST MINUTES after being elected as Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray set himself on a potential collision course with London. As he declared victory, the former Scottish enterprise minister said that the nature of his win effectively made him leader of Labour in Scotland, not just of the MSPs in Holyrood. His comments immediately brought a rebuke from Des Browne, secretary of state for Scotland, who said he expected Gray to "respect the structure of this party".

Mr Smith sees it didn't take him long to upset his Westminster Labour colleagues. Start as you mean to go on says Mr Smith.

Not Named And Shamed.

Mr Smith is all for protecting peoples' civil liberties, but when you are a local government councillor drawing an annual salary of £16,500 plus with council tax debts of £500 that seems less important. They should clear their debt or be named and shamed.

"The convener of Highland Council yesterday defended privacy laws which protect the anonymity of any serving councillor who owes the authority hundreds of pounds in unpaid council tax. The Press and Journal has learned that an unidentified councillor was yesterday £570.04 in arrears of council tax."

Another dodgy councillor albeit one that is currently anonymous.

Pension-ed Off.

Wouldn't it be nice to have the taxpayer cough up £32 million to cover a deficit in your pension fund?

"The Treasury accused the SNP of "gesture politics" over the row which saw Holyrood ministers claim they were forced to find £32m to fund a new police and firefighters' pension deal because they were given no money to match an English agreement."

Is there any issue in the world of the SNP controlled Scottish Government that isn't a potential source of disagreement between Holyrood and Westminster? Mr Smith thinks that the more of these argumetns that are had, the more credibility and goodwill the Scottish Government loses in the eyes of the Scottish voter.

There is a limit to how often you can cry wolf, and what happens when there is an issue that really matters?