(c) Russel Gunson

In a piece by Tom Gordon, Scottish Political Editor, headlined ‘SNP income tax hikes only delay “deep cuts” for a year’, we read:

‘The income tax hikes in the SNP’s Budget have merely deferred “deep public spending cuts” for a year, and more tax rises may yet be needed, a leading think tank has warned. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said the £164m of extra income tax due to be raised in 2018/19 was not enough to avoid even tougher decisions in 12 months’ time.’

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15778638.SNP_income_tax_hikes_only_delay__quot_deep_cuts_quot__for_a_year/

Of course, there was no praise for the Scottish Government’s efforts, once more, to make this a better country or any sign that Tom had read AL Kennedy’s fine piece of writing in the National, describing the alternative scenario in England:

‘England has swallowed the agenda of tax cuts and austerity and the comfort of the one per cent much more wholeheartedly. The poor are crushed more easily and blamed more loudly, racism is more easily enabled and the ‘comfortable’ classes pay more for everything – schooling, healthcare, transport, utilities, you name it. And, of course, the cliff-edge gets nearer for everyone.’

No, Tom relied on the ‘leading think tank’ the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and its Scottish Director, Russell Gunson. Back in 2015, when he was appointed, the Herald headlined: ‘Leading left-wing think tank appoints first Scottish director’

Then they wrote: ‘One of the UK’s leading centre-left think tanks has appointed its first director in Scotland.‘

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13628537.Leading_left_wing_think_tank_appoints_first_Scottish_director/

I’d say there is a clear difference between the two terms but having read their stuff over the years I’d go for centre-right. However, let’s see how reliable and independent the IPPR and Russel are.

Back in 2014 we could read:

‘The Charity Commission has concluded that the charitable think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research “exposed itself to the perception that it supported the development of Labour Party policy” when it launched a document earlier this year.’

https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/ippr-think-tank-exposed-itself-perception-support-labour-its-report-social-renewal/governance/article/1326918

Remember this was the pre-Corbyn, centre-right New Labour Party being referred to.

Moving on to Russel Gunson, see this from the Scotsman in 2007:

‘Two parliamentary researchers, Kezia Dugdale, who works for the Labour MSP Lord Foulkes, and Russell Gunson, who works for fellow MSP Claire Baker, were seconded to Ms Alexander’s office last night to replace Mr Marr on a temporary basis before a permanent replacement can be found.  Mr Marr’s departure followed the exit of Brian Lironi, who quit after apparently finding it difficult to work for the Scottish Labour leader. A party spokesman said two new spin doctors would be appointed by the end of the year, in place of Mr Lironi, and it was hoped to replace Mr Marr soon after that.’

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/labour-rushes-to-plug-gap-left-by-sudden-exit-of-wendy-alexander-s-second-top-spin-doctor-1-700634

Russel clearly has a long association with the Labour Party, not mentioned on the IPPR site or anywhere else, and even spent some time in the jungle (😉) of Labour Party politics as stand-in spin doctor with Kez. I smell a rat, like the ones we saw all over Kez’s face a few weeks ago. Actually, it’s probably Lord Foulkes I smell.

And, it’s clearly not over, see this Dugdale email only a year ago:

LabourList Daily Email

Everything Labour. Every weekday morning.

Post Tagged with: “Russell Gunson”

7th December, 2016 10:25 am

Kezia Dugdale: Tory Brexit gamble has not paid off – and it has held back healing the divisions of the Scotland referendum

https://labourlist.org/tag/russell-gunson/

Next time you see the IPPR (Scotland) called ‘a leading think tank’, in an attack on the SNP, remember this.

(c) parentclub.scot

Here’s the Herald’s headline today for an ‘exclusive’ piece by Tom Gordon, Scottish Political Editor, on the results of the evaluation of the Baby Box:

‘Parents snub the box part of SNP’s baby box’

Here’s what an accurate headline by a responsible professional news agency should have looked like:

‘100% of parents satisfied with Baby Box and contents’

The Baby Box, you’ll remember is just one of the humane acts, typical of the SNP administration, which I’ve covered here – free care for the elderly and the disabled, free HE tuition, compensation for the bedroom tax phases 1 and 2, free sanitary products in schools and colleges, bus passes – this is a government for the people. See this recent piece for more detail:

58 000 baby boxes to help increase life chances and now Scotland will be the first country in the world to provide free sanitary products to ‘end period poverty’. This is the kind of country I want to live in.

How did the Herald get their mean little headline? Here are the actual evaluation results:

‘Research into parents’ views on the Scotland’s Baby Box shows 100% are either satisfied or very satisfied with the overall quality of the contents. Ninety-nine per cent of parents are also either satisfied or very satisfied with the range of items, the design of the box and delivery arrangements.

Other key findings show:

• Contents were all very highly rated – most popular items were the bathroom/room thermometer (32% said it was most useful item), ear thermometer (22%) and sling (15%)
• When asked spontaneously what was missing most parents (69%) could not think of any suggestions. The most common request (made by 10%) was for new-born nappies to be included
• The most popular idea for inclusion when prompted was a second sheet for the mattress (67% said this would be very or quite useful)
• The majority of parents (62%) had used or planned to use the box as a bed. The main reason given for not using the box as a sleeping space was that parents had  already purchased an alternative or received one as a gift (86%)
• Most parents had read all of the information included. The two most popular inclusions were a poem for your wee one (97% said they had read or planned to read) and information on safe sleeping (93%).’

https://news.gov.scot/news/ticking-all-the-right-boxes

See it? 62% had used or planned to use the box as a bed so that means 38% must have ‘snubbed’ it. No evidence for the choice of word ‘snubbed’ is offered nor is the key piece of information, that they already had an alternative, considered.

The Herald headline is beyond contempt but still a useful reminder that you should never be tempted to buy a copy again. May they sink and sooner than later.

In July, I was able to write:

‘Around 7 000 Syrian refugees have been settled across the UK yet a disproportionate 1 800 or nearly 25% have been welcomed to Scotland. The Syrian war and refugee flood has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II so the UK intake is frankly pathetic. Scotland’s greater hospitality, looks to me like just another example of the many ways in which we are different enough from England to be seen as a different country and logically an independent one. I know it’s only 1 800 and we should get carried away with ourselves.’

Scotland takes nearly 26% of Syrian refugees settled in UK with only 8% of the UK population

You might like to read a longer piece I wrote last year on the wider context of the issue at:

http://indyref2.scot/why-scotlands-welcome-for-1000-syrian-refugees-should-be-a-matter-for-pride-but-still-kept-in-context

The target of resettling 2 000 refugees has now been met three years early. I take a little pride in this, nevertheless.

http://thenational.scot/news/15777029.AL_Kennedy__Scotland_s_new_tax_set_up_is_a_beacon_for_the_broken_UK/

She puts it better than I could

(c) Pinterest

‘SNP slammed for ‘IGNORING’ Christmas in favour of Scots winter festivals. The SNP has been accused of undermining Christmas after spending millions of pounds promoting Scotland’s “winter festivals” while ignoring the biggest Christian celebration of the year.’

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/893291/SNP-ignore-christmas-Scotland-winter-festivals-promotion-Dr-Alasdair-Allan-Nicola-Sturgeon

The main target of the ‘slamming’ was international development minister, Dr Alasdair Allan, who it seems has launched a £390 000 campaign to attract tourist to ‘Scots winter festivals’ but has ignored Christmas in his programme. Could that be because Christmas in Scotland tends not to be any more attractive to tourists than it might be anywhere else and he’s going for the ones we do especially well like Hogmanay and Burns’ Night or as the Express has it, ‘Burns Night’.  That missing apostrophe matters. I don’t fancy a night in the Burns Unit at the local hospital.

Reading further, we see the ‘slamming’ came only from the Catholic Church who seem to represent around 9% of the population according to the recent ScotCen survey and shown in the graph below:

http://www.scotcen.org.uk/news-media/press-releases/2017/july/scots-with-no-religion-at-record-level/

The once mighty Kirk, which in the past condemned Christmas as a pagan festival, made no comment. Maybe they’re pleased or just too busy holding their collective breath as identification with it plummets to the same level as that of their once hated rivals.

Even more worrying for Christian groups, a Survation poll for the Humanist Society (Scotland) found that 72.4% of Scots said they were not religious while only 23.6% said they were. This is quite an increase from a similar poll in 2011 in which 56% said they were not religious and 35% said they were.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-41294688

I’m not following the Express, of course, but this story just popped up when I was searching for good news to report.

Footnote: I read somewhere, perhaps in an Angela Carter novel and not an academic source, that the original tree decorations in pre-Christian times were varied bits of meat including giblets, celebrating the fact that the tribe would survive the winter. Nice. Also, Santa flying through the sky on a sledge pulled by reindeer derives, it said, from the magic mushroom-induced trips of the local shaman.

Attendance at A&E departments in Scotland has increased by just under 10% since 2011. See this graph from page 54 at the link below:

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00529183.pdf

I can’t find an actual percentage number quoted for NHS Scotland. Between 2011 and 2017 attendance at NHS England A&E departments had gone up by 8.8% so, being generous, it’s fair to say both NHS England and Scotland have had very similar increases in demand over the last six years.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/urgent-emergency-care/urgent-and-emergency-care-mythbusters

Despite this increase, NHS Scotland’s A&E departments have outperformed England’s Type 1 A&E departments* by just over 10% this November. Here are the figures for those treated within the 4-hour target.

NHS England   83%

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2017-18/

NHS Scotland   93.075%

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Emergency-Care/Publications/index.asp

*Only NHS England Type 1 A&E departments (with consultants) are comparable to the Scottish ones.

Further, this gap is now longstanding. See this Scottish Parliament question and answer:

Question S5W-12886: Jamie Greene, West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, Date Lodged: 21/11/2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it will address A&E waiting times, in light of reports from NHS Scotland that almost 800 people faced long delays in September 2017, an increase of 42% from the previous year.
Answered by Shona Robison (06/12/2017):

The Scottish Government National Unscheduled Care Team is working with hospitals across Scotland to minimise unnecessary long delays in A&E departments and deliver safe, person centred and effective care to every patient, every time through the six essential action improvement programme.

Scotland has outperformed the rest of the UK in terms of performance against the four hour A&E target for more than two and a half years and has the lowest rate of long (12 hour) delays in the UK. Figures released this week (5 December) show that the number of patients delayed more than 8 and 12 hours in October 2017 has reduced compared to the previous month (September 2017) and has also reduced by more than 10% and almost 50% respectively compared to the equivalent period the previous year; the number of patients waiting over 12 hours in October 2017 was the lowest in any October since 2013.

However, we recognise that more needs to be done to sustainably improve performance especially as we go in to the winter period, which is why we have put record investment and increased levels of staffing into hospitals to further reduce waits in A&E departments. I recently announced an additional £5million to support winter resilience this year, over and above the £9 million, announced in May 2017, to support unscheduled care – total of £14 million for winter 2017.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 06/12/2017

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5W-12886&ResultsPerPage=10

Already, the English media are warning of a winter crisis comparable to last year’s ‘humanitarian crisis’. See, for example:

Hospitals attack ‘barking mad’ NHS target to manage winter crisis …

https://www.theguardian.com › Society › NHS

18 Nov 2017 – Official edicts to banish long trolley waits and treatment in corridors are deluded, say trusts.

NHS faces even worse winter crisis than last year, watchdog warns …

https://www.theguardian.com › Society › NHS

16 Nov 2017 – NHS Improvement says failure of hospitals to free up beds means it will struggle to cope with busiest months of the year.

NHS England accused of hiding hospitals’ winter crisis alert figures …

https://www.theguardian.com › Society › Hospitals

7 Dec 2017 – NHS bosses have been accused of unacceptable secrecy after deciding no longer to reveal how many hospitals come under such pressure during winter that they have to declare an alert. NHS England will not publish this winter’s figures for the number of trusts forced to issue an …

____________________________________________________________________________________

Scotland’s 95% Unionist media seem awful quiet. Are they scared of making a fool of themselves again?

 

According to the Oil & Gas Authority, reported in Energy Voice, today, North Sea producers have been able to cut their costs by 14% to around $12 per barrel. Between 2014 and 2016, costs fell by 25%. We heard in September, BP CEO Bob Dudley say:

‘This focus on standardization, simplification and discipline on cost has contributed to our average production costs in the North Sea coming down from a peak of over $30 a barrel in 2014, to less than $15 a barrel today. Heading towards 2020, with all our major new developments coming into production, we expect that to come down below $12 a barrel in the North Sea.’

See this for more detail:

North Sea oil companies making $40 profit on every barrel and costs are still falling!

The scope for raising revenue from this level of profitability is clear yet the UK government seems inexplicably hesitant to tax the oil companies. It’s hard to find any other plausible explanation other than that offered in 2016 by the International Transport Workers’ Federation and reported in Tax Justice:

‘New analysis of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas suggests that the combination of tax giveaways by the government, and aggressive avoidance by multinationals, means that the country may actually be subsidising the extraction of its natural resources. A new report published today by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) sets out a series of shocking statistics on the UK’s failure to obtain an appropriate share of its own resource wealth. Among them, these stand out:

• In 2014, UK consumers paid 6 times more tax on petrol, excluding VAT, than the North Sea oil and gas industry paid on all taxes related to production.
• Chevron’s effective tax rate in 2014 on earnings from North Sea production was 5.4%; statutory tax rates (of various types) on oil and gas should have totalled 61-82%.
• In 2014, 3 (Shell, BP & Total) of the top 4 North Sea producers produced more than £4.3 billion worth of oil and gas and received over £300 million in net tax refunds.

The ITF argue that while the oil sector has successfully lobbied for and won huge tax breaks from the UK government, the companies involved continued to pursue aggressive tax avoidance as standard practice. The Chevron report (see graphic for UK structure, click to enlarge) provides a detailed case study of tax dodging tactics which are replicated by others, particularly Nexen – on which the Times had a frontpage splash yesterday, using ITF analysis to show that the Chinese government-backed company received tax credits of £2 billion.’

http://www.taxjustice.net/2016/08/25/uks-north-sea-oil-revenues-giving-away/

A fuller account is here:

Why were tens of billions in oil revenues lost by UK government? Would they have made Scotland seem too wealthy in September 2014?

Is this a scandalous strategy, still there three years later, to undermine the Independence movement at any cost?

https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/north-sea/158928/north-sea-operating-costs-drop-14-oga-says/

 

(c) sanctuary-scotland.co.uk

We often read of new projects to build more affordable homes in parts of Scotland. Sometimes the reports mention the major share of the cost coming from the Scottish Government. Sometimes they don’t. The anti-independence stance of writers or the news agency they work for may explain these omissions. See this example:

East Renfrewshire Council forgets to credit Scottish Government funding for affordable housing

 See this summary of the key points, in the Scottish budget regarding housing, from Scottish Housing News:

‘A £756 million contribution to the Scottish Government’s target of delivering 50,000 affordable homes by 2021 and an increase of £138.9m for the More Homes Programme were amongst the investment plans set out in the 2018-19 Draft Budget by finance secretary Derek Mackay.

Publishing the Draft Budget to parliament yesterday, Mr Mackay set out a programme that will also:

• Deliver a local government finance settlement worth more than £10.5 billion
• Allocate over £4bn of funding for infrastructure, including £1.2bn in transport infrastructure for key road projects and further electrification of the rail network etc
• Deliver £600m to ensure every home and business will have access to superfast broadband by 2021
• Deliver the first £70m of a new £150m Building Scotland Fund
• Set aside £340m for initial capitalisation of the Scottish National Investment Bank
• Invest £60m in Low Carbon Innovation Fund to deliver innovative low carbon energy infrastructure solutions including for electric vehicles
• Drive regional economic growth by more than doubling investment in city region deals.’

http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/18977/budget-housing-investment-measures-welcomed-across-the-sector/

Regular readers will know that this contribution by the Scottish Government needs to be contextualised against the neglect of the Tory Government in England. See these recent reports:

Scottish Government increases supply of affordable housing and builds at more, perhaps much more, than twice the rate as in England

I know the English Tories have been panicked into doing something about housing but there are serious doubts as whether the poor will actually be able to access much of it. See:

https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2017/dec/08/welsh-lesson-housing-crisis-english-problem

 

In an effort to protect NHS and other services, the Scottish Government has used its new powers to vary income tax rates from those in the rest of the UK. The changes are fairly restrained but make sense as another move toward a more equal society. They are expected to raise an extra £164 million to offset cuts to the block grant from Westminster.

Here are the new rates and bands:

A Starter Rate of 19%	Over £11,850 – £13,850
The Scottish Basic Rate of 20%	Over £13,850 – £24,000
An Intermediate Rate of 21%	Over £24,000 – £44,273
A Higher Rate of 41%	Over £44,273 – £150,000
A Top Rate of 46%	Above £150,000

The effect of these changes, along with the increases in personal allowances, means that no one earning £33 000 pa will pay more tax and 55% will pay less than in the rest of the UK. Those earning more than £44 273 and less than £150 00 will pay around £10 more per week. The very small number of those earning more than £150 000 per year will pay more but less than us old lefties would have wanted.

Also included in the budget is a 3% rise for public sector workers earning less than £30 000 pa, a 2% rise for those earning £30 000 or more and cap of £1 600 on those earning £80 000 or more.

https://news.gov.scot/news/most-taxpayers-to-pay-less-than-rest-of-uk

It might not seem much to some readers but it’s another sign that we’re are drifting ever further from the UK as the SNP administration works carefully and within the constraints of devolution to make this a better country. See these earlier signs:

Scottish Government ‘tacks to the left’ as it taxes private schools

Who said Scots were not more left-wing than those in the rest of the UK?

Scotland has lower poverty rates than England: JRF Excerpt 1

Scottish Government continues to fight brutal Westminster austerity politics

Could Scotland end homelessness?

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

If the above list is not long enough, search my blog for the word ‘different’ and you’ll get many more.

Footnote: From the New statesman today:

‘Lastly, the SNP have made the breach with the UK tax system, driving a gentle wedge between Scotland and the rest of the country which is only likely to grow with time. They have emphasised their progressive credentials against a Tory Westminster government that is still pursuing a strict fiscal policy and putting Brexit before all else. It is all very clever, politically. The economic consequences remain to be seen. So, attacked from left and right, Mr Mackay will feel he is sitting in roughly the right place. Nicola Sturgeon’s broad smile as he finished his statement suggests she feels the same

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/scotland/2017/12/snp-s-tax-tinkering-drives-wedge-between-scotland-and-tory-government

 

(c) aschome.com

An autoclave is kind of pressurised oven, typically used to manufacture wings or wind turbine blades. They’re expensive ($4 million each) and slow. Here’s why they are typically used:

‘The use of carbon fibre reinforced composites for aerospace structures has seen a high increase in recent years, and is still growing. The high stiffness-to-weight ratio of these materials makes them ideal for primary structures on airplanes, satellites, and spacecrafts. Nevertheless, the manufacturing of composites remains very costly since it requires equipment investment such as an autoclave, and very qualified workers.‘

http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs=1513262851605~199

However, a Prestwick-based consortium of Spirit AeroSystems, the University of Strathclyde and CENSIS, the Scottish Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems has developed a cheaper and faster method where the autoclave is dispensed with and replaced by a specialised ‘intelligent’ heating tool. The new process maty reduce costs by 50% and time taken by 40%. Here’s an extract from the report in the Scottish Business News Network:

‘In an industrial context, autoclaves are vessels used to process materials in a mould at high pressures and temperatures. They typically “cure” high-performance components, placing the part in a vacuum within an autoclave and then applying a combination of pressure and heat during a pre-determined cycle – typically two hours at the cure temperature. The result is a high-strength, lightweight component for use in a range of high-value manufacturing sectors, predominantly aerospace. Normally, these parts are cured for a standard period of time, at a set temperature, regardless of how they are responding to the curing process. The consortium in Prestwick has improved on this by creating a tool that removes the need for an autoclave, which typically represents around US$4 million in upfront capital expenditure, while allowing users to monitor and match a cure cycle to a component’s geometric characteristics and how it is reacting to the process.’

https://sbnn.co.uk/2017/12/14/consortium-discovers-new-cure-high-value-autoclave-manufacturing/

This is another first for Scotland in recent months. See also:

MAJOR NEWS: World’s first tidal-powered hydrogen generated in Scotland after £3 million funding from SNP Government

A world first for Scotland’s renewable energy industry. Neither Queen nor Prince Charles to open it due to fear of deep water.

Scottish research first to identify ways of reducing cattle-fart with view to saving the planet