Talking-up Scotland

(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

 

‘I’m not sure I could have done this anywhere else in the world other than Scotland. We’ve had tremendous support from the Scottish Government.’ Professor Martin Tangney

http://www.celtic-renewables.com/

As recently as August this year we heard of a car using biofuel from ‘draff’, the residue of husks after fermentation of the grain and the residual waste liquid ‘pot ale’, being driven round Edinburgh in July. See:

‘Whisky-fuelled car makes first journey’ Calm down it’s not the good stuff!

We also heard in the same month of another use by growing algae from Whisky ‘co-products’ and feeding the omega 3 rich algae to fish. See:

First Whisky-driven cars, now Whisky-fed fish

Less than four months after the drive round Edinburgh, a new demonstration plant to make a petrol substitute from whisky residue, in Grangemouth, has had planning approval. Celtic Renewables Ltd aim to produce half a million litres of the biofuel, Biobutanol, per year, commencing in early 2018.

The plant will use some of the 750,000 tonnes of draff and two billion litres of ‘pot ale’ produced by the Perthshire, Tullibardine Distillery. Reported in Energy Voice, Celtic Renewables say:

‘This is a very exciting time for biotechnology in Scotland. Our plant, which will use entirely sustainable raw materials to make high value low carbon products, will be the first of its kind in the world. It will shine a global spotlight on innovation in Scotland in the low carbon economy.’

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/158727/scottish-renewables-firm-gets-green-light-whisky-fuel-plant/

Locating the plant in Grangemouth which is Scotland’s petrochemical hub makes perfect sense and as a former, temporary, ‘Portonian’ myself, I’m really pleased to see a former boom town but one currently a bit down on its heels, get an employment boost. Back in the 70s, before I went to university as a mature student, I had worked in the former ICI Chemicals plant there making the blue dye used in denims. It was my wee contribution to the Love Generation.

Celtic Renewables seem sure that their new biofuel will be ‘low carbon.’ I couldn’t find direct evidence from them, so I had a look around and found this peer-reviewed research paper:

‘Production of biofuels promises substantial improvement in air quality through reducing emission from burning of the fuel used in vehicle engines. Some of the developing countries have started biofuel pro‐duction and utilization as transport fuel in local market. Thus, below are described some important conclusions that we can be done about the use of biofuels by vehicle engines. Compared to fossil diesel, the emission of regulated and non-regulated compounds from biofuels burning are generally equal or lower. An exception is NOx emission, which is generally higher with use of the biofuels, more specifically of the biodiesel use. The amount of compounds emitted, depends considerably on the type of engine, its configuration, the load condition and the use of a catalyzer. In most cases, reducing the emission of unwanted compounds requires modification in the standard engines for the use of biodiesel and/or raw vegetable oil and ethanol.’

http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/42164/InTech-Vehicle_emissions_what_will_change_with_use_of_biofuel_.pdf

As I understand it, the car driven round Edinburgh required no modification. As for the ominous sounding NOx, this is Nitrogen Oxides which do contribute to the production of smog and acid rain. I searched for ‘Celtic Renewables fuel nitrogen oxide’ but found nothing, so if any reader can find out if the Celtic Renewables fuel does or does not do so that would be interesting.

Unemployment in Scotland, for August to September 2017, stands at 4.1% compared to 4.3% for the UK as a whole. This is lower than 6 of the English regions, with only the 3 in the south maintaining lower levels, between 3 and 3.7%

Employment, in Scotland, in the year since October 2016, grew 1.7% compared to the UK growth of only 0.7%. The Scottish rate of growth matched that of the affluent South-East of England and was higher than all of the other regions bar the North-East of England at 1.8%.

Similarly, the growth in those economically active, as opposed to employed, grew faster over the year in Scotland at 0.7% compared to the UK at 0.3%. Only 2 English regions, the North-East and South-East grew faster at 1.3% and 1.4% respectively and 3 had negative figures.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/regionallabourmarketsummarya07

According to a report in the Insider online business magazine, Brent crude prices are expected to hit $68 per barrel. Prices have been above $60 per barrel for several months now and the BP Chief Executive anticipates current production costs of $15 per barrel to fall even lower:

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

In January 2016, the price of Brent crude had fallen to as low as $27.67 per barrel.

 

http://www.insider.co.uk/news/oil-price-rises-back-above-11680289

I gather higher prices are still not on our MSM radar? Several informed experts have predicted even higher prices and perhaps a return to $100 per barrel:

Will Scotland’s oil hit $100 (or more?) a barrel again after 2020?

Investors already betting on $100 per barrel oil in 2018? Indyref2 should be a very different story

Further, there is now strong evidence that peak oil will not pass for another 30 years giving Scotland adequate time to build up a fund comparable to that of Norway.

Is Peak Oil still 20 or 30 years in the future and so, would an independent Scotland be rich?

Total begins to make massive profits from Scotland’s oilfields west of Shetland

 

Note: This wikipedia scattergraph based on US data is the only one I could find. It shows the correlation between pupil/teacher ratio and attainment. It’s a negative correlation so the smaller the number of pupils per teacher the greater the reading performance. Admittedly, it’s not a very strong correlation suggesting other factors matter too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class-size_reduction

There are now 543 more teachers in Scottish schools. In 2017, only 631 P1 pupils were taught in classes of more than 26 compared to 16 845 in 2006 at the end of the Lab/Lib Dem coalition.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/620825/SFR25_2017_MainText.pdf

There are 51 500 teachers in Scottish schools and the pupil/teacher ratio is now 13.6 pupils per teacher, down from (better than) 13.7 in 2016. This ratio is an important indicator of the time teachers have to engage with pupils and is likely to have played a major part in narrowing attainment gaps.

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00528868.pdf

In England, there were 457 300 teachers in 2016, up by 400 from 2015. The pupil/teacher ratio in 2016 was 17.6 pupils per teacher. England’s population is almost exactly ten times that of Scotland, so you might have expected there to be around 515 000 teachers there. The increase of 400 teachers, in England, from 2015 to 2016, is small when compared with the Scottish Government’s increase of 543 between 2016 and 2017 in a country with a tenth of the population.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/620825/SFR25_2017_MainText.pdf

So, the pupil/teacher ratio in Scotland is significantly better than that in England. While the research evidence is not conclusive, the Department of Education in England would like to see smaller classes than the current ratio would allow. According to their own report, smaller classes inevitably increase: ‘the time when individual pupils are the focus of the teacher’s attention, increases active interaction between pupils and teachers and increases pupils’ engagement particularly for pupils attaining at lower levels.’

Department of Education (England) 2011: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183364/DFE-RR169.pdf

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report, the attainment gap, in England and Scotland, is only the same for 11-year-olds (often difficult early adolescent boys) at 20% but the gap for 5-year-olds is only 16% in Scotland compared to 20% in England and for 16-year-olds the gap in Scotland is only 20% compared to 28% in England. Note the massive fall in the latter gap from 33% to 20% in the period of SNP Government.

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2017

The pupil/teacher ratio is only one of several factors likely to narrow attainment gaps, but it is an important one and one which governments can do something directly about. Once more, this suggests the SNP government in Scotland is making a difference, not seen under previous Labour/Lib Dem administrations and clearly not a high priority for the Tory one in Westminster.

Footnote: UK fee-paying schools use their ratio of 9 pupils per teacher as a marketing tool and say:

‘Significantly smaller class sizes are proven to improve academic achievement as the ability to spend more time with each child allows teachers to get to know their personal strengths, weaknesses and learning styles, ensuring that their individual needs are met.’

http://www.hmc.org.uk/about-hmc/why-choose-a-hmc-school/smaller-class-sizes/

 

(c) bbc.co.uk

The Scottish Government has set a target of 1 million acres in Community ownership by 2020. Currently we have 403 community groups in ownership of 492 land parcels totalling 562 230 acres. It’s looking like a bit of a push to make up the outstanding 437 770 acres in community ownership with only two or three years to go. I’m not sure if the target is for end-of or beginning-of 2020.

Only 94.23 acres came into community ownership in the first six months of 2017, so we need to see acceleration of the trend or one or two very big packages, if the target is to be met.

Most of the community ownership (93.7%) is in Highland and Na h‑Eileanan Siar council areas:

• Na h-Eileanan Siar: 385,340 acres
• Highland: 141,912 acres.

However, this is only 2.9% of Scotland’s 19,252,132 acres and just two rich individuals together have almost as much as the 403 community groups.  The Duke of Buccleugh has 240 000 acres to himself and Anders Povlsen has 170,000.

http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/18875/more-than-500000-acres-of-land-in-scotland-now-under-community-ownership/

(c) TomoNews

Wind turbines provided 77% of Scotland’s entire electricity demand in November and on seven days it was sufficient to supply 100% according to WWF Scotland and reported in Business Green.

https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3022802/november-winds-provided-three-quarters-of-scotlands-power-needs-data-shows

This is, of course, just another example to add to repeated reports of the accelerating growth of renewable energy generation in Scotland as we head toward a sustainable 100% well ahead of the 2030 target. See:

Scotland’s wind turbines provide enough energy for 189% of Scottish homes on nearly every day in October. It was much the same in May.

Is Scotland as the ‘Saudi of wind’ concept getting more real? ‘Wind and waves?’ Solar too?

Another 1 GWh wind farm taking our current supply up enough for 3 200 000 homes to be built in forest near Dumfries. 100% renewable energy by 2030? More like 1 000%.

A strong economy, a better society and massive power resources suggest to me a country well-suited to independence.

© raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com

The SNP’s National Council has proposed the introduction of licensing for driven grouse shooting estates. This comes in the wake of repeated exposure of illegal killing of protected birds of prey, the massive and unjustified culling of mountain hares and the damage to vulnerable peatland habitats. See:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/11/grouse-moors-to-blame-for-scotland-disappearing-raptors-birds-prey-glorious-twelfth

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/31/mountain-hares-scotland-culling-highlands-onekind

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/05/peat-bogs-burning-grouse-shooting

The RSPB in Scotland insists that self-regulation by the bird-gaming industry has clearly failed in the light of the above exposures and their representative said:

‘While we have welcomed steps taken by successive Scottish Governments to bear down on wildlife crime, it is evident that the increasingly intensive management of some areas, solely aimed at producing ever-larger grouse bags, flies in the face of public opinion and that better regulation of this industry, to ensure legal, sustainable management of our uplands, is long overdue.’

http://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/15708545.SNP_back_grouse_moor_licensing/

This news also follows the SNP administration’s moves to fairly tax shooting estates. See these earlier reports:

Blahdy good news from the Express? ‘Queen facing HUGE bill over Nicola Sturgeon’s dreaded shooting tax rules’

Daily Torygraph starts elite panic about land reform before a blow has been struck

As with the legislation to limit land-ownership and the application of VAT to fee-paying schools, many of us would, I’m sure, like to see more rigorous approaches to reducing inequality, but it is a start.