Scottish Government’s draft legislative programme:

Here we are in the middle of the worst recession in living memory and all our elected officials care for is more politics.Our country is bleeding jobs like never before and not a word,apprentices are being laid of, manufacturing is being strangled of cash by the banks who have taken our cash and kept it, and hip hip hurray we have more “finance jobs” (call centre workers).These jobs add nothing to our nation and are moved out asap because the skills are easy to teach and it takes no time to replace them in another part of the world.

And the governments answer .Lets talk about independence lets put a minimum price on alcohol to stop people drinking.Apparently alcohol is responsible for people missing to many days of work as well as all sorts of social evils .Well those with no jobs wont need to worry about missing work now will they!

It has not taken long for those in Edinburgh to become completely detached from reality .These are people who think its more important to talk about Independence than it is to keep food on our tables.I have said this before and I will say it again.I remember voting for devolution and having such high hopes for it.But this programme shows that what we have here is just a glorified more expensive version of local council.A parliament that either cannot or will not get involved in the reality of life in Scotland today.

Shame on those up in there big expensive house I want to vote but not on independence I want to vote to get rid of this useless lair of politics that serves no other purpose but the stroking of small nation ego’s.

Al Megrahi’s release

Today the Scottish justice secretary announced that Al Megrahi‘ the man found guilty of the murders of 270 people in Lockerbie in 1988 would be released on compassionate grounds.

I have watched this develop over the last few weeks with great interest.Mr macAskill has come under great pressure during this process from those in the USA and some in the UK to keep Al Megrahi‘ in prison.This was a complicated legal matter but I want to mention the compassionate angle.

It seems to me that the need for compassion must be weighed with the need for justice.Justice is just as high on Gods agenda as compassion.This man was found guilty by a court and sentenced to life in prison.He is now dying from cancer and has asked for compassion to be shown.The Scottish minister has decided to show compassion based on medical advice the he has less than 3 months to live which i think is the usual grounds for this type of release.

During the announcement Mr MacAskill sought to lay blame for this mess at the door of the UK government which I thought was a cheap shot under the circumstances.He spoke of the victims families grief and he also laid on thick the christian reasoning behind his decision.Which some commentators said would be aimed at an American audience.

He also laid claim to speak on behalf of the Scottish people on this matter which I thought was a bit of a stretch.He spoke of our humanity and principles.There is no don’t this was a very difficult decision and on balance one I think he got right.Compassion and mercy are the friends of God and it looks like the way of the kingdom has won the day here .This same compassion must be extended to the families left with the feeling of injustice they need to know that if there is a need for a new inquiry then it will be undertaken so that no stone is left unturned and the UK government should have gotten promises from the Libyan government before they went ahead with this .

Bankers and MP’s

So now its the turn of those honourable members of parliament.

Voted for by us paid for by us the tax payers.Watching them and reading about them this week has made me think about whether or not God might be involved in this whole thing behind the scenes.
Is it him who is now revealing to us the results of our culture of greed.Has he decided that enough is enough and opened the door so we can all see what our country has become.I don’t stand in judgement of any MP or banker who have reached out and grabbed all they can .But I do want to see our country move away from this culture that rewards simple greed.

Our country has rejected the idea that being productive is a good thing and run headlong down a path that put all its energy into finding more and more elaborate ways to steal money instead of working for it.
The banking crisis and this (expenses crisis ) for MP’s are rooted in the same basic problem.Everything was hidden in complicated ways that we the punter were never going to find out on our own.The banks were able to come up with ever more complicated ways to sell money.No one tried to stop them .MP’s were able to come up with a system of expenses that nobody really knew what they could or could not claim for .And through time they just claimed for anything.They governed themselves and now God has brought it out into the open for all to see.This is our chance to make sure we have not only a good open and accountable system but to root our the worst abuses of our trust.