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Salmond launches independence plan ALAN RODEN and ANDREW PICKEN edinburghnews.com FIRST Minister Alex Salmond today promised "a new chapter in Scottish politics" as he set out the SNP's plans for a referendum on independence. He formally launched draft legislation which, if passed, would be likely to lead to a vote in 2010 on breaking away from the UK. The SNP leader claimed it was the "settled will" of the Scottish people for the Holyrood parliament to have more powers and said "no change was no longer an option". Mr Salmond launched a "national conversation" on Scotland's future at Napier University's Craiglockhart campus. In a White Paper he set out what the SNP sees as the three "realistic" choices for the country: • Retaining the present devolved set-up. • Redesigning devolution by extending the powers of the Scottish Parliament in specific areas. • Full independence. The White Paper also includes the draft wording of the ballot paper for a referendum. This asks voters whether they agree or disagree "that the Scottish government should negotiate a settlement with the Government of a United Kingdom so that Scotland becomes an independent state". Mr Salmond said: "As a sovereign people, the people of Scotland have the right to decide how we are governed. "In election, the people voted clearly for further development of the way we govern ourselves in Scotland. We in the government believe that independence would be the best for our country." But Mr Salmond said the "national conversation" could result in other options being put on the ballot paper as well. Saying he was "relaxed" about that possibility, he went on: "A multi-option referendum requires the alternatives to be as clear as independence or the no-change options already are. "The opportunity now presents itself for those who want another option in a referendum to define that option and present the case for inclusion on the ballot paper". The White Paper explains that the 1603 Union of the Crowns would remain intact, with the Queen as Head of State. Scotland would become a full member of the European Union, the United Nations and other international bodies. It says Scotland could decide to continue with membership of international defence alliances, principally Nato, or could opt for a defence posture outside a nuclear-armed alliance, similar to Ireland and Sweden. An independent Scotland would have to consider the role and scale of its armed forces, and might choose to emphasise international peacekeeping and disaster relief missions, the document says. The nuclear-armed submarines of the Royal Navy would have to be removed from Scotland, and based elsewhere. The White Paper states that a re-design of the devolution settlement could involve "fiscal autonomy", with control over the overall level of taxation, rather than just the existing limited tax-varying powers. Other responsibilities that could be transferred from Westminster to Holyrood include anti-terrorism legislation, minimum wage levels, the retirement age, the postal service, and broadcasting. Such a move would also be likely to require a referendum. He said: "Whatever the differences between the political parties, the message of the election was obvious - the constitutional position of Scotland must move forward. "I therefore propose that we have a national conversation on our future to allow the people of Scotland to debate, reflect and then decide on the type of government which best equips us for the future. "This paper is intended as the starting point and inspiration for that conversation." Members of the public have been invited to join the "national conversation" by logging onto a dedicated website at www.anationalconversation.com, where comments can be added to a new online blog. There are to be a series of public events seeking active engagement with voters, involving the First Minister, civic and business leaders and academics. The Executive will also carry out opinion surveys and focus groups. But despite today's high-profile launch, the SNP's minority administration faces an uphill struggle to pass the referendum Bill. Mike Pringle, Edinburgh South Lib Dem MSP, said: "You can have all the fanfare you like, there is simply no chance of this referendum happening what-soever. "The three main opposition parties have said that they are against it and will vote it out of parliament so I don't know why the SNP are wasting money pursuing this. "Alex Salmond would be better off concentrating his efforts in improving Scotland instead of pursuing something that's not going to happen. "They want this conversation to last for the next three years but the SNP would be better off concentrating on the real issues affecting Scotland such as what are we going to do about the council tax." Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said: "Don't be fooled, this White Paper is about independence no matter how it is dressed up with bells, whistles and frills. "At its very core is the SNP's nationalist separatist agenda." Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems issued an unprecedented joint statement ahead of today's publication, accusing the SNP of wasting taxpayers' money on a "narrow and failed agenda". "We will listen - but we fear this will be less of a conversation than a one-way megaphone," said the party leaders. Responding to today's announcement, Scottish Secretary Des Browne said independence did not have the support of the Scottish people Mr Browne said: "Two thirds of Scottish voters voted for parties that support the Union in the Scottish Parliament elections. "We created a Scottish Parliament - with powerful primary legislative powers on devolved matters - because we wanted to give the Scottish people greater democratic accountability in these areas. "But the Government also believes that certain decisions are sensibly taken for the UK as a whole. "The Union provides us with a strong voice in the world - for Scotland as well as the other countries making up the UK."

Mod's fluent youth speaks volumes for Gaelic education MURRAY MACLEOD scotsman.com THE continued success of Gaelic-medium education is providing organisers of the Royal National Mod with a welcome headache - how to cope with the huge number of children who are now being classed as fluent. This year has witnessed a significant swelling in numbers in the junior native speakers' section, to such an extent that organisers have now been forced to extend some of the competitions beyond one day. Tuesday of the Mod week has traditionally been reserved for pupils who have a strong grasp of the language, but some of these competitions have this year been moved to the Monday due to the high number of entries. There have been a number of educational developments over recent years, such as the opening of dedicated Gaelic primaries in Glasgow and Inverness, and a further 103 Gaelic-medium units in primary schools throughout the country, supporting a total of 2,092 pupils. John MacLeod, the president of the Mod organiser An Comunn Gaidhealach, said: "It is fair to say that the increase in fluent competitions is a direct result of the improvements in Gaelic-medium education. There are more and more kids coming through who are falling into the classification of fluent. That is highly encouraging and is something we welcome, but it is creating a problem for us. "For the first time this year we held some of the fluent competitions on the Monday. "I don't know how we deal with it if it continues to expand, which we hope it will, other than continue to extend it over the one day and maybe into Wednesday." An Comunn has decided to introduce a new element to this year's events which should provide the children's section with even greater recognition. Led by a group of pipers, the competing children from Monday and yesterday will march through Fort William town centre to gather at a grassy knoll known as the Parade where they will collectively display their singing ability to an anticipated large crowd. Murdo Morrison, the Mod promotions manager, said the organisers "just wanted to do something for the kids". He added: "We have had high praise for moving some of the competitions from Tuesday to Monday. We moved some of the folk groups to Monday, the first time we've done that with the children's competitions, and it is simply because of pressure of numbers. There has been a very high standard and it's been as a result of the increase of fluent speakers coming through from the Gaelic medium." Meanwhile, in the competitions, the isle of Lewis proved it was still top of the class when it comes to producing solo singers in the traditional mould, with both the female and male event for traditional singing won by youngsters from the island. They were 18-year-old Colin George Morrison from Barvas and 17-year-old Charlotte Campbell from Laxdale.

An excellent resource for anyone thinking of taking a break in Scotland, and wishing to use the time to do a short (or long) course in Gaelic: www.smo.uhi.ac.uk College information: Address: Sàbhal Mòr Ostaig Sleat, Isle of Skye, Scotland IV44 8RQ Phone: +44 (0) 1471 888 000 Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is the only college in the world which not only teaches the Gaelic language, but is also administered using Scottish Gaelic as the primary language. Current student numbers stand at approximately 100 on full-time courses, about 160 on distance learning courses, and up to 900 enrol on short courses each year. The College has a diverse student population, with a cross-section of ages and different nationalities. Though most of our students come from within Scotland and the UK, Sabhal Mor Ostaig has welcomed students from as far afield as North America, mainland Europe and Asia. Graduates of the College have gone on to Gaelic-related employment in many industries, adding their skills to the maintenance and development of the language

Diúltú do chuntais bhliantúla i nGaidhlig Foinse Jan 06 2008 Tá comhlacht beag ar Oileán Sciathanach in Albain tar éis dúshlán a thabhairt do theach cláraithe comhlachtaí in Albain trína gcvntais bhliantúla a chur isteach i nGaidhlig amháin. Ba é seo an céad tuarascáil bhliantúil de chuid an chomhlachta ó tháinig Acht na Gaidhlige 2005 i bhfeidhm go dleathúil agus éileamh ann go mbeadh sé cláraithe roimh dheireadh mhí na Nollag 2007. Comhairleoireacht innealtóireachta den chuid is mó gnó Innleadaireachd Uí Dhonnghaile Teo. Cláraíodh an comhlacht in Albain i Companies House i nDún Éideann, macasamhal an Oifig um Chlárú Chuideachtaí in Éireann, sa bhliain 2000. Cé gur comhairleoireacht innealtóireachta príomhghnó na comhlachta bhí gníomhaíocht trí Ghaidhlig ar cheann d’aidhmeanna cláraithe an chomhlachta ón tús. Deir Peter Ó Donnghaile, innealtóir le gairm agus stiúrthóir an chomhlachta nach raibh Companies House sásta glacadh leis na cvntaisí trí Ghaidhlig. “Níor fháiltigh siad roimh an fhorbairt seo. An chéad uair gur chuir muid isteach iad dhiúltaigh siad glacadh leo,” a mhínigh sé. “Thug duine dá gcuid cigirí le fios dúinn nach mór go mbeadh gach cáipéis a thugtar do Companies House i mBéarla.” Ach tá diúltaithe ag Innleadaireachd Uí Dhonnghaile don fhreagraa tháinig ar ais ó Companies House. De réir an chomhlachta tá cáipéisíocht i mBreatnaís ar shuíomh idirlín na heagraíochta. Maíonn an comhlacht go bhfuil na cvntaisí ag cloí leis na rialacháin agus an t-aon difríocht atá ann ná go bhfuil an cur síos orthu i nGaidhlig agus i bhfoirm gur chóir glacadh leis in Albain. Rinne an comhlacht na cuntaisí a chur faoi bhráid Companies House arís, fós i nGaidhlig trí seachtaine roimh an Nollaig. Ach níor éirigh eis an dara hiarracht. Tugadh le fios d’Ó Donnghaile nach raibh an eagraíocht in ann glacadh leis na cvntaisí trí Ghaidhlig mar nach bhfuil an reachtaíocht chuí ann.

Extra cash in bid to boost Gaelic Gaelic road sign The cash will be used to safeguard the Gaelic language First Minister Alex Salmond will pledge an extra £7.5m to safeguard the future of the Gaelic language this week. Mr Salmond will unveil the funding increase when he delivers the annual Sabhal Mor Ostaig lecture on Wednesday. The money will be spent on education, the national plan for the language and also broadcasting. The lecture will take place at the St Cecilia Hall in Edinburgh, where Mr Salmond will call for the creation of a "Celtic Lion" economy. 'New funding' Mr Salmond will tell delegates: "We want to build a 'Celtic Lion' economy in Scotland and a strong economy and strong culture go hand-in-hand. "That is true not just for Gaelic but for the whole of Scotland. "Our programme to help safeguard the future of the Gaelic language is backed up by additional new resources - an extra £7.5m over the period of the spending review. "This new funding includes £1m per year to be directed towards Gaelic education, £1m per year for the implementation of projects in the National Plan for Gaelic, and an additional £0.5m towards support for Gaelic broadcasting." He added: "We have ambition for Scotland and ambition for the Gaelic language."

Big projects must wait as SNP funding plan remains in doubt 21 May 2008 By DAVID MADDOX Scotsman.ie THE Scottish Government's flagship policy for funding major public projects was last night branded a shambles – amid renewed fears of delays in building new schools, hospitals and the Forth crossing. The SNP's widely anticipated Scottish Futures Trust programme was also denounced as a broken election promise. Opponents said the Nationalists had gone back on their pledge by still allowing private firms to profit by funding major schemes. LaunchADVERTISEMENTing the SFT, Alex Salmond, the First Minister, said it would save up to £150 million a year by securing cheaper investment rates on markets through bulk purchasing. "The development of the Scottish Futures Trust is the way forward, offering both better value finance and secure investment," he said. "It is right for Scotland, right for our public services and right for our times. By releasing up to £150 million each year for increased investment, we can ensure more resources for our public infrastructure compared to wasteful PFI." However, critics immediately pounced on the document and said it appeared to be full of holes. On page 39, the proposal openly admitted that it still did not know how private finance would be raised – and while the Scottish Government plans to create a new municipal bond based on the collective assets and revenue streams of councils, none has yet signed up to it. This sparked immediate fears of delays for key projects, including the new Forth crossing. The SFT is due to be set up in the summer as an arms-length government company. However, no new projects will be commissioned until at least the 2009-10 financial year, leading to concerns about schemes already waiting for funding. The SNP had proposed the futures trust as a means of replacing the much-derided public private partnerships (PPPs) which they claimed allowed the private sector to profiteer at the expense of the public purse. The PPP had replaced the very similar private finance initiative. But last night, unions damned the SFT proposal as simply being another form of PPP, a criticism echoed by political parties who also questioned why no projects were commissioned for a year while the SNP looked for an alternative to PPP. They pointed to the fact the SFT would use the not-for-profit distribution mechanism which is a form of PPP, and simply means the level of profit is agreed at the outset of the contract. "It is merely PFI-lite," said Unison's Scottish secretary Matt Smith. "No amount of spin can change the fact that the private sector will continue to build, design and run public services under this plan, and they will continue to take a profit out of our essential services." Andy Kerr, Labour's local government spokesman, added: "The SFT is PPP with a lick of cheap paint. Most observers recognise the makeover has only produced uncertainty. This is a hare-brained scheme, a shambles, which will only lead to delay or possible cancellation of vital projects like new schools or even the new Forth road bridge." Derek Brownlee, the Conservative finance spokesman, said: "The Scottish Futures Trust has changed more often than Labour's referendum policy. However it is dressed up, the key principle of PFI/PPP is maintained – leveraging in private investment into public infrastructure. Put simply, it is not so much the SFT, as the SNP-PP." Liam McArthur, the Liberal Democrat finance spokesman, also scorned the proposals. "The only thing about the Scottish Futures Trust which they haven't changed is the name," he said. Business leaders were also unimpressed by the lack of detail. In particular, a line from the document admitted that there was no real strategy to raise private finance. It said: "The details of how investment will be raised from the private sector has not been explored in any detail as part of this strategic business case, rather that will fall to SFT delivery as part of the business planning for SFT finance and investment." David Lonsdale, CBI Scotland's assistant director, said he was unimpressed. "While we want to see the maximum bang delivered for the taxpayer's buck, it's difficult at this point to see how these vague proposals will achieve this," he said. "For one thing, it seems astonishing that none of the detail has so far been explored about how investment will be raised from the private sector. And the Scottish Government needs to be far clearer about what the incentives will be for firms looking to invest in our public services." Michael Levack, from the Scottish Building Federation, said that there was too much delay and that he was concerned that nothing will be commissioned until 2009. "If the delay goes on it is going to have an impact on the building trade because we need the volume of work," he said. "I was interested that the ministers were talking about huge profit margins for PPP, if we make 2 or 3 per cent we are doing extremely well. "Whilst the building trade won't leave Scotland, the financing side may look elsewhere if there is too much delay." The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) took a cautious stance on the proposal. Its president, Pat Watters, said: "Having just had the detail presented to us we will now seek a local government reaction to what is being proposed. I have however had an assurance from the Cabinet Secretary that Cosla will be fully involved in any future discussions." But a senior Cosla source told The Scotsman that as things stand the SFT proposal is "a joke" and it is unlikely that councils will be rushing to support the bonds issue. However, there was some praise for the SFT. Keith Patterson, a partner at the law firm Brodies, said: "This approach ensures investors a return on their investment but the capped return structure means it is not possible to make windfall profits, and this should be more acceptable to the public." The greatest praise came from Professor John Kay, a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, a Visiting Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, and a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, He said: "PFI is well past its sell-by date. The Scottish Futures Trust can achieve its three objectives of cheaper finance, better project management and the operation of infrastructure projects for the benefit of the people of Scotland." SFT So what's the difference between new and old? DESPITE the SNP's original intention, the Scottish Futures Trust does not mean the end of public-private partnerships. The SFT would be an arm's length company split in two and run by a board. The board would have a public sector wing for the delivery of projects and a private wing to raise finance. The board would be chaired by the Finance Secretary, who would have primary responsibility to parliament on the issue. The reason an arm's length company is being created is to get round the borrowing limitations of the Scottish Government. The SFT would act as a point of central expertise in Scotland and co-ordinate projects across the country. Councils or other public bodies would approach it for advice on how best to get a project off the ground. The SFT would then suggest it took a not-for-profit model of the PPP, or get together with other councils to raise bonds to fund a series of similar projects, or find an alternative funding mechanism, possibly prudential borrowing from the public loans board. The issue of bonds has caused some confusion because the original plan was for the SFT to raise Scottish Government bonds for all projects. However, the Scottish Government cannot raise bonds or take on debt under the terms of the Scotland Act. The way round this is for councils with much needed projects grouping together and using their assets and revenue stream to raise money through bonds. Bonds give investors a guaranteed income and are seen as a safe investment, especially with councils, which are not allowed to go out of business. The document says the SFT will not be able to finance projects itself until 2009-10. One difference with PPP is that maintenance may now be carried out by the council instead of having that agreed as part of a scheme. PPP PUBLIC private partnerships, known more commonly as PPPs, were Labour's way of softening a financing scheme invented by the Conservatives. The original concept was known as the private finance initiative (PFI). Both enabled a council, health board or other public authority to bring forward an infrastructure scheme, such as a road, school or hospital which needed to be built, but for which they did not have the money or the borrowing power. They would ask consortiums of builders and financiers to make an offer to build and then maintain the project for between 20 and 30 years. The public body would then commit itself to pay an annual sum to the consortium, and at the end of the period take ownership of the building. The problems arose because some councils were paying well over the odds for a project, partly because of hidden profit margins within the maintenance side. The not-for-profit model was the latest PPP development to have an agreed profit margin before the project was started. However, even under this model, a school or hospital would be built for the cost of two. Analysis Not the big bang we need, but not a total damp squib "THIS is not the big bang that we were hoping for and is clearly a watered down version of what the SNP had talked about previously," said John Watt, a partner in Government and Infrastructure Advisory at Grant Thornton, Scotland. "Whilst this announcement is long-awaited and it's very interesting to see where the Scottish Government is going, it is clear that there is still much work to be done for the Scottish Futures Trust to deliver all that ministers are seeking to do. "It is important that it facilitates a pipeline of projects in Scotland to be brought forward as soon as possible because we have already had a year's delay. "We still need to see details on how private financing will be raised for projects and how they expect to deliver them. This is absolutely crucial to the whole concept being a success. "There are schools projects in Moray, the Western Isles and Orkney which are going to be complicated and difficult to deliver and which the SFT is going to have to address. "With this there is also a potential problem in the use of not for profit distribution (NPD) models which potentially reduces the amount of profit, especially in projects where there is a high degree of risk. Private sector investors may think, 'what is in this for me?' "It is also clear that the SFT is going to have to start working very quickly. "The government wants to spend £14 billion on infrastructure projects in three years and we have already had a year's delay waiting for details of the SFT. However, it is clear that a lot of work has been done on the business case for the SFT, which is good and there are many positive things in this document and the government is offering a new way forward. "Whether it will succeed or not will depend on what the government brings forward in the coming weeks."

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