Juggling the numbers proves tricky

By John Knox
Political reporter, BBC Scotland

Keeping all the balls in the air at once is the juggler's skill and the politician's trick.

Cup confusion reigned as the balls were drawn

But, for all his skill, Alex Salmond didn't find the trick so easy this week.

At lunchtime on Thursday, for instance, the first minister found himself at the centre of another Holyrood "balls-up".

It wasn't his fault there was a mix-up when he picked the balls from the glass bowl for the CIS football cup draw.

It was Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson who read out the wrong teams.

But Mr Salmond was standing dangerously close.

Moments before, at question time, he fumbled the ball over class sizes.

Labour's Wendy Alexander asked him a straight question: "Will you be keeping your promise to reduce class sizes to 18 in the first three years of primary school by 2011, yes or no?"

Class struggle

The answer - given five times - was that talks were being held with local councils to "meet the government's commitments".

The opposition parties took that as a "no".

"Another pledge broken," said Wendy Alexander. The Conservative leader Annabel Goldie agreed.

And she reminded the chamber of last week's climbdown over "1,000 more police".

"Hands up," she challenged, "hands up, all those SNP members who backed their leader in breaking his police pledge."

The SNP she said was "divided, riven, split".

Nicol Stephen for the Liberal Democrats said the SNP were clear enough in opposition about the cost of their class size promise.

The government pledged to drive up the number of new houses

John Swinney, the finance secretary, had said it would mean an extra 3,115 teachers and it would cost £145m a year.

"But now the SNP are in office, they haven't a clue about cost, numbers or timing," Mr Stephen said.

In reply Mr Salmond pointed out that the SNP had already acted to reduce class sizes with 300 extra teachers, 250 more training places and £40m for new buildings.

He could have gone on to say - wait for the first SNP budget on 14 November, or even, wait till 2011 to judge whether the SNP was fulfilling its election promises.

The fact that he didn't left the opposition in no doubt that, in office, the SNP are having to rethink their policies.

They just can't have too many expensive balls in the air at once.

Right to buy

Meanwhile, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was juggling with other numbers.

About 200,000 people are waiting for a council house or a housing association home. There also 9,000 people who are completely homeless.

House prices are going through the roof. Prices have gone up 400% in the last 20 years, almost twice as fast as wages.

Her response, as secretary for "wellbeing", was to set a new target for house building - public and private - at 35,000 new homes each year, up from the present target of 25,000.

No clear answers were given on costs and teacher numbers

She is also ending the 30-year-old "right to buy" for council tenants in newly-built homes and reviewing the policy for all tenants.

And she wants to put local councils back in charge of house building. The central housing agency Communities Scotland is to be wound up.

It was the wellbeing of children in care that concerned Children's Minister Adam Ingram on Thursday afternoon when he announced an inquiry into the goings on at Kerelaw residential school in Ayrshire.

It was closed down two years ago after a string of abuse cases, and alleged abuse cases, stretching back over many years.

A report by Glasgow Council found that about 40 staff may have been involved. Two teachers are currently serving jail sentences.

World peace was on the first minister's mind

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill had the more pleasant task of announcing plans for an arbitration bill next year.

He said courts should be used as "a last resort" when dealing with commercial, family or neighbour disputes.

"Arbitration is usually quicker, more flexible, less stressful and less costly," he said. He hopes to set up a government accreditation scheme for agencies offering arbitration services.

He also hopes to set up an international business arbitration centre in Edinburgh to take advantage of the growing world demand for "alternative dispute resolution" or ADR for short.

World peace was on the first minister's mind when he signed the Peace Covenant brought to Holyrood on Thursday by the Peace and Justice Movement.

Sandi Thom helped launch celebration plans for St Andrew's Day

The national covenant has grown out of the anti-Trident protests over the summer and pledges its signatories to work for peace and justice rather than war.

Mr Salmond said Scotland should draw inspiration from Norway's attempt to solve the Middle East dispute with the Oslo Accords in 1993. Another case of ADR.

This little ceremony, involving peace luminaries like the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Primate of the Episcopal Church and the Imam of the Edinburgh Central mosque, was squeezed into Alex Salmond's busy schedule between the class sizes row at question time and the juggling at the football draw.

The life of a first minister is a happy and varied one.

On Friday, he was outlining his plans for St Andrew's Day and a "Winter Festival", stretching from 30 November right through to Burns Night on 25 January.

And next week he's off to Sri Lanka to help with last-minute lobbying for the right to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

'Wonderful animal'

Watching this juggler at work I was reminded of an essay we had to study at school, "The Indian Jugglers" by William Hazlitt, written in 1828.

"The chief of the Indian jugglers begins with tossing up two brass balls, which is what any of us could do, and concludes with keeping up four at the same time, which is what none of us could do to save our lives.

"Is it then a trifling power we see at work or is it not something next to miraculous? Man, thou art a wonderful animal. Thou can'st do strange things, but thou turnest them to little account."

Actually, it's more intriguing than that.

We've yet to see Alex Salmond's balls hit the ground, on class sizes, police numbers, world peace or anything else.