A bit of my regular column in Scots Independent, 98 years-old and still going, available, less than £4 per month, on paper so can be read anywhere, delivered right to your door.
Available using these details:
Christmas present for your…….?
SI hosts the empire-free Oliver Brown Award, OBA, previously held by Sean Connery, Alex Salmond, Mary Marquis and….er….moi.
Stilling hosting me despite my move from SNP to SSP.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Been getting it for years!
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Alcohol deaths rise 10% in England. They need minimum unit pricing,
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“Alcohol deaths rise 10% in England. They need minimum unit pricing”
Indeed and if they did introduce “minimum unit pricing” in England it would be a good guess to make , in assuming that there would not be a constant backlash against it , as in what we have witnessed happening here in Scotland.
Talking of England could anyone , with a straight face, argue that SKY News was predominantly very much a UK wide news channel as opposed to it being mainly a England dominant news channel (as well, of course, it also being an international news provider too).
Sky paper review last night.
Oh woe is Labour as apparently one of the guests reviewing the papers last night , James Heale from The Spectator, noted how Reform UK party had just won a seat in a council by-election in England so apparently the future threat for Labour in England was not the Tories perhaps but instead the Reform UK party.
This win for Reform UK in England was on the same day as when the SNP won two seats in Dundee in council By-elections in Scotland.
However that was not worthy to mention as news or rather worth noting in an English dominant news channel in the nightly section of their programming dedicated to reviewing mainly only the English editions of the newspapers .
Plus that was in another country, Scotland, so why would James Heale or indeed the Sky News host of the Paper review even mention that as what interest is that to either them or their English viewers. (who are apparently only eager for any Scottish news when it is either #SNPBAD, #ScottishIsSh*te or #ScotttishGovernmentIsBad).
But wait occasionally a Scottish newspaper’s front page headline is also included too in their SKY News paper review- but that does not happen that often in fact when it does happen it is regarded as an extremely rare moment.
In fact it only actually happens when there is any #SNPBAD story doing the media rounds, or/and if David Clegg is one of their guests in their nightly SKY News newspaper review, and as a guest he is more than willing to contribute his tuppence-worth towards the popular topic that is #SNPBAD in any UK MSM news programmes.
Basically neither within nor outwith Scotland are we in Scotland served well by any MSM , so to actually get the news where we are , opinions that are focused on facts upon Scotland and it’s politics and also just for once to not have to read or hear spin and propaganda , then we need to source our news and information elsewhere.
Places like this blog and others too that are like it but also I must mention too the ‘Scots Independent’.
In Scotland MSM is so passé , don’t you know Ha Ha.
(Scotland also passé with Labour UK government too it seems , as I mentioned in another comment I made under a different article on here “Another nail in Scottish Labour’s nuclear balloon as cost of one station in England now exceeds total devolved budget for Scotland” where they, Labour, have snubbed Scotland on Carbon Capture projects in favour of England- that’s filed under ‘Not Shocked’)
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Long comment and Breaking News:
Labour UK mug off Scotland (again) or rather they mug off those in Scotland who elected 37 Labour MP’s in the recent UK GE.
(See Labour’s GB Energy Ltd whose HQ– whoopee a nameplate- is in Scotland- is that it then- so that’s all we get in Scotland-as in the same Scotland Keir Starmer said would be at the “heart of the UK’s plans for future green energy- ah but that was our resources only it appears).
Chancellor Rachel Reeves had said that Labour had “identified a £22 billion black hole in the UK’s public finances” one that the Tories apparently “covered up”.
Fast forward to yesterday and the same Chancellor Rachael Reeves (together with Keir Starmer & Ed Milliand) pledge £22 billion (that sounds like a very familiar figure recently mentioned by the Labour party) to fund Carbon capture projects in England, in Merseyside & Teeside.
Though yesterday the Twitter (‘X’) account of Politics UK tweeted this:
“The government has pledged £22 billion to fund carbon capture projects across the UK”
“across the UK ” ?
Nope. In England not “across the UK” .
I guess though that this is another one of those (too) frequent occasions when for some the UK is synonymous with England.
Yesterday’s announcement by Labour UK government “two carbon capture clusters” on Merseyside and Teesside, (as in not in Scotland) promised over the next 25 years, would create thousands of jobs (not in Scotland) , attract private investment and help the UK (is that the whole UK or mainly just England) meet climate goals.
“Sir Keir Starmer who today was reported as visiting the north-west of England with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to confirm the projects, said the move would “reignite our industrial heartlands” (in England) and “kickstart growth” (in England).
Here’s a wee sample of some of the speech Keir Starmer made in Scotland to Scotland on 31 May 2024 ,pre the GE , on their , Labour’s, plans for GB Energy. (he flew to Scotland by private jet as in he chose a non green alternative form of travel).
Remember base some of Starmer words in that speech on May 31st in Scotland on what Scotland has now compared to what was announced yesterday for England
“Great British Energy that publicly owned company , owned by the tax payer, making money for the tax payer harnessing clean power. I want to be clear we are not turning off the taps for Oil and gas that will be part of the mix for decades to come”.
“But the transition is coming. We can’t stick our heads in the sand and as Ed said it’s Renewables are cheaper there’s a massive prize here, lower bills, security, the next generation of jobs“.
“So clean power is the best opportunity we’ve had in a generation for the next generation of jobs. Now other countries are in the race, look across Europe, look to America . I want to be in the race and I want to win the race“.
“Why not Scotland, I went to Aberdeen and there’s a glimpse of the future there because what I saw and talked through with the energy sector there, the workers there was the pipelines they were going to use for Carbon Capture , the skills they would use for the next generation of jobs“.
“And I asked them how long would these jobs last for, they said decades upon upon decades upon decades. Jobs for the next generation here in Scotland”
“Scotland can and Scotland will lead the clean energy revolution and that’s why Great British energy , which will cut those bills, which will give us that security and those jobs that will be headquarters right here in Scotland”.
Scotland step five Scotland maximising Scotland’s influence on the world stage. Let me give an example of that. Scotland has the second largest offshore wind capacity in the world. Yet three times as many jobs are in Denmark. That’s shocking“.
(“Shocking”? well so is announcing yesterday the £22 billion for carbon Capture projects outside Scotland, that is that Carbon Capture investment will be for regions in England and not as suggested by Starmer as being in Scotland. How many more jobs there , in Merseyside & Teesside, compared to equivalent jobs in Aberdeen in Scotland as per one example, under the new Labour UK government).
He then went onto relate a story, which he said really stuck with him as a story, where just outside Glasgow there is about 200-300 huge wind turbines there. He said “I went up there and they were turning round and generating energy, had two problems , one we didn’t have a battery big enough to store the energy so they were turning them off, because of a lack of planning. Second I asked a question I said how many of these incredible pieces of kit , this incredible manufacturing engineering how many were built in Scotland “
(He already knew the answer to that BTW so he was being deliberately provocative aka sh*t stirring) .
As he then answered that in saying “None. Not one. They were towed in from other countries. Not a single one was built here. We have to end that . We can “Change” that. Floating offshore wind is the next generation , we can get ahead, not only have floating offshore wind turbines but build it here in Scotland with manufacturing jobs, engineering (jobs) building on the skills we have here”
“Promoting Scotland abroad , Scottish business boost exports and attract investment needed for jobs here , good jobs in Scotland”
So I have highlighted in Bold the words that I think are significant to note , for us that is, in his speech on GB Energy prior to the UK GE, where he, Starmer, as a UK opposition leader at WM, travelled up here to Scotland (by private jet) to stick his nose into our business (our renewable energy potential and capacity) and lay claim to our resources under Labour UK as the next anticipated UK government.
I have also highlighted in Bold the parts in his speech where he references the word “we” and “we’ve” thus assumption being new green renewable energy in Scotland not just belonging to Scotland apparently but actually it si owned by the UK. (by their UK government currently under the management of the UK Labour party aka English Labour party).
Then of course read the above parts of his speech that he made in Scotland on 31 May 2024 and then read the announcement yesterday that ‘Labour have pledged £22 Billion for Carbon capture projects in England, not Scotland, but in England.
Then when you work out who and where the actual jobs are really going for this supposed “Scottish led clean energy revolution” you may then start to wonder where and when does Scotland come into the picture (get similar/same/more financial investment here by Labour) on this (though many see GB Energy Ltd as nowt but an investment opportunity for private investors to make more money for themselves).
So now that Labour are the new UK government, you will know Keir Stramer’s speech on the 31 May of this year in Scotland was ,as far as Scotland is concerned , just another example of more empty rhetoric via the Labour party, evidenced by their announcement yesterday that they ,as the new (non changed) UK government , now pledge £22 billion for Carbon Capture project investments in England.
To those who , in Scotland, recently elected 37 Labour MP’s , I ask this:
‘Do you now feel as though you were conned by the Labour party based on all they pledged and promised pre the UK GE’ ?
(Sad at it is some in Scotland may just answer ‘NO’ to that Q- yet again).
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