MSPs love MSPs, but not Holyrood

MSPs rated themselves highly in a survey

By John Knox BBC Scotland political reporter

MSPs ended the term by giving themselves seven out of 10 for overall performance, but, curiously, they are less certain the Scottish Parliament has improved the government of Scotland.

They gave it just five out of 10 on that score, and they gave it just one out of 10 for "radicalism".

The findings of the survey, by the Scottish Council Foundation, came as First Minister Jack McConnell and his deputy, Jim Wallace gave a presidential style end of term briefing in the drawing room of Bute House.

They talked, on the one hand, of devolution providing "stable government" and, on the other, of the first three years having been a "rollercoaster".

MSPs did not rate the performance of Holyrood

I suppose you can have a stable rollercoaster, if it's well built, but it's a somewhat complex message.

The same was true of their main announcement - a 10 point plan to tackle youth crime, which, depending on what figures you choose to look at, has risen by 50% over the last decade.

Their plan spoke of a pilot scheme for youth courts, fast-tracking for persistent offenders in the Children's Hearing System and a review of secure accommodation.

But it also included a national system of police cautions, provision for curfews, parental involvement and more community based sport schemes to give energetic youngsters something positive to do.

At question time in the chamber Mr McConnell explained: "The real challenge in modern Scotland is not just to lock up persistent serious young offenders, it is to make sure that young people have a real opportunity for a decent start in life so that they will avoid offending in the first place."

Jack McConnell had youths in his sights

But SNP leader John Swinney said it was just another strategy, which followed a review, which followed an assessment, which followed an earlier strategy.

"If fighting crime is at the top of this First Minister's priorities, why is he cutting the justice budget ?"

Mr McConnell said spending on youth crime was actually being increased by an extra £15m and - as Mr Swinney knew - it was being spread across many departments.

Conservative leader David McLetchie said it was ridiculous to send 16 and 17-year-olds to Children's Hearings.

"The First Minister has run up the white flag on youth crime. He's lost out to all the doves in his cabinet."

The end of term also brought a revised budget from finance minister Andy Kerr.

He told MSPs there had been an underspend of £640m by the departments in the year to April.

That's out of a total budget of around £20bn.

Most of the money, he said, would be carried forward into this financial year but he was able to re-allocate £173m of it.

Andy Kerr announced an underspend

An extra £14m is going to the police and fire brigades. There's £5m more for tourism. But most of the money, £95m, will go to local authorities to spend on their own priorities - which Mr Kerr hoped would be road maintenance, sports facilities, removing graffiti and generally tidying up their communities.

There was more largesse from the education minister.

Cathy Jamieson announced this week that £1.5bn worth of public private partnerships had been agreed for rebuilding or refurbishing 300 schools in 15 council areas.

But it wasn't all good news for the executive this week.

The environment committee issued a report saying ministers were failing to give clear leadership over the future of the fish farming industry.

The same committee then backed a call by George Reid MSP for an immediate ban on the spreading of animal blood and waste on a farm near Doune in Perthshire.

It wasn't good enough, it said, to wait for European regulations to come into force next year.

This week, parliament gave final approval for the appointment of an independent standards commissioner.

He or she will have full legal powers to investigate complaints against MSPs.

Margaret Jamieson found herself in the spotlight

There was a whiff of sleaze on Tuesday when it was learnt that the deputy convener of the health committee Margaret Jamieson had signed a 10-year confidentiality agreement with the drugs firm Pfizer.

But she explained that full details of her foreign trips with the firm would be disclosed under the parliament's business exchange scheme.

Complaints against the rest of the establishment - local councils, health boards, government agencies, housing associations - will be handled from now on by a new style Ombudsman, bringing together the former separate complaint offices. MSPs approved the appointment of Professor Alice Brown, the vice-principle of Edinburgh University, as the first super-Ombudsman.

The last petitions committee of the session had the usual variety of issues in front of it - access to national parks for horse riders, the fate of rural post offices, changes to bankruptcy laws.

But the plea that left us all feeling patriotic was for a standard colour for the Saltire flag.

The committee called on the Scottish Executive to follow the Royal Navy's regulation colour - azure blue, pantone 549C 8771B.

Scotland's national flag has been scrutinised

So the parliament has reached yet another defining moment.

Three years down, one year to go before its first judgement day.

Apart from defining the national flag, it has passed 44 bills.

From next week, it will introduce free personal care for the elderly.

It's reformed the system of student finance and given teachers an unprecedented salary increase.

It's creating two national parks.

It's opened up the health service to a new level of scrutiny.

It's talked a lot about poverty and social issues such as sectarianism, youth crime, drugs, the care of disabled people.

It's certainly transformed the political debate in Scotland.

But as the MSPs themselves acknowledged in that survey, it has also dashed a good many great expectations.

Many of the criticisms of the parliament however are really criticisms of the problems it faces - poor health, poor transport, a struggling health and education service, a weak economy, a divided society.

What home rule has done is to throw these faults into greater relief.