Nicholas Beneath The Kilt

Power corrupts?

Emerging from a background of shouted Arabic demands for various  despots to remove themselves, Scotland's minor political stramashes seem of little consequence this week, but the two phenomena are not unconnected.

We have Jim Devine who is about to be removed from our political ambit because of misuse of the power to falsify expense claims and who was  then declared bankrupt.

We have Wendy Alexander removing herself from Parliament because (in the eyes of some, not entirely, unbiased commentators) she was to be denied a position of power in a future Labour administration. Or at least the position she told everyone she was getting apparently. This analysis ignores the considerable power of motherhood.

We also have Bill Aitken probably regretting he has the power of speech as his mouth was stretched beyond its limit by his insertion of his size twelve foot in his forensic examination of the morals and mode of employment of a Glasgow rape victim. His resignation was drawn out and painful and showed clearly that Tory leaders actually have no power of discipline over  a member of the party who will be out of sight in eight weeks any way.

We also have the powerful in all political parties fastening on the supposed admittance by Colonel Ghaddafi, whose own grasp on power seems tenuos in the extreme, that he was indeed responsible for the Lockerbie bombing. The outsider may well be confused by the common cause shown by both current and former First Ministers in applauding the Scottish judicial system and averring that there was never any doubt in their minds that the conviction of Mr Megrahi was as sound as a bell. The Scottish Justice Minister was only exercising his considerable power of compassion to a dying man and that he had no power to exercise the transfer of the said prisoner under any shady transfer deal cooked up by the former powerhouse of the Labour Government, because that power was never on the table for this particular political prisoner. The said Justice Minister did have the power to get himself off to Barlinnie to discuss cancer care under the SNP administration and the escalating price of camels with Mr Megrahi. His subsequent explanation that he  just happened to be passing also had the power to produce hoots of derision. Readers wanting a more balanced view of the Lockerbie affair should read the powerful blog of Robert Black, http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com.

Firth of Scotland, William Hague has the power of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to lend power to his elbow. Like a modern day Palmerston he lost no time in issuing a powerful message to Libya by sending a gunboat. The subsequent suspicion that  it was a late bargain entry in David Camerons travelling arms fair was heightened by the news that this particular frigate was about to be pensioned off. Perhaps the Southern Sudan may buy it cheap. Meanwhile his Cabinet colleague (for now) Liam Fox announced that he needed four nuclear powered submarines to play with in his bath because with only three he felt naked and unprotected. Useful indeed they have proved in the current Middle Eastern hoo har.

All in all then what is the connection between the power of the people in the despot ridden Middle East and the maunderings of the British political class. I make no excuse for summoning Rabbie:

"O wad some Power the giftie gie us. To see oursels as ithers see us!" 

On the one hand a people struggling for power and here at home a people who cannot seem be trusted to resist the corruption that power bestows.

 

It's a fair wind

Lesley Riddoch wrote in the Scotsman this morning, on a subject well covered in the weekend press, the tendency of bosses of large organisations to award themselves stonking great pay rises whilst presiding over job cuts, redundancies and reductions in working hours. She contrasts this with the small business world  that makes up the vast majority of employers in Scotland and it is a good and worthwhile read.

http://www.lesleyriddoch.com/2010/11/-small-wonder-big-business-is-so-hated.html?

 

Especially worthwhile when placed against two other stories, one from the CIPD to the effect that  the  government's spending cuts and the rise in VAT to 20% in January will result in more than 1.6 million job losses across the public and private sectors by 2016,  their research suggests.

The figure from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is far higher than previous estimates, and if true will ensure misery for thousands.

The other story is that Lord Young, a relic of the Thatcher years and linked inextricably in my mind with Tebbit and his pedal pushing job seeking exhortations, has been given not one but two jobs by David Cameron and Gideon (for it is he) Osbourne. One is to advise on sweeping away protection for workers by removing sensible measures to prevent a childs eye being taken out by a conker, or more seriously removing precautions to prevent farmworkers falling into a slurry pit, in his role as the tsar for removal of health and safety legislation.  His new job is to advise why more people do not immediately use their redundancy money to enter self employment rather than signing on the dole? (How long before it becomes compulsory rather than voluntary) .

Removing barriers to business by examining the preponderance of red tape must be applauded but better still examine why so many small businesses do not want to grow out of their comfort zones, and why so many small business owners prefer to employ as few people as possible, opting for lifestyle businesses, the odd cash job and a boat or a holiday cottage from their hard won earnings rather than employing disinterested youth and running the risk of days meshed in an employment tribunal when they try to get rid of the unemployable.

The juxtaposition of these three themes will allow for many meanders into the cogitation of business and what its real purpose is. In my experince the directors of many small firms are fortunate if they pay themselves 8 or 10 times more than their average waged employee, let alone the 88 times quoted by Lesley. If one is sitting at the head of a private company today it must be tempting to chuck in the towel, sell up and move to Bermuda.

I suppose it is indelicate to ask how much remuneration Gideon and David have agreed for Lord Young and indeed how much generally is being spent on the Tsars, dreamed up by Labour as one man quangos.

Finally one hopes that Gideon Osbourne has found a way to extract the maximum tax revenues from these overpaid big company bosses, or is he just passing on tax saving tips?

The final piece of news this morning neatly rounds off these stories by pointing out that by virtue of the ECHR, any fat cat serving time for fraud (very few, I know)  will still be able to cast their vote for Cameron, as they apparently must have their dignity preserved by extending the right to vote to convicted prisoners.