nuttyxander

As predicted by lots of people the weather here has gone straight from Winter to Spring. I therefore elected yesterday to walk from Lewes via the south downs into the sea. I’ve put up a reckoned route on OS Explore (beta) and my tracklog onto Nokia Sports Tracker though we managed to walk long enough that I killed the N95 8GB’s battery so the gps track is incomplete :(
We did do a good 18 miles plus. My legs almost feel human again.

I took a few photos as well, bloody glorious day it was.

Tags: photo, walking

“Tonight on Newsnight Scotland, Scottish Politics takes a surreal turn, as Labour demand a referendum on indpendence”

Erm, right. I didn’t think that would happen.

So what’s Wendy Alexander up to? Apparently she’s listened to people. Now, it’s a fine time to finally listen to the people, after the SNP have been in power for a year. Maybe this is Brown finally cracking to a demand Wendy has made many times since taking power, certainly it doesn’t fit that Wendy would just come up with this and then be able to announce it.

Wendy claims the SNP are talking too much about independence without wanting to have the referendum. She’s even slated them for delaying the referendum, but in a way that showed she was basically unaware that the referendum was committed to 2010 in their manifesto. Further, Salmond himself was quoted a few days ago as saying that independence is not the matter in hand just now. Only thanks to Wendy is that the case.

There’s no turning back now, there will be a Scottish Independence Referendum. To steal Mr Dewar’s words. I Like That.

Shame the question will be a complete pain though. How on earth are Labour going to help draft a question? How can they do this positively? Wendy herself has ruled out a referendum on Calman Comission’s proposals, but she can surely change her mind on that – I’d hope for the sake of political sanity that she does.

The SNP, of course, already have their question out there, and more in the white paper that kicked off the national conversation. Indeed they’ve described a potential devolution max option which may well be what Calman and his commission deliver.

No-one wants to campaign for the status quo, and Labour are on a hiding to nothing if they have nothing positive to offer Scotland. A failed yes/no to independence referendum will not be an achievement for Labour, nor will it be the undoing of the SNP. It just confirms the position for a generation. No more, no less.

Meanwhile as I type this News 24 (up to the minute news from the BBC) are repeating a fascinating HardTalk interview with Alex Salmond.

I’m guessing they recorded it on Friday or Saturday. It seems a fragment of history already.

Tags: politics, scotland

You may be glad to know I’ve got back into the habit of updating my flickr and taking more photos. Here’s a few recent photos I’ve taken and think are alright.

Now that I’ve got both facebook and this blog feeding from flickr I’ll ensure that I use it as my one central place for my photos. It’s rather helpful in this respect that my N95 8GB not only has a lovely lens and sensor, but also uploads to flickr by a single button press when within range of my home wifi. I could almost contemplate a photo-a-day project…

Tags: photo

I think it’s quite simple, they don’t understand that in bringing devolution to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London they’ve walked towards federalism – and that means giving power back from the centre, and sorting out the union. Something Labour seem terrified by.

Why did Labour lose in Scotland last year? Simple, they didn’t back extra powers for the parliament – if they had they’d have easily dealt with the growth in SNP support. But Brown said no. And yet now they’re on the back foot and scrambling to get Calman and co. to come up with a package of changes in powers to the settlement before the end of the year.

Why did Ken lose in London this week? Simple, Brown stood up to Ken and refused to let him run the tube his way. This stalled the modernisation programme, wasted billions, caused and nearly caused a dozen strikes, massively inconveniencing Londoners. On top of this, the vote has been really poor in the outer suburbs where the Department for Transport must take the blame for failing to act quickly enough on Ken’s requirements to roll out Oyster on suburban rail and ensure that suburban rail in London came up to the standards of the tube. Poor Ken had no option and no power to sort these issues. Neither will Boris, and it will be interesting to see if anyone suggests reform to the London settlement. It certainly needs something but no-one seems to have any ideas, a good start would be somehow getting the London Assembly noticed – to the average Londoner it doesn’t exist.

In both of these cases, had the understanding been there that devolution was a process not an event then people would not have wound up voting in local oppositions to central government in the fashion they now have. Further, the strange fascination with having a mayor has led to a somewhat pointless popularity contest. Were the mayor chosen by the assembly it is plausible that Ken could have still remained in power, Boris would have needed the vote of the BNP member and one other…

What I can’t explain is why with an increased turnout the BNP still got 5% of the London vote and a seat on the assembly. I can cope with Boris being mayor, but it really sickens me to know that some of my tax will pay salary to such a politician.

Tags: london, politics