Typically the above expert on BBC Breakfast this morning knows nothing of Scotland.
Scotland already has a published Strategic Action Plan for Wildfires (5 March 2026), produced with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), land managers and the Scottish Wildfire Forum. More below.
Above, a lightly-clad firefighter working in Dunwich heat next to a nuclear power station.
In the Guardian today:
The government quietly scrapped plans to prepare the countryside in England for wildfires, it has been revealed. This was despite new data showing fire crews do not have the proper protective gear to tackle them. This summer has been a potent reminder of the scale of the threat posed by the climate crisis, with the UK experiencing record-breaking wildfires after punishingly hot and dry weather turned large parts of the countryside into a tinderbox. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/04/government-dropped-plan-england-countryside-wildfires
Scotland already has a published Strategic Action Plan for Wildfires (5 March 2026), produced with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), land managers and the Scottish Wildfire Forum. https://www.gov.scot/publications/strategic-action-plan-wildfires/
The plan is built on three pillars — prevention, preparedness and response — and includes measures already under way:
- Fire-prevention byelaws in the Cairngorms National Park from April 2026, with powers for other local authorities to do the same under the Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026.
- Stronger public warnings and wildfire-danger assessments.
- Promotion of firebreaks and regulated muirburn as fuel-load tools, alongside land-management plans for large holdings under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025.
- SFRS investment in specialist kit: a tactical burn-back team, four new wildfire support units (Alford, Oban, Galashiels, Dornoch) and two interim units (Lockerbie and Thurso), plus controlled-burn training.
- A multi-agency “concept of operations” before the 2026 season, expanded incident response plans, a review of helicopter standby arrangements, and expansion of the Community Asset Register so private equipment and volunteers can be used.
- Exploration of a mountain-rescue-style volunteer wildfire model, possibly trialled in the Cairngorms.
Rural bodies such as Scottish Land & Estates have publicly welcomed the plan, particularly the formal role for private equipment and staff.
https://www.farminguk.com/news/new-wildfire-action-plan-unveiled-to-tackle-growing-fire-risk-in-scotland_68119.html https://www.scottishlandandestates.co.uk/news/landmark-wildfire-action-plan-help-response-major-blazes-scotland
Finally, in the Guardian again:
This was despite new data showing fire crews do not have the proper protective gear to tackle them.
Scottish crews were not in the same position as the English services reported as having no wildfire PPE. Specialist wildland kit existed in Scotland well before 2026. There is no public equivalent of the Country Land and Business Association survey, in the same Guardian article, showing Scottish firefighters also had no wildfire PPE in earlier years.
Other SNP legislation no one will tell you of:
Finally, the crisis in England and Wales, not politicised:
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But they clearly didn’t consult Sandy McCook of Nethy Bridge as he was all over the news damning the fire service and Scottish Government’s response!!!
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Is the ‘UK’ a ‘country’…
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Burnham is in Scotland today .
Same time as the SNP conference is on.
So then, yet again , the same disrespect being shown by another English PM.
Same Burnham who failed to visit Scotland in his ‘UK’ listening tour.
That’s because Burnham prefers to come up to Scotland when it suits him , not to listen to Scots , but to tell Scots his plan for changing devolution within Scotland.
Scotland know your place.
The BBC on their Scotland main page and Scottish Politics have an article today on their website (that’s the BBC, who in Scotland , are seen as being the ‘Friends of Labour’) :
“Burnham invites Swinney to work together on ‘deeper Scottish devolution'”.
“Invites” – now that sounds very inviting and friendly.
“Work together” – now surely no one , including the FM, would not want to “work together” with others ?
So surely John Swinney could not decline such an enticing and , checks notes, generous offer for “deeper devolution”.
So what is “Deeper Devolution” ?
Well the BBC article , written by Glenn Campbell the infamous teller of way too many opinionated #SNPBAD pieces , explains that this invite is to “put “power back in the hands” of regions.
What he , Campbell, does not also state is that it would then also remove powers from Holyrood.
This of of course would align Scotland with regions and cities within England.
I mean , come on, who within UK politics and UK media wants Scotland to consider itself as being a country ?
Not what we signed up for really , when we within Scotland voted YES to devolution, and also surely not what was agreed via what was promised to Scotland in 2014 , pre and post the Independence Referendum.
The BBC article then states that “Burnham said devolution “was never supposed to stop at the doors of the Scottish Parliament” when Holyrood opened in 1999″.
However Burnham was one of the Labour MP’s who came up to Glasgow from England (Imperial Masters visit) to ask Scots to vote NO to independence and I do not recall him highlighting back then that “devolution “was never supposed to stop at the doors of the Scottish Parliament” when Holyrood opened in 1999″ ?
Campbell also wrote Burnham said “However, he described Scotland as the most devolved nation in the UK but “one of the most centralised in Europe”.
“one of the most centralised in Europe” ?
Sorry what parts of Europe are linked to the UK State ?
Why the comparison with Europe (again)?
Scotland, unlike European nations, is not an independent country.
It , Scotland, is largely controlled by an English based “centralised” UK government via their reserved powers.
Indeed this same English UK government and it’s English based PM has come up to Scotland to tell us what it is that we need and so then should want.
Now that is a real and actual centralised (UK) government at work, surely ?
Campbell also wrote that “The Scottish government set out plans for a radical rethink of the country’s regional authorities last month”.
So then why is Burnham interfering in our devolution ?
The BBC article then states “Asked whether devolving power more locally in Scotland would make independence more or less likely, the prime minister said:
“I don’t want to be the last PM of the UK.
“I just feel we all have to move beyond the constitutional questions”
“In my view, people in Scotland are suffering from the cost of living crisis, like they are in England and everywhere else, and I think our job is to focus on the practicalities, to focus on solutions for people right now.”
He added: “Too much time is wasted on those dramas, it consumes too much energy.”
So “We all have to move beyond the constitutional question” ?
Is he and others who support the UK doing that then , I bloody think not !
Also yes indeed the “people in Scotland are suffering” but that would be from enduring far too many years of Tory and Labour bad policies, ineptitude and inaction as different UK governments.
Also various UK governments , betraying and bypassing Scottish industry while supporting and funding those in England. (also funding government projects in England and where the Hell is the promised thousands of jobs in Labour’s flagship 2024 policy that was and is GB Energy ? )
So our “suffering within Scotland” has also seen us having to suffer way too many “dramas” via UK politicians within UK governments , via their policies that we did not vote for nor want e.g. Brexit or via a succession of dramas from different UK PM’s and government ministers and Peers.
Dramas , bad decisions and shocking revelations on Johnson, Patel, Hancock , Mone, Gove, Jack then onto Truss, Kwarteng and then we had Starmer , Mahmood, Murray, Alexander, Mandelson and now it seems also the case with Burnham and some of his chosen ministers (some of whom are the same as Starmer’s choice of ministers).
So yes our energy in Scotland is indeed extremely exhausted with having had to endure all of the constant instability, turmoil and “change” , and also “no change” from what we had before , from various UK governments !
However our energy has not been consumed by supporting independence but by those, including Burnham, who fight to try to stop us having another justified independence referendum.
A means for us to escape all of the UK madness, UK incompetence, UK ignorance, UK lack of compassion and empathy and UK corruption that is linked to the UK State via it’s politics (and it’s UK media).
How much bloody time is Burnham and other UK PM’s wasting in dictating what they want to do to Scotland , while not offering any real and practical solutions to solve the “practicalities” of the high and neverending cost of living crisis (which Labour , when as the official opposition, assured us that they would solve it if they were elected as the next UK government ).
Sick of this UK attempt at manipulation in Scotland, via UK politics and UK media.
Any enforced changes being made to Devolution in Scotland by the UK government in passing powers onto local authorities, would then still see the UK politicians and UK media pass the buck onto the Scottish government as far as blame was concerned, that is if anything went wrong.
Burnham can take his devolution ideas for Scotland back to one of his two English No 10’s , Manchester or London, and shove them ‘you know where’, because no voter in Scotland has voted for either him nor his party as the UK government to ride roughshod over Scotland’s devolution.
Liz S
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If Burnham is so keen on Devolution of Power , let Holyrood follow his example . Whatever powers Westminster devolves to the regions of England then Holyrood will match this in Scotland .
Will Burnham devolve anything meaningful to a region of England ? Don’t hold your breath !
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