Alastair Ross

So now we have the great referendum debate.

The SNP want to include 16 and 17 year olds who, they clearly calculate, are more likely to vote with the nationalist fervour of youth – especially as they are to get lessons in Scottishness and every school now has its Saltire courtesy of the Scottish Government. The SNP also want to set the date at a time when there will be another upsurge in Scottish national euphoria with the commonwealth games in Glasgow as well as the second homecoming.

It’s all very transparent: “lets arrange it as much in our favour as possible” seems to be the rule. But what government didn’t do that? Labour and Tory governments down the years have done their best to choose general election dates in their favour. It’s human nature to look for advantage so Salmond’s choice of date is totally unsurprising.

What is totally unacceptable is attempting to gerrymander the electorate by including 16 and 17 year olds.

Whether Salmond gets his way remains to be seen. But whatever happens he now has his next move lined up. If he is thwarted on the date he’ll claim it was undemocratic, and if he gets his way he’ll claim it underpins his legitimacy.

The challenge now is to establish a referendum that is fair, is decisive, and is not unduly dominated by short term euphoria.

If Scotland chooses independence let it be arrived at soberly and advisedly after careful thought, not after a few weeks of flag waving and cheering of our own athletes.

What it all tells me is that the SNP hope you will make an emotional decision not a rational decision.

The opposition think they can win the economic argument by just wailing about cuts on behalf of their public sector union paymasters. They give no credible alternatives for what they would do about Britain’s economic crisis.

What they also like to ignore is some of the changes that are being made towards making this country fairer. Here is a list of cuts Liberal are talking about because they are mostly happening through Lib Dem action and pressure.

• The CUT from £250,000 to £50,000 in the maximum annual pension contribution to receive tax relief – clawing back a staggering £4,000,000,000 (£4bn) that Labour was giving to the rich.
• The CUT in bank profits with a new tax raising £2.5 bn a year.
• The CUT in regional disparity through the £2.4 bn regional growth fund.
• The CUT in tax paid by ordinary people with the basic tax threshold raised to £8,105 by next April from £6475 in 2010/11 – and no more 10p tax rate fiascos.
• The CUT in the 40% tax threshold meaning the better off pay more.
• The CUT in money that Labour allowed people to make in Capital Gains with the tax rate rising from 18% to 28%.
• The CUT in pensioner poverty with a triple lock guarantee of rises and the biggest ever cash rise coming in April 2012. No more 75p-per-week insults.
• The CUT in the gap between rich and poor through the VAT rise. Remember those who spend most pay most and the basic costs of living don’t have standard rate VAT.
• The CUT in benefit fraud with new resources being brought in.
• The CUT in tax evasion by the rich with £900m of extra resource.
• The CUT in education disadvantage for poorer children through the Pupil Premium.
• The CUT in the amount per month students will have to pay back after graduation and a higher threshold before they start paying anything.

Remember, the last government didn’t deliver these changes in their 13 years of government and voted AGAINST them in this government. Lib Dems in parliament are pushing a real fairness agenda.

By the way, just for good measure we also CUT Tory plans to increase the Inheritance Tax threshold from £350,000 to £1,000,000!

I am delighted to see that Huntly has been selected as one of 47 communities across Scotland which are to receive next generation broadband.

Broadband access is a major issue throughout rural Scotland. Too often we see further investment in major cities while the rural majority get left behind. So it is very gratifying to see that Huntly (along with Banchory, Culter, Peterhead, Portlethen, Kintore, Lossiemouth, and Bucksburn) is going to receive a major upgrade in broadband service.

Lets hope this is a harbinger of good things to come for even more settlements across Aberdeenshire.

There is a new e-petition to End Legal Loan Sharking.

You can sign up on the Governments e-petitions website by clicking the link above.

I decided to sign it as I am very concerned about the extraordinary rates of interest being charged by the so-called payday loans companies.

Many of you will have seen TV advertisements for short term payday loans. Check out the APR that appears in the small print at the bottom of the screen. One that I checked out this morning (November 14) quotes “Representative APR 4124%”.

By comparison, credit cards are quoting rates around 15 – 30% with a few somewhat higher than that. The dearest I found in a quick trawl was nearly 50% – still nearly 80 times less expensive than a payday loan.

One website quoted Representative APR 4124%

The petition calls on Government to introduce caps on the total cost of credit, so that British consumers get the same protection from payday lenders, home credit companies and hire purchase agreement providers as enjoyed by others across the world. Given the evidence of growing numbers of UK consumers getting into debt as a result of these forms of credit we call on the UK Parliament to act on this matter before Christmas in order to defend British consumers from the legal loan shark industry.

North East Liberal Democrat MPs today welcomed the news that Scottish and Southern Energy and Shell had entered into a joint development agreement to develop a carbon capture and storage project on their at the Peterhead plant in Aberdeenshire. The news comes soon after the decision not to progress the CCS project at Longannet in Fife. They called on the UK Government to get behind the project.

The Peterhead project is dependent on funding from both the EU and from the UK Government (details below). The project will build on pre-FEED studies already carried out by Shell at Longannet and SSE and Shell are confident that, funding permitting, the Peterhead project can be accelerated to begin a full FEED study in mid 2012.

Sir Robert Smith MP, member of the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change and MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine said:

“I have written to Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to highlight the advantages of the Peterhead project. The North East of Scotland is perfectly placed geographically for ease of transport of the CO2 to the North Sea fields and the region can also draw on the vast expertise and experience of the Aberdeenshire Oil and Gas industry. This is an opportunity for both Scotland and the UK to take a lead in this exciting and rapidly developing industry.”

“With gas likely to play an increasingly important role in the UK’s energy mix, it is essential that CCS is tested on gas-fired power stations.”

Malcolm Bruce, MP for Gordon who is vice chair of the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group, PRASEG added:

“The consortium’s announcement today is clearly welcome both for Aberdeenshire and Scotland. CCS is an extremely cost effective way to reduce emissions and presents a huge opportunity for UK technological leadership, bringing prosperity, growth and jobs in the low carbon economy. However, we must learn the lessons from Longannet and I urge both Governments to work together to ensure that a streamlined funding and construction process is put in place to deliver the commitment to the project as smoothly and swiftly as possible.”

NOTES:

The agreement will enable the project to accelerate a programme of pre-FEED (Front-End Engineering Design) studies, with the intention that the project will be in a position to begin a full FEED study in the second half of 2012, subject to progress with funding proposals submitted under the EU’s NER300 process and developments in the UK’s CCS demonstration programme.

The project aims to design and develop a full chain, post-combustion CCS facility which will be capable of capturing CO2 from one 385 MW combined cycle gas turbine unit at SSE’s Peterhead Power Station. It is planned that the CO2 will then be transported to the Shell operated Goldeneye gas field in the North Sea using, as far as possible, existing infrastructure

SSE will lead on all aspects of the capture plant at Peterhead, including initial compression and dehydration; with Shell examining all other aspects, including onshore and offshore transportation and storage.

In May 2011, the UK government announced that the Peterhead project was one of seven UK CCS applications to the European Investment Bank for consideration in the EU’s NER (New Entrant Reserve) scheme to support CCS and renewable energy projects across the EU. Up to three such projects may be supported per Member State. A decision has recently been taken not to proceed with the CCS project proposed for the coal-fired power station at Longannet in Fife, which had been one of the seven UK CCS applications.

As you may know the Council is seeking partners to take long term leases on its existing Caravan Parks. We want competent people to take over these assets and use their expertise to move them forward in the interests of the communities they serve.

Tonight, at the Donside Community Council, we heard from one business interested in taking over management of the Haughton Caravan Park.

Haughton is a good asset and ripe for a capable operator to come in and improve it as a business and as an asset contributing to the whole of Alford life. And any business bringing in visitors has to be welcomed. It brings business to shops, cafes, restaurants, and other venues just like our other visitor attractions.

Our aim is, and must continue to be, to secure the future of these assets for the benefit of our communities. So far as I am concerned any proposal that meets that simple criterion should be acceptable in principle.

Obviously the Council will want to get the best deal possible. There are two ways to look at that idea of the “best deal”. The council could simply seek to get the best for itself and maximise rental income. A better interpretation is that the Council should get the best deal for the local community – even if that is not the best rent for the Council. I’m glad to say that the law does allow Councils to make that better choice – provided there is a reasoned justification in terms of local community interest.

I hope those interested in Haughton Park will make a strong proposal that can meet the aspirations of Alford and satisfy the Council’s needs to demonstrate community value.

Today BT announced price increases for phone and broadband services. No doubt they feel that they have to make these increases. At the same time many workers in both public and private service are having to accept multi-year pay freezes.

I hope that the general public are not going to be paying for pay rises and boardroom bonuses in BT. Perhaps they can explain why these price rises are being imposed now? And bear in mind that a great deal of BT revenue comes from capital assets that have long since been paid off. I daresay they too are suffering cost increases for fuel and other material resources needed for new investment. I’d like to know, and I submit MP’s should be asking, what our big corporations are doing to fend off these rises. Public service workers are not getting any increases to fend off cost of living rises. I hope the same is true in those big corporations that are, for most peoples practical purposes, still state wide monopolies.

The whole country needs to pull together at this time. There is no room in our society for individual greed.

I hope the government will bear down hard on those who step out of line to take advantage of what they may percieve as their market dominance.

Forgive me for raising a matter of national interest. But actually national matters are important too – and especially when they go to the heart of our national culture.

Liberal Democrats hold “fairness” at the heart of our system of values. That may sound a little old fashioned, yet values – those overarching standards of right and wrong – are what actually holds the fabric of society together.

Amongst many other things “fairness” means that people with power and privilege must not use those privileges for personal gain for themselves, their friends, and their families. Sadly, abuses do go on. Thank goodness then that we have a free press to hold wrongdoers to account when they abuse those privileges. And thank goodness that our media are not prepared to tolerate wrong doing by others such as News International.

So with all this current focus on abuse of privilege – and particularly the chronic abuses by some parliamentary lobbyists – its disappointing (yet dismally unsuprprising) to witness the transparent opportunism of some leading politicians who have belatedly decided to become very concerned about the problem. Who is leading who we ask – the people or the politicians?

I’m glad to say that Liberal Democrats have been leading.

We have been raising this issue for a long time. Cynics will tell you it’s because nobody felt the need to lobby Liberal Democrat MP’s because we were too small to matter. Too small perhaps, but as so often happens taking a principled lead where others had something to lose. How times change. Liberal Democrat MP’s are now part of the Coalition Government in the interest of stable and principled government.

That’s why there is a commitment to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists in the Coalition Agreement.

Ed Miliband’s sudden interest in getting to grips with lobbying is mere opportunism, not least as he and his shadow cabinet voted against Liberal Democrat proposals for greater transparency on this very issue when they were in government.

Liberal Democrats are the only party to have consistently called for reform of the rules around lobbying, that’s why there is a commitment to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists in the Coalition Agreement.

On this issue, like many others, Liberal Democrats will deliver where the last government failed.

It was an easy and obvious choice.

Yesterday, at a meeting of Aberdeenshire Council we faced a motion from SNP councillor Brian Stewart that could have led to Aberdeenshire Council beginning the process toward building a new headquarters near Inverurie. The idea was first mooted by Cllr Stewart at a meeting of the Policy and Resources committee a couple of weeks ago. It appeared again at the full council meeting yesterday where there were some valiant but unsuccessful attempts by his more sensible colleagues to reclothe it in more anodyne terms. We all knew what he had really proposed and were having none of it.

A project like that would cost the price of three schools – possibly more.

So if you think a planned new school near you might have been at risk then sit up and pay attention. Liberal Democrats voted solidly against the SNP idea. Many other sensible people also voted against and the motion got defeated 35 votes to 27.

Astonishingly, the nationalists voted for it en bloc – a clear case of misplaced loyalty taking precedence over the real interests of the people of Aberdeenshire.

Fortunately sense prevailed yesterday and your schools are safe – at least for now.

We need better schools, better roads, better health and better housing. These are our proper priorities.

I spoke strongly against the SNP motion. Alford Academy is a key priority for me. I am never going to support a council HQ over new schools. Nor, I suggest, would any right thinking councillor.

I despair. I really do.

Today on the BBC website there is a story titled Failed fire project wasted £469m, says committee of MPs.

The gist of this sad tale is that there was an attempt in England to consolidate 46 smaller emergency 999 centres into 9 regional centres. The attempt has failed and we, the public, have wasted £469M in the process. It seems we just do not have the skills to run big projects of this kind. There is a litany of basic failures familiar to anyone who has been involved at any level in running projects. And these basic failures are not confined to England.

In Scotland we can look back ruefully on the Scottish Parliament fiasco. We can look on in awe and ponder the folly and myriad failings of the Edinburgh Trams project. Nearer home we can also worry about Aberdeen City proposals for the Union Gardens project.

So with all this ill-judged over-exuberance, and our civil servants palpable lack of track record to deliver these mega-projects, you might get round to wondering if the SNP’s latest plans for a Single Scottish Police force and Single Scottish Fire Service have any hope of succeeding.

I worry about it.

Say it quickly and the idea is simple and superficially appealing. But the devil is always in the detail – as it was in the Scottish Parliament contract, as it is in the Edinburgh Trams contract and, as we now know, in the English Fire Centres project.

Does anyone sponsoring these projects ever look at the detail? Or is all that detail too tedious for our government – stuff to be left for Civil Servants to work out?

If there was one project that we really should support it would be a project to embed really strong project management skills into Government. Even there the risks are high. Anyone who has practised in that art knows why: too many customers with conflicting objectives and too little political commitment to rigorous change control.

People in politics (and that includes me) are good at the “unbridled optimism” phase. We all need to get a lot better at the “sober reflection” step before these vastly expensive projects get the go ahead.

The SNP’s latest vanity flagship bears the marks of doom. Multiple different needs and multiple objectives in multiple rural areas conflicting with the multiple objectives of urban and industrialised areas. How long before some genius comes up with a plan for a single national 999 control room?

Maybe I’ll get to eat my hat yet. But I don’t think so – not on this one.

Who will pay the price? Have a look in your mirror.