Talking-up Scotland

(c) SDI

From Scottish Business News Network yesterday:

‘Scotland’s capital city is the best place for tech companies looking to scale up, access funding, and do business in, according to a new Government backed report examining the UK’s tech landscape. Edinburgh tech companies responded with the highest approval rating in the UK when asked to assess how good their city was for ‘doing business’ – a combination of sub factors including access to finance and talent – as part of The Tech Nation 2018 Report – an annual series that captures the strength, depth and breadth of digital tech activity in the UK which employs over one million people. Edinburgh was also voted “World’s best city for millennials to move to” earlier this year by Deustche Bank.’

https://sbnn.co.uk/2018/06/24/edinburgh-reported-as-the-best-place-for-tech-in-uk/

Any other examples of good news about Edinburgh? Just a few:

Edinburgh poised to make significant advances in mental health research based upon data science ‘unparalleled in UK’.

‘Edinburgh tops list of most influential small cities in Europe’

‘Edinburgh among the best for equality’

Best UK city for inward investment is Edinburgh

More bad news for Ruth and Kezia: ‘Edinburgh is most active UK city for innovation outside London’

‘Staggering’ 175% increase in Edinburgh office take-up is further evidence of booming Scottish economy

Can Edinburgh’s high-tech expertise steal some of London’s financial business post-Brexit?

 

 

 

 I’ve spoken to my family and we’re all calling for Miles Briggs to be ignored by the Scotsman. This means that four times as many people have called for the Scotsman not to use Miles Briggs as have called for a review of NHS Scotland patient transport services.

Under the headline, ‘Anger over £15m spent by Scots NHS on taxi journeys’, the Scotsman wrote: ‘There are now calls for a review of patient transport services across Scotland amid opposition claims that some of the cash could be better spent on patient care’ but read the article and you find that the only call and the only claim is just the one by Miles. I guess only Miles was angry about it too. However, we find out below, that his anger may have been about the fact that the cost of using taxis had actually fallen, last year, robbing him of his story.

I’m angry too. The Scotsman has done the usual cheap tabloid trick of using figures for three years but implying that they are for just one to get a bigger more dramatic figure. Only £4.7 million was used on taxis in 2017/18, or 0.036% of the total £13 billion NHS budget. That represented a fall of £0.7 million or roughly 14%. So, the trend is steeply down but the story needed to big it up?

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/anger-over-15m-spent-by-scots-nhs-on-taxi-journeys-1-4759157

Finally, doesn’t Miles realise that Tories approve of big taxi fares? See this:

‘A knighted Tory landowner charged taxpayers £163 for a night in a luxury hotel and £113 for a taxi ride to an airport, the latest MSPs’ expenses returns has revealed.  Sir Jamie McGrigor, former Conservative MSP, for Highlands and Islands, claimed a total of £680 for a trip to Norway in May 2015, final-year expenses for 2015/16 shows. ‘

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14759013.MSP_claimed_expenses_for___113_taxi_ride_which_would_have_cost___8_50_on_train/

and this:

‘Conservative MPs have been told they can take night-time taxis to anywhere in London and book hotels for up to £150, even if they have spent the evening in the Commons bar. MPs are likely to spend much of the autumn in late-night votes, with the Tories expecting that Labour will force all-night sittings before the end of the year as parliament begins key debates on Brexit.’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tories-on-war-footing-for-late-votes-20s357wl8

Why ‘even’ if they’ve been in the bar all night? Surely, they will have been?

The Conservative Party – Miles by taxi!

 

(c) North Dakota Department of Health

Though shale oil fracking is effectively banned in Scotland and in many parts of the world, it is currently a major factor in holding down the value of crude oil. However, in contrast to the 30-year life expectancy of the North Sea and West of Shetland, it’s life expectancy is likely to be short due to five major problems – worker safety risks due to sand, lack of sand, lack of water, lack of pipelines and lack of shale oil itself.

Too much sand…..for the workers

Safety fears for those living near fracking sites have resulted in widespread bans in several US states and in many parts of Europe but, crucially, these bans have left too many gaps where fracking continues. However, more recently, health risks for workers are becoming more apparent and may lead to wider problems for the industry. See this from Oil & Gas People:

‘New research from the digital campaign group 38 Degrees says that fracking workers can be exposed to toxic chemicals. One is benzene, which the American Cancer Society links to leukaemia. If silica dust from the sand used in the fracking process is inhaled it can damage lungs and in the long term cause silicosis. The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health concluded there was “an inhalation health hazard” for fracking workers. Researchers from the University of Missouri examined more than 150 studies on the health effects of fracking chemicals. They concluded that there was “evidence to suggest there is cause for concern for human health.”’

https://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/14308/fracking-makes-workers-sick/

This is, of course, the weakest of the threats to shale oil fracking. History tells us that workers, unions and employers will find a way to manage these risks so that profits flow and jobs are protected even at the cost of shortened and reduced lives for many workers. Safety procedures will be introduced, media representation of the risks controlled, compensation paid to families and the true scale of the damage kept hidden until the profits have been moved safely offshore or into hidden bank accounts. We’ve seen the pattern with Asbestos and contemporary European industries use 30 million tonnes of carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic substances annually. Typically, around 25% of the population is exposed to these (https://oshwiki.eu/wiki/Carcinogenic,_mutagenic,_reprotoxic_(CMR)_substances).

Lack of sand

You might know that desert sand is useless for construction. Dubai was built with imported sand! You might also know that fracking requires vast quantities of ‘frac sand’ to be pumped along with other materials into wells to break up shale rock and produce oil. Fracking needs a small uniform round form of sand that is not common, is rarely found anywhere near the oil basins, and it’s running out fast. Already, costs are climbing to levels that could easily send fracking from boom to bust even before the oil runs out:

‘I think people are looking at the potential demand numbers, and, for the first time, people are scared that there will not be enough sand to meet the demand…… The increased demand will push sand prices up by 60 percent, hitting the $40 per ton range over the next 18 months…..the real concern is the logistical challenges that come with moving high volumes of sand. Some producers are using a unit train – roughly 75 or more rail cars in a line – on each well…that presents some significant logistical challenges that could hamper production.’

http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-forecasts-sand-demand-growth-2014-9?IR=T

Lack of water

Even back in 2013 water shortages for fracking were being predicted. See this:

‘The process of hyraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract oil from shale rock might have a looming problem — and it’s not the ongoing efforts by some to stop what they believe to be a harmful practice to the environment, although some studies counter these claims. It’s a water shortage. A report published by Ceres, a network of investors, companies and public interest groups focusing on sustainable business practices, said that nearly 47 percent of the 25,450 fracking wells evaluated were in areas experiencing high or extremely high water stress.’

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2013/05/02/fracking-might-have-a-new-water-problem-and-its-not-pollution

Lack of pipelines

As you might expect in a country wedded to the idea of unconstrained free markets, not enough is being spent centrally on the US infrastructure required to enable the fracking companies to get their product to consumers or to ports where it can be exported to places like, of course, Grangemouth. See this:

‘The biggest U.S. shale region will have to shut wells within four months because there aren’t enough pipelines to get the oil to customers, the head of one of the industry’s largest producers said. The worsening bottleneck in the Permian region that straddles west Texas and New Mexico offers an unexpected fillip to OPEC and other oil producers outside the U.S., who’ve seen rampant production from America’s shale producers grab market share. “We will reach capacity in the next 3 to 4 months,” Scott Sheffield, the chairman of Pioneer Natural Resources said in an interview at an OPEC conference in Vienna. “Some companies will have to shut in production, some companies will move rigs away, and some companies will be able to continue growing because they have firm transportation.”’

https://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/16821/shale-giant-says-permian-oil-faces-shut-ins-on-pipe-shortage/

Lack of shale oil

Finally, there’s this prediction from February 2017:

‘Shale’s best days are coming to an end. U.S. shale oil production, which reshaped the global energy equation, will begin to wane in less than a decade as reserves are drawn down and well output decreases, the Energy Department reported.’

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Shale-s-best-days-are-coming-to-an-end-10942307.php

So, even if the workers are bribed, the sand is found, and the pipelines expanded, the shale oil itself will run out long before Scotland’s North Sea or West of Shetland supplies do.

 

(c) cnbc

I know higher oil prices mean it costs more to fill your car’s tank. I know, also, that many of you would rather see a green future for Scotland. However, in the battle for independence a strong Scottish oil and gas industry remains a very useful card to hold.

For more than a year now, oil industry insiders have been predicting a return to $100 per barrel. I’ve reported on four earlier predictions here:

First in January 2018, we read from the Chief of Aramco:

‘Global demand for crude oil is likely to grow for at least the next 10 years. This is because economic growth in emerging economies including China and India will spur demand in sectors such as transportation and chemicals. Although some believe that the demand for oil will decrease due to the spread of electric vehicles, it will take a considerable amount of time to be fully implemented. One of the major challenges is the high costs of setting up necessary infrastructure such as charging stations.’

Second, also in January, in Oil and Gas People, Takayuki Nogami, a chief economist of the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, predicted growing demand and the possibility of prices rising to $100 per barrel.

https://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/15881/crude-oil-demand-will-grow-for-next-10-years/

 

Third and still in January, we had London-based consultancy, Energy Aspects predicting, in Energy Voice, that Brent prices will rise above £100 next year:

‘A slump in new production outside the U.S. shale patch in 2019 could help to send Brent crude briefly back above $100 a barrel next year, according to London-based consultancy Energy Aspects.’

https://www.energyvoice.com/opinion/161520/oils-rout-hail-return-100-crude-maybe/

A fourth prediction arrived in May from the Bank of America via CNN:

‘The bank’s analysts wrote Thursday that collapsing oil production in Venezuela and potential export disruptions in Iran could push the price of Brent crude as high as $100 per barrel in 2019……  At the same time, the analysts said the global economy is growing at a healthy pace and supporting higher demand for oil. The extra demand is helping to wipe out an oil glut that has plagued markets.’

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/10/investing/100-oil-iran-trump-bank-of-america/index.html

Fifth, on the 22^nd June 2018 in Oil & Gas People:

 

‘If OPEC and its allies don’t increase production, oil prices could rise above $100/bbl, said Pioneer Natural Resources Co. Chairman Scott Sheffield.’

https://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/16829/pioneer-sees-oil-at-100-if-theres-no-supply-boost/

 

How much could we earn at $100 per barrel?

Remember the OBR, a George Osborne creation, regularly forecast doom and despair for an independent Scotland back in 2014. These same forecasts were widely and gleefully used by our Unionist media. Here’s how Energy Voice reported the story in March:

‘A new (OBR) report predicts UK oil and gas revenues will be £400million higher every year from now until 2023 – in the latest sign that the North Sea is on the mend. In its fiscal and economic outlook, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said its revenue forecast had been revised upwards due to higher oil prices, increased production and lower costs. The Oil and Gas Authority recently lifted its long-term forecast for North Sea production by 2.8billion barrels of oil equivalent to 11.7billion barrels.’

They then predict tax revenues of £1 billion for each of the next five years.

https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/north-sea/166095/obr-pushes-north-sea-revenue-projections/

Only £1 billion? Nuts!

Here’s how I do the sums:

11.7 billion barrels at $100 per barrel equals total revenue of $1.1 trillion! Production costs estimated by the BP chief, last year, to be no more than $15 per barrel equal $175 billion. So that’s $925 billion or £697 billion, in profit, before wages and shared dividends yet the OBR thinks we only get £5 billion in tax revenue for the first five years. So that would be £34 billion by 2050. Isn’t that a bit low? UK corporation tax at 20% would give us more than £140 billion. What’s going on here?

Finally, there have been new discoveries since then and there will be, no doubt, more in the years to come.

Let’s not throw this away a second time. Westmonster will just use it to cover the costs of Brexit.

From the Canary, yesterday:

‘On 18 June, two Conservative politicians were convicted of child sexual abuse. The jury at Swansea Crown Court found former mayor for Pembroke David Boswell guilty of raping a girl under the age of 10. On the same day, former mayor of Godalming Simon Thornton pleaded guilty to more than 20 child sex offenses.’

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2018/06/20/in-under-24-hours-two-former-tory-mayors-are-convicted-of-horrific-crimes-against-children/

Thornton has been sentenced to nine years in prison and Boswell has been told to expect a lengthy sentence.

BBC News at 6 did not seem to cover the story at all. I checked on the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th June.

In sharp contrast, BBC Reporting Scotland, on the 21^st June, broadcast extended versions of this below, as their first headline story, nine times throughout the day:

‘An MSP faces being suspended from Holyrood for a month after he was found guilty of sexual harassment. Mark McDonald resigned as early years minister in November 2017 after he sent an “inappropriate” text message to a woman. He later quit the SNP. The Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life concluded that the case amounted to sexual harassment. Holyrood’s standards committee has now recommended Mr McDonald be suspended without pay for a month.’

McDonald’s text message is below:

Remember McDonald carried out no physical abusive act, made no actual threats of an abusive act, was not charged by the police and has been merely suspended for one month yet the case received heavy media attention. The two Tories committed appalling crimes against children, but the BBC apparently saw little public interest in the story.

The Reporting Scotland coverage can only characterised as disproportionate and evidence of a sustained and ingrained anti-SNP agenda in Pacific Quay.

COMPLAINT SENT in this shorter form to meet BBC word limit:

BBC Scotland News, on the 21^st June, broadcast reports on the case of suspended SNP MSP Mark McDonald, as their first headline story, nine times throughout the day. McDonald had sent a text (see below), carried out no physical abusive act, made no actual threats of an abusive act, was not charged by the police and had been merely suspended for one month yet the case received this disproportionate attention. Evidencing that this was disproportionate, excessive, coverage was BBC at 6’s complete disregard for the story of two Conservative politicians who were convicted of serious child sexual abuse on the 18^th June 2018. The jury at Swansea Crown Court found former mayor for Pembroke David Boswell guilty of raping a girl under the age of 10. On the same day, former mayor of Godalming Simon Thornton pleaded guilty to more than 20 child sex offenses.’. So, thinking back to the details of the McDonald case, headlined nine times across the day, the story of two Tories committing appalling crimes against children was not reported on the 18^th, 19^th or 20^th June 2018. Remember, McDonald committed no criminal act, receiving only an internal suspension from his place of work while the two Tories have been sentenced to nine years in prison. The full text sent by McDonald is: ‘Cutting me deep. That’s twice you’ve dingyed (ignored) me now. Twice. It’s ok tho I understand (3 crying emojis). My phone wanted to autocorrect dingyed to fingered there. Which I’m so glad I noticed before I sent that message.’

 

 

 

(c) news-watch

I passed my complaint, twice rejected by BBC Scotland, to the Executive Complaints Unit and they seem to be taking it seriously. See:

_____________________________________

British Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast Centre, BC2 B4, 201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TP
Telephone: 020 8743 8000 Email: ecu@bbc.co.uk

Executive Complaints Unit

Professor John Robertson
Email : jupitergreen61@gmail.com

Ref: CAS-4971978 & CAS-4972768

21 June 2018
Dear Professor Robertson
Reporting Scotland , BBC One and Good Morning Scotland , Radio Scotland
26 May,2018
Thank you for your email of 20 June regarding reports in Reporting Scotland and
Good Morning Scotland.
As you know, the BBC Complaints Team has informed you it does not intend to
respond further to your complaint. My role is to decide whether you received a
reasonable response to your original concerns and whether my colleagues were right
not to take the issue any further. This is in line with the BBC Complaints Framework
and Procedures1 which sets out the process for handling complaints.
Your complaints related to two separate broadcasts on Radio Scotland and BBC One
Scotland but were combined as one complaint and responded to accordingly.
I have separated the two complaints and having carefully considered the
correspondence I have concluded that your complaint does in fact raise a substantive
issue and merits a further response. It will now be investigated by the Executive
Complaints; we will let you know our finding within twenty working days.

Yours sincerely

Jeremy Hayes
Complaints Director

_________________________________________________________________

The full complaint is here:

Retired Professor stumps BBC Scotland Acting Temporary Deputy Head of News, Current Affairs and Royal Babies on Obesity

From Insider today:

‘The number of jobs in the industry in Scotland hit 48,448 last year, up 8% on 2016. The three Scottish tech hubs of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee are singled out in the report. Together they contribute £2.4bn, or three-fifths, of Scotland’s total tech turnover. The tech sector in Scotland is worth £3.9bn with digital tech turnover per employee reaching £80,000, according to the report. The Tech Nation report said that Scotland’s capital is home to two of the UK’s best known unicorns – Skyscanner, bought by Ctrip of China in 2016, and gaming company, Fanduel.’

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/scotlands-tech-sector-booming-12752350

This news follows previous stories of tech-based success in the Scottish economy. See:

New technology start-ups in Scotland surge ahead of UK average by 18%

Glasgow’s lower costs and supply of technology graduates tempting financial services firms away from London

Scotland earns £2.5 billion from space technology in 2017

First Minister puts her opponents in the shade with £45million of extra funding to help Scotland lead technological change

Finally, what is a ‘unicorn’? See this from techworld:

‘In investor circles and the tech startup ecosystem, a unicorn is something very different. In the simplest terms a tech unicorn is a company that has been valued by investors at more than one billion dollars. The use of the term in relation to business was first made by venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013 and has become part of the lexicon for public and private investors, entrepreneurs and anyone working in the technology industry.’

https://www.techworld.com/startups/what-is-tech-unicorn-3638723/

So, unicorns mean massive wealth and economists like to use the bull and bear images to describe economic change. Now, I wonder, what would three lions mean? I’m guessing they warn of the danger in chasing rainbows over a cliff edge.

(c) wisetradesmen.com

From the Scottish Government site today:

‘Legislation to make sprinkler systems compulsory in new social housing is to be taken forward. Housing Minister Kevin Stewart confirmed that the Scottish Government will take forward David Stewart MSP’s proposal for a Members’ Bill to make it a legal requirement for all future new build social housing properties to be fitted with sprinkler systems.’

https://news.gov.scot/news/new-social-housing-safety

The situation in Scotland is already superior to that in England according to Ultrasafe.org:

‘Scotland is more advanced with its fire sprinkler legislation, which since 2005 has required sprinklers in all residential buildings including care homes, sheltered housing, school accommodation and high rises above 18m in height…… In England, only new residential properties above 30m in height must be fitted with sprinklers.’

http://www.ultrasafe.org.uk/faq/what-about-legislation-for-england-and-scotland/

BBC Non-Scottish parts of the UK has made similar points:

‘Regulations in England mean that only buildings constructed since 2007 and which are taller than 30m are required to have sprinklers fitted. This requirement wasn’t applied retroactively so did not apply to Grenfell Tower, which was built in 1974…… In Scotland all new residential buildings taller than 18m must be fitted with sprinklers. In Wales since last year, all new and refurbished residential accommodation must have sprinklers.’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40293035

Sprinkler systems are only part of the solution. Rigorous building control actions covering materials may have already saved Scotland from any Grenfell scenario. In the aftermath of Grenfell, both the Times and the FT reported specifically on the different situation in Scotland and the rest of the UK with regard to the fire safety regulations for tower blocks.

The Times reported:

‘No residential buildings with flammable cladding have been identified in Scotland’

The FT were damning in their verdict:

‘How lax building rules contributed to Grenfell disaster Warnings on fire risk ignored as governments appeared to focus on cutting red tape.’

The FT went on to explain how the Scottish Government had clearly learned from a smaller though still tragic incident in 1999:

‘On June 11^th 1999, a disabled man was killed as a fire tore quickly through eight floors of the Scottish tower block he was living in. Alexander Linton, 55, may not be widely remembered, but his death sparked a review of Scottish building regulations that may have saved lives. After exterior cladding on the council-owned tower block in Irvine was blamed for the rapid spread of the fire, Scottish rules were changed. Now the outside walls of buildings must be designed to “inhibit” the spread of fire, and these requirements are backed up by a tough inspection regime.’

No such lessons appeared to have been learned in England where governments were urged to tighten regulations, but no action was taken. There is now a rush to remove flammable cladding from more than 500 blocks and resignations have begun.

BBC Scotland News did not repeat these comments. There’s no sign of it today, so far.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stricter-safety-rules-leave-scotland-out-of-danger-pvhnn2lz2

https://www.ft.com/content/bf6bcbd0-5b35-11e7-9bc8-8055f264aa8b?mhq5j=e1

Footnote:  The need to maintain these strong building control practices is just one more piece in the case for Independence.

Footnote 2: Glasgow School of Art?

 

 

On the Scottish Government site today:

‘The gap between pupils from the most and least deprived areas who go on to university, college or a job after school has closed by over a fifth in one year, new figures show. The proportion of 2016/17 school leavers from the most deprived areas in a positive destination nine months after leaving school increased to 87.6% – reducing the gap with school leavers from the least deprived areas by 22%.’

Particularly encouraging, in a long list, are these massive improvements for one of the most disadvantaged groups:

• The percentage of looked after children achieving at least SCQF Level 5 (National 5 or equivalent) has increased from 15% in 2009/10 to 44% in 2016/17
• The gap in attainment between children looked after for the full year and all school leavers has narrowed from 62 percentage points in 2009/10 to 42 percentage points in 2016/17

https://news.gov.scot/news/poverty-gap-closing

This an important announcement on an issue of particular interest to most viewers. However, Reporting Scotland ignored the announcement on the 19^th, when it was announced, and ignored it all day on the 20^th.  Yet, they seem recognise its importance at other times and have commonly reported on perceived problems in the new curriculum. Here are only a few from the last year:

New curriculum could be ‘disastrous’, says education expert – BBC News

Teaching union condemns Scottish schools shake-up – BBC News

Teaching in Scotland ‘an undoable job’ – BBC

Scottish Conservatives call for ‘reset’ of Curriculum for … – BBC.com

School curriculum expert’s momentum warning over delay – BBC News

That perceived problems in the new curriculum are commonly reported but evidence of its success is ignored suggests clearly, bias against the Scottish government.

Footnote: I’ll put a complaint in.

From World Maritime News yesterday:

‘Ferguson Marine and its European partners won a bid for EU funding support that would enable the building and launch of the world’s first sea-going car and passenger ferry fuelled by hydrogen. The supported development is expected to cost around EUR 12.6 million (around USD 14.6) of which EUR 9.3 million has been awarded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation fund.’ The vessel’s fuel will be produced from renewable electricity marking a paradigm shift towards entirely emissions-free marine transport, the companies said in a joint statement. Employing Ballard technology, the initial objective is to construct and prove the vessel’s modular drive train onshore, testing for stress and durability under conditions employing real-world data from existing vessels. The successful test will allow a vessel to be constructed. The vessel is planned to operate in and around Orkney – which is already producing hydrogen in volume from constrained – and hence otherwise wasted – renewable energy.’

https://worldmaritimenews.com/archives/255096/fergusonmarine-to-build-worlds-first-renewables-powered-hydrogen-ferry/

Scotland has a number of innovations relating to the use of hydrogen power already underway. See these:

Aberdeen 20: Dundee 12? The competition for Europe’s largest fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses

Scotland’s cities ally to exploit hydrogen-based technologies. Scotland’s Unionist media ally to ignore it

Europe’s biggest hydrogen-powered bus fleet and now the UK’s biggest hydrogen cell installation are both in Scotland

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

It’s a gas, gas, gas?