The Rt Hon Malcolm Bruce MP

December column (2)

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School children and posties together for Christmas

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In the run up to Christmas I have been getting into the seasonal spirit visiting sorting offices busy with Christmas mail and presenting certificates and book tokens to the winners of my Christmas competition for schools.

The overall winner was Emma Power of Kintore, who also celebrated her 10th birthday on the day I thanked her for her charming design of carol singers. The runners up were of a high standard too. Second place went to Sarah Ross of Braehead School in Bridge of Don (which has provided a prize winner for the last five Christmases) with a very lively Rudolph. Braehead also produced the joint third placed entry designed by Carly Main of a figgy pudding for "We wish you a Merry Christmas".

Caillay Campbell of Kennethmont was third equal with an original Holly and Ivy design.

The card with Emma's design will go out to over 800 people and the runners up are printed on the back so people can see how high the standard was.

This is of course the busiest time of year for Royal Mail and our local posties and I visited Huntly and Bridge of Don sorting offices to thank them for their efforts on our behalf.

I know how much people value the daily visit of the local post men and women and they are naturally anxious about the future of the service. We all know that the last mile is the most important and if Royal Mail loses too much business to competitors who are not obliged to provide a universal service we could all lose out.

At the very least, other providers of postal services must pay a realistic rate for the last mile delivery. We already know that the North East is being classed as remote by some suppliers and charging extra for delivery - even when they are using Royal Mail.

We must stay vigilant to keep the service we need. So Merry Christmas to our talented primary school children and hard working postal workers.

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Friends look to re-open Leith Hall

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After the angst and misunderstanding surrounding the future of Leith Hall I am pleased that a Friends of Leith Hall group has now been formed to work with the National Trust for Scotland to help secure the re-opening of the hall and the retention of its really valuable and interesting memorabilia.

This is likely to involve upgrading the flats within the hall and possibly some other properties on the estate to provide long term income.

I also hope that the hall itself will find a more varied role for the community which protects its heritage but brings it to life as the centre for many and varied events which enable people to enjoy the atmosphere and character of the house.

I have been more than happy to give this positive development my support.

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My message to PM - work with insurers to fund flood prevention

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People who are being forced to spend Christmas away from their own homes due to flooding will be anxious to know how Government is going to act to prevent future flooding of the kind we have experienced recently.

Changing weather patterns are likely to mean more events of the kind we have experienced with record recent rainfall.

That's why I challenged the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, not only to secure a deal to fund climate adaptation measures in the poorest and most vulnerable developing countries but also to explain how he intends to bring together Government and the insurance industry to pay for flood prevention and adaptation measures here in the UK.

Headlines focussed understandably on those who were flooded out but others had a narrow escape and Aberdeenshire Council reports many roads and bridges suffered substantial damage which will necessitate extensive repairs.

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SNP learn a hard lesson on schools

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The failure of the SNP's commitment to deliver on education - especially on class sizes led to the dramatic sacking of the Education Minister when it became apparent that the opposition parties would not back down on their motion of no-confidence.

This time the previous bluster of threatened resignation of the whole administration was called.

Smaller class sizes may well be desirable but such a commitment can only be delivered with more investment in teachers and classrooms and this has not been forthcoming.

Threatening to centralise the administration of education was the last straw for many. It accords with the desire of the SNP to take control of many things in Edinburgh to the disadvantage of areas like the North East.

It remains my view that education services and priorities are best delivered locally within overall national guidelines. When the administration wills change that costs money it must provide the means or accept that it is up to each authority to make its own priorities according to their assessment of needs. After all they are democratically elected too.

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Blair's Iraq venture costs us dear in Afghanistan

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I found pretty strong local reaction to Tony Blair's admission that he would have sought to invade Iraq even of there had been no weapons of mass destruction.

NATO with the backing of the United Nations went into Afghanistan to remove a Government that was hosting the Al Q'aeda terrorists who had launched the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Most people in Afghanistan - and especially women and girls - welcomed the removal of the Taliban and hoped for the rebuilding of the country,

Unfortunately under the influence of a pre-determined neo Conservative strategy the United States decided it wanted to launch an attack on Iraq to secure regime change, despite the fact that there was no connection between Iraq and the 11th September attacks.

This was opposed by many European countries and a substantial tranche of public opinion in the United Kingdom. I and all my Liberal Democrat colleagues voted against the invasion of Iraq - not because we held any brief for Saddam Hussein but because we saw no cause, little international support and the need to finish the job in Afghanistan.

Apart from attracting huge opprobrium on Britain as the USA's accessory to a probably illegal war, it has prevented us from achieving stability and adequate progress in Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister's visit to the front line may be the right thing for him to do but his problem is that public opinion shows lack of support for our engagement at a time when our forces feel that they are making progress in spite of understandable concern back home over casualties.

Were it not for the invasion of Iraq we would probably have achieved our objectives in Afghanistan by now - something Tony Blair never seems to consider.

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Bus safety - room for Holyrood and Westminster to act together

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I am pleased that the Scottish Parliament continues to take an interest in school bus safety which I have been promoting through my school bus safety bill.

I was asked to give evidence this week to the Parliament's petitions committee along with local campaigner Ron Beatty.

Attention focuses on the 'No overtaking' rule which I believe still has merit although it is controversial. However, there are other measures over which there is wide agreement that we could do more to promote.

These include a commitment to standardise three point safety belts in contract school buses. In addition, Aberdeenshire and some other authorities are looking to develop new electronic signage for school buses. This is commendable but it would be helpful if there was co-ordination to develop the best common approach. The Scottish and UK Parliaments could and should work usefully together on these.

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BA strike could destroy strikers own jobs

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The decision by BA staff to vote to strike over the holiday period looks like an act of wanton self-destruction. Other airlines may not be able to cover the entire shortfall but BA is already uncompetitive and haemorrhaging money. This could hasten its demise meaning there will be no jobs to negotiate pay and conditions for.

14 December 2009