David Steel on Borders Rail

David Steel's thoughts on the closure (and reopening) of the Waverley rail line are featured in these two videos from Borders Rail:

It also has some interesting updates on the engineering progress of the project.

Waverley route - tracks reach the Borders for first time since 1970s

With track laying now reaching the actual Scottish Borders I stumbled across this progress video.  Hopefully the promised David Steel interview will be available soon.

Work starts on Waverley route reopening

Yesterday, south east of Edinburgh, workers started construction on the reopening of the Waverley rail line - or Borders Rail as it is now called.

The closure of the Waverley route mainline was probably the biggest mistake of the Beeching years - cutting off the Scottish borders from the rail network causing long term damage to its industry and agriculture sectors and even making a radical of its then MP - David Steel - who spent a night in the nick for his involvement in the protests against closure.

But this is a victory for a long term campaign by Borders (and Midlothian) residents - who will hopefully now see the whole line reinstated all the way to Carlisle.  Anyway here's some footage of the northern part of the route which shows quite how well preseved most of the route is.

Liberal MPs pop singles are nothing new

Transport Minister and Lewes's Lib Dem MP, Norman Baker has received much publicity for his band's debut single - the Kinksesque 'Piccadilly Circus'.

But he's not the first Liberal MP to seek chart success.  In 1981 then Liberal Leader, David Steel, teamed up with Scots musician Jesse Rae to cut I Feel Liberal-Alright! 


I haven't been able to track down the track in its entirety - but there is some YouTube footage of HIGNFY featuring both Steel and I Feel Liberal-Alright!   And it's nowhere near as bad as it should have been.

Review of the year 2012

It's the last day of the year, so it's time to look back on the events that have caught the attention of this blog over the past 12 months...

In January I suggested that Lib Dem Scottish secretary, Michael Moore should stop trying to impede Alex Salmond from holding a referendum of his choosing.

In February a group called Liberal Left was set up.  I wasn't impressed.

March saw the sad deaths of Lib Dem stalwarts Viv Bingham and David Walter along with former darts champion Jocky Wilson.

In April, former Liberal leader David Steel said some very foolish things about Lords' reform on national TV.

May saw the climax of the football season (or anti-climax if you are a Hibs fan) and the final implosion of Glasgow Rangers.  In politics a local by-election in North Richmond saw some very dodgy tactics by anti-Lib Dem elements.

In June Jeremy Hunt's ministerial career was on the line and the abstention by Lib Dem MPs on a crucial vote suggested to me that it was time to change the rules of government collective responsibility to better reflect the nature of coalition.

In July I highlighted the bizarre behaviour of Kingston's Tories who backed (and continue to back) benefit fraud probe councillor, Tim Dennen.

August saw the spotlight on the future of Nick Clegg and his political strategy with the departure of his so-called strategist Richard Reeves.  Polling evidence contradicted them both.

In September, David Laws returned to government, the Lib Dems caved into ludicrous security demands for their annual conference and Nick Clegg's conference speech began to unravel in the blogosphere.

In October I gave some advice to the Guardian that might have dealt with some of their financial woes.  But there seemed to nothing that could deal with the self inflicted financial crisis at Edinburgh's second football team - Hearts.

November was a month for elections with the re-election of President Obama and the first votes for police and crime commissioners in the UK.  And it also saw a welcome - if belated - development with the Lib Dems reversing their support for more internet snooping powers.

And this brings us to December - and the news that income inequality had fallen under the coaltion in contrast to the rises under Labour.

So that's it for another year - and I wish you all a happy 2013.

Lib Dems should rethink Lords reform...

Now that any prospect of democratising the House of Lords has disappeared for the foreseeable future - thanks to a combination of out of touch Tory backswoodsmen and Lib Dem peers like the increasingly confused David Steel and the smugly authoritarian Alex Carlile, the Liberal Democrats should have a complete rethink on their approach to the Lords.

It is clear that there will always be - despite manifesto commitments to the contrary - a blocking minority in the Commons to any reform that gives the Lords the legitimacy of a public mandate.  And there is always going to be opposition from the less than noble Lords who see it as a comfortable rest home for the terminally self interested former politicians who make up the vast majority of its membership.

Given these constraints there seems to be only one way of getting rid of the democratic excrescence that means that laws are made by people - however worthy - who are unelected.  That is to call for the abolition of the Lords.

The Lib Dems should now propose a unicameral Parliament instead of trying to reform an unreformable Lords.  It kills stone dead the two arguments that caused this attempt at reform to be dropped - the primacy of the Commons and opposition to the proposed electoral system. 

No Lords means no elections and the Commons remains prime.  It also ends the sinecures for people like Steel and Carlile - allowing them to dissappear into the obscurity they deserve.

The party should listen to Judy Steel (not her husband)...

The excellent Andrew Page's Scottish Liberal blog reports more indescretion by Judy Steel - following from the revelation she had a pink jaguar tattooed on her shoulder for her 70th birthday.  This time she declares she will be voting 'Yes' in the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 - unlike her husband.

It is of course her husband - David Steel - who has disloyally and foolishly lead the opposition to Nick Clegg's Lords reform proposals from the red benches and provided succour to the 91 Tory backswoodsmen in the Commons whose intransigence appears to have scuppered the whole reform agenda.  And it doesn't take a huge amount of imagination to work out what the still radical Judy might think about that.

The fact that influential Scottish liberals - like Judy Steel and Andrew Page are prepared publicly break ranks over the constitutional conservatism of the Scottish Lib Dems is a good sign.  Shortly after the annihilation of the party in last year's Scottish general election I wrote:

"...Michael Moore again allows the party to be seen to be on the wrong side of the debate and trying to illiberally block the expression of the will of the Scottish people.

The way back for the party in Scotland can only be by steering a distinct liberal path that recognises the liberal elements in the nationalists (and the easy willingness of both parties voters to interchange their votes at Holyrood/Westminster levels). Aligning the party with the forces of constitutional conservatism was the wrong decision in 2007 and is even more so now." 

At the moment the party has nothing distinctive to say on the big constitutional issue and is seen as an ajunct of the Tories on the economic ones - a recipe for disaster in 2015.  So a more organised campaign by Scottish liberal home rulers for a yes vote - as Andrew is trying to create - will only be a good thing for the party north of the border. 

A period of silence from Lord Steel would be welcome...

Newsnight carried a debate this evening between a Conservative MP and Liberal Peer on Lords' reform.

One argued for a democratic chamber elected by Single Transferable Vote as promised in his party's manifesto. The other said his party's manifesto was wrong, the primacy of the Commons was vital and said that reform should be limited and evolutionary - carrying on the baby steps started by the Parliament Act in 1911.

The former, of course, was the Conservative MP and the latter undemocratic prevaricator was Lord Steel.

It is available on i-player here.

Lord Steel was MP for Roxburgh South West 1906-1910.