Salmond's New Part Time Job

Did anybody else notice that in yesterday's reshuffle Alex Salmond made himself job-share Mike Russell's old non-cabinet level brief with Fiona Hyslop?

So Alex Salmond is now not only MP for Banff and Buchan, MSP for Gordon and First Minister of Scotland, he is also Secretary for Constitutional Affairs. The last being the only portfolio of the major manifesto big pledges that is still currently standing, even if like the others looks unachievable. Wonder if he will demote himself for failure to deliver like he has done with Ms Hyslop?

Was She Removed Before She Lost Confidence

Just what has led to SNP Education Minister being removed from the Education brief in cabinet, after all she has been the SNP education Spokesperson/Minister for quite a number of years now.

There was obviously the shift in blame over teacher numbers. Only last week Hyslop was about to encourage Local Authorities to borrow money to pension off older teachers. This despite them being unable to meet their lower class sizes policy for primaries 1,2 and 3.

Then at the weekend the blame for the falling teacher numbers fell to the local authorities. But surely only a few days before the Education Minister was actively encouraging them to actually cut numbers further, or rather not employ extra. The fact is that there are 1,300 less teachers this year than last. The SNP promised that even with reducing class sizes they would not reduce teacher numbers, the idea was to provide better support for our children. A noble aim but one that has clearly failed.

She threatened to take control of education out of the hands of our local authorities, and control it centrally. She was threatening to nationalise the education of our children. Numerous time I have filled in a null return to my local authority when they ask about the number of children I have and the age they are. Even, indeed especially, because of my civil service background and my parents education background I cannot see how any authority looking after the children of over 5 million citizens is going to improve educational standards. Even in London this was and is devolved down to a local level.

The new Curriculum for Excellence is due to launch next August, affecting 54,000 children across Scotland in P7. Being the son of teachers, one who whom was also a examination marker I know that these things are in place at least a year in advance to allow teachers time to adjust what and how they teach and also so they can see the future marking scheme to assess such a change. Teachers currently are not aware of any of this, therefore one wonders just what level of excellence these teachers are going to be able to provide in a few short months, some of which will be taken up getting their current charges ready.

On Saturday the Lib Dems announced to the other parties in Holyrood that they were going to bring a vote of No Confidence in the Education Minister on Thursday of this week, at today's business meeting. Today before that can happen we learn that she is being removed of that responsibility.

Tavish Scott has made a statement to that effect, but also points out that a change in Education Minister, to Mike Russell, is not going to be enough, the SNP need a change in Education policy. The children of Scotland deserve no less, they do not deserve to be treated as a political football, or an after thought. They deserve the funding they had been getting, going to the local authorities to enable it to be spent as best suits the needs of their children. If the SNP continue to pull the carpet from under our local authorities feet as far as education provision are concerned four years after taking control will be four years lost out of some of our childrens' education that cannot be replaced.

Breaking News - First Cabinet Casualty of Nationalist Government

I see via the Steamie that local Linlithgow resident Fiona Hyslop is the first of the SNP cabinet to be forced from office.

Considering that last week there were almost back to back announcements. The first that Local Authorities were to be encouraged to 'retire' elder teachers to make room (especially within budgets) to allow new teachers to take their places. The second that local were to blame for the fall in teacher numbers.

So the mantle of SNP buck-passing on education policy has been passed from Ms Hyslop to some other sucker, err I mean Mike Russell, who you'd hope is seeking out sound advisors with more care than he monitors what his office manager gets up to.

To be honest I don't envy Mr Russell's task. On the one hand he has Local Authorities some of the them SNP led telling him they don't have enough money to implement SNP education policies. On the other his has his cabinet colleagues and the First Minister casting blame on the Local Authorities, some of them SNP led, for failing to implement SNP education policies. I'd put that down to a lose-lose situation for Mr Russell, maybe equivalent to what the old posting to Northern Ireland used to be in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.

Minister of Low Culture in His Own Words

Fans of the Book Quiz can almost hear Kirsty Warke ask who wrote these words:

"The tiny Borders town of Wanlockhead looks like a Scottish version of the American Deep South terror film Deliverance, it is difficult to walk through Glasgow without falling over a drug addict and the Union flag over Edinburgh Castle is an 'awful mutant tablecloth'."

The answer is the new minister of Arts and Culture Mike Russell it comes from a book he wrote in 1988 In Waiting: Travels in the Shadow of Edwin Muir. The Minister tried to distance himself by time and saying that the the SNP government has made significant improvements to each place he insulted.

Places like Glasgow:

"Pull over the car (if you dare) and walk into the closes loses smelling of urine and rubbish, cluttered with dirt and debris. The walls are decorated with spray-paint graffiti and it is not uncommon to have to step over a comatose body, with or without a needle by its side."

Or Aberdeen:

"It feels no more hospitable than when I first came here – there is still a snell wind that blows through the town, and dark corners by the harbour that make passers-by walk more quickly."

So the SNP have obviously sorted out the weather in Aberdeen.

The Union flag over Edinburgh Castle is dismissed as "an awful mutant tablecloth", and of Dumfries he said: "The town centre … has the usual sprinkling of chain stores and the usual complement of skinny, ill-dressed women in their early twenties who seem to hover around cheap Scottish shops like importuning wraiths."

Even the National Trust for Scotland, which now falls under his remit fails to escape, being described as 'elitist' and 'arrogant'. Indeed the Labour MP for Dumfries Russell Brown says such proclamations are 'arrogant and pompous' and it is he who is elitist 'looking down his nose at local people'.

So having insulted most of Scotland the culture minister now has an uphill task to make amends.

Paving the Way for LIT-esque Climb Down?

Minster for 'Independence' has come very close to the language used over Local Income Tax when referring to the new responsibility in his brief. Compare Mike Russell's comments:

"The bill would require a majority; where that majority came from it is far too early to say."

with those of John Swinney conceding defeat on LIT earlier this month.

"We cannot put together a stable majority to enable us successfully to steer detailed local income tax legislation through this parliament."

So the Nats are unable to work from a position of minority Government. They concede defeat on their ability to do the one thing they need to make it work, getting an issue by issue majority.

But is the language being used by Russell paving the way for another failure to even contemplate achieving one of their key election pledges. But this time the one in question is more significant as it is the raison d'etre of the whole SNP's existence. But the language is close to concession and that less than a month into being given the responsibility.

Indeed Tavish Scott has this advise for the Minister based on the SNP's record:

"If the minister has no idea where he'll get parliamentary support, then using the SNP's previous rules, they should dump plans for a referendum."