General Election?

Barely have we managed to catch our breath after the last election, than another election is potentially about to be unleashed upon us.

At one stage it seemed as if it was full steam ahead for an election with anyone connected with Labour stoking the fires that pointed to an early poll. With the Comprehensive Spending Review and pre Budget report being brought forward ahead of schedule and Labour bods scurrying about trying to raise money an election seemed inevitable.

However, the last three opinion polls have caused Brown to have second thoughts. Indeed in one of the polls, Labour's lead has been wiped out. Will he still want to go for it or will he revert back to type. Becasue for long enough, he had the chance to make his move on Tony Blair, but decided to remain in the background. Will he do the same in deciding to shy away from an election?

However, there is a shadow chasing Brown. He was the most successful Chancellor in recent history, if not ever. But he is aware, perhaps more than anyone, that an economic boom cannot last for ever. Therefore pretty soon, we are going to be facing some tough economic times. Perhaps we are seeing the start of it with the demise of Northern Rock. So he will want to get an election out of the way before the real effect of that kicks in.

Also with Gordon Brown refusing to quell speculation that an election is imminent, it now seems impossible for him not to call one. David Cameron at the Tory Party conference, added to the voices calling for an early challenge to Brown's leadership. This is surely only false bravadoism by Cameron as he has next to no chance of winning. Then it will be bye-bye for him as party leader (could we see the return of William Hague?)

So if there is going to be one, when will it be? The popular thinking of everyone who is remotely interested in politics is that November the 8th is the most likely date of the poll.

But will Gordon Brown have the guts to call it? After all the hype that has been built up, I am now rather looking forward to the prospect, so he had better bl**dy call it!!

Fantasy Football League Table - Week 5

Here is the latest Our Scotland Fantasy Football league table. Why not come over and check it out?

Name DanaBC SLG Reluctant Hero azzuri macnumpty Rinty Scott2006

Played 5 5 5 5 5 4 1

Average 6.6 6.2 4.8 4.6 4.2 4.5 2

Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

High 1 1 3 2 3 1 3

3pts 6 6 4 2 2 2 0

1pt 15 13 12 17 15 12 2

Score 33 31 24 23 21 18 2

Week Sc. 7 3 5 4 6 6 0

Fantasy Football League Table Week 4

Here is the table for the fantasy football league at Our Scotland after week 4. Why not come over and try it out?

Name SLG DanaBC azzuri Reluctant Hero macnumpty Rinty Scott2006

Pld 4 4 4 4 4 3 1

Avg 7.00 6.50 4.75 4.75 3.75 4.00 2.00

Pos 1 2 3 3 5 6 7

High 1 1 2 3 3 1 3

3pts 6 5 2 3 1 1 0

1pts 10 11 13 10 12 9 2

Score 28 26 19 19 15 12 2

Week_Score 7 9 4 6 4 6 0

100 Not Out

Doesn’t 100 days just pass as quick as a flash?

Barely have we recovered from the excitement/trauma (delete as appropriate) of the election, than Alex Salmond is celebrating his 100th day in office.

Of course the SNP had set out what they were going to achieve in their first 100 days a way back in March. This amounted to 49 pledges ranging from scrapping tuition fees to a white paper on independence.

Not to be outdone, Labour also counted the number of pledges in the SNP document released at their spring conference and confounding critics who say arithmetic is getting better, they came up with over 60 pledges. Of these 60 plus pledges, Labour claim only 20 have been delivered and 10 partly delivered.

Two things struck me about this.

Firstly, has Labour not learned anything from the election? Negative politics doesn’t work anymore. They should concentrate on what they would do, how they would do things different and not take cheap shots at their opposition parties. That is how the SNP won the election.
The second thing is that no-one expects a party to implement the majority of policies they laid out before the election, within the first 100 days, no matter what the party says. The important thing is to see if the party is committed to delivering the majority of their policies within the four years period or if they were just electioneering.

From where I am sitting, it would appear that the SNP are committed to delivering the majority of the election promises. Throw in the way Salmond handled the recent foot and mouth crisis and the first suicide attack on Scotland, then I have been satisfied that the Scottish electorate indirectly chose the best candidate to be First Minister.

The Labour party did actually comment on the SNP’s plans for their first 100 days in office back in March. Then First Minister, Jack McConnell, said the SNP were planning chaos and turmoil. Well they can’t have it both ways. They complain that the SNP’s plans would be disastrous, then they complain that they haven’t delivered them!

Labour should concentrate less on the SNP and more on themselves. They need to change. Is Wendy Alexander the person to deliver this change? Or is the Labour Party destined to become the Tory Party Mk II. A party that thinks it has a divine right to be in power but faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Time will tell !

Our Scotland Fantasy Football League Table - Week 3

Here is the table for the fantasy football league at Our Scotland after week 3. Why not come over and try it out?

Name SLG DanaBC azzuri Reluctant Hero macnumpty Rinty Scott2006

Pld 3 3 3 3 3 2 1

Avg 7.00 5.67 5.00 4.33 3.67 3.00 2.00

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

High 1 1 2 3 3 1 3

3pts 5 3 2 2 1 0 0

1pts 6 8 9 7 8 6 2

Score 21 17 15 13 11 6 2

Week_Score 8 7 3 4 2 3 0

Poll Axed

Poll Axed

The latest opinion poll for the Daily Mail was published today and it could not have been better news for the SNP. Support for the party has reached an unprecedented 48% with Labour lagging way behind on 32%. The Lib Dems and Tories are not even in the picture with 8% each.

Labour is still in limbo until they get rid of McConnell and elect a new leader. Who is that leader going to be? Well, the hot favourite in the press is Wendy Alexander. Would this be a step forward for Labour or a step back? Well only time will tell, but what I am interested in at this stage is whether there is going to be an actual leadership contest or will it be yet another coronation?

The Lib Dems must be severely regretting the fact that they did not enter the coalition discussions. For if they had, they may have benefited from this upsurge in support for the SNP and who knows, may even be challenging Labour for second place.

Those are the decisions you live and die by. I just wonder how long Nicol Stephen will remain in his post?

Alex Salmond seems to be making all the right decisions at the moment. Demanding a Scottish Six, visiting flooded areas of Scotland, hosting a function for people responding to the attempted suicide attack on Glasgow Airport, overturning A&E closure decisions and much more.

Even when the SNP were defeated over its transport policy and were forced to support the Edinburgh tram plans, they managed to turn this into a victory of sorts, capping the expenditure budget at £600m.

There are no doubt going to be numerous other challenging moments over the next 3.75 years the SNP have left in government, not least the potential impending recession. However, if Salmond continues in the same manner as he has over the last three months or so, then he will have nothing to fear from Alexander or whoever Labour elect as their next leader.

Over at Our Scotland, there are numerous political and other topics up for debate. Not only that there is a chance to play Fantasy Football, predicting the scores of the SPL every week. We have teamed up with two other messageboards to have an inter-forum league. Why not check it out?

You've Got Mail

I got a letter from Nicola Sturgeon yesterday. Now of course, it wasn’t a personal letter. It wasn’t addressed just to me. It was addressed to every single staff member of the NHS in Scotland. From cleaner to consultant, the letter thanked us for efforts, particularly over the last week or so.

Now this is hardly anything worthy of the BBC running a special news bulletin on, but I think it is extremely significant. It shows, in my opinion, the massive difference between the SNP in government and the Labour Party in government.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole way the SNP has conducted itself in government has been a revelation. Scotland now has a government that is looking out for the interests of Scotland and not just some two bit organisation that answers cap in hand to their masters in London.

Many political commentators who were opposed to the SNP have been taken aback by how well the SNP have adapted to government. Even Iain McWhirter the Sunday Herald political columnist, who spent the run up to the election hoping for a Labour victory wrote, "Perhaps if Donald Dewar had entered government with the same imagination and panache as Salmond, the story of devolution might have been very different."

And Alex Salmond has the perception of how to address issues that Jack McConnell could only dream of. The way he handled the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport was first class.

Now, of course, it is only early days in a new administration. The honeymoon period some might say. The SNP have announced a raft of initiatives which they are looking to pursue. And the public seem to like it. The SNP have pushed ahead in the latest opinion poll ratings.

However, they shouldn’t get too complacent. Announcing initiatives is the easy bit. It is the subsequent pursuit and delivery of these objectives which will prove a rocky road. How the SNP negotiate this road will hold the key to the next election and very possibly Scottish independence