By Liz S
So today , so far, in the BBC website on their Scottish Politics page they have found room for the non story that is “No Cat ban in Scotland John Swinney confirms”, as currently it is the third story on that page.
Scanning that whole page on the BBC website, and too on their main Scottish page, they have , so far, not managed to find any room for a real political story impacting Scotland.
That is where yesterday the GB Energy Chairman, Juergen Maier, confirmed to SKY News in an interview with them that the jobs he said that were pledged for Aberdeen, at GB Energy’s so called headquarters, would take up to 20 years, as in two decades, to deliver.
Now firstly let’s recall when he, as the Chairman of GB Energy, was interviewed by a Select committee in the HOC last year and he was quoted as saying that between 200-300 jobs would be created at the GB Energy HQ at Aberdeen.
Subsequent to this interview of the GB Energy Chairman in the HOC we then had Michael Shanks the Labour MP for Rutherglen, and also the Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Energy, contradict the Chairman of GB Energy in Shanks saying that it would actually be 1000 jobs created at GB Energy HQ in Aberdeen.
Confused ?
I think you are meant to be.
As yesterday , Juergen Maier the Chairman of GB Energy, in his interview with SKY quoted the exact same revised figure that Shanks quoted , subsequent to Maier’s appearance in the HOC at a Select Committee last year, as Maier stated to SKY News that there was to be a 1000 jobs pledged for Aberdeen but that it would take up to 20 years to deliver these jobs .
So Maier has now changed the amount of jobs to be generated , as in increased it, from the lower figure of up to 300 jobs that he first quoted to the Select Committee at the HOC last year, to what is now a revised and increased figure , which just so happens to match the same figure , as in the supposed total amount of new jobs to be created in Aberdeen, that Michael Shanks quoted, which was 1000 jobs.
Does this not pose a question as to how and why he, Maier, has now increased the anticipated amount of jobs at GB Energy HQ from 200-300 jobs to him now stating yesterday the new figure of 1000 jobs ?
However that aside, the worrying factor is that these jobs will not be forthcoming for Scotland any time soon, in what was a supposed flagship policy , as when GB Energy was first launched by Keir Starmer prior to the 2024 GE, Starmer said it would mean Scotland would supposdley then be “at the beating heart of his new Labour government”.
However the now revised and also increased amount of new jobs , as in a 1000 jobs , that has now been quoted for GB Energy HQ is still far less than what was insinuated by Keir Starmer at the launch of this flagship policy, prior to the 2024 GE.
In May 2024 Keir Starmer said “Labour will bring a “huge number” of skilled jobs to Scotland by basing the HQ of its new energy company there”.
“Huge number of jobs” ?
Well that sounds like a lot more than just up to 300 jobs as was quoted initially by the GB Energy Chairman last year at the HOC Select Committee and also far more than just 1000 jobs in two decades , which is the new revised figure that the GB Energy Chairman is now quoting , which coincidently falls into line with the figure Michael Shanks also quoted.
On an General election campaign visit to Scotland, the Labour leader said in reference to GB Energy that “the firm would drive the transition to clean energy and make sure those jobs are in Scotland rather than other countries”.
So far, in what has now been nearly 7 months since Labour were elected as the new UK government, we have had no new jobs announced as being actually created for GB Energy here in Scotland. In fact the only things Labour have announced is that the supposed GB Energy HQ will be based in Aberdeen but also that the so called Chairman of GB Energy will be based elsewhere, as in Manchester, England.
Still confused ?
You are not alone.
Also yesterday SKY News stated that the Chairman of GB Energy “repeatedly refused to say when household prices would be slashed”, which was relevant as they also stated that ” Keir Starmer promised that this flagship Green initiative would cut consumer energy bills by as much as £300″.
Well I guess if even the Chairman of GB Energy does not know when energy bills will be reduced by £300, then we have to assume it is not going to happen any time soon, maybe even that too will only happen in decades ???
However this is all no big deal for the BBC in Scotland as they obviously consider it to be a non story and less significant than another story that they have chosen to prioritise which was the actual non story on their website today of “No Cat ban in Scotland John Swinney confirms”.
‘Cats banned in Scotland by the SNP ‘ before ‘new jobs that Labour pledged for Scotland’, well that does seem to be a position the BBC here would take as being the real news where we are.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
All this evidence is just going to.make it all the easier to lynch every single one of the bastards post indy.
LikeLike
Maybe DON’T suggest or talk about ‘lynching’ anyone!
LikeLike
As long as it’s done legally and with due process, like in Nuremberg, then as part of our ‘truth and retribution’ process, it should be fine. Collaborators can be invited to leave the country first of course. And when they’re gone they stay gone – or be gone to quote the famous line.
LikeLike
John, I urge you to read the BBC website’s top story on the Scottish Politics page headed as “How did John Swinney win support for his budget?
Written by Glenn Campbell.
So much within it that is so bad , that if you tried to collate it all and so include it all into a comment on here , it would then result in a comment that was far too excessive in length.
Some crackers from Campbell’s so called assessment which is also known as his (personal) opinion including the following:
“The performance of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government at Westminster appears to be dragging Scottish Labour down”.
Suggesting of course that Sarwar is blameless in all of this, the same Sarwar who was headlined on the front page of The Daily Record prior to the 2024 GE, with him stating that “He promised he would stand up to Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, if he (Starmer) did not make decisions in Scotland’s interests”
Same Sarwar that also repeated the Labour UK party’s (now empty) slogan of “change” in the GE campaign, if Labour UK were elected.
Where no change for the good has actually happened , just a change for the worse under Labour UK, and also who was it who asked John Swinney to “Read my lips there will be no austerity under Labour”.
Glenn obviously has had a memory lapse where Sarwar is concerned, or it a deliberate lapse of memory by Glenn , so as not to embarrass Sarwar !
Also Glenn wrote:
“When Labour swept away the SNP across much of the central belt of Scotland at the UK general election that changed the political narrative. It seemed credible that Labour could do something similar in the 2026 Holyrood vote and return to power after two decades in the wilderness”.
Well with more articles like this Glenn, via you and your employer the BBC, you may be right, after all it’s not for the want of you trying and also the BBC Scotland news team trying too , in you all doing your best for Labour to win in Scotland, is it ?
Also Glenn stated:
“There is another factor. You have to be canny to hold onto power for 18-plus years. The SNP is good at it”.
Oh the sneaky SNP duping voters in Scotland to keep voting for them, are we all , as voters , being brainwashed and hypnotised by the nasty party that Glenn and his colleagues at the BBC regard the SNP to be ?
Glenn also chose to remind us that in the SNP “The party has experienced plenty of turmoil over the last few years”
While conveniently he failed to note the various “turmoil” that has happened with Labour UK since being elected in 2024 as the new UK government.
Starmer freebies scandal, Labour MP Rosie Duffield resigning, Reeves rubbish budget, Universal Winter Fuel payment cut for pensioners, the Tory party two child cap retained, U turn on decision of immediate action on wealthy nom-doms, Labour MP pleading guilty to punching a man in the street, scandal linked to Tulip Siddiq who then resigned as a government minister and also nowt so far of any worth via GB Energy for Scotland as it seems that, as a labour flagship policy , it is very much now seemingly in turmoil etc etc etc
Mind you Paul Hutcheon , the political editor with the Daily Record , also bats for the Labour party as part of their Labour media fanbase in Scotland as he tweeted on the 2 February 2025 this:
“Another lousy poll for Scottish Labour this morning, but the key issue is not SNP strength (they are way down on 2021) but the fracturing of the pro-UK vote. The UK Government getting its act together would be a massive help to Anas Sarwar”
So Paul thinks that the “Labour UK government getting it’s act together would be a massive help to Anas Sarwar” ?
That ship has already sailed, but then it sunk Paul, never again to be salvaged !
What is uncanny though is that Glenn’s article on the BBC website is almost a carbon copy of what Paul Hutcheon concluded in his tweet on the 2 February , so the question is, do they collude as a pro UK media as well as also it seems both being cheerleaders for Labour ?
Also like Glenn and the BBC , Paul and his paper will do their bit for Labour in Scotland to try and aid them in the 2026 Scottish elections, as every little bit helps , as does their constant biased political propaganda as a media , which they assume will help Labour win , and they also hope , will hinder the SNP.
BBC Verify , Ofcom and IPSO all look away as the political targets of such bias and partisan writing , via the media in Scotland , is also their enemy too, and also more importantly the enemy of the UK state as well.
Liz S
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well it now seems to be that Anas Sarwar is so very desperate to become the next FM in Scotland , that he is prepared to offer an Olive branch to the Reform UK party , if they , Reform UK, do indeed manage to get any MSP’s elected in the 2026 Scottish elections.
This of course is in relation to a past offer from Richard Tice, the Deputy leader of Reform UK party, who said that his elected MSP’s would vote for Sarwar to become the next new FM after the 2026 Scottish elections, if they, Reform UK, were successful in gaining seats at Holyrood.
Today Various media have reported this news in what is frankly both shocking and disgusting news on Sarwar being open to some kind of ‘deals being done’ with Nigel Farage’s party.
STV News online headline today
“I won’t work with Reform but won’t turn down good ideas, says Sarwar”
What good ideas could Reform UK party possibly have to benefit Scotland ?
Surely nothing is clearly the answer to that question.
The Telegraph online today
“Labour willing to work with Reform to oust the SNP”
So basically Sarwar will do a deal with this awful party , The Reform UK Party, the same awful party who are looking to oust Sarwar’s party in Wales & also in the UK as the Welsh and the UK governments. Sarwar would do this just to “oust the SNP”. So not really for Scotland’s benefit then is it, more to our detriment really.
The Herald online today
“Scottish Labour open to good ideas from Reform UK”
Ideas ?
Like perhaps shutting down the Scottish parliament kind of “good’ idea”, that is for them , The Reform UK party as an English Nationalist party, but not so good an idea for Scotland.
The Scotsman online today
“Anas Sarwar leaves door open to working with Nigel Farage’s Reform party on a case by case basis”
So what kind of “cases” would Sarwar anticipate a meeting of the minds with Farage’s right wing pseudo political party ?
The Daily Record online today
“Anas Sarwar compares the SNP to Reform and claims both feed off hopelessness” while they also contradicted reports from other media in Scotland where they said “Sarwar had ruled out his party working with Nigel Farage’s party after the Holyrood election, but , there’s always a but, although there would be , he said , “no formal coalitions or agreements the door would be left open to looser deals with the right wing party”.
So basically the Daily Record try to present, or rather save Sarwar, in promoting him as someone who thinks that the SNP are as bad as the Reform UK party .
However that being the case they also state that Sarwar will indeed work with Reform UK.
So as the DR also try to dispute that Sarwar will work with the Reform party they also contradict themselves in verifying that Sarwar will occasionally do just that very thing, on ‘looser deals’ which I am not sure what they may be, but I am sure will only damage Scotland and not benefit it.
Is it not amazing what a drop in the polls can do to someone so desperate that they are willing to collude with the dregs of UK politics just to win an election and a role as a FM.
As Sarwar tries to keep his job as leader of Labour in Scotland, and so in his attempt to do this, he then tries to appeal to the worse kind of voters in Scotland, just like his UK leader, Starmer, also tried to appeal to the worse kind of voters in England all to gain power.
We may have thought Labour could sink no further, how wrong we all were.
They have now reached the depths of the political gutter all because of Sarwar’s, and others within the Labour party, blind ambition as career politicians.
Liz S
LikeLiked by 1 person
In respect to my above comment yesterday on Sarwar and his very much misjudged and most unwise comment on him being ‘open to ideas from the Reform UK party”, only in the assumption that they will support him to be the next FM after the 2026 Scottish election.
if , that is , they, Reform UK party, actually do manage to get any MSP’s elected in that Scottish election, and where yesterday most of the papers online reported this news.
Well today none of those same printed editions of those newspapers , bar The National, have reported this same news on Sarwar and the Reform UK party, on their front pages.
The BBC website has also failed to mention this latest Sarwar news on their ‘Scottish pages , which then also tells you this announcement from Sarwar is considered to be a negative in Scotland , as we are , via a majority, not as enamoured with Farage or his awful fake political party as England seem to be.
This as political news is on par with Sarwar’s Labour party in Scotland welcoming and allowing a candidate to stand for them in a past Council election in Scotland , who was a former Orange Order leader, who then was elected as a Councillor for Labour in North Lanarkshire.
Next can we also now expect Keir Starmer to state at some point in the future that Labour UK will also do the same , as in work with Farage’s Reform UK party, as he, Starmer, sees the polls showing an increase in support for Nigel Farage’s pseudo political party so Starmer may also want to pander to the same type of voters in England that Sarwar seeks to pander to in Scotland.
Surely we all expected the Tories in Scotland to suggest that it would be them who would form some kind of coalition with the Reform UK party and never ever Labour.
I guess when Richard Tice made the offer to support Sarwar as the next FM in Scotland, was when he, Tice, assumed that Labour would be a sure thing to win in 2026 , all because Labour gained an extra 36 MP’s in Scotland in the 2024 GE to join their existing 1 MP, Ian Murray.
That, I assume, then killed off (temporarily) any Tory coalition commitment from them, the Tories in Scotland, with the Reform UK party in Scotland.
If nothing else it should put the final nail in the coffin for Labour in Scotland playing at being a pretend socialist party .
Who knew that the “New Direction” for Labour in Scotland was to form an ‘unofficial’ alliance with a Brexit supporting right wing party like Reform UK , well I knew , as for me it just, yet again , confirms that with Labour as a pro UK , British Nationalist political party, absolutely nothing has or ever will change with them.
Liz S
LikeLike
Without full transparency for the public on how the beforehand (ex ante) appraisal of the GB Energy initiative has been undertaken, the job numbers being tossed around by the GB Energy chair and Labour politicians need to be taken with tons of salt.
How many jobs (FTEs) within GB Energy? How many of. these within Scotland? How many new, permanent jobs as distinct from civil service transferees for example?
Of jobs – new or safeguarded – in the supply chain, how many directly attributable to the inputs of GB Energy?
Of jobs in the supply chain – how many would have been created anyway without GB Energy’s inputs – net additional jobs?
What is the time profile to reach the net additional employment forecast?
How many of the total net additional jobs are expected to be in Scotland?
Has there been any discounting for optimism bias in the jobs calculation?
What risks and uncertainties on employment numbers have been identified? To what extent have actions been designed to transfer, accept, eliminate or mitigate these risks and uncertainties in the implementation and operation of the intervention?
A judgement of time scale to an ‘acceptable’ return on public investment will have been determined as part of discounting calculations related to the application of what the Treasury terms the ‘Social Time Preference Rate’ – essentially a way of acknowledging the higher value ‘society’ attaches to present, as opposed to future, consumption or economic benefit. So time scales to achieve economic impacts will have been assessed.
Indeed, all these factors will have been – should have been – assessed and where possible quantified during the development of a business case for public investment in line with normal Treasury practices. (e.g. see https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6645c709bd01f5ed32793cbc/Green_Book_2022__updated_links_.pdf )
Then we could start on the energy price reduction promises!
LikeLike