Talking-up Scotland

(Image: Flickr/DAVID HOLT)

London had a red alert for air pollution seven times in the last year alone. Other major global cities have had to ban cars from city centres on some days to ease the pollution levels. The old and the unwell are dying in increasing numbers in these cities. London has also put a surcharge on diesel-powered vehicles entering the city.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/27/london-issues-red-alert-for-extremely-high-air-pollution

I live on the Ayrshire coast and like many Scots often bemoan the almost constant winds but I guess we should be glad of the air quality they produce.

Recent official figures have shown that, across Scotland, pollution levels are falling dramatically. Most notably, lead levels are down by 99% since 1990. Sulphur dioxide is down 92%, carbon monoxide is down 83% and nitrogen oxide is down 71%.

https://www.energyvoice.com/other-news/152473/major-pollution-scotland-drops-dramatically-since-1990-new-report-finds/

The massive drop in lead levels after the ban on lead-based petrol in 2000 reminded me of New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani’s claim that his ‘zero tolerance’ policing strategy was responsible for the dramatic fall in crime in the city during the 1990s and early 2000s. The claim was soon criticised by those pesky sociologists (like me) who pointed out that, due to easier access to contraceptives, there were less disaffected young men being born in the troubled ‘projects’ (housing schemes) in the previous decades and that this inevitably reduced the number of offenders from this background. Young males are, of course, disproportionally involved in crime. Further, they drew attention to research that exposure to high levels of lead. Research has shown that exposure to lead during pregnancy reduces the head circumference of infants. In children and adults, it causes headaches, inhibits IQ and can lead to aggressive or dysfunctional behaviour. Lead was being phased out of petrol in the USA from 1975-1986.

https://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27067615

You can read the story in full at the above links.

So, the fall in crime, the researchers argued, was based in large part on a reduced population of potential offenders and a reduced predisposition, among them, to offend in the first place due to not having been exposed to high levels of lead in infancy.

Crime has also fallen in Scotland, as it has across much of the world, in the last twenty years after climbing throughout the 20^th Century. Like the New York researchers, I’m not denying entirely the effects of policing policy or other government initiatives and giving all the credit to easier access to contraceptives and falling lead levels. In fact, as you might expect, I’m going to give some credit to the SNP administration for their progressive policies which have reduced the negative effects of Tory austerity policies. I wonder, without hard evidence I admit, if the free bus pass, the winter heating allowance and free care for the elderly has maybe reduced crime by us pensioners? I do not, of course, count forgetting to pay for things a crime in the over 65s.

The RLA would like the English government to offer the same options as those offered by the Scottish government to reduce the risk of increased debt and homelessness posed by the move to Universal Credit. See this short explanation from Landlord Today:

‘The so-called “Scottish Flexibilities” mean new online claimants can choose to have Universal Credit paid fortnightly rather than monthly, as is standard. They can also have the housing elements of the benefit paid directly to their landlord, after evidence from Universal Credit pilots revealed that many people fall into arrears when housing costs are paid to them directly, as the money is spent on other things.’

As far as I can see this costs government nothing and could prevent serious problems developing for poor families.

https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/10/uk-government-urged-to-follow-scotlands-lead-to-reduce-rent-arrears

This is, of course, only a partial solution to the problems posed by Universal Credit which Scottish Charities have urged the UK government to halt. See this:

‘In principle, it is a good idea which should make life easier for both the claimant and the delivery agencies alike. However, having seen how UC has worked so far, it is clear that it is leaving thousands of people struggling to make ends meet. The flaws include a six-week waiting period between a person’s claim and their initial payment. Another issue is that UC is an entirely online system, yet our evidence is that many applicants don’t have access to computers or the skills to use them. Together, we believe the Government must halt the rollout of the benefit so that these and other flaws can be fixed before they harm any more people. This will require serious changes, not just minor adjustments.’

https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/scottish-charities-call-halt-universal-credit-rollout

Although Scotland will take control of 11 additional benefits after the Scotland Act 2016, Universal Credit remains reserved to Westminster so the ‘Scottish Flexibilities’ are all they can do to help just as they did before, what they could do, to compensate for the effects of the Bedroom Tax.

Scotland, as a whole, has hit the target of 95% of patients in A&E seen within four hours for the last three months in succession. I don’t know what MSM coverage this is getting. For some regions the figure is pushing 99%. This is a massive achievement especially for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde with its huge population and the massive challenges posed by its surrounding population.

2017 /18	Apr-17	May-17	Jun-17	Jul-17	Aug-17
NHS AYRSHIRE & ARRAN	96.1%	95.3%	96.8%	96.7%	94.7%
NHS BORDERS	93.6%	93.5%	97.2%	96.0%	96.8%
NHS DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY	93.8%	95.4%	95.6%	94.8%	93.9%
NHS FIFE	93.1%	94.7%	96.2%	96.3%	96.8%
NHS FORTH VALLEY	90.9%	91.8%	94.6%	93.2%	93.5%
NHS GRAMPIAN	96.1%	96.8%	97.1%	96.1%	95.6%
NHS GREATER GLASGOW & CLYDE	89.3%	90.7%	93.1%	94.4%	93.6%
NHS HIGHLAND	96.8%	97.4%	97.4%	97.7%	96.7%
NHS LANARKSHIRE	91.9%	92.4%	94.5%	95.4%	94.5%
NHS LOTHIAN	95.3%	95.1%	95.7%	96.1%	95.2%
NHS ORKNEY	95.4%	96.4%	99.0%	95.0%	97.7%
NHS SHETLAND	97.4%	96.5%	98.0%	97.1%	93.8%
NHS TAYSIDE	98.6%	97.8%	98.7%	98.4%	98.3%
NHS WESTERN ISLES	99.6%	99.3%	99.6%	99.5%	99.3%
NHS SCOTLAND	93.4%	94.0%	95.5%	95.7%	95.0%

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Emergency-Care/Publications/data-tables2017.asp?id=2015#2015

Scotland has now performed better than England in A&E every month for more than two years now

https://www.kingdomfm.co.uk/news/local-news/fife-aande-figures-among-best-in-uk/

In England, only 90.3% of patients were seen within the 4-hour target in August 2017. The target was last achieved in July 2015, more than two years ago

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/Monthly-performance-statistics-summary-Jul_Aug-17.pdf

I appreciate this kind of comparison can seem a little heartless and I do genuinely wish NHS England had a government like ours which has formed a good relationship with its health and social services but my purpose here is to remind people that the SNP government in Scotland is working well in this area as it is in others, despite the selective negativity of our mainstream media reporting and to compensate for the latter bias.

(c) communityenergyscotland.org.uk

The three-turbine wind-farm located near Cockburnpath, named ‘The Fishermen Three’, which began production this year is expected to raise £20 million in revenue over the next 25 years. This will be in addition to its obvious role in generating 25 million kwh each year to power nearly 6 000 homes.

£10 million will go support further community-based renewable energy projects and the remainder will be used to build 500 homes over the period in an area short of homes for young, less affluent families in the area. There are more than 61 000 second or holiday homes in Scotland. I couldn’t find figures for Berwickshire but I feel sure it is a popular area for such use.

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00511371.pdf

Scottish Borders currently has a predicted shortage of 8350 homes while the Berwickshire area around Cockburnpath requires 1503.

https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/download/…/id/…/empty_homes_strategy_2012-17.p…

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/152346/community-wind-farm-will-use-revenue-build-500-scottish-homes/

 

(c) The Modern Antiquarian.com

I’ve already written about Scotland’s booming tourist industry, exceeding that of rUK, as the low value of the pound, the Outlander TV series and anxiety about terrorist attacks in London and Europe seem to be encouraging especially US tourists to visit Scotland as far north as the Shetlands. See, for example:

Tourism spending in Scotland surges ahead of UK figure

‘Outlander links see visitors to historic sites soaring’

North Americans lead surge in Scottish tourism because they feel safer here

Massive rise in visitors to historic sites in Dumfries & Galloway

Now Comhairle nan Eilean Siar have plans to double their current income from visits to sites such as the 5 000 years-old Callanish Stones and the Dun Carloway broch. Cuurrently, these and other sites support 80 full-time jobs and bring in around £4 million but they have the potential to be worth £8m and to support 160 jobs.

The  Heritage Manager with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar told BBC Radio Scotland:

‘The landscape of the Outer Hebrides is to a large extent a Neolithic landscape. When you’re standing somewhere like Callanish, for example, looking out over the rest of the landscape, you’re really looking at something that was to a great extent influenced and moulded by the activity of humans in pre-history.  There’s an awful lot more out there than those big popular sites and I think we’ve got a real opportunity to open people’s eyes.’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-41498458

I’ve been to Callanish, in the 1990s. It was busy then and I can see what he means about the landscape on all sides, including the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ or Cailleach na Mointeach (old woman of the moors), a range of hills resembling an Earth Mother figure lying on her back.

Owners of the site, Global Energy Group, have released images of the kind of work anticipated, making the steel towers for offshore wind-farms. No job numbers have been confirmed yet but expectations are high as the boom in offshore renewable energy continues. Scotland has 25% of all of Europe’s wind potential and a coastline suitable for marine turbines many times greater than any other European country so it seems a safe bet many more will be built in addition to the already huge floating wind-farms already being built or planned, off the Moray, Kincardineshire and Fife coasts. See these for earlier reports of the energy potential off Scotland’s coast:

Scotland is at the heart of a globally important offshore renewable energy sector

£530 million boost for Scottish economy from Beatrice offshore windfarm

Re-opened Scottish dock to build state-of-the-art floating windfarm to begin to exploit Scotland’s 25% share of all of Europe’s offshore wind potential

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/152292/hopes-grow-hundreds-offshore-job-nigg/

Glasgow has around 93 000 households living in fuel poverty. Researchers at Strathclyde University estimate that most of these could be heated with heat pumps built on 367 hectares of landfill sites.

Speaking to Energy Voice, Dr Richard Lord, senior lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering, said:

‘This study suggests there is potential to ease fuel poverty in Glasgow by making use of brownfield land to deploy renewable energy technologies such as ground source heat pumps. Brownfield land is a legacy of industrial retraction in many towns and cities worldwide, where land remains vacant long after it has gone into disuse, and is often a barrier to redevelopment. Using this land for renewable heating is one option that can support development of a low carbon economy and also stimulate regeneration.’

Here’s a brief explanation of how a heat pump on a landfill site would work:

‘The heat pump systems are considered today an environmentally friendly technology and, together with other energy production systems from renewable sources, are fundamental for reducing energy consumption and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions due to air conditioning of buildings. The ground source heat pumps use the ground as a heat source able to provide the better energy performance if compared with more common systems which using air as source. The increase of the temperatures inside the controlled landfills of municipal solid waste (MSW), due to the decomposition of waste materials can make the volume of waste a viable alternative in this context, to be used as a heat source for the production of heat.’

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610216312541

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/152378/installing-renewables-vacant-land-alleviate-glasgow-fuel-poverty/

I’m not aware of contradictions to this idea. Maybe some readers are.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, plans to sanction the Scottish Episcopal Church because it has decided to allow in-church marriage of same-sex couples and has angered the primates (no jokes). African primates have recently refused to attend meetings if Scots or American primates are in attendance too. The American Episcopal Church has already been sanctioned by being excluded from debates and from being allowed to chair committees (Oooh that must hurt!). No burning at the stake these days, then?

The Episcopalian Church is commonly known as ‘Anglican’ reminding us that it is actually the Church of England though it has members across the world including many in Africa who hold very different views from the clearly more tolerant Scottish and US branches, on issues such as on the role of women and on homosexuality.

The Episcopal Church has only around 13 000 attenders in Scotland, down from 20 000 in 1994. The Church of Scotland only has about 130 000 attenders down from around 300 000 in 1994. Total attendance at churches of all kinds is only 389 000, out of a population of 5.3 million, down from 691 000 in 1994.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4tb7ehkxtt6yjwv/The%20Fourth%20Scottish%20Church%20Census%202016.pdf?dl=0

Some readers may remember [reading] that there was an attempt to impose the Episcopal Church in Scotland by the Stuart monarchy in the 17^th Century.

It doesn’t look too hopeful for them as Scotland becomes a predominantly non-religious country. See this from September 2017:

Nearly three quarters of Scots say they are not religious

Footnote: There are nearly 450 000 Dudists worldwide. I’m an ordained priest in Dudism. You only have to register by email to become so. If I remember correctly there is only one commandment along the lines of ‘I will do my best not to be a total fuckin arsehole.’ Still working on it. Gary Robertson and Glen Campbell of BBC recently excommunicated on my request.

http://dudeism.com/

Research by the Scottish government suggests that the cultural attendance gap between those living in more deprived areas and the rest of the population is narrowing.

According to the Scottish Household Survey:

‘Cultural attendance in Scotland is on its way to becoming more equitable, official research by the Scottish Government suggests. The gap in attendance between adults living in the 20% most deprived areas and the 20% least deprived has fallen to its lowest in five years, to 15 percentage points – down from 18 percentage points in 2012, and 21 percentage points in 2014. The trend holds even when cinema visits, the most popular form of cultural attendance for people across the country, are excluded.’

See this graph:

The report does not directly attribute causes for this improvement. However, we must credit the school system’s success in increasing the number of pupils leaving with higher qualifications. The latter will inevitably expose young people to aspects of culture and either with or without organised school visits, lead to higher levels of interest.

A possible second explanation for this change might also lie in Scotland’s increasing affluence in the last two decades of devolved government. Increased economic capital leads to the opportunities for families to help their children acquire the cultural capital (museum visits, online access etc) which will serve them well in higher education and in employment. See:

Institute for Fiscal Studies reveals Scotland to have become more affluent than every other part of the UK bar the South-East of England and that much (most?) of this improvement has come under the SNP

Thirdly, the government of the day gets the blame for anything negative so it must get some of the credit for this progress if only by having enhanced young Scots’ sense of their cultural  identity, around the referendum, by emancipating 16 year-olds, by promoting a Scots element in the History and English curricula and by having pushed all of these ideas into the forefront of mediated public debate to an extent not seen before.

https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/arts-scotland-attracts-broader-audience

(Photo: Richard Peterson/flickr/cc)

The Scottish Government has stated its intention to launch a National Investment bank. Influenced by a PhD thesis written by Gemma Bone Dodds, titled Banking for the Common Good, here are the main justifications for the decision:

• When the Royal Bank of Scotland collapsed in 2008 costing the UK economy £7.4 trillion, it made clear that the current system is unstable and not fit for purpose.
• Other successful countries such as Germany have more sustainable and socially just banking systems so it can be done
• In the light of the RBS collapse, there is clearly a need to move away from a concentrated, profit-driven system to an ‘ecosystem of institutions structurally designed to work for the common good’.
• The above would lead to not-for-profit regional ‘People’s Banks’ which would invest in local communities and businesses.
• They would also invest in long-term projects which private banks won’t do.
• It’s estimated that with an initial investment from the Scottish Government of only £225 million, £3.4 billion could be leveraged in the first year alone.

That looks like a compelling case to me.

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/impact-case-studies/phd-research-prompts-launch-of-scottish-national-investment-bank/

Footnote: It’s good to see PhD theses getting a good name after the use of one in 2003 to inform the ‘dodgy dossier’ for the Iraq War.