Talking-up Scotland

I’ve expressed my doubts about Kevin McKenna before but I had to agree when he wrote:

‘Labour and the Tories still revel in trashing Scotland’

In his Guardian piece, he mentioned many of the good news stories about Scotland, I’ve written about myself including economic growth, falling unemployment, a superior NHS and even the recent evidence that stillbirths are lower in Scotland. Like him I could barely hide my disgust at the evident disappointment that their own country had not gone into recession.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/09/labour-and-tories-revel-in-trashing-scotland

Now, the Press & Journal (who else?) have added to the list of reasons to be cheerful with:

‘North and north-east companies are the toast of the stock exchange’

Here’s an extract:

‘London Stock Exchange (LSE)’s new 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain report celebrates the achievements of 25 Scottish firms and more than half of them are in the north and north-east. Eight of the firms being hailed as “the lifeblood of the economy” are based in Aberdeen – and this at a time the north-east is still reeling from a sharp slump in oil prices since 2014.’

You can access the full article if you want to see the names. The url is below.

I’ve already written twice to debunk the whole recession thing.

Scotland in recession? No, the economy is growing. Are the Fraser of Allander Institute and its media followers talking through holes in their bahookies?

Why Scotland’s looming recession is a figment of the imagination and propagandising

Someone tell Ruth, Kezia and Willie to show some faith in their own people or fuck off leave and live somewhere else.

ttps://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/business/1285687/north-and-north-east-companies-are-the-toast-of-the-stock-exchange/

Speaking to Bloomberg, the Aramco chief describes the outlook for oil supplies as ‘increasingly worrying’ and argues that the transition to alternative fuels will be ‘long and complex’.

Saudi Aramco plan to invest more than $300 billion over the next decade to find new fields for oil and gas supplies. The Bloomberg report makes the key point that the relatively modest prices are discouraging exploration and that this will result in huge shortages. Discoveries are down 50% in the last four years.

Luckily for Scotland, there have been massive finds west of Shetland in the last few months. See:

Estimates of Scotland’s oil reserves West of Shetland now massively increased to around 8 billion barrels! ‘A super-resource now on the cards.’

Speaking about alternatives to oil he says:

‘Looking at today’s energy mix, the expectations for alternatives are through the roof,” Nasser said. While acknowledging that electric vehicles are gaining in popularity, he said they currently make up less than two-tenths of one percent of the world’s 1.2 billion vehicles and were unlikely to account for more than 10 percent of the global fleet by 2030.’

According to the report, round $1 trillion of investments have been lost in the downturn and at least 20 billion barrels of new output will be needed to meet demand. Much of this new demand is emerging as I write in countries like India. See this earlier piece:

‘Global demand for oil could outdo the 10-year average in 2017.’ Why the SNP Government, the sector and hedge funds are all optimistic.

As for shale oil, the chief echoes my earlier expressed confidence that:

‘Investments in smaller increments such as shale oil will just not cut it.’

Even these small increments from shale are far from secure with a world shortage of the essential fracking sand already with us. See:

The Scottish Third Wave of Oil Productivity is built on solid foundations but those of the Shale Oil Industry are built on sand and on sand that is disappearing fast

So, worry not about Scottish oil revenues in the future unless of course we continue to send them down to the UK Treasury.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/aramco-to-spend-300-billion-as-ceo-frets-about-world-oil-supply

 

As you know I’m talking-up Scotland so I’ve extracted the objective, factual, good news from the Bank of Scotland report today and ignored all the gloom about Brexit which will supposedly destroy it all:

1. Scottish business is enjoying its longest run of expansion in nearly two-and-a-half years
2. Companies across Scotland have seen increased employment numbers alongside growing new business and orders.
3. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) found a majority of UK firms aimed to increase the number of highly-skilled jobs in the next few years.
4. Last week’s GDP data from the Office for National Statistics showed growth of 0.8% in Scotland running at four times the UK figure, with Scottish unemployment also at a record low of 4%.

If you read the whole BoS thingy, you’ll see they’ve put in so much non-factual and negative opinion, you’d never remember the above positive facts. It’s classic early 20^th Century Scots’ ‘Aye but…’ and ‘Dinna get too sure o yersel wee man.’

http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/globalassets/documents/media/press-releases/bank-of-scotland/2017/bospmi_july_scottishprivatesectorsubduedatendofsecondquarter.pdf

 

It is an uphill struggle trying to repair the damage Thatcher did, not that things were rosy before, but they were significantly less rosy after. Her bizarre ideal that we should somehow turn into entrepreneurs and build our own houses. It was an unrealistic and not very feasible view. Housing and infrastructure development is good for all aspects of Scottish society; improves our environment, creates work, gives people hope for the future, etc.

Some things I found over the weekend:

Pete Wishart on Perthshire strawbs and rasps – this is a good demonstration of what our SNP MPs are doing for Scotland, committee meetings are good to watch because they do not have the same combative atmosphere as that nonsense of the House of Commons. It shows that we do work together with other parts of the uk and there is agreement on some aspects – independence for Scotland will always be a sticking point down south, but meanwhile the SNP MPs ARE working to make things better for Scotland, it’s just that you won’t hear about it in the news,,,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=kOe1IXfoBwI

It was noted that no Scottish Tory MPs turned up to the committee meeting – despite being MPs for several farming communities, you would think they would want to ensure their interests were heard? To not even turn up doesn’t sound like they are interested – maybe busy elsewhere? Doing what we wonder.

https://mobile.twitter.com/PeteWishart/status/883382786241024001

Interview with Nicola sturgeon – I liked this for the personal feel, and her whole aim in life to work towards equality in our country. Surely, you could not argue against such an ideal?

https://www.snp.org/a_decade_to_defy_disparity

Improvement in Scottish labour market:

https://www.markiteconomics.com/Survey/PressRelease.mvc/ac3566df7b43488bbf2ae8f05432e5eb?hootPostID=465be96ff94505a9d46b738d3136f528

SNP actions for disabled people:

https://www.snp.org/our_action_for_disabled_people

This looks like a bit of an SNP-fest, but I am kind of sick of everyone jumping on the bandwagon of what the media tells us, that they aren’t good enough (for what? I ask, they are a political party, not a radical insurgency or a deity-like rescue service. That their goals and ideals are good and they do their best to enact them, and doing a better job than most political parties, seems good enough for me), that they are wasting their time in Westminster (maybe, maybe not, but they are certainly working for Scotland, promoting our country, our maturity, getting involved, and influencing policies and actions – just because we don’t hear the boring stuff doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Until we are rid of this destructive Union, it is the best that can be done, and will help when we get to negotiating the divvy-up of resources stage. It seems the right thing to do, keep on good terms with those you may need to negotiate with in the future).

 

Tories across the UK are renowned for holding down numerous extra little earners as board members on private health and housing companies. Sometimes they are serial board members with numerous fees for attendance maybe once a month.

Now Scotland’s new team of Tories may lose thousands if a new bill to restrict such activity makes it through the Scottish Parliament. Labour MSP Neil Findlay’s members bill seeks to restrict the extent to which MSPs can take on extra jobs to earn beyond their current and not-to-bad, £61 778 a year.

Needless to say, it’s the Tories who have the most to lose if he succeeds as I hope he does.

Here are some of the bigger ones:

Alexander Burnett       £120 000         AJA Burnett (£10 000 a day?)

£6 120             North Banchory Company

Adam Tomkins            £35 000           Glasgow University

Donald Cameron         £50 000           2 non-exec directorship (2.5 days work?)

Edward Mountain       £40 000           Delfur Farms (2-4 hours per week?)

£14 000           Delfur Fishing (1 hour per week?)

John Scott                   £10,000           farming

Peter Chapman           £20,000           farming

Michelle Ballantyne    £10,000          manufacturing business

Tomkins famously said he could not afford to live on the MSP salary with his four children!

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15399282.Tory_MSPs_face_massive_financial_hit_in_double_jobs_crackdown_at_Holyrood/

With a 29% increase on last year, new affordable home-building is at its highest level since the 1980s when Maggie Thatcher had yet to do her worst and Tony Blair was just a bad dream.

The Scottish Government is investing more than £1.75 billion over the next three years with funds provided to local authorities to enable delivery of the target of 50 000 by 2021.

The construction work should also add a further 14 000 new jobs each year.

The funding for the local authorities announced in advance to enable smooth planning is

2018-19           £532 million

2019-20           £591 million

2020-21           £630 million

This £1.75 billion takes the total for this parliament to £3 billion for affordable housing. This is, no surprise, twice the per capita level of the English Government’s building despite the latter’s faster growing population.

See: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/england-homeless-crisis-rise-breaking-point-radical-rethink-policies-government-cuts-welfare-a7643181.html

https://news.gov.scot/news/increase-in-affordable-housing

© glasgow.gov.uk

£280 million has been spent regenerating the city in the last five years with much of that money coming from the Scottish Government.

I’ve already reported:

There were 7 336 affordable homes completions, with Scottish Government funding, to end March 2017, 13% up on the previous year. There were 9 308 or an increase of 21% affordable houses started, with as you can see some still to be completed.

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00520664.pdf

More than £1.75 billion is being allocated over the next three years to councils to enable the building of a further 50 000 affordable homes by 2021. This will be the highest level of such activity since the 1980s.

https://news.gov.scot/news/gbp-1-75-billion-boost-for-investment-in-affordable-housing

This will also continue to be twice the level of such building per capita of that in England.

Just what proportion of the £280 million came in the form of Scottish Government grants is not made clear but if, as indicated above, £1.75 billion has been allocated over only three years, I think we can be sure a considerable part comes from that source.

Most of the £280 million has been spent on transforming derelict land and building affordable housing on it, in line with Scottish Government priorities.

This from Housing and Local Government Minister Kevin Stewart:

‘I’m delighted that the Transforming Communities: Glasgow partnership has, so far, developed 1154 new homes and refurbished 138 homes for use in eight areas across Glasgow, including the biggest urban regeneration project outside London in Sighthill.  Transforming Communities: Glasgow is about more than just constructing new and refurbished housing developments, many of them award-winning, it has also made a positive impact on these local communities through creating apprenticeships, training opportunities and Local Delivery Groups.  We are committed to working with our partners to deliver high quality housing for people and families across Scotland and will support local authorities and the industry to deliver their housing priorities.’

https://www.scottishconstructionnow.com/20066/280-million-spent-on-glasgow-regeneration-areas-in-five-years/

© abdn.ac.uk

I’ll keep it brief. Here are the figures:

Scotland          95.2%

Wales              94.7%

N Ireland         94.4%

England           94.2%

I take this to be further evidence of the robustness of the Scottish economy contrary to the scare stories of recession our Unionist politicians and media have been drooling over the prospects of recently. It also fits well with these recent reports I’ve posted:

Robust Scottish economy apparent in significant increases in demand for professional staff

Most North Sea oil and gas firms no longer planning job cuts and reporting growing confidence in recruitment according to Bank of Scotland report.

https://stv.tv/news/scotland/1392951-scots-graduates-more-likely-to-find-work-than-rest-of-uk/

It’s the waste products from the drinks industry that can be used as a biofuel. No costly modifications are need. Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables drove an ordinary hire car round Edinburgh using the biofuel.

Biofuels have been around for a very long time but the petroleum companies backed by the US government put a stop to early developmental work to protect the companies. Things have changed with shortages of oil beginning to emerge and the massive growth of the Indian and Chinese middles classes demanding the right to a car. I know that some of that demand will be met by electric cars but by no means all of it can be done that way feasibly.

The biofuel is produced from ‘draff’, the residue of husks after fermentation of the grain and the residual waste liquid ‘pot ale’. The Scottish malt whisky industry produces 750 000 tonnes of the draff and 2 billion litres of the pot ale every year.

Wind, tides, oil, gas and now this. Is there no limit to our energy sources? A growing economy too. Mind you, still too wee, too poor for independence?

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/144037/whisky-fuelled-car-makes-first-journey/