Were the Fifteen Truer on Principle?

Altogether yesterday fifteen Liberal Democrat MPs ignored Nick Clegg's call to follow the majority view of the Parliamentary Party to abstain on the issue of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. But did Alistair Carmichael, Tim Farron and David Heath resign from the front bench in vain or were they holding true to the manifesto promises? Did the 12 others who joined them on the two divisions get it wrong?

Personally I was sitting with 2005 manifesto in hand as I listened out the end of the days debate, which included my own MP who is also Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee. The exact pledge to the public that is at issue is:

European enlargement means the EU needs reform to become more efficient and more accountable. The new constitution helps to achieve this by improving EU coherence, strengthening the powers of the elected European Parliament compared to the Council of Ministers, allowing proper oversight of the unelected Commission, and enhancing the role of the national parliaments. It also more clearly defines and limit=s the powers of the EU, reflecting diversity and preventing overcentralisation. We are therefore clear in our support for the constitution, which we believe is in Britain's interest - but ratification must be subject to a referendum of the British Public.

Does the Lisbon Treaty not set out to do all the things listed above? Is not what 62 of those MPs, the exception being the MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, myself and hundreds of others stood on just under 3 years ago? Isn't that what we our party approved at conference almost exactly 3 years ago?

In my view the three front bench spokespersons got it right along with John Pugh, Annette Brooke, Richard Younger-Ross, Martin Horwood, Greg Mulholland, Sandra Gidley, John Leech, Mark Williams, John Hemming, Paul Holmes, Andrew George, and Mike Hancock. We are a party of principle and these 15 maintained theirs.

Is Brown Feeling the Lisbon Heat?

It appears that the lackadasical start to Gordon Brown association with the Lisbon Treaty, being detained in London on the most whimsical of excuses while it was being signed are a thing of the past.

He is now turning up the heat on the other parties. On one hand he accuses the Tories of appeasement to eurosceptics, while simultaneously refusing to uphold his election pledge to hold a referendum on constitutional change required to ratify the traty. While on the other he is attacking the Lib Dems of doing nothing when in effect they are seeking to do far more.

Watch this space as no doubt others will be posting as events unfold this evening.

Paisley to Take a Back Seat

Well the news for anyone with connections to Northern Ireland today is that the Rev. Dr. Ian Kyle Paisley MP, MLA and one time MEP is to step down from front line politics in the province. What that means is that the 81 year old will step aside as First Minister after a year in that office in May and leader of the party he has led for 40 years the Democratic Unionist Party.

The old man of Northern Irish politics will turn 82 just before he steps down. So youngster John McCain, who secured the Republican nomination last night may quote him as an example. However, he will stay on both at Westminster and Stormont for the time being.

In May last year he did what many of us raised on Northern Irish political in-fighting thought would never happen, not only did he sit down with the Sinn Fein leadership but he formed a power sharing executive with them. In recent months he has made numerous appearances alongside his Deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness and it is expected that the devolved powers in Northern Ireland can be sustained because of the bold step Dr Paisley made last year.

He has already got in a typical Paisleyesque dig when asked about who would follow in his wake by saying "This is not Apostolic succession" a clear referenece to Papal Elections, however the clear favourite would be long time Deputy leader of the DUP Peter Robinson. If Mr Robinson were to become First Minister I believe he would be the first person to represent the constituency in which the seat of power resides.

Give Blood a Chance

I'm all for giving our health service a fighting chance to do its job effectively. But last week one of the tools to achieve that turned up outside work. It resulted in my bi-annual ritual embarrassment of somebody at work.

The tool that turned up was the Blood Transfusion van. The embarrassment resulted in why somebody as fit and healthy looking as me was not signed up for a session on said van. Now currently I could have taken an easy option out and cited recent health reasons as the excuse, but I did what I always did and listed the reason for current life-time ban.

Up to about 9 years ago I regularly gave blood as my father and grandfather did before me, and my father continued to do until he contracted the cancer that killed him. However, those 9 years ago what stopped me being able to respond the blatent messages of the Blood Transfusion Service was that my first sexual partner shared something in common with me, their male gender. Thus ended by blood donating days, as I next read through the criteria on my next visit.

Now the blanket ban on gay and bi-sexual men (even those with only one such encounter) giving blood is back on the front-page news and under the microscope again. Partly because due to the shortage of blood here in the UK we now import blood from nations such as Australia where gay men are allowed to give blood and largely because the Welsh Lib Dems recently passed a motion calling for the ban to be lifted. It makes the policy of the National Blood Transfusion service a farce if on one hand they try and rule out what is stereotyped as "high risk" UK citizen donors based solely on sexual orientation rather than sexual practise, which is where the true risk lies. Whilst accepting blood from outwith their own testing where by definition the same group have been allowed to donate.

There is a new lobby group called Blood Ban who have recently been on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio Two. Their site carries links to petitions both national and Scottish to get this anomaly in words and practise resolved and sorted out

The Blood Transfusion Service say on their own website:

Keeping our rules simple

The rule about gay men is clear and simple. You can decide whether it applies to you without the need to discuss your personal life with our staff. The rule is based on an impartial assessment of available evidence. We ask that you observe it for the sake of blood safety.

Yet they are ignoring the rule themselves when they need to import blood to make up the UK shortfall. Surely the time is right to sort out the scare stories of the 1990s from reality. Then my perfectly good blood last tested within 3 months may be able to save someone's life as the adverts keep reminding me.

Scottish Highlights of the Rugby Season???

We're in the depths of the Six Nations Rugby tournament and the Scots would normally be gearing up for this weekend's Calcutta Cup match against the Auld Enemy England in high spirits.

But if the reaction to my getting on the coach to return from the football at Hamilton the last international weekend is anything to go by eyes are meandering elsewhere. For I boldly took off my Livingston top to reveal my Ireland jersey on arriving back at the coach around the 5 p.m. kick off time in the Ireland v Scotland game. Only for the initial comments of derision to turn in to comments I think you;ll at least be supporting one winning team today.

So with Scottish sporting hopes so low for this time of year step into the breath one Andy Murray. Yes in the depths of Rugby season and tennis is the saviour of the nations hopes. Yesterday he beat wold number 1 Roger Federer without once facing a break point.

Now admittedly in 2008 half of the tournaments Andy has played he has been knocked out in the first round. However, the other half he has gone on to win. In fact he has tended to alternate these two all year. So Roger should have known he was doomed from the start as in the last tournament Andy played in he was knocked out in Round one.

Of course gentleman Rog is not going to hold sour grapes. Ahem!

OK so he'll criticise the style of the youngsters play which he says hasn't changed since they first met in 2005. But hang on he's beating Roger twice in their last 3 outings, is in the top 10. Yes maybe he runs a player around and waits for the mistakes, but he has youth on his side and no doubt his style will change as he gets older. Is Roger getting worried? Methinks he doth protest a little too much.

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

With Apologies to Lennon and McCartney.

It was twenty years ago today,
A new party came out to play
They'd been two parties for a little while
The leaders’ puppets raised a ‘Spitting’ smile.
So may I introduce to you
The act you've known for all those years,
The Social and Liberal Democrats that was.
We were Paddy’s Social, Liberal Democrats,
But we started off kinda slow
Cause David Owen and his splinter band,
Kept trying to have another go.
Charlies’ Liberal Demo, Ming’s Liberal Democrat
We're Nick Cleggs’s Liberal Democrats.
It's wonderful to be here,
It's really been a thrill.

You're such a nice electorate,
You listened to us on Iraq,
We'd love to have your vote.
We'd love to have your vote.

I don't really want to stop the show,
But I thought that you might like to know,
That the leaders’s going seek a vote,
On whether we’ should jump the EU boat.
So let me introduce to you
The one and only party brave
Enough to offer a EU Referendum.

Free to Fife: A Bridge Toll Free

On Saturday Livingston were returning to a football ground across the Forth for the first time since the removal of the tolls on the Forth and Tay Bridges. On this occasion we were returning to East End Park to take on Dunfermline.

Due to my personal arrangements now seeing me spend the bulk of my weekends in Edinburgh rather than Bathgate, it was obviously easier, faster and more convenient for me to drive there rather than back to Almondvale to pick up the suppoters coach. So I was going to experience first hand the change in getting over the Forth Road Bridge. The queues approaching the bridge were minimal and although the wind had dropped you still felt it a bit on the crossing, but I've never whizzed into Fifie quite so fast during daylight hours before. I was pleasantly surprised to actually park up near the stadium in less time that I have recently been taking to drive to where I park for home games.

The result was a 1-1 draw, although Livingston had more chances to win the match, one shot being saved by a defender on the line and Robert Snodgrass being clean through on goal one on one with the keeper just steering his shot past. My only real concern was that whilst the bulk of our fans were accomodated in Dunfermline's Main stand, this is inappropraite for disabled fans and their carers who were thus isolated in the East Stand. But also away at the far side well away from any set of other supporters, therefore missing out on the atmosphere that a football fan expects. So while they are accomodated under the circumstance they fail to get the full benefit of the match that the able bodied fans enjoyed.