IndyGal

Me again - Indypal One. 

Ah, I have slipped into the habit of referring to the First Minister as the FM  … I don’t really like it because it makes him sound like a radio station.  Alex Salmond FM.  Scotland’s answer to Terry Wogan.

Hello boys and girls. Indypal One here. 

Don’t know about you but I was quite impressed by Rhoda Grant’s frank admission of ignorance in yesterday’s Sunday Herald.  She was asked about a meeting she had attended with other Highland elected members regarding the Aviemore Highland resort palaver, following which she wrote a letter to Alex Salmond about the matter. 

According to Rhoda, the MSPs ‘knew we were there at the meeting for some reason. I don’t know why. We were providing cross-party support of some sort.’ If she didn’t know what the meeting was about, I wonder what she put in her letter?  Perhaps she wrote ‘Dear FM please don’t get involved in this’.  But I doubt it.

Apparently there has been a motion put down in the Scottish Parliament asking MSPs to allow the Government to release all correspondence relating to the matter.  That could be quite amusing.  Not quite sure why MSPs have to agree to it however – if I was the Government I would just do it anyway…..

I feel very fortunate to have been invited to a party at Stirling Castle tonight. Firstly because inside and out, it’s a stunning building and secondly because the party was to celebrate Glasgow winning the Commonwealth Games bid for 2014. It was thrown by the First Minister Alex Salmond and he was joined on stage by Louise Martin and Stephen Purcell, the Leader of Glasgow City Council.

Everyone who worked on the bid was there and it was great to be able to congratulate them on their tremendous success. The finale outside in the courtyard was provided by the Royal Burgh of Stirling Pipe Band. Now I’m not normally into pipe bands but they were amazing - I’m sure the kilts and the setting had something to do with it mind you! They also had a really clever way of getting rid of us. They told us the place was haunted but the ghouls only came out once the pipe band stopped playing so if we’d any sense we’d follow them out. We did!

It’s not often I take my blog inspiration from an SNP press release (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but today, I am delighted to do so and to relay the news that Alex Salmond has AGAIN been named as Politician of the Year.

I taught him everything he knows you know

Just as a footnote, I am also going to be connecting with Sri Lanka this week. On Tuesday night I’ve booked a place on an information evening to find out more about going to Sri Lanka for 6 months voluntary work as part of a project run by the Scottish Government. Anyway that’s by the by, my bit of excitement for the week.

Blogging is going to be difficult over the weekend as I’ve little internet access but I’ve always got time to be dismissive of the press! This nonsense over Alex Salmond and his salary is just that - nonsense. A fine example of the press making a big story out of a tiny little piece of nothing.

Before the election Alex said if he became an MSP he would only take one salary. That’s what he said and that’s what he’ll do. Now the fact that they’ve “discovered” that last month he took both his MP and MSP salary, is pretty meaningless. It’s meaningless because it’s happened for one of two reasons.

Either he was too busy running the country and therefore it was an oversight. Or, and this is more likely, it’s not that easy to stop your salary payments right away. Procedures to be followed, paperwork to be done - do you imagine Westminster does anything quickly? What does it matter? Whenever it gets sorted he’ll backdate it and pay back any “overpayment”. As he said, arrangements are in place and an announcement will be made next week.

To believe there is anything significant in these front page headlines, is to believe that Alex Salmond did it deliberately thinking nobody would notice and is therefore, incredibly stupid. Stupid is one thing Alex is not and I can’t imagine anyone seriously thinks that. So the story is a piece of nonsense written by journalists who KNOW it’s a piece of nonsense.

The most ridiculous thing about it all is this - as far as I am aware he is the FIRST and ONLY dual MP and MSP who is giving up one of his salaries. He is correct to do so but as I understand it nobody else did it. Am I not right in thinking that people like Donald Dewar continued to draw both salaries? Don’t remember any headlines about that!

Have just managed to catch up with the Kirsty Wark interview of Alex Salmond on Newsnight last night. Pretty angry with it. Rather than find a whole new way to say it I’ll just copy the comment I posted on the Newsnight blog. If you want to watch and see what all the fuss is about I’ll put the links at the bottom.

“I thought people on here were exaggerating until I saw it for myself. I do not believe that the apology given is enough. KW behaved in a dreadful manner - she was angry and nippy and downright rude. And for Peter Barron to say “the interview” was at times “tetchy” followed by this (by way of explanation)”Mr Salmond is a … challenging interviewee” is just not good enough. He was calm, not tetchy in the slightest. He listened, he spoke in a measured way and wasn’t the slightest bit challenging. God knows what was wrong with Kirsty Wark but she should apologise or go and present gardening programmes.”

Watch it on youtube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnQPptuG8uM

Post your own comments here http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/06/that_salmond_interview.html

All this talk of Tony Blair refusing to congratulate Alex Salmond on his victory has got the Tartan Hero hopping mad. And no wonder - why, John Major even had the good grace to leave a bottle of champagne at number ten for TB when he defeated him. Anyway Grant was so mad he’s created an online petition about it on the Downing Street website. It’s not had approval yet so rather than link you there I’ll link you to Grant’s blog on it (below). A source of mine tells me when she went to find the petition, it wasn’t up yet so, instead, she signed the one calling for Tony Blair to stand on his head and juggle ice cream. My dad used to say (when irritated) “go bile (means boil) yer heid” (means head) but “go juggle your ice cream”? I love it!

http://tartanhero.blogspot.com/2007/06/its-time-for-tony-to-congratulate-alex.html#links