Dunfermline's PM.

Carnegie noted in last week's Dunfermline Press that one hundred years ago Fifers were preparing for a visit to Dunfermline by then British Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.

Strange how thing's turn out: 100 years later the current Liberal Democrat and Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell resigns, and a visit to Fife by a British Prime Minister doesn't have much of a novelty given that we have a Fife MP as Prime Minister, namely Mr Gordon Brown.

Carnegie wasn't around at the time to bump into Mr Campbell-Bannerman. He was too busy making his fortune in the States.

Open to offers.

Carnegie sees that there is speculation that following his departure as Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell, may be open to serving in a Ministerial position, probably in Foreign Affairs, in PM Gordon Brown's Government of "all the talents."

It looks as though all of those shared shuttle trips on BA flights to London with "old friend" GB could pay off for another of Fife's finest. However, Carnegie suspects the idea may not go down too well with any Liberal Democrats, especially those in Ming's Fife patch.

Mast Ahoy.

Carnegie reads that yet another planning refusal, this time for an O2 mobile phone mast on Dalgety Bay's Link Road, has been overturned by the Scottish Government's Planning Reporter, despite long held and vehement opposition from local residents.

This would appear to be yet another decision by Fife Council's planners that was not strongly enough based to withstand an appeal by the applicant.

Carnegie thinks that this could be either because refusal was the wrong decision in the first place or more likely that the planners of West Fife were so hard pressed and demoralised, as previously recorded, that they didn't have the time to do enough homework to do the work required to underpin the Council's opposition. Either way the local residents who took the time to register their opposition have lost - yet again. Carnegie wonders what the decision of the Planning Reporter will be on the refusal of plans for a restaurant at St David's Harbour will be. He thinks he sadly already knows.

Bridge roadworks - Fife cut off.

Carnegie reads that the big cheeses at the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) have said that resurfacing work on the Forth Road Bridge won't have to continue beyond the end of October because improvements in the weather have meant that they have managed to "catch up" on earlier delays.

Carnegie doesn't think that FETA should be giving itself such a big pat on the back for catching up on delays which had already occurred, given the shabby way in which it seems to have undertaken the work. Rather than throwing construction workers at the Bridge when half of it was closed and getting as much work done as possible, they seem instead to have used the minimum amount of resource to get the work done, which inevitably means when the weather is poor you get delays.

Delays for dozens of weekends over the last couple of years... sometimes running to an hour each way ... on one of the major arterial routes in Scotland ... simply to save a bit of cash ... really isn't good enough. Get your act together FETA.

Rest In Political Peace.

So, Fife has lost one its political leaders. No, Sir Ming Campbell hasn't "passed away," although you would never guess it from the comments by Fife Liberal Democrat Councillor and former MSP, Andrew Arbuckle, and others; he has merely resigned as Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Carnegie speculates about whether Sir Ming will fight the next General Election, despite apparent "assurances" that he will, given that he will be nearing seventy at the time and that he has reached the top of the "greasy poll" of Liberal politics ... and is now slipping his way back down again.

Midden.

Carnegie reads that the finger pointing has begun within Fife Council about the appalling state of the Council's finances and the consequent negative impact on the provision of council services.

"THE FUNDING crisis affecting Fife Council’s social work service has been blamed squarely on a “financial midden” left by the previous Labour administration. In a no-holds-barred attack, senior SNP councillor David Alexander claimed yesterday that the controversial decisions the council had been forced to take were a direct result of a “totally inadequate” budget pushed through by a discredited administration in February. He accused that administration of a “craven failure” to take difficult decisions before the local elections in May."

Carnegie will let Fifers decided whether this analysis is correct or is simply an attempt by the new administration to pass the buck back to its predecessor administration.

Carnegie liked Cllr Alexander's suggestion that those Labour Councillors who stood down at May's election hand back their £20,000 golden goodbyes which they got for standing down, but Carnegie suspects that really isn't very likely.

Store Wars.

Carnegie reads that Dalgety Bay will have a new ASDA store by "the spring" with Tesco reassuring the Bay's "great and the good" that it has no intentions of pulling out of DB.

"Colin McPhail, chairman of the community council, said, “Tesco have said they are committed to staying and what they want to look at is what improvements can be made within the existing shopping centre.” He added that company representatives had reassured residents that they would address any problems at the store, such as a perceived lack of selection and fresh veg. “They explained this by saying that they have a new distribution depot in Livingston and I think they have had a few teething problems but they’re going to sort it out,” he said. “It’s good news they’re going to stay in the town, it gives shoppers more choice.”

Carnegie thinks some people are being a bit naive if they really believe that Tesco will continue to compete with a much larger ASDA store in a market that is already saturated by Tesco itself, at the same time as it is sitting on a site in DB which is worth a small fortune if it was rezoned for housing development.

Even if Tesco only loses a few percentage points in turnover from its DB store it will be under pressure to cut its losses, and invest somewhere else. The only thing that will stop that will be if Fife Council doesn't rezone the current Tesco site, forcing it to maintain a shopping centre against its wishes, even perhaps minus a Tesco store. However, that argument might be difficult for Fife Council to sustain given that they have just massively increased the amount of retail floor space in the Bay by allowing the ASDA store to be built.

Oh and by the way, didn't the community council try and do some sort of sweetheart deal with Tesco themselves which involved the construction of new community facilities in exchange of a larger Tesco store? A proposal that was scuppered when the new store's planning application was approved.

State of emergency.

Carnegie reads that a senior official within Fife Council has accused tenants of seeking to "blackmail" them into getting repairs carried out by threatening to highlight their plight within the local press or even threatening to take the Council to court.

"Osato Osaghae, team manager of maintenance and improvements, said, “Some of our tenants have become a lot more sophisticated these days in trying to get things from the council. "

Ironically in a different local paper they report that Councillors have declared a state of "emergency" over the poor performance of the Council in relation to long delays being experienced by tenants in getting repairs done to their homes.

Seems to Carnegie that Council officials, like Mr Osaghae, should be spending less time blaming tenants and speaking to the local press and more time sorting out the mess over which they are presiding in relation to the appalling housing repairs service, which after all tenants are paying for and have a right to expect a decent standard from.

Bed blocking.

Carnegie reads that "FIFE COUNCIL’S social work service is still facing a “vigorous challenge” to avoid a budget overspend this financial year. That was the stark warning from department head Stephen Moore, who this week told councillors further action would have to be taken to address the funding gap. A number of containment measures have already been implemented after Mr Moore predicted in August the service would otherwise end the year £3.8 million in the red. That action, which includes savings of £600,000 in home care and an increase in home care charges, has reduced the predicted overspend to £1.96 million ..."

The article goes on to say that one of the cuts which the Council are considering is slowing down the speed at which elderly patients being discharged form hospitals are allocated a place in a residential care home, which basically means that Fife will see a return to "bed-blocking" in the Kingdom's hospitals as elderly patients aren't discharged when they should be, something which Fife Council and all of Scotland's other councils were given additional funding to do away with a few years ago.

Carnegie is concerned that after May's elections, and indeed probably well before it, someone took their eye off the ball and that the most vulnerable will be made to suffer. Whatever else Fife Council does to tackle the problem, allowing the return of bed blocking shouldn't even be on the table. It just transfers their problem onto other agencies and keeps old people in hospital when they don't need to be there.

Toll toils.

Carnegie reads that it will apparently be the end of next January before tolls can be abolished on the Forth Road Bridge, although encouragingly he also notes that the crash barriers on the Bridge are apparently strong enough to take the impact of any vehicles hitting them. With a significant drop from the Bridge into the Forth he is sure that will come as great relief to motorists travelling over the Bridge.

Have you decided what you will do with your £20 a month saving yet from the money you won't have to spend on tolls?

Tongue twister.

Carnegie has just noticed the "new" slogan which seems to have been added to all of the recruitment adverts for Fife Council.

Carnegie is not sure who came up with "work Fife, live Fife, love life," but he thinks it is probably one of the worst Council strap lines ever invented, as well as being a bit of a tongue twister. Try saying it quickly a few times.

It seems like something that an underemployed Councillor or senior official on Fife Council would have come up with on the back of the proverbial fag packet. It's even worse than Aberdeenshire Council's "Enjoy work, enjoy life."

None of the above.

Carnegie read in one of the weekend's political diaries speculation that Fife Labour MP John MacDougall is likely to stand down at the next General Election, whenever it is held, because of ill health. He also reads that possible successors include possible former MSP Christine May, MEP Catherine Stihler, and ... incredibly former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish.

Carnegie is tempted to say "none of the above" given that the first two have already been rejected by Fife voters and the third probably has other things to be doing with his time. Is this really the best that Labour can offer the Fife proletariat? Carnegie is surprised that Gordon Brown's "right hand man" in Fife, Councillor Alex Rowley, hasn't been tempted to throw his hat into the ring. Perhaps he will now that we have another two years until the next General Election?

Fife's three R's.

Carnegie reads that "Fife Council has defended attainment levels in the Kingdom's schools, despite figures showing hundreds of pupils are failing to meet basic numeracy and literacy standards .... in a third of Fife secondary schools more than half the S2 pupils are failing to reach the basis standard Level E in Maths, while 40 percent are not reaching the recommended level for writing. And in more than half the schools, 40 percent of the S2 pupils are failing to reach basic standards in reading. Meanwhile in a third of Fife primary schools around 40 percent of pupils failed to make the grade in writing."

And all this after ten years of the UK Government's priority being "Education. Education. Education." Obviously, those don't seem to matter in Fife. Time to stop giving Fife's kids such a raw deal and raise standards. Their futures are at stake.

Big Girls.

In the immortal words of Mika ... Carnegie reads that “WOMEN in West Fife are among the fattest in Scotland. Fifty-five per cent of women in the area aged 16 and over have a waist of over 35 inches.”

The piece then goes to on to explain all the harm that these self same women are doing themselves … perhaps if we lectured less and published fewer surveys which only make people, be they men or women, feel bad about themselves we might actually want to do something about the source problem. Instead, Carnegie just feels like reaching for another one of those legendary Fife Council bacon rolls.

Sky high.

Carnegie reads that Dunfermline has seen the steepest increase in property prices in Scotland over the past year according to a property survey by ESPC.

Carnegie is glad to see that his old home town is doing so well and is amazed that this is the case given the incredible amount of house building which is taking place, which probably also gives the lie to those politicians who seem to believe that house building in itself automatically brings down house prices.

Yoga.

Carnegie has been passed by a fellow blogger a copy of the latest Political Guide to the Members of the Scottish Parliament, in which Fife Labour MP Marilyn Livingstone lists her “leisure interests,” one of which she records as “yoga.”

Now Carnegie thinks that this is very intriguing and wonders if perhaps the compilers got it wrong and that Ms Livingstone actually said “yoghurt” because he believes that is by far the more likely of the two.

Free meals.

Carnegie is often amazed at how little has changed between the world he lived in as a child and the modern world. The latest case in point is the selection of Fife as one of the five pilot scheme areas which has been selected to provide free meals to some school pupils to improve childrens' health.

Carnegie notes that Fife Labour MSP Claire Baker has some doubts about this idea: "A FIFE MSP has questioned the worth of a free school meals project being piloted in the region. Labour Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Claire Baker cast doubts on plans for the pilot for school children in primaries one to three, suggesting universal free meals may not be the best way of tackling poverty or improving health among young people in Scotland."

Mr Carnegie can appreciate her arguments, but surely the whole point of having a pilot scheme is precisely to work that out? If nothing else it will mean that a lot of Fife kids will get one solid meal a day which they wouldn't otherwise have gotten. Is that really such a bad thing? And anyway aren't some of the arguments around free school meals the same ones that the Labour Party ignored in pressing ahead with pre-school vouchers for children several years ago?

Tele-marketing agents wanted.

Carnegie has noted the speculation in recent days about whether there will be a UK General Election in the next few weeks. But he noticed an advert last week in the Dunfermline Press seeking "Tele-marketing agents ... Dunfermline based ... no experience necessary" ... for the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

They obviously know something that everybody else may find out next week.

Fancy a bacon roll?

Carnegie reads of the depths to which the Labour opposition on Fife Council have apparently now plummeted in this week's Dunfermline Press.

"COUNCILLORS cutting back on home care for the elderly are being urged to set a better example – by putting their own free breakfasts off the menu. Until now, elected members have been able to enjoy bacon, egg or black pudding rolls before full council meetings at Fife House and a gratis lunch afterwards ... Labour group leader Alex Rowley has called on councillors to end the free fry-ups – or risk having egg on their faces when quizzed by the public."

Is this really the best Alex can do? In response, the opposition have pointed out that the free bacon rolls were reinstated by a previous Labour administration after being banned by Councillor Rowley years ago. The irony is that the whole thing is meaningless because it means that in the post bacon roll regime Councillors will buy their breakfasts ... and their lunches .... and stick them on their expenses ... which will then be paid for by Fife Council.

Gesture politics at its best. Fife style.

Contented Fifers.

Carnegie sees that the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman has published their annual report, which suggests that Fifers (or at least those in the KY Kirkcaldy postcode area) are the second least likely in Scotland to lodge a complaint. Just 3.1 complaints per 10,000 people, lower than the Scottish average of 3.4 complaints and significiantly lower than the 6.0 complaints per 10,000 in the Western Isles.

Good to see that Fifers are such a contented lot. But should we be?

Hoorah.

Carnegie notes that the new M9 Spur will be fully opened today bringing to an end over a year of roadwork misery for commuters heading to and from Fife. "ONE of Scotland's worst traffic bottlenecks will be removed today when a £39 million motorway link with the Forth Road Bridge is fully opened. The M9 spur extension will clear the tailbacks on the A8000 and is expected to cut southbound queues on the bridge during the morning rush hour. The two-mile road has been partially open since last month. However, restrictions while the work was completed are due to be lifted this afternoon after an opening ceremony at lunchtime - two weeks ahead of schedule."

Hooray, and hopefully in the longer term the new road eases congestion. Time will tell.