Back from Aviemore: Reflections

Well, I'm finally back, and recovered from a day of travelling, enduring a mad German woman driving the rail replacement coach to Edinburgh, a packed Virgin Train to Wigan, and a taxi driver who was obsessed with the circus.

Firstly, I have a little more understanding of how bloggery is having some effect on politics. I found myself being introduced to one of the SNP's MPs - I'll spare him his blushes but he knows who he is - and his reaction when I told him my nom de blog was to smile and say, "Oh, that's you!" This means that people have at least heard of me (and, therefore, that it's only a matter of time before I'm invited onto Strictly Come Dancing). Of course, conversation ensued, but was that wariness I saw in his eyes? Was he worrying that everything he'd said was going to end up on these pages? Perhaps, but he needn't have. Firstly, I'd not had the greatest night's sleep, so a good deal of Sunday was just a big blur... I can remember names and faces but with the exception of two or three things, my memory of actual content is shaky. Secondly, I've had a "There but for the grace of blogs go I" moment, with an incriminating photo been published over at Adam Smith was a Socialist. Now, in fairness, he's in the photo too, but all I'll say is that if I'd realised just how much chest was showing, I would have fastened my top button. So I come away knowing that politicians are not just aware of bloggery, but they are reading. And, more importantly, they realise that 1) bloggers can often be a little more independent than MPs would like, and 2) if the blogger in question's brain isn't on Planet Zargon at the time, what they say can be made very public very quickly. I also learned, as I asserted in music on Friday night, that the night does indeed have a thousand eyes.

Anyway. The level of interest struck me: the press, foreign diplomats, and lots of ordinary Party members were present, many of the latter for the sheer experience of seeing the SNP meet for the first Conference while in Government. This meant that the venue was too small, and for Alex Salmond's speech, overspills were set up. Predictably, they then filled to capacity and I ended up in the exhibition hall, watching on the television there.

It gave me a lesson on just how the change in administration at Holyrood has altered politics: like many others, I used to lambast the LibDems for appearing to be in Government and in Opposition at the same time. I shouldn't have done: that is precisely the situation the SNP finds itself in, being part of various adminstrations at the local level, being in Government at Holyrood, but being in Opposition at Westminster. This predictably has changed the way debates are carried. Local Councillors are keener to avoid gesture politics. Members of the Government can make policy announcements for the first time, but delegates now have to think about what happens if SNP policy becomes Government policy. In Opposition, it's easy to come up with a 'wish list' of things that the Party would like to happen. In Government, there's a set budget to work under and in a minority Government, policy has to find its way through Parliament. Even the (Opposition) MPs are advising caution, saying that they have a chance of negotiating with the UK Government on a some issues, and that the last thing they need is for Conference to tie their hands and give them less room for manoeuvre in those negotiations. The reality that actually running the country is a complex business, with no room for error, was made clear, but to many around, it was already understood, I suspect.

Then there was Alex Salmond's speech. It raised a few eyebrows that the FM made the usual reference to other parties, and while Labour and the LibDems got it in the neck, which you'd expect, the Scottish Tories, and even David Cameron, were left off the hook. It was the Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border who was the focus of Salmond's ire. Then there was his challenge to the other parties to engage with the National Conversation, and agree to a referendum on independence... or face the electoral consequences. It was a strong speech (though the Greens may have a lot to say about the M8 being completed), and the slogan, "Not just a proud nation, but a nation of which we can be proud" stuck out for me.

So that, as they say, was that. But I can't help but wonder about next year: this year delegates could take stock, and look at how the Government should act for the next three and a half years. Next year, the Westminster Election will be back in view, potentially just over six months away. Even if it's delayed to 2010, the European Elections will be about eight months away, and campaigning will begin for them. Plus which, either a delayed Westminster Election - or decoupled Local Elections being brought forward - will see an election in 2009 (Europe, possibly Westminster), 2010 (perhaps Westminster, maybe Local Elections), and 2011 (Holyrood). That's before you consider what happens if another Party in addition to the SNP and the Greens finds the cojones to support a referendum on independence. In short, this year brings with it a lull, a calm before the storm, especially as, unlike the three main UK parties, the SNP gathering took place after Gordon Brown ruled out an Election this Autumn. The electoral cycle is about to enter a major active phase, and I'm looking forward to next year's Conference, and seeing activists steel themselves once again for the battles to come.

PS I haven't forgotten the Whip. It will come at some stage. Honest.

Aviemore: Pride, Practicalities and Parties

I'm trying to put my finger on the right word to describe the mood here. 'Pride', 'Excitement' and 'Optimism' seem to cut it. It is, as you may imagine, absolutely impossible to forget just who is forming the Scottish Government now, yet there's still a sense of disbelief, that things, or at least people, haven't changed: whether it's Linda Fabiani - the External Affairs Minister - and Alyn Smith MEP exchanging banter at a fringe event attended by diplomats, or as reported at ASWaS - and I can confirm this, along with a thousand other people - a Cabinet Secretary and senior figure within the Holyrood group proceeding through Aviemore on what looked like an interesting night out already in progress.

But the welcome from the Deputy Leader of Highland Council - Jean Urquhart - showed that it's not just about the Government: both at Holyrood and in Council Chambers around Scotland, there has been a big increase in the number of SNP elected officials, and in Council terms, not only are there more Councillors, but more of them are forming administrations. Highland is just one example of that, and the speech by the Independent Convener of the Council, Sandy Park, shows that a good working relationship seems to be developing there. The fact that John Finnie, the SNP PPC in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey, was willing to congratulate Cllr Park after it was announced that a LibDem Councillor was crossing the floor to join the Independent Group, and that the delegates applauded this, is further evidence that tribalism isn't everywhere in Scottish political life, and the 'new politics' may be taking hold, only not where we thought it would.

But this situation - more Councillors, and more of them running things - has given rise to something else. A proposal was objected to by one of those very same Councillors on the grounds that it wouldn't result in any effect other than money spent that could be used elsewhere. Before, Conferences could call for anything - the Party was in Opposition in most Councils, and in Holyrood, and there is never any chance of the SNP forming a UK Government. Now, SNP policy can be put into practice, and those who have to do that have an understanding of the task ahead. While that will make Conference far less controversial in the long run, more and more of what comes out of Conference will be practical, and do-able. That has got to be positive.

Though given the situation that the SNP now finds itself in, there is a celebratory mood creeping in as well, and no more so than at last night's karaoke, run by Young Scots for Independence and the Federation of Student Nationalists. A certain Glasgow MSP shrieked a lot into the microphone, while two other grandes dames of the Party had a brave attempt at Blue Suede Shoes. And for our amusement, one unfortunate Parliamentarian found himself forced to sing Wannabe by the Spice Girls.

But your blogger is fearless, and admits that yes, he himself took to the stage. He is also painfully aware that other bloggers are considering publishing the evidence.

Live from Aviemore: Getting Here

Bloggery will be taking place from the SNP Conference for the next few days.

While not getting dragged into a row over the role of gender in bloggery, I've been making my way to Aviemore, for the SNP Conference. It's been a journey with many (fully intended) detours.

The first was to Ibrox, for the match between Rangers and Barcelona. My Rangers-daft father scored tickets and as far as I'm concerned, I'd have been a total idiot if I'd turned his offer of a seat down. Sadly, he buys into the whole political and religious baggage that is associated with the club - he even thinks Paul Le Guen was an Opus Dei agent, sent to Ibrox to bring down a pillar of Protestantism, or something - though has the sense not to air this in public. This meant I had to endure a car journey which involved bloody flute music being played incessantly. I can tell you I am sick of hearing about 'Old Derry's Walls' now, though it was strangely appropriate during the match itself, if only because Rangers were in effect under siege from Barcelona and managed to hold out, so the ghastly song had an oddly symbolic quality. That, however, is the only relevance I can find between the song and the match (or indeed the Club), and even that is tenuous. I can also tell you that despite the Club's best efforts, the sanitised version of 'Follow, Follow' has not yet caught on in the Copland Stand. I don't suppose it will for a long time.

However, Wednesday was something else. It started with a trip (still with my father) to Paisley, to see my grandfather's grave in Hawkhead Cemetery. William John Patterson (yes, I'm named after him) passed away at the age of 62 a few months before I was born, so obviously I only know him from stories told by my parents, but it's no less moving for that, especially as he's buried in the same plot as his mother, who died four years later, at the age of 91. I can't even imagine the sense of loss she had to go through for those four years, but even that wasn't the most troubling part of the visit. That dubious honour belongs to the nearby stones, marking the death of a man at 56, or one at 52, or a woman at 38. They all died in the early 1980s and I can't help but wonder how they ended up there at such an early age. The ages on the more recent tombstones look a little closer to what I'd expect... the deceased were mainly in their 70s or 80s. It's a real mark of the social problems people in the area suffered a generation ago, and a mark of how far things like healthcare have come since then. The place still has a lot of troubles, but life expectancy, if Hawkhead is the best indicator, has gone up by about two decades. It's both disturbing to see the young ages on the older tombstones, but relieving to see that people are living longer now.

After that, I went on to Edinburgh alone. Little to report - other than dinner with an old friend, who I haven't seen in two and a half years. We didn't part company on the best of terms, in fact the last time we were in a room together, we spent the evening glowering at each other across the crowds, but there's been a reconciliation of sorts via MSN over the last 18 months and it was good to see him again.

Then, yesterday, Aviemore. The first thing I notice about a place - despite not driving - is the price of petrol. £1.02 per litre! It's situations like this where you see the main failing of the 'market': the area is sparsely populated and I imagine that cars are vital to people's daily lives, that they represent the best - if not the only - way of getting from A to B around here. Yet in Glasgow and Edinburgh, petrol is - on the whole - 7p cheaper. Distance is less of an issue in the cities, and there are decent public transport links, even before Crossrail, the trams and Airport Rail Links. And the car is more of a problem than a solution: despite those links, many still use their cars, creating the congestion, and pollution, that is causing enough of a problem that the last administration in Edinburgh wanted to implement a congestion charge. Yet because there's more competition, and people aren't forced to 1) get in their cars and 2) use the only garage in I-dread-to-guess-how-many miles, those who do drive save money. This can't be right: either more money desperately needs to be pumped in to rural public transport, or there needs to be a better way of making driving less attractive to those who have alternatives, which avoids punishing those who drive because they have to.

Maybe the answer is to be radical, and give control of fuel duty not to Holyrood, but to local councils, who could react to local needs. Highland could, for example, slash duty, making the lives of residents a little easier and taking one burden off the local economy. Edinburgh, on the other hand, could jack it up, discouraging car use in the city and avoiding the pitfalls of the tolls system that was so soundly rejected, such as the farcical two-cordon system, and the obvious rat-runs that would be created by that. Now, the big downside is that, obviously, anyone could go to a neighbouring Council area once they find out that petrol is cheaper there, and also the bureaucracy that all this would entail.

All the same, the status quo isn't working, and if the duty were to be lowered to ease the difficulties faced by towns like Aviemore, that would exacerbate traffic problems in Edinburgh; but if it were to be raised to put people off driving in the Capital, that would make life in the Highlands even harder.

Now, for Conference...