Views from an Island

  Scotland could reach a net zero target for CO2 output quite easily. That of course is predicated on becoming Independent for the simple reason that virtually all energy powers are reserved to Westminster. Until then we will be dragged along in the slipstream of the UK Government whose agenda is generally not what it seems. As always the prerogative is to firstly serve their financial masters in ‘the City’ and to help the elites remain elite. Serving the public comes quite a long way down the list of priorities and climate change is only interesting insofar as it may provide new ways of hoodwinking and exploiting the population. That is why they work so hard at ‘guilt tripping’ the public. When we are suitably guilty and ashamed and have become dizzy with different accusations it becomes easier to pick our pockets. Climate change they say is all our fault, the fault of the public, the fault of each of us as individuals. Likewise the damage to the global ecosystem, loss of spec...

  Dear Pippa                                                 18 th February 2020 Firstly I must congratulate you on your promotion and wish you every success in your new position. You may know that I am a long term resident of Easdale island. I feel compelled to write to you today to draw your attention to the problems being experienced with the Easdale ferry service. You may not realise that we have had no ferry service yesterday or today. I suggest this because it has been reported by BBC that according to a Council spokesperson,    ‘the Council had a "stand-in" boat to take people to and from the island while Easdale's ferry service is suspended’ and that, ‘Arrangements have also been made with a local boat owner to put a lan...

  Argyll and Bute Council have launched their bid to have Oban granted city status and it seems that local opinion is divided over this. I must admit that initially I was unsure about whether this would be desirable or not. I think back to the Oban of my childhood and my teens, a bustling, busy, fun filled town. I have summer evening memories of pipe bands marching down George Street while farmers struggled to recapture escaped beasts heading for the mart, and tourists thronged, engaged in the sights and the sounds and smells of a busy rural seaport, replete with   ferries and fishing boats and fishermen landing catches and mending nets. The old station lent a Victorian grandeur to the vista and provided a sheltered meeting place. The replacement is an anodyne brick built station that would be more comfortably at home in Cumbernauld and nearby, lending added local colour and culture, is a branch of “Tesco’s by the sea” that has pretty much extinguished every small business...

  The Scourge of Fuel Poverty A friend got in touch as a result of my recent postings on home energy efficiency. He is a pensioner who lives on an island in a recently built and well insulated ‘eco flat’ owned by a housing association. In common with most of Scotland’s islands mains gas isn’t available and so his flat has electric heating. As an environmentally conscious citizen he had signed up to an energy supplier who provided all their electricity from renewable sources. As a consequence of the huge differential in price between natural gas and electricity ( electricity is approximately 5 times more expensive per kWh than gas ), despite living in a modern, well insulated and fairly small flat he was suffering from fuel poverty. The definition of fuel poverty was changed a few years ago but it roughly equates to spending more than 10% of your income on fuel. Scotland suffers significantly more from fuel poverty than the rest of the UK by virtue of its harsher climate and g...

  When Alex Salmond said in 2011 that “Scotland had won the energy lottery, not once but twice”, and that Scotland was set to become “the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy”   he was absolutely correct. We won this geological and geographic lottery firstly with the discovery of oil and now we have won it again with 25% of Europe’s wind and tidal energy opportunity and 10% of its wave energy resource. In the modern world energy is the king of all commodities. That is why oil was often referred to as black gold. Shortly after Scotland’s oil reserves were discovered, Scottish Office economist professor Gavin McCrone suggested that an Independent Scotland would have “a chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree and its currency would become the hardest in Europe" . What was true of oil back then is equally true of renewable energy now. More so in fact, as was delightfully and ironically highlighted a few years ago by the hapless UKIP candidate who publicly asked the question...

  It is deeply disappointing to learn that CMAL has effectively cut Ferguson Marine out of the tendering process for its next ferry orders. That they have done so with the tacit approval of the Scottish Government is perplexing. Why would you nationalise a shipyard and then place obstacles in the way of its success? The Scottish Government has apparently done this on the basis that Ferguson Marine cannot be allowed to compete for new work until it has finished the contract for the controversial two ferries currently under construction. They can’t tender for new orders until the yard ‘has got its act together’! This might sound reasonable but it is actually very punitive and will go a long way towards preventing the yard becoming succesful. Fergusons Marine has gone into liquidation, it’s former owner has gone and the senior management has been replaced by a so called ‘turnaround manager’ earning around £1 million per annum. The Scottish Government needs to show faith in its own...

  I have a confession to make.   I like the Green MSP Alison Johnstone. In fact I grew quite fond of her when we served together on the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Energy and Tourism committee. She is warm hearted, smart and sensible and has a willingness to make compromises. I think she will make a good Presiding Officer. I say this despite her decision along with the SPCB ( Scottish Parliament Corporate Body ) to pursue the matter of banning demonstrations from the grounds of the Parliament. They say it is only some demonstrations that will be banned, but which ones? and who gets to decide which will be banned and which not? Over five years in Parliament I never once saw a demonstration that was a problem, including the independence campaigners who decided to camp there for a considerable period. They were entirely inoffensive and in no way interfered with the business of the Parliament. Their only crime, I believe, was to offend the prissy sense of propriety that...