Tony Mackay, a respected and independent Inverness-based economic consultant, 9 th March 2000.
| 'I think there was probably a shortfall in the Highlands and Islands over six years of £100m. How it was all disguised I don't know exactly, but I know that the money was sometimes used to fund other HIE and local authority programmes. And it was not replaced, which meant there was no proper additionality. Some of the programmes were simply taken out of Objective 1 to make funding look additional. All of this seems still to be happening. It is still going on.' Tony Mackay, a respected and independent Inverness-based economic consultant, 9 th March 2000. | |
Labour's Ms Rita Miller was attending the budget meeting of South Ayrshire Council which agreed a wide range of cuts in council services and an above average rise in council tax.
Tory candidate Mr John Scott said: "Even before polling day Rita Miller has demonstrated for all to see that she is not up to the job and would fail to represent the best interests of Ayr Constituency in the Scottish Parliament.
"We asked Rita to cross the floor and join the Conservative group to vote down Labour's budget cuts and save essential services for the elderly like Carrick Street Halls. She was too gutless to do that and instead left the council chamber before she would have been forced to do her Labour masters' bidding and vote for massive cuts.
"Just 10 minutes of Rita's time could have saved these services. The council voted 14-13 to push through Labour's cuts. Rita could have joined us and forced the council to rethink these dangerous cuts.
"Labour's cuts in council services will hit hard at every group of people in Ayr constituency. Senior citizens will lose out, young people and children will lose out, and local business will feel the squeeze. Today Rita has proved that she is nothing but another Labour stooge."
SNP candidate Mr Jim Mather said: "If Rita Miller failed to fulfil her obligations to the council tax payers, however, then she will have lost what little credibility she had left."
However, a spokesman for Labour said: "This whole claim is a load of nonsense. The Tories should check their facts before making such ridiculous claims. Rita was at the whole of the policy and resources committee which discussed the budget and attended the bulk of the full council meeting and voted on all key issues.
"The Tories should really have something better than this to talk about."
On the campaign trail yesterday, it was the day of the two doctors.
Cabinet Office Minister Dr Mo Mowlam arrived to join the hustings and immediately found herself having to answer questions about why Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was speaking to MSPs in Edinburgh, had not been able to fit in a visit to Ayr as part of his Scottish schedule.
Also in town was SNP president and campaign veteran Dr Winnie Ewing MSP who was seen swopping football anecdotes at the garden gate with former Scotland manager Ally McLeod, a Nationalist supporter, before visiting the site where the old Scottish Parliament had met in Ayr.
A poll placing the Nationalists 1% ahead of Labour with the Tories eight points in the lead has boosted SNP hopes that election day next Thursday will produce a humiliating Labour third place defeat.
Dr Mowlam rounded on the high-profile lobby group which is funded by Stagecoach millionaire Mr Brian Souter as said the repeal of Section 28, which bans councils from promoting homosexuality, was "an issue of principle".
"Over the last week of this campaign the people of Ayr and the people of Scotland will begin to trust the teachers, not the tycoons," she said.
"They will rumble those millionaires spending a fortune to spread false and misleading propaganda. This is an issue of tolerance and principles."
Dr Mowlam turned her fire on the SNP claiming they were "fudging their position" on the repeal of Section 28, or Section 2A as it is in Scotland. The party had originally backed the repeal of the clause but did not support the non-statutory guidelines proposed by First Minister Donald Dewar to replace the law.
Dr Mowlam said the Nationalists were not making their position clear. "Here we have a hard issue, a difficult issue, an issue important in directing what kind of country people live in," she said.
"Every party but the SNP has made their position clear. This is an outrageous stance. At the very first hurdle the SNP again are hiding in their bunkers. The SNP are failing devolution and failing democracy."
The former Northern Ireland Secretary supported the form of words agreed by Mr Donald Dewar and the Cabinet to replace Section 28 which spoke about having regard to the importance for children of a stable family life.
Dr Mowlam, who inherited the Cabinet Enforcer title from Jack Cunningham, insisted Prime Minister Tony Blair had not snubbed the Ayr campaign. A decision had been made that he would speak to MSPs in Edinburgh and a Cabinet Minister would come to Ayr.
Dr Ewing - Madame Ecosse to friend and foe alike - posed beside a plaque at St John's Tower which explained that the old Parliament had met there in a now demolished church in 1314 after Bannockburn.
"The SNP have got the bit between their teeth. We lost the Hamilton South by-election because we didn't have enough troops on the ground. We have learned the lessons and there were 200 activists from all over Scotland last week and there will be many more this Saturday," she said.
Mr Mather agreed and insisted that despite early scepticism about the SNP's chances in this race it was now clear that only they could beat the Tories.
March 10 th 2000
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