February Column

Written by Malcolm Bruce MP on Tue 21st Feb 2006

Celebrating Lib Dem success in Dunfermline!

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Politics has just got more interesting. The Liberal Democrats have scored a sensational by-election victory in Scotland when everyone had written us off. The supposedly revitalised Tories fell back and the SNP made no progress. Labour was stunned to lose the seat where Gordon Brown lives and which is next to his own. The message in one sense was clear. The electorate is fed up with Labour. People believe Tony Blair should retire but are not enthused by the prospect of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. The Tories look very unlikely to win the next election and the SNP are going nowhere. The era of three party politics across the UK is not about to end. This means that politicians will need to think more and be prepared to acknowledge common ground and difficult issues. Spin and cheap slogans will not work. I am delighted for Willie Rennie, who everyone acknowledged was the best candidate and will make a first class MP who has a real chance of holding the seat. He is a former chief executive of the Scottish Lib Dems and was organiser for Cornwall where we hold all five of the seats. If the Liberal Democrats can win a by-election in the difficult circumstances of recent weeks there is every prospect of the party making significant advances at the next election. There is also the prospect of the Liberal Democrats becoming a major force in the Scottish Parliament with the SNP leader's claim that he will win Gordon and become Scotland's First Minister looking like arrogant posturing even more ludicrous than the slogan 'Scotland free by ´93'. The smart money should be on Nicol Stephen as a serious contender.

The loss of the Dunfermline by-election has obviously frightened the Labour whips and many of their backbenchers. Having inflicted an embarrassing defeat on the Government over the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill the Government business managers were obviously desperate to avoid further humiliation. So a compromise on ID cards saw a climb down. Labour rebels stayed loyal on the anti terrorism Bill and the smoking ban was carried on a free vote by 200 completely crushing the Government's previous ludicrous position. The Lords may send them back to the Commons but the word is that the rebels are keeping their powder dry for the Education Bill where the Government may depend on Tory support. I believe the Government is on weak ground trying to bully MPs to support measures which the government claim are essential to defeat terrorism but are likely to prove very expensive, potentially restrictive to law abiding citizens and of little deterrent to determined terrorists. Yet the Government refuse to allow the use of phone tap evidence. What is the point of sanctioning phone tapping for security reasons and not using it when it could secure convictions?

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Clashendarroch wind farm

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The Clashendarroch wind farm proposal seems to be entering new twists and turns. I have made it clear that I believe wind energy has a useful contribution to make in reducing the output of greenhouse gases. Nevertheless, I accept that the Clash proposals are large and controversial in some quarters. It is therefore surprising that, given the difficulties that have been faced, a radical change should be mooted at this stage. Fewer turbines may be welcome but their larger size is not. The site has been identified in principle as suitable for a wind farm but the developers have not gone about it in a way that has commanded universal support - making a sharp contrast to the Glens of Foudland development now operating which has had a warmer welcome from most of those affected.

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Upgrading of the A90

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I am delighted to see that work is finally starting on the upgrading of the A90 between Ellon and Aberdeen. It was promised by the Tories, then cancelled, then reinstated after a petition only to be cancelled again when Labour came to power. Another petition secured wide community and cross party support and a Liberal Democrat Transport Minister finally gave the go-ahead. I never accepted the civil servants´ argument that the upgrade was not justified. After all, there is dual carriageway to the north and south with the same volume of traffic. I am delighted that local campaigning has at last paid off and will ease the frustrations that can occur on this road.

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Elections further afield

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My recent visit to Uganda coincided with an election campaign where the newspapers were divided between Government and opposition but most of the copy consisted of the Government's attempts to have the leader of the opposition disqualified or jailed and the opposition leader's wife's - an ex lover of the president - threatening to tell all about his sex life. In the middle of this, the country was experiencing major power cuts as a result of excess water being taken from Lake Victoria reducing the output of hydro stations. Yet none of this featured in the election campaign. Also missing from the campaign viewed from Kampala was significant mention of the 20 year old war against the Lord Resistance Army in the North. This has left more than 1.5 million people living in squalid camps dependent on food aid from the international community in spite of living on some of the most fertile land in Africa. This was the reason for my committee's visit. Ending this war and enabling the people to return to the land is crucial to the future of reducing poverty. It maybe that Uganda needs help and the fact that the International Community has issued indictments for the arrest of the rebel leaders' means that a way should be found to give it.