The Green Ribbon

Scottish Tory breakaway call

The debate inside the Scottish Conservative party seems to be moving forward apace.

Holyrood Enterprise spokesman Murdo Fraser has called for Scottish Tories to break away from the UK Party.

British-Irish council discusses Sellafield

One of the issues discussed by the British-Irish Council yesterday, was Sellafield. Appropriately enough, as the venue was the Isle of Man, just opposite Cumbria on the Irish Sea.

There is now some doubt about the future of Sellafield's THORP reprocessing plant because of a major incident last month, involving an internal leak of 20 tonnes of nuclear waste (which we are told is no danger to the public.)

Ironically this happened after the plant passed into the ownership of the Nuclear Decommisioning Authority, which was supposed to use the income from reprocessing to fund its nuclear clean-up operations. It looks now as if there will have to be more money from the taxpayer instead.

Nevertheless, there are signs that nuclear may be making a comeback, as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Eq Guinea applies to extradite Mann

From the Daily Telegraph:

Simon Mann, the former SAS officer accused of planning a failed coup in west Africa, faced the revenge of his alleged target yesterday when Equatorial Guinea's regime formally applied for his extradition.

If this succeeds, Mann will leave Zimbabwe, where he is serving a reduced, four year sentence in relatively benign conditions, for Black Beach prison in Equatorial Guinea.

Peter McBride campaign update

Ray O'Hanlon at the Irish Echo has an update on Tim Spicer's contract in Iraq.

The contract is being opposed by the Pat Finucane Centre because of his role in the case of Peter McBride. He was commanding officer of the Scots Guards in Belfast in 1992, when two of his soldiers gunned down 18-year-old Peter McBride.

The pair were found guilty of murder. However, they were released early after a campaign in which Spicer featured prominently. They were allowed to resume active service even though their convictions stands to this day.

The Pat Finucane Centre is asking supporters to Send Aegis Defence Services an email with the simple message 'Peter Mc Bride' to centre@aegisdef.com

In its latest mail-out, the Centre also says it plans to bring the campaign to London again in the next few months:

Spot the missing nation

From the communique issued after today's meeting of the British-Irish Council:

The Irish and British Governments were represented by the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern TD and the Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt Hon John Prescott MP respectively.

The Welsh Assembly Government was represented by the First Minister, Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan AM and the Scottish Executive by the Rt Hon Jim Wallace MSP, Deputy First Minister.

Guernsey was represented by Chief Minister Laurie Morgan, and Jersey was represented by Senator Frank Walker, President of the Policy and Resources Committee.

Tories 'quietly federalising'

The Scottish Press takes a strong interest in the English question, much stronger, ironically, than the London media (perhaps because the latter has a mainly British perspective.)

The latest example is Fraser Nelson in the Scotsman, on the Conservative Party's evolution towards English Nationalism. (hat-tip to the CEP blog and Independence.)

This is a logical, and profitable, policy for the Tories. The party has always had the most to gain from cutting Scotland out of the picture - but it romantically clung to its Conservative and Unionist principles. Now, after taking a beating in the last three general elections in Scotland and Wales, the blue is finally draining from the Union Flag. There far is more to be gained by stirring things up a little, and adopting the West Lothian Question as its own.

Simon Mann to face extradition?

From SABC:

Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, Zimbabwe's attorney-general, says they are ready to extradite Simon Mann, the alleged coup plot leader, to Equatorial Guinea to face high treason charges there.

At least 61 of the 62 alleged mercenaries who were also allegedly involved in the coup plot have been released and were reunited with family members at the Beit Bridge border post yesterday.

Langhammer on the UUP

  Mark Langhammer considers the fall of the UUP in his latest Daily Ireland article:

UUP gave up on Britishness decades ago

The scale of last week's Ulster Unionist defeat marked an end to a long process. Unionist politics is dead. Protestant politics reigns. The Chancellor's subvention aside, the UUP rejected the politics of the Union a long time ago. Formally, it rejected British politics—de facto, the British constitution—in 1986/87, when it expelled its North Down branch and others for supporting British politics. In reality, Ulster unionism had lost its British orientation by Terence O'Neill's accession in 1963, if not before.

MOD: Merchant of Death

The Yorkshire Ranter has details of an intriguing story by Andrew Gilligan for the Evening Standard, which apparently hasn't made it onto the web:

HOW CAN BRITAIN STILL USE THE MERCHANT OF DEATH?

Victor Bout [sic] is the most notorious arms trafficker in the world. Linked to Osama bin Laden by the British government, linked to the Taliban by the US government, he was described by a New Labour minister as a "merchant of death" who must be shut down.

Yet an Evening Standard investigation has found that, just two months ago, a Victor Bout company was hired by that very same British government to operate military flights from a key RAF base.

Tory MSP backs Davis

Tory MSP Brian Monteith puts the boot in to Malcolm Rifkind in the Sunday Times today:

In normal circumstances, and even after devolution, there should be no bar on a Scot becoming the UK’s prime minister. These, however, are not normal circumstances. I sense there is a growing English preoccupation about the influence of Scots in English public life, and it would be an advantage to offer an English man or woman against the Celtic Gordon Brown and Charles Kennedy. To opt for a Scot, albeit from a metropolitan English seat, would be to throw away that probable advantage.