WHAT NICK CLEGG SHOULD LEARN FROM MAD FRANKIE FRASER
JOHN MCGURK says watching Nick Clegg slip and slide his way through a weekend television interview brought to mind the obituary of Mad Frankie Fraser (pictured), the notorious London hitman, who died aged 90 a few weeks before Christmas.
Apparently one of the best-read obituaries of the year, it described how Mad Frankie confronted a member of the Kray gang during a turf war in the 1960s and buried a hatchet in his victim's skull, pinning his hand to his head.
Fraser, who was never convicted of murder but spent 42 years behind bars, later explained in his sarff London snarl what had happened, and came out with: “He was a nice fella...but he was bang out of ordah!”
And so it is with that nice Nick Clegg who, after hopping into bed with David Cameron, now thinks he might do the same with Ed Miliband when there is no outright winner, as seems the probable result, come the general election.
Clegg told the Andrew Marr programme that it was “most likely that the Lib Dems will be part of a coalition government after the May election”.
There are many who think that the deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader has got another think coming if he believes he can just latch on to whoever will have him and continue trying to run the country as if nothing had happened.
According to the polls, the Lib Dems are heading for the biggest hiding of their lives thanks to their duplicitous double-dealing, not to mention their now infamous reversal on student tuition fees which will have every undergraduate and postgraduate across the land voting for anyone else apart from them.
This broken promise, which saw fees treble for students in England and Wales, was followed by the Lib Dems appearing to throw everything in with the Tories to support a raft of anti-social austerity policies which they had previously opposed.
Clegg became so mistrusted that his relationship with David Cameron was soon depicted as a civil partnership rather than a coalition.
But perhaps even worse, he and Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, began to boast that the Conservatives couldn't have done it without them and that it was they who were actually saving the country from economic disaster.
Alas, their contention that they were sacrificing their popularity for the good of the nation and that, in the end, they would be appreciated by the electorate appears to have backfired.
The fact that our debt remains at a staggering £1.4 trillion, and rising by £5000 a second, while the deficit, rather than being wiped clean by the end of this parliament stands at £90 billion, may have something to do with this.
The result of Clegg's five years in government is that he is the least popular political leader in modern British politics while his party has been polling lower than Labour at the height of the credit crunch in 2008.
Naturally, or at least in public, Clegg refuses to believe predictions that his party will lose around half of their parliamentary seats to end up with just 27 MPs.
Even party strategists think it will be a miracle if Danny Alexander retains his Inverness seat.
The likely beneficiary of any Lib Dem massacre will be Labour who are trying their hardest to unseat Clegg himself from his Sheffield constituency where he currently has a majority of more than 15,000.
But for Ed Miliband to win outright, Labour will need to take votes from the Conservatives, particularly in the south east of England, fight off UKIP and stem the SNP in Scotland --- a very tall order.
Like him or loathe him, Alex Salmond remains on track to ensure what continues to look like a famous victory which the pollsters believe could raise the number of SNP MPs from six to as many as 40.
Even if the Nats win half of the seats they are predicted to take, they may still be in a position to call the shots in the battle for who occupies 10 Downing Street.
Salmond, now standing in the Lib Dem stronghold of Gordon where he expects to succeed Sir Malcom Bruce, has already made clear who he will support if the SNP become the third biggest party in the UK.
While he could never support the Conservatives or any bizarre alliance between them and UKIP, he is very likely to use his power to prop up a minority Labour government on an issue-by-issue basis.
This is a potential master stroke.
It means that Salmond can announce to those Scottish Labour voters who backed Yes in the referendum campaign that they can still get a Labour government... by voting SNP.
This is surely a trump card which will be giving the new Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy, sleepless nights.
If Salmond's plan works, Nick Clegg will have no chance of staying in power.
But the downtrodden former deputy prime minister will no doubt find something useful to do... just like Frankie Fraser.
After his colourful career, Mad Frankie ended up making the tea in a massage parlour in Islington.
John McGurk is co-editor of ScotBuzz and was editor of The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday and managing editor of The Daily Telegraph.
BUSINESS NEWS IN BRIEF
START-UP LOANS SCHEME TO BE TREBLED
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced plans to treble the Start-Up Loans scheme, which hands out sums of around £5,000 to help young entrepreneurs. At least 75,000 loans will have been made by 2020, according to the PM, creating at least 100,000 jobs. Mr Cameron sought to appeal directly to small businesses, with four months before the election. “These are people we admire and want to help”, he declared yesterday. “Other parties preach about this sort of stuff; but we're the ones who really deliver.” Hmmm. We’ll see.
IS SCOTLAND READY FOR FRACKING?
10th February An expert scientific panel report for the Scottish Government last July said Scotland could develop a shale gas industry at scale, while industrial powerhouse Ineos has argued it could "revolutionise UK manufacturing". This will be theme of a Scotsman Conferences event on February 10. Hear from chairman of the expert panel Dr Chris Masters, Gary Haywood of Ineos, energy analysts and more to debate the prospects of shale gas exploration coming to Scotland. More details at www.scotsmanconferences.com.
SCOTTISH FARMS ‘OUTPACING UK’
Scotland’s agricultural sector is performing better than many parts of the UK, according to new research by insolvency trade body R3.In January the proportion of agricultural businesses with a higher than normal risk of insolvency was 12%, below the UK average of 14%.This places Scotland in line with the North East and East of England, and ahead of Wales (17%), the South East (16%) and West Midlands (15%). Scotland’s agricultural industry remained relatively stable in the second half of 2014, with the proportion of ‘higher risk’ firms rising by just one per cent between July and December.
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FINANCIAL SERVICES PICK-UP
Most financial services firms reported rising business volumes in the three months to December, according to the latest CBI/PwC Financial Services Survey. Business volumes rose at the fastest pace since the mid-1990s. Almost two-thirds of financial services firms reported higher business volumes, with a balance of +57 per cent - the strongest growth since December 1996. Building societies were the exception, with business volumes falling unexpectedly. The focus remains on technology and digital innovation as well as regulatory compliance. Steve Davies, UK head of retail banking, based at PwC’s Edinburgh office, says “Increasing investment in land and buildings is also a sign of banks looking at expanding into cities outside London such as Edinburgh and Manchester due to high cost and capacity issues in the capital.”
FIRST EVER CAT CAFE FOR EDINBURGH
2015 sees the first of its kind cat café in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. Based on a Japanese style café, customers are invited to play, photograph and cuddle the cats while enjoying a hot beverage. Owner Laura O’Neill, 27, came up with the idea of Maison de Moggy on a trip to Japan where one of the most recommended activities on Trip Advisor was to visit a cat café. The focus is very much on the cats and not the usual cake and food we associate with cafes. Why not try something new this year, and swap the cake for a selfie with a cat instead? You can find out more and follow the Maison de Moggy story on Facebook.
COPYRIGHT CONFERENCE DATE FOR THE DIARY
Have copyright laws kept pace with the digital age? How can the creative industries and cultural heritage sector best protect the ownership and management of written and recorded materials when content can be shared globally with the tap of a smartphone? At a Scotsman Conferences event on February 2 speakers from the British Library, UK Intellectual Property Office and leading universities discuss changes and challenges in Copyright and Cultural Heritage 2.0: Protecting creators, sharing content. Speakers from the British Library, UK Intellectual Property Office and leading universities discuss changes and challenges. Further details at www.scotsmanconferences.com.
ONE-STOP PROPERTY DATABASE FOR SCOTLAND?
Should Scotland follow countries like Norway in moving to a one-stop database which allows easy, but secure access to the data and documents needed to support land and property transactions and wider public services? What benefits could this deliver to the business community and consumers, especially in areas like conveyancing? Book early to ensure a place at a Scotsman Conferences debate on March 10 on this issue. Details at www.scotsmanconferences.com.
CROWD FUNDING PLATFORM FOR PROPERTY INVESTORS
An innovative way to invest in the UK residential property market has been launched with the crowdfunding platform, Property Partner. It enables investment in individual residential properties, receive a monthly rental income and benefit from any capital growth in direct proportion to their ownership. The platform also enables investors to offer their property holdings for sale via a designated secondary market. The launch follows a £1.25m seed funding round involving Octopus Investments (backers of Zoopla), Jon Moulton (founder of Alchemy Partners and Better Capital) and Ed Wray (co-founder of Betfair and Director of Funding Circle).More details at https://propertypartner.co.uk
Economy Forecast
25 Jan
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START UP ENTREPRENEURS - THE DOWNSIDES
We well know the merits of starting up a business and being your own boss. You get to play to your strengths, set your own hours – and are freed up from those interminable office meetings about meetings.
But there are sacrifices, too.
Neglecting family, working more than 60 hours a week – and not paying yourself a decent wage are top of the list.
With the start of the New Year the Post Office has noted a spike in the number of people planning to launch out on their own. And a study to see how far Brits will go to work independently has revealed that 43 per cent of entrepreneurs aren't able to pay themselves a regular wage.
Although the lack of income was considered the biggest sacrifice for almost half of entrepreneurs, being unable to pay a personal salary spiked to 54 per cent for those starting up in media and marketing.
Meanwhile, 16 per cent of respondents said little time off for holidays was the biggest challenge. Broken down by region, this spiked to 23 per cent in Scotland and 19 per cent in the south of the UK but fell to eight per cent of business owners in the north.
After that, says reporter Zen Terrelonge, “ it's perhaps of little surprise that long hours are also a sacrifice, thus 12 per cent admit they will work more than 60 hours a week to get the company up to speed and consider that the biggest issue, according to the findings”.
When looked at by sector, financial entrepreneurs claim to work shorter hours as 21 per cent said they put in around 50 hours a week compared to 49 per cent of those in hospitality, who work the longest across all industries.
As a result, ten per cent of SME founders said spending less time with their family was the biggest sacrifice.
Pete Markey, chief marketing officer, Post Office, said: “The first year of trading in any business is often one of the hardest and our study shows that entrepreneurs face having to make serious sacrifices when starting up a business.
“Administrative tasks can be notoriously time consuming so finding ways to streamline this activity for maximum efficiency can make all the difference in freeing up spare time.”
Indeed, the report claims administration is one of the largest tasks, and 12 per cent of entrepreneurs spend more than ten hours a week on the duty, which is equivalent to 21 days a year.
