By NMRN
So BBC Debate night has included Ash Regan and Lorna Slater on their panel….of course they have.
Preston tonight has the Labour branch office manager Anas Sarwar as a guest…of course it does.
BBC QT tomorrow in Cambridge has an SNP MP on it’s panel…of course they do.
Both the BBC & ITV are orchestrating a pile on during what is a time of mega over promoted troubled times for the SNP by the media….while we also see one of them, ITV, laying out the red carpet for Sarwar to do what he does best……playing politics…..to try and gain an undeserved political advantage in Scotland for his party at Labour HQ…..
Of course not forgetting that BBC Debate night will also have it’s plants and anti SNP Bad (majority) section within the audience too…..where some of them are scarily so well versed in what they apparently state is the truth , the whole truth and nothing but the truth……though many a time tis more really nothing like the truth re their opinions and observations upon both the SNP as a party and as the Scottish government .
Yet also what is scary is that these same Sheeple are also seemingly non concerned, non angry, in fact somewhat nonchalant as to the actions/scandals/policies etc of the HQ’s of both the Labour & Tory party.( I say this as these Sheeple on these debate programmes in Scotland seem to have more animosity and complaints against the SNP than all of the other political parties put together) indeed it is almost as if they think that , Labour HQ & Tory HQ, have no influence, impact or involvement within Scotland……..as a UK government or an official opposition party !
The media are going in for the kill……the Sheeple will endorse this……however ask some of these same Sheeple if their allegiance to the UK would extend to closing down the Scottish parliament and thus we Scots, like our English friends, being governed only by a UK government…..thus us losing many of the benefits as provided by the SNP run Scottish government (which they as Sheeple fail to acknowledge or appreciate) then somehow, I am sure, their beloved UK as a state will somehow no longer be considered as such a desirable, attractive and welcome only option available to them as a government …as for them having the best of both worlds is hardly a defined position….surely the sheeple should want to share the Utopia , as they see it, that all people in England experience and live with as those governed only by a UK government……as you cannot, as one who is a sheeple, be half way in and half way out…that is in that they want to still gain benefits via our devolved government while still bending the knee to their UK….but reluctant to actually cede control completely to UK domination by being governed only by one UK government whose parliament is based in another country……TBH as a position that to me does not make sense…..as you are either fully IN or your fully OUT as opposed to being half way in both as a situation ……that is as a welcome position for them to be in…..
As to us being governed by a Scottish devolved government via a Pro UK party….well we have already suffered that and still suffer some of the consequences…..most notably the consequences as a result of PFI debt in Scotland but also I am sure Tuition fees would be brought in line with that of England’s and too similar consequences for those on benefits as those in England also…..and would free prescription charges survive in Scotland also….that I also doubt will be sustained.
I guess some people (Sheeple) should be careful what they wish for as the current Hate Fest being orchestrated by the media, opposition parties and also some Sheeple may end up with them (and us) being placed in what will surely be a worst case scenario….in that they (and we) will lose many of the benefits and good policies via the SNP to be replaced with OMG what the H have we (not us but them….Sheeple…. LOL) done if , and I doubt it, a pro UK party would ever again gain control in Scotland as the Scottish government ! (Not forgetting BREXIT too ..or rather they, the Sheeple, are (conveniently) forgetting BREXIT)
Alas some people (Sheeple) will never learn…..and some I am sure will make the same mistakes time and time again…..while oblivious to the same consequences happening……while never realising why that is so…..I heard BBC Debate night tonight had it’s usual (un)fair share of plants and Nay sayers in the audience….aka Sheeple….colour me surprised…..NOT…..LOL
Wha’s like (some of) us…indeed.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
The English STATE is in thecshit house
yet they pontificate on Scottish matters
sod off and treat your English citizens fairly
INSTEAD OF ROBBING THEM BLIND IN SUPERMARKETS,WATER BILLS ETC ETC
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O/T Back on 23 April this year, the BBC News website had the headline: ‘Scotland in ‘dangerous’ moment for climate goals’.
Following an appearance before a Holyrood committee by Chris Stark, the outgoing CEO of the UK Climate Change Committee, the BBC reported Mr Stark’s remarks on Scottish Government targets: ‘THERE WAS NO POLICY PACKAGE THAT COULD DELIVER ANYTHING CLOSE TO THE NINE-FOLD INCREASE IN DECARBONISATION LEVELS NEEDED TO HIT THAT GOAL.’ (my emphasis) viz. reducing greenhouse gases by 75% by 2030. Within its process of annual reviews, when did the CCC first reach that conclusion – just recently? Mr Stark is quoted saying that 2030 target to reduce emissions by 75% from 1990 levels was “BEYOND CREDIBLE”. Given this context, surely NOT abandoning a “beyond credible” target would have been plain daft!
Various claims have been made regarding why this formal 75% target came into being in the first place – due to opposition parties’ pushing for such a high aspirational target in Holyrood? And it is far from straightforward to untangle the reasons for the target not being met – was it inevitable given its stretch without imposing undue harm to ‘just transition’ and other economic objectives and necessities; culpability for falling short lying with the Scottish Government alone or also down to the UK government failings etc.?
Then today (2 May) in The National there is a comment piece by Dale Vince, described as a ‘green industrialist and founder of Ecotricity’. It’s headlined ‘SCOTLAND HAS A CHANCE TO LEAD ON GREEN ENERGY’. Oddly, the content rather implies that Scotland and its government in Edinburgh have the agency enjoyed by ‘normal’ independent nation states! Notwithstanding this, it does make a few points of relevance to the earlier part of this blog post:
‘The trigger for scrapping the 2030 emissions target appears to have been the missing of the target for 2021 – but IT’S IRRATIONAL TO SCRAP A TARGET BECAUSE OF MISSING IT – especially as it was only by two percentage points.’
Missed by just two percentage points? Is this factually correct – anyone? And “Irrational to scrap a target because of missing it’ – that is a quite different take on the matter from Mr Stark’s “beyond credible”!
Mr Vance adds: ‘… abandoning government climate commitments undermines confidence in the industry and government policy.’ So industry would prefer sticking with a target that in Stark’s – and also formally the CCC’s expert view presumably – was “beyond credible’? This is all becoming very confusing, offering up all sorts of opportunities for political opportunism and mischief.
And then some UK context from Vance: ‘Across the globe countries are racing ahead with their transitions to a green economy while the UK CURRENTLY RANKS LAST ON GREEN SPENDING OUT OF THE FIVE BIGGEST WESTERN EUROPEAN ECONOMIES.’
And more from Mr Vance: ’We’re well on the way, with green energy making up approaching 50% of the UK’s grid supply each year. The Scottish Government recently announced that for the first time renewable technologies generated the equivalent of 113% of Scotland’s overall electricity consumption.
‘This is the highest recorded to date, and A 26 PERCENTAGE POINT INCREASE COMPARED TO 2021 – as former energy secretary Neil Gray stated: “This shows the enormous potential of Scotland’s green economy.”
Left Foot Forward – ‘founded in 2009 by Will Straw to provide hard-hitting news and comment, written by and for the UK left’ – published an article on 22 April entitled: ‘CHRIS PACKHAM TAKES APART UK GOVERNMENT’S CLIMATE POLICIES – “OUR GOVERNMENT’S POLICIES.. ARE NOT ONLY COOKING THE PLANET, THEY ARE JUSTIFYING THAT BY COOKING THE BOOKS”. The remarks were made on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg after there had been an interview with the Tory Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho. We’re also told that: ‘During the show, the head of the Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, said the Prime Minister’s RECENT CLIMATE POLICY ROLLBACKS had “SET US BACK” ON climate change, FURTHER UNDERMINING THE GOVERNMENT’S CLIMATE RECORD.‘
On 20 April, the BBC News website had this headline: ‘Chris Stark: Rishi Sunak has set us back, head of climate change watchdog says’. In the article there is this: ‘.. Mr Sunak’s Downing Street had sent a message to the rest of the world that “the UK is LESS AMBITIOUS ON CLIMATE THAN IT ONCE WAS, and that is EXTREMELY HARD TO RECOVER”.
And then we learn: ‘In the autumn, Mr Sunak DELAYED a ban on new petrol and diesel cars, and WEAKENED targets on phasing out gas boilers, as part of A MAJOR SHIFT in green policy. “I THINK IT’S SET US BACK,”
And more from Stark: ‘He said the UK had been successful in “decarbonising how we generate electricity, especially by closing coal-fired powerplants”. But to get to net zero, more needs to be done on “how we heat homes, or how we deal with the industrial emissions that we have in this country, what we do with farming [and] transport systems”. “It’s in those other areas that WE SEE THE GAP,” he said. “I definitely feel WE’RE AT RISK.”
The reference to the UK ‘decarbonising how we generate electricity’ is notable: how much of that has been delivered from within and from offshore Scotland? The CCC’s CEO identifies: ‘less ambition’ in Westminster government; ‘gaps’ in delivery plans to achieve net zero; the UK at ‘risk’ etc. due to flawed Westminster government action or inaction.
Mr Stark is also reported saying that it was “desperately disappointing” that the SNP government in Edinburgh had ditched one of its climate targets this week. But he said THE TARGETS HAD BEEN “OVER-AMBITIOUS” FROM THE START.’ Notwithstanding this, in the same interview he ‘called on Labour leader SIR KEIR STARMER TO BE MORE “BOLD” when it comes to climate change. “You regularly hear Ed Miliband [the shadow net zero secretary] talk about the transition, of course, on the Labour side, but Keir Starmer, of course, DOESN’T TALK ABOUT IT QUITE SO MUCH,” he said.’
I’d argue that Mr Stark’s rhetoric here when referring to the actions/intentions of the Tories and Labour in Westminster is ‘mild’ – less headline grabbing – than his choice of words (e.g. ‘beyond credible’) when referring to the Scottish Government!
(For information, according to the BBC News website on 6 October 2023 – ‘Dale Vince: Major Labour donor to stop funding Just Stop Oil”: ‘Mr Vince’s green energy company Ecotricity has donated more than £1.4m to Labour since 2014, comprising donations to the party itself as well as leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner. The company also donated £70,000 to the Liberal Democrats in 2015/16, and £30,000 to the Green Party in 2013.’)
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