I really feel for Youth Employment minister Angela Constance. While every other politician in Scotland was living it up in luxury at the posh Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh for the Scottish Politician of the Year awards, she was doing the rounds of the tv studios with Hugh Henry, defending the indefensible - Alex Salmond not just getting the figures on FE funding wrong, but in such smug, pugnacious style.
Sending Angela out there is a sign that not all has gone to seed at SNP Towers. There are still brain cells in there capable of having the odd good idea. It is actually impossible to dislike Angela. She combines intelligence with a genuinely pleasant manner. If they'd sent Mike Russell out there, or Kenny MacAskill, there would have been a very unedifying, massive row. Angela just got on with her impossible task.
Now, Hugh Henry by rights should have wiped the floor with her. He didn't, though. I've never met him so I don't know what he's like in real life, but his manner came across as an unappealing hybrid of dour and smug, sour, perhaps?
Angela took a bit of a novel line on the Scotland Tonight sofa that she didn't dare repeat to Gordon Brewer on Newsnight. She said it was comforting that we had a First Minister who was willing to admit when he was wrong and apologise genuinely for it. Oh, Angela. Comforting is a steaming plate of buttery mashed potato, comforting is chicken soup, or a lovely bar of dark chocolate, or a lambswol shawl or a puppy. Comforting is NOT Alex Salmond in that pin striped suit that makes him look especially shifty being pulled up for getting his facts wrong. Again.
At best, it was a score draw, but I think Angela actually had the edge, despite one major blooper. She said that Salmond's error was in fact tiny considering that the FE budget was £500 billion. Err, no, the entire Scottish budget is £34 billion. She meant million.But I guess it's only a zero, and that's nothing, really... I'm surprised Brewer didn't call her on it
Hugh Henry was doing his damnedest to have a row with Angela, but not getting anywhere because she was not having any of it. He was the one who actually looked defensive as she calmly made her points. I would probably have gone at her with the Kirk Ramsay stuff sooner. I don't have a heart of stone. I can forgive an error with figures, quickly recognised. I have a much bigger problem with Mike Russell's ridiculous over-reaction and abuse of power over the Stow College chairman. There's an argument that he should have made people aware he was recording the proceeedings, but he had a good reason for doing so and he didn't use the information inappropriately. He did not deserve to be put in a position by the Cabinet Secretary from which he had no option but to resign. Had Angela been the Education Secretary, I cannot imagine that she would have done something so ill-judged over one mistake. I'm sure she would have had the good sense to realise that forcing one of your biggest critics out of office is simply not a good look.
There was quite a lot being said on Twitter last night about how if this was Westminster, there would have been a real crisis. Yes, when Gove got his school numbers wrong, there was a huge stooshie but he kept his job after the story rumbled on for a few days. The thing is, mistakes happen in everyday life and as long as you acknowledge them and put things right quickly, that should be an end of it. He got a figure wrong. Nobody died. Move on.
The bigger problem is the culture of this administration which is becoming increasingly out of touch, arrogant and sleekit. Spending thousands of pounds of our hard earned taxes on covering up that you haven't got legal advice you created the impression you had does not show any respect for the people who elected you. What people see is not the debates on late night telly only watched by political geeks. They see that there have been a series of events where the SNP has been seen to say one thing and do another, or get things wrong, or behave with arrogance. They might get away with sending the nicest person they can find out to defend them for a little while, but it won't work indefinitely.
You can watch Newsnight here and Scotland Tonight here. Newsnight is particularly worth watching for its extended coverage of Salmond and Russell's gloatathon on the way from the Chamber after FMQs to the lift where they said, variously, that Labour were silly and that Johann Lamont had failed in what she had tried to do. Ouch!
Showing posts with label Gordon Brewer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gordon Brewer. Show all posts
Friday, November 16, 2012
Thursday, April 14, 2011
When scrutiny becomes rudeness: Tavish Scott rises above Gordon Brewer's boorish behaviour #sp11
I am feeling very, very proud of Tavish Scott this morning. I have just watched his Newsnight Scotland interview with Gordon Brewer which took place on Tuesday night and I was so impressed that he managed to stay calm, cool and focused in the face of an ill-informed stream of abuse from Brewer. Journalists have every right to pursue a robust line of questioning, but they also have a responsibility when they're interviewing a leader during an election to shed some light on the policies which that leader is advocating in that election, and not expect them to answer for the views and actions of others which they have no say in. Gordon Brewer would rightly be aghast if he was held to account for muck ups by the BBC like the phone voting irregularities of a few years ago or for the grossly inflated salaries of its top presenters.
The interview with Tavish started at 11:24 minutes into the programme and finished 19 minutes later. We'd be lucky if we had a third of that covering what's in our manifesto. By 24:09 minutes, we'd had a brief discussion of policy on the NHS during which Tavish spoke about saving money by cutting bureaucracy and ensuring frontline services were protected and it wasn't until 26:01 that Tavish was finally able to talk about his campaign for a single police force.
Tavish started the interview by saying that our campaign had had its ups and downs but as long as he was able to talk about the things which mattered to people - by which he meant things like jobs and schools and public services which met their needs. Gordon Brewer took that as his cue to ensure that Tavish never got to talk about any of those things.
We can't pretend that the UK coalition doesn't exist - and nor do we want to, to be honest. It ain't perfect, but at least we're delivering Lib Dem policies which will help the poorest, people who rely on the State Pension, freed kids from being detained at Dungavel and places like it, taxed banks more than Labour ever did,put money into helping the poorest kids at school (which we want to repeat here). However, Tavish Scott is not a member of that Government, and nor should he be expected to take responsibility for the decisions it makes. Nor is he a member of the UK Parliament and as such is not responsible for the actions of our Scottish MPs and how they might have voted on tuition fees.
Tavish could not have been clearer on our record on tuition fees in Scotland. He pointed out that we'd ensured Labour's were never introduced up here, that we'd voted to get rid of the graduate endowment, (which, as an aside, I have to say that even Alex Salmond acknowledged in the STV leaders' debate 2 weeks ago). He said quite clearly that he would not have taken the decision the Lib Dems in the UK Government did - and his record proves his point, yet still for every subsequent question was pretty much prefaced with an insinuation that whatever he said couldn't be believed anyway.
Gordon Brewer actually used the phrase "you sold your granny for a whiff of power" which you'd expect to find in the pages of a very downmarket tabloid, not in a supposedly quality news programme.
One other low point was Brewer's line of questioning on a press release our George Lyon had put out attacking Labour for shifting position on closure of Accident and Emergency Units at Monklands and Ayr. What George was doing was rightly to point out the opportunism of the Labour party bending over backwards to be on the same page as the SNP in this election. Yes, Liberal Democrats were in the Government which attempted to close those units, but doing so was a Labour initiative, when Andy Kerr, Labour's current finance spokesman, was health minister.
And then we had an exchange on Scottish Water which was absolutely absurd. Brewer seemed to think it was perfectly reasonable for the UK Government to make an agreement based on an opposition party's policy in the middle of a Scottish election. Tavish pointed out that what we aimed to do would be to take the policy forward as part of a Government. And if we aren't in Government, I wonder if the other parties who are will try it.
And then came the "what would you do in a coalition" questions which, if Tavish had said anything at all on, he'd have got "how can we believe you after what Nick Clegg did?" thrown in his face.
Tavish kept his cool and answered the questions and by doing so won in an unwinnable environment. I think people will be impressed by his grace under fire. And I wonder if Iain Gray or Alex Salmond will come under such close scrutiny. Will Gray be expected to account for the many failings of the last Westminster Government from Iraq to the way it blithely almost bankrupted the country? Will Alex Salmond be expected to account for all the pledges the SNP has broken? I won't be holding my breath.
Willie Rennie said on Twitter that Brewer was like:
You can watch the whole thing here and make your own mind up.
The interview with Tavish started at 11:24 minutes into the programme and finished 19 minutes later. We'd be lucky if we had a third of that covering what's in our manifesto. By 24:09 minutes, we'd had a brief discussion of policy on the NHS during which Tavish spoke about saving money by cutting bureaucracy and ensuring frontline services were protected and it wasn't until 26:01 that Tavish was finally able to talk about his campaign for a single police force.
Tavish started the interview by saying that our campaign had had its ups and downs but as long as he was able to talk about the things which mattered to people - by which he meant things like jobs and schools and public services which met their needs. Gordon Brewer took that as his cue to ensure that Tavish never got to talk about any of those things.
We can't pretend that the UK coalition doesn't exist - and nor do we want to, to be honest. It ain't perfect, but at least we're delivering Lib Dem policies which will help the poorest, people who rely on the State Pension, freed kids from being detained at Dungavel and places like it, taxed banks more than Labour ever did,put money into helping the poorest kids at school (which we want to repeat here). However, Tavish Scott is not a member of that Government, and nor should he be expected to take responsibility for the decisions it makes. Nor is he a member of the UK Parliament and as such is not responsible for the actions of our Scottish MPs and how they might have voted on tuition fees.
Tavish could not have been clearer on our record on tuition fees in Scotland. He pointed out that we'd ensured Labour's were never introduced up here, that we'd voted to get rid of the graduate endowment, (which, as an aside, I have to say that even Alex Salmond acknowledged in the STV leaders' debate 2 weeks ago). He said quite clearly that he would not have taken the decision the Lib Dems in the UK Government did - and his record proves his point, yet still for every subsequent question was pretty much prefaced with an insinuation that whatever he said couldn't be believed anyway.
Gordon Brewer actually used the phrase "you sold your granny for a whiff of power" which you'd expect to find in the pages of a very downmarket tabloid, not in a supposedly quality news programme.
One other low point was Brewer's line of questioning on a press release our George Lyon had put out attacking Labour for shifting position on closure of Accident and Emergency Units at Monklands and Ayr. What George was doing was rightly to point out the opportunism of the Labour party bending over backwards to be on the same page as the SNP in this election. Yes, Liberal Democrats were in the Government which attempted to close those units, but doing so was a Labour initiative, when Andy Kerr, Labour's current finance spokesman, was health minister.
And then we had an exchange on Scottish Water which was absolutely absurd. Brewer seemed to think it was perfectly reasonable for the UK Government to make an agreement based on an opposition party's policy in the middle of a Scottish election. Tavish pointed out that what we aimed to do would be to take the policy forward as part of a Government. And if we aren't in Government, I wonder if the other parties who are will try it.
And then came the "what would you do in a coalition" questions which, if Tavish had said anything at all on, he'd have got "how can we believe you after what Nick Clegg did?" thrown in his face.
Tavish kept his cool and answered the questions and by doing so won in an unwinnable environment. I think people will be impressed by his grace under fire. And I wonder if Iain Gray or Alex Salmond will come under such close scrutiny. Will Gray be expected to account for the many failings of the last Westminster Government from Iraq to the way it blithely almost bankrupted the country? Will Alex Salmond be expected to account for all the pledges the SNP has broken? I won't be holding my breath.
Willie Rennie said on Twitter that Brewer was like:
the pub drunk with his abusive behaviour on Newsnight with @TavishScott. Landlord should have thrown him outI disagree. The pub drunk would have sobered up eventually and have a bit of a headache and know in his heart of hearts that he'd made an arse of himself, whether he'd admit it out loud or not. Brewer was more to me like the sadistic school bully, wanting to humiliate and shame rather than illuminate and clarify.
You can watch the whole thing here and make your own mind up.
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