Populism is a word often flung around the world of politics as an insult; its pejorative connotations hint at laziness, even demagoguery on the part of the accused…
It strikes me that there are a couple of important, issues to emerge from the Stage 3 debate on the Alcohol Bill that are not related to alcohol.
As I write, the internet in our office and the surrounding area is currently down. It contributed to a few searching questions, the most pertinent of which is: how did we, or anyone else, manage to do our job without the internet?
Higher education is likely to play a central role in campaigning in the run up to the Holyrood elections. The issue of funding is controversial, particularly in times where public spending faces a tight squeeze. For a nation so proud of its free education, the prospect of charging students leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
The prevailing wisdom at the moment is that next May’s Holyrood elections are Labour’s to lose. They have a healthy poll lead, buoyed as they were by their remarkably strong showing at the UK general election. They are sensing weakness in their SNP rivals, and they are of course no longer hampered by the contradictory position of being in opposition in Scotland at the same time as being the government in London.
Earlier this week the Scottish Policing Board met to discuss the viability of merging Scottish police forces into three or potentially one force. At the present moment there are eight forces in Scotland and a total of 17,294 police officers, add into this administrative staff (i.e. human resources etc) and I’d estimate that we’re looking at a provider of around 20,000 jobs in Scotland. But, the question being posed is do we need eight separate forces?
Apparently it will take the ‘Toxic Tories’ a massive 25 years to rebuild their flailing reputation in Scotland according to one senior source reported in The Herald. According to another they do not have anyone to match the character of Alex Salmond and according to a third source they need to drop David Cameron as leader of the Conservatives in Scotland.
Rebecca Harris, Tory backbench MP for Castle Point (South East Essex if you were wondering), has tabled a Bill asking the UK government to “conduct a cross-departmental analysis of the potential costs and benefits of advancing time by one hour for all, or part of, the year”.
Labour is on course to win the 2011 Holyrood election. That’s the verdict of the latest TNS-BMRB poll for the Herald, which showed an increase in support for both Labour and the SNP. But will the build up to the Scottish election do anything to fuel the electorate’s fire?
So urgent is the need to find a solution to the matter the Scottish Government has called an Alcohol Summit in the middle of recess. The Government invited opposition parties to the Parliament on Wednesday in order to discuss the Alcohol (Scotland) Bill and specifically the issue of minimum pricing.