The Rt Hon Malcolm Bruce MP

October Column

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New academies welcome but let's have more orderly and local funding

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Of course I welcome the commitment to the new Ellon Academy, which is the result of persistent hard work by Liberal Democrat led Aberdeenshire Council and thanks to the insistence by Liberal Democrat MPs that the Scottish Futures Trust which until now has been good for nothing be given a funding stream.

In the past it took years of lobbying and the visit of two education ministers at my invitation to secure funding which delivered Meldrum Academy which gave Ellon much needed space.

It will still be some years until we get the funds for the new Ellon Academy. However, work could start now if the money was available now and in addition we have had to wait two and a half years for the Scottish Government to event begin to get it's act together.

The council still has to find its share of the capital for two new academies as well as fulfilling its own programme for a new Alford Academy and upgrades or replacement of several primary schools.

It should not be left to the largesse (with our taxpayers money) of Scottish Ministers for new schools to be found. Nor does this answer all Aberdeenshire's needs. Kintore Primary is bursting at the seams and Kemnay and Inverurie Academy's both require upgrades.

What is required is a proper process for upgrading or replacing schools and where necessary, building new ones rather than the stop-start unpredictable process that we currently have.

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Thanks for constructive bus safety meeting

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I very much appreciate the constructive engagement of all those who took part in my recent meeting to take forward constructive proposals on school bus safety.

Campaigners Carla Oldham and Ron Beatty deserve special thanks as it is emotionally hard for them but their participation gives real purpose to such meetings.

It was good to get the perspective of bus operators large and small, as well as the three local education authorities, fellow MPs, Robert Smith and Anne Begg, designers of safety devices and signs and a representative of the Department of Transport.

I am taking forward a number of proposals. There is still a call for a pilot of a no over-taking rule and no clear explanation of why this can't happen.

New electronic signage offers considerable scope for improved safety (and safely testing no overtaking) but it makes sense for the Department of Transport to take a lead on this rather than leave education authorities to do their own thing all of them different.

Similarly, it seems common sense to establish common standards on seatbelts on school buses.

Above all, we need a high profile safety campaign aimed at all road users and school bus passengers to make them aware of the dangers and to adopt a higher culture of safety where school buses are concerned.

I am taking these issues up with Ministers to try and get focussed progress.

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Opting out of BBC is tartan parochialism

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Broadcasting is in difficulties in the present climate. The BBC is facing pressure from commercial competitors who regard it as bloated and privileged for its state funding. The collapse in advertising revenues has emasculated ITV and is leading to STV virtually annihilating its Aberdeen presence, completing a process that started when Grampian sold out.

In the middle of this the SNP have tossed in their six pennyworth - a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation divorced from the BBC and funded by a higher licence fee and advertising.

Don't worry you will still get all your favourite programmes, they say. But that would not be under their control. BBC would no longer have a commitment to Scotland and if Scottish viewers want to watch Eastenders or Strictly Come Dancing, they will either have to pay a subscription or the Scottish broadcasting corporation would have to buy it at commercial rates, leaving precious little for Scottish programming.

The BBC is not above criticism. It has a built in two party bias. It under-invests in the North East. Why don't we have a full time radio station for the North East and more local TV news and current affairs and local programmes?

Nevertheless, Sky charges hundreds of pounds a year for its services but it makes little contribution to programme making, preferring to broadcast sport, movies and re-runs of other programme makers' output.

By contrast the BBC is the world's most respected and influential broadcaster and a major programme maker which generates foreign earnings for re-investment. Does Scotland really want to be cut off from that and from BBC Radio and the World Service which offers a wide range of programmes no Scottish Broadcasting Corporation could match?

If the SNP can find more money to supplement the BBC and stimulate Scottish programme-making that would add value and might reverse the emasculation of programme making in Aberdeen. Cutting ourselves off from the BBC is the worst kind of tartan parochialism.

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Media's two party basis no basis for SNP grumbling

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The party conference season has ended again without greatly altering the political mix. I note with interest that the Liberal Democrats poll ratings always peak after our party conference and then decline until the election season in the spring when they rise again.

This is a direct correlation to the amount of coverage the party gets at other times and explains why the Liberal Democrats nearly always adds five or six points to its poll ratings during a General Election campaign.

That, and the fact that not one newspaper in the country supports the Liberal Democrats, helps to explain why the media are conspiring to keep the country in a two party straitjacket.

In spite of this fewer and fewer people are supporting Labour and Conservative and more and more people are staying away - recognising that what we suffer from in this country is a far from representative democracy - and growing disillusion among voters.

Will a leaders' debate change this? Well, if it acknowledges there are three not two nationwide parties in Britain that will be progress but the arrogant insistence by Labour, Tory and the media establishment that you must choose between Brown and Cameron will undermine that.

Of course I understand the SNP's concern about being shut out but they have weakened their case by insisting that Salmond - a largely absentee MP who will not be a candidate for Westminster - should be in the line-up and threatening legal action on shaky ground.

Yes there should be Scottish debates in which the SNP take part but as they do not have a candidate for Prime Minister the case for equal status seems to me to fall.

In the end, we are electing a Member of Parliament, and people in the North East often tell me that they choose to vote for a candidate first and party second. We don't have a presidential system - yet.

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House returns to development reports and oil safety debate

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The House of Commons returns next week after the summer recess. The International Development Committee, which I chair will be finalising two reports. The first is on Nigeria, where development indicators are dire and the levels of corruption and lack of leadership make it difficult to deliver effective development assistance.

The second is on urban poverty which is of increasing importance as the majority of the world's population live in towns and cities where slums are expanding faster than development can match.

I am also hoping to speak in a debate on safety in the oil and gas industry which is timely following the Offshore Europe Conference which highlighted the challenges facing the UK Continental Shelf given the current oil price and the need for Government to continue to stimulate a climate of confidence and investment.

The recent North Star business awards showed how many global high tech companies we have operating in Aberdeen. This is an industry that employs half a million people, accounts for billions of pounds in investment and contribution to our balance of payments and needs to be nurtured for the long term.

But given the enormity of the challenge technically and economically we must ensure the highest of safety standards. I hope the Government will listen and respond.

ENDS