Entry for April 29, 2007

I watched the leader’s debate about the forthcoming Scottish Parliament elections tonight. The whole thing had a bit of a whiff of the University Debating Society to it, as Alex Salmond successfully goaded Jack McConnell. I can’t help but feel that all of the true political heavyweights are involved in the real corridors of power in Westminster.
I generally have little time for “the wee pretendy parliament”; which seems largely to be a mechanism for sucking up more tax from me to pay for an extra layer of local government which we didn’t need before it was created. A frightening proportion of my pay packet seems to be devoted to (a) paying for people who aren’t working at all, and (b) paying for a large number of MSPs and civil servants in Edinburgh who are beavering away at tasks that seem largely to be about perpetuating their own jobs. I accept that (a) is necessary. I’m yet to be convinced by (b).
However, the elections this year will be genuinely interesting – it looks like Labour are going to get a real kicking over the Iraq War and we might have an SNP administration in a week’s time. I for one will be burning the midnight oil on Thursday night.