Mike Russell MSP, the man who wanted to sell Argyll & Bute's forests now wants to be their SNP candidate for the Holyrood election

So with the news that Jim Mather MSP is standing down at the next Scottish election the SNP in Argyll & Bute are now looking to select their next candidate.

Mike Russell MSP has announced via Argyll News that he would like to offer himself as the SNP candidate in fact they go on to also explain that to be the MSP for Argyll & Bute you really need to be a Minister in the Holyrood Government to be the MSP for Argyll & Bute.

Given they have had George Lyon (LibDem) representing them for eight years and Jim Mathers (SNP) for three years, both who have been Ministers in different Scottish governments, as their local MSP you can understand why

Argyll News goes on to provide a good argument on why therefore Mike Russell MSP would be a good choice to represent the people of Argyll & Bute in Holyrood.

I am now going to put forward a reasoned argument on why choosing the Liberal Democrat candidate on Thursday May 5th would be a much better idea.

I can't tell you at this stage who the candidate will be as we are currently in the final stages of that process and our members in Argyll & Bute won't make their final decision until the end of next week.

But I can tell you why Mike Russell MSP shouldn't be the MSP for Argyll & Bute after polling day.

Back in February last year the SNP government had a crazy idea that they were going to sell off 25% of the forests in Scotland, including Argyll & Bute where over 400 people are employed within the forestry industry.  The Scottish Liberal Democrats led by environment spokesman Jim Hume MSP mounted a campaign collecting over 30,000 signatures across Scotland to stop the SNP plans in their tracks.

Alan Reid MP and George Lyon MEP who ran the campaign to stop the sell off in Argyll & Bute held a public meeting in Lochgilphead chaired by Robert Beaney of the Forestry Commission Trade Unions where over 240 local residents squeezed in to hear about the plans proposed by the SNP.

The two politicians spent time meeting community groups and forest contractors who raised their deep concerns about the impact that the privatisation plans will have on local jobs and local community projects which use Forestry Commission land.  Many of them such as the Kintyre Way, the Dalriada Project, the Loch Awe Improvement Association and the Mid Argyll Cycle Club could be threatened if the Forestry Commission land is handed over to the private sector.

Who was the SNPs Environment Minister who was proposing these plans to sell off 25% of Scotland's forests?

Mike Russell MSP.

This man was then sacked by Alex Salmond because of the huge public outcry.

Mike Russell is dangerous, his plans could have seen thousands of acres of Scottish forests sold to developers.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats campaign was mounted against the SNP’s attempts to effectively sell off publicly owned Forestry Commission forests to private timberland investment companies. The proposal was hidden deep within the Climate Change Bill and would have seen the most commercially viable forests being leased to private investment companies for up to 75 years.

Unsurprisingly when this privatisation by the back door approach was debated the SNP were backed by the Tories, the SNP’s unlikely but ever loyal bedfellows in Holyrood.


The 25% of forests targeted for this leasing option was the most commercially viable proportion of Scotland’s forestry estate and equated to about 40% of production for the Forestry Commission. Removing this from public ownership would have significantly diminished essential Forestry Commission income for investment in maintaining Scottish forests and projects including the 7stanes network and for creating new leisure access initiatives such as mountain biking, walking, orienteering and other community woodland initiatives elsewhere. A further worry was that Forestry Commission jobs were undoubtedly under threat, and local timber companies dependent upon cutting rights granted to them by the Forestry Commission faced an uncertain future if those cutting rights had been taken away or if wood prices were set higher than is affordable for local companies.

The campaign to stop the sell off was a success, but we must remain vigilant to ensure the SNP don't try to sneak it through another time in another Bill.

So, when it comes to voting for your next MSP in Argyll & Bute on Thursday May 5th, when you think of voting SNP think of Mike Russell's plans to sell off 25% of the forests in Scotland, which would have included all of the forests in Argyll & Bute.

A scary thought indeed and that is why Mike Russell should not be the SNP candidate in Argyll & Bute and never the MSP.

Detention for Fiona Hyslop as Tavish Scott goes top of the class

So, Alex Salmond has today sacked Fiona Hyslop as Education Secretary and moved her to a non cabinet position covering the external affairs and culture portfolio and to add insult to injury the responsibility for the constitution has been removed from the post.

Mike Russell (previously Environment minister sacked for proposing to sell off 25% of Scotland's forests) has now been moved from Culture minister to Education Secretary. Let's hope his first idea isn't selling off 25% of the schools!

This reshuffle has come about partly because of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

On Saturday, Tavish Scott informed all four main parties in the Scottish Parliament that he was intending to propose a motion of no confidence in Fiona Hyslop as Education Secretary in the allocated Liberal Democrats opposition day in Parliament on Thursday.

Alex Salmond obviously didn't want to go through the pain of a debate where the Liberal Democrats launched a full frontal assault on Education, so he has pushed Fiona Hyslop rather than be publicly humiliated in Parliament.

Although as Tavish Scott rightly points out, this isn't about Alex Salmond, Fiona Hyslop or even Mike Russell it is about the children, it is about all of those children going through school.

There are 54,000 children across Scotland in P7 classes who face the start of the new Curriculum For Excellence next August. Yet, here we are only eight months away and teachers still have not had the details of the assessments and the exams that they need to do their job properly and ensure our children have the best start.

Without a fresh approach and some new thinking, the new curriculum will be under-planned and under-resourced and I am sure the SNP will blame the local councils and teachers alike if this happens.

As I blogged on Saturday there is a crisis not only in teacher numbers but also the relationship between the government and the councils. The latest figures show there are 1,300 fewer teachers than this time last year and class sizes continue to rise.

Fiona Hyslop threatened to nationalise every school in Scotland and remove any role for local government. No-one believes that the Minister in Edinburgh can possibly run every single school and nor should they, that is why we elect local councillors and employ good staff who implement the education strategies.

The other bizarre part of this re-shuffle is that the First Minister has now personally taken responsibility for the forthcoming bill on an independence referendum.

Why?

The First Minister should be way too busy to take a bill through Parliament. So, is this decision because no-one else is with him? Not enough talent in the SNP benches? Or just that Alex Salmond isn't busy enough and this will help fill his day?

Seriously though, I do not think the First Minister is sending out the right message if he has to personally oversee a Bill through Parliament at the time we are going through a major recession.

SNP Minister Mike Rusell's Aide Mark MacLachlan in smear campaign

Alex Salmond and Mike Russell will not be happy chaps this morning as the often talked about cybernat bullying is finally exposed as the News of the World uncover (now former) senior aide Mark MacLachlans disgraceful online bullying/hate campaign.

Mike Russell's office manager Mark MacLachlan has now resigned (or been sacked) not only from his job but also membership of the SNP.

Mark MacLachlan hid behind the pseudonym Montague Burton on his blog, “The Universality of Cheese”, this blog has now been taken down, although we have had a bit of a period of blogs closing in Scotland, this is one we are all happy to see the back of.

Jeff over at SNP Tactical Voting does offer a small bit of defence of Mark himself, after having met him twice. Although on this occasion I do feel Jeff is wrong about this not being the SNPs "Damian McBride" affair. The SNP will suffer more than blog damage from this.

On the eve of the SNP's attempt to waste time and money by introducing the Referendum bill this is not only bad timing for Alex Salmond but this smear gate will no doubt take column inches away from his beloved independence campaign.











Tavish Scott says in today's Scotland on Sunday this is Alex Salmond's "Damian McBride" moment - spot on Tavish.

"This is Alex Salmond's Damian McBride moment," said Tavish Scott, the Lib Dem leader.

"We need an apology from him and for him to disassociate himself from this blogger immediately.

"This poisonous SNP bile attacking anyone who dares criticise Alex Salmond's nationalists was paid for by the Scottish taxpayer. I want a full investigation by the Permanent Secretary into what other SNP special advisers, researchers and hired hands are involved in this kind of odious politics.

"Scott added: "If Mark MacLachlan posted any of his defamation's and smears in office hours, while being paid by the taxpayer and while using facilities provided at the taxpayers' expense, Mike Russell's position is untenable and Alex Salmond should sack him."

In The Sunday Herald they report "He also alleged a married Labour MSP visited gay cruising spots, badmouthed the daughter of Lord David Steel, the former presiding officer at Holyrood, and described several opponents as “c***s”. Mr MacLachlan had been employed at public expense since 2007."

The News of the World who exposed Mark MacLachlan's trail of hate, smears and lies seems to have gone on for some time. I do however wonder if Mike Russell knew what his office manager was up to? Given how close knit the SNP operation is and everyone is told what to do and say and when to do it I don't see how others including Mike Russell didn't know about it.

That is one thing I am sure we will never really know the answer to.

The one thing that has been very obvious to me is that the SNP may have got rid of Mark MacLachlan quickly, but this won't go away as many of those that he has attacked and spread rumours about may now well take legal action against him.

David Maddox called last Wednesday "black Wednesday" for the SNP, this is a much blacker Sunday and the SNP should be ashamed of the actions of this former senior member of staff and congratulations to the News of the World for uncovering the actions of this person and bringing to a halt this trail of hatred and bullying type of political action from within the top levels of the SNP minority government.