Rolled-up Trousers

Gilligan on Campbell

I can understand, I think, why Campbell still feels so obsessed with the events of 2003. Although Hutton was, of course, a tactical triumph for him, with a knockout victory in the report and three good BBC scalps, it was an unparalleled strategic disaster. If his aim in taking us on was to disprove my story about the sexed-up dossier and restore trust in Tony Blair, it simply could not have been more counter-productive.

At Bournemouth this week, with only a handful of exceptions, Labour members and MPs have, as always, been friendly and even sometimes complimentary to me. Some of them know me from when I was a Labour activist. But mostly, of course, it is that over the dossier, almost everybody in the party, as in the country, accepts (broadly) my version of events, rather than Campbell's.

That, I'm sure, is why Campbell still feels compelled endlessly to revisit those events, even now. If he was genuinely innocent and victorious, he wouldn't need to keep protesting his innocence and victoriousness. People often complain to me that he and Blair escaped punishment. Although they did, of course, avoid the legal and judicial sanctions which they deserved, both received a harsher punishment - having their true natures exposed to the world - and a much more severe penalty: life sentences in the court of public opinion.
@CiF

Belief in climate change

The BBC has decided to cancel Planet Relief, which as it sounds was a planned night of campaigning similar to Comic Relief, but for the environment. The decision appears to have been prompted to avoid criticisms of bias. Which is a bit like them cancelling Lenny Henry et al with the rationale that there are people that blame those suffering in the less developed world for their own plight.

But let's say for argument's sake that the climate change sceptics have a point. I think that Pascal's Wager applies to this scenario. There is too much to be lost by carrying on the way we are, and nothing to lose by being greener. Actually, everyone wins by changing course. There is nothing at all wrong in saying that we want to clean up the world, have more breathable air, and conserve energy. All of these things are noble pursuits, regardless of how important you think it is to do them.

'Stop the car, there's Madeleine': Witness sees her dragged by Muslim woman

A tabloid's dream today with the a Madeleine McCann story intertwining with an opportunity to bash Muslims.

The Daily Mail took the bait, choosing to describe the Moroccan woman who was carrying a blonde child (incidentally it is confirmed now as not being Maddy) as a "Muslim woman". Like it's a shock to find one of these hijab wearing people even in Morocco.

Why wasn't she just described as a "woman"? Or if further description was absolutely needed, a "Moroccan woman"? What's her faith got to do with it?

Spouses employed by Parliamentarians

Paul Hutcheon at the Sunday Herald delved into the employment habits of MSPs at the weekend, highlighting that 50 out of 129 employ a close relative.

I don't have a problem with this in principle, as long as the employee is actually earning their crust. My feeling on this is that quite often there is no work being done to speak of, but salary is still diverted into their bank account.

I would imagine that this is pretty much the same state of affairs as Westminster. As an adjunct to this I also note that the Treasury has responded to the Arctic Systems case by saying it will now enact legislation to effectively stop small companies from "income splitting". This is the practice of a business run by one spouse paying themselves a salary up to the 40% tax limit, and then paying their spouse who does not actually do any work for the business thereby allowing them to use their 22% tax band too. This effectively allows them to take out over £70,000 from a company a year at more or less the 22% level where normally this would fall under the higher rate.

Parliamentarians are also getting away with this with the rules on staff salaries. If they're going to pay their spouses for doing nowt, then at least make them pay at the 40% level for augmenting their income. It would be good to see the government set an example by first clamping down on Parliamentarians.

Turkish PM calls for relaxing of hijab ban

Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey's universities should lift their ban on hijab, allowing those women that wear it to enter further education.

And not before time. But just a thought - if a state is truly secular, should it even be legislating on religious practice? Wouldn't that be truly keeping religion out of state? Why does the state have the right to interfere in religion, but not vice versa?

Scotland's top political blog

Believe it or not, and you may well fall into the latter category, this is Scotland's top political blog!

That's according to Iain Dale's forthcoming Guide to Political Blogging. The Scottish list as a whole is a credit to the growth in Scottish blogging which even up till quite recently was not the most developed of areas.

The list was put together by Grant Thoms, so thanks very much to him! Mountains of work have been weighing me down recently meaning I've not been as prolific as I'd like, but hopefully this will give me some added impetus.

Guilty: first Scots Islamic terrorist facing 15 years

The Herald butchered my letter today, taking out any meaning, which was to complain about their outrageous front page coverage of the Siddique trial yesterday. Their edited version took out the criticism of their coverage. Here's the original letter:

Sir, I was taken aback to read your front page feature this morning talking of “Islamic terror”. This oxymoronic phrase has long since left the discourse in virtually every other newspaper in these isles.

The adjective is just wrong, there is nothing Islamic about terrorism. The Muslim community is constantly asked to disavow these acts, and we are not helped when this kind of language is used linking us right back to it.

I’m no lawyer, but Siddique was not convicted with any crime of “Islamic terrorism” as your article stated, just offences related to terrorism pure and simple. Although as Siddique’s defence team highlighted, arguably only a Muslim would face the Terrorism Acts for what he did.

Scotland's first terror conviction

Today Atif Siddique from Alva was found guilty of all five terrorism charges he faced.

Given the high profile and dramatic nature of the original arrests last year, it is important to point out that the trial did not uncover a plot, much less an active plot, to cause death and destruction here in Scotland.

What we heard throughout the trial was a story of a teenager who was involved in ideas, particularly on the internet, which he shouldn’t have been. This was motivated clearly by his concern for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, wars in which our country is still involved. The challenge for the Muslim community and wider society is to stress the legitimate forms of dissent against these policies – through the democratic process.

The government

It's been announced that the Scottish Executive will be rebranded to be now called the Scottish Government.

The day is not far off now when it will simply be "the government".

How to deal with books you don't like

Israel, AIPAC won't parry Walt-Mearsheimer book