Talking-up Scotland

 

 

As the opinion polls started to close in the summer of 2014 and one even gave a majority to Yes, the Unionist forces were stirred into action. David Cameron came to Scotland to launch a love fest, pleading with us to stay and to ‘lead’ the UK. Gordon Brown intervened to draft a pledge which would guarantee Scotland federal powers. Who knows what effect these interventions and others had on the outcome of the Referendum, but did a less transparent intervention weaken the case for independence by concealing a major oil find to the west of Shetland?

When Cameron chose to visit Shetland, on July 22^nd, the first PM to do so in 34 years, suspicions were raised.

Research published in the Scotsman on 8^th September 2014 found that ‘almost half of Scots believe the UK government is hiding North Sea oil discovered during the independence campaign.’

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/half-of-scots-say-oil-finds-are-kept-secret-1-3534186

Official reports discounted the rumours and any expressing suspicions were sneered at in social media, for some time after. BBC Scotland’s Douglas Fraser and that other Tory, Murdo Fraser, played leading parts in this:

More than four years later, however, is new evidence suggesting a cover up emerging? Today, BBC Scotland have announced, though not headlined, Scotland’s biggest ever field has begun to produce oil and will continue to do so at levels and for a time greater than expected.

We heard:

‘Oil from BP’s major Clair Ridge development which is expected to produce for the next four decades – has begun to flow. Two new bridge-linked platforms and export pipelines will be used to recover an estimated 640 million barrels of oil at Clair Ridge. BP expects production to peak at 120,000 barrels of oil a day. The Clair field – 47 miles (75km) west of Shetland – was discovered in 1977 and is estimated to contain seven billion barrels of oil and gas.’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-46304346

There is much to say here but little of it will make our Nomedia.

1. There are apparently now four decades of oil to be tapped yet we were told oil would run out long before that
2. We’re told now that the field was discovered in 1977 but when was its true scale discovered – 2014?
3. What are 7 billion barrels worth? At today’s prices ($80pb) it would be $560 billion!
4. This is only one of the oilfields in Scottish waters.

Footnote: Remember this other Cameron intervention before the 2014 Referendum:

‘The “importance” of the US television drama Outlander to the political atmosphere of last year’s Independence Referendum was highlighted by key TV executives before a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron. In a cache of leaked memos from the Sony organisation obtained by Wikileaks, an email written by Keith E. Weaver, executive vice president at Sony Pictures Entertainment, which produces Outlander, discusses a meeting with the Prime Minister last summer [2014].  An Outlander insider last night said the meeting may have been why Sony “took the foot of the pedal” with finding a UK broadcaster.’

From the above, it seems clear that Outlander’s potential effect on the first referendum was a concern to the Cameron government.

 

The recent prediction by Spain’s Foreign Minister may be based on a more general dislike of the UK, rather than any rational analysis but is there, possibly, more to it than there seems to be, at first sight? In particular, might a federal solution as an alternative to full separation, favoured by many on the left, be a plausible future for Spain, even after the conflict in Catalunya, but not for the UK?

A prerequisite for an effective federal system is the inability of one group or region to completely dominate the others. This is true of the USA with its multiple power and economic centres including those in New York (North-East), in Texas (South) and in Los Angeles (West). It’s true of Germany too with its power and economic activity dispersed in numerous centres including Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. It’s not, as we will see, true of the UK.

 

The population of Spain is relatively dispersed across the country with no one region dominating in the way that England does the UK. The same is true of Germany and the USA with strong federal systems.

Each of Spain’s regions has its own political centre and area of urban concentration. Though Madrid and Barcelona are bigger than most, no one city or region completely dominates in the way that London and South-East England do. Indeed, the centralisation of power, influence and wealth around London is one of the most extreme examples to be found globally, is thus a major obstacle to the federal solution and may well be spinning the other parts of the UK off into independent status of a kind, like that of Ireland, relatively secure, within the EU.

 

 

 

 

 

The TuS editorial board (above) has decided it is time for a summary of required terminology to be issued, to avoid disappointment for any rejected contributors.

Readers will already be familiar with some of these but one or two are more recent.

1. Non-Scottish parts of the UK: To be used instead of England, Wales or N Ireland in any comparative comment
2. Nomedia: To be used for any Scottish media agency other than those supportive of Independence
3. Loyalist: To be used for any media outlet or politician clearly loyal to the UK
4. FK: ‘Fragmented Kingdom’ to be used instead of UK at all times other than 5.
5. FUCK: ‘Frankly Useless Collapsing Kingdom’: To be used sparingly when really angry.
6. CUNT: Consolidated Unionist News Transcription Services, you know, the advisory body which transforms good news about affairs Scottish into bad and feeds it to the Nomedia.
7. Comedias:Tthe collective noun, when two or more nomedia use the same hymn sheet (tory/labour press release) or strategy.

Suggestions for additional guidance should be entered below.

In the Guardian yesterday:

‘The number of new homes built for social rent has fallen by almost four-fifths in a decade, according to official figures that come as more than 1 million families are stuck on waiting lists for council housing in England. Figures released by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government show just 6,463 homes were built in England for social rent in 2017-18, down from almost 30,000 a decade ago.’

In comparing figures with Scotland, the term ‘affordable’ becomes problematic. Whereas in Scotland, it refers to low rents in an absolute sense, in England:

‘Unlike affordable rent, social rental properties also take into account local incomes as well as house prices. Campaigners have criticised the term affordable rent, saying they are still unaffordable to many people.’

An illustrative of example of this, from the London ‘borough’ of Camden:

‘According to the mayor of London the median market rent for a two-bed property in the borough is £1,998 a month – £461 a week. That means the “affordable” rent (at 80%) could be as much as £369 a week, or £19,188 a year. How could anyone on a low income afford that, particularly if they depend on benefits, given that the overall cap on benefits in London is £23,000?’

https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2018/may/08/labour-right-need-redefine-affordable-housing

Around 57% of those built were for ‘affordable rent’, because builders can make larger profits on them, only 14% were for ‘social’ or genuinely affordable rent and the number of social rent properties being built is in decline.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/22/construction-of-homes-for-social-rent-down-80-percent-on-a-decade-ago-england-families-waiting-lists

From Scottish Housing News in September 2018:

‘The Scottish Government is on track to meet its target of delivering 50,000 affordable homes over the duration of this Parliament, according to statistics in two newly published reports. Figures in the Housing Statistics Annual Key Trends report show an increase of 745 homes (4%) across all sectors, from 18,683 in 2016-17 to 19,428 in 2017-18. This is the fifth consecutive increase and the highest annual figure since 2008-09. Housing association new builds increased by 382 homes (14%), local authority new builds increased by 381 homes (34%), and private-led new builds decreased by 325 homes (2%), whilst rehabilitations increased by 359 homes (60%) and net conversions decreased by 52 homes (7%).’

78,000 affordable homes have been delivered since 2007.

https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/23676/affordable-housing-programme-on-target-at-halfway-point/

Comparative reports suggest that performance in Scotland outstrips that in non-Scottish parts of the UK:

SNP Government builds affordable/social housing at almost twice the rate of Tories in England

Scotland increasingly ‘streets ahead’ of England on affordable housing delivery

Independent report says Scottish Government’s 50 000 target for affordable homes is ‘within reach’ and predicts England will lose 120 000 as Tories retain right-to-buy

 

(c) Scottish Construction Now

From Scottish Housing News today:

‘Midlothian Council has approved a strategic investment plan which identifies locations for 2,202 affordable homes to be built in the region over the next five years. The new homes are being developed by Midlothian Council and local housing associations. The Strategic Housing Investment Plan for 2019/20 – 2023/24 also notes that the Scottish Government is supporting new development by providing a record high in the level of funding for new housing, with £8.1 million of grant funding allocated to housing developments in Midlothian during the current year.’

http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/24846/plan-approved-for-more-than-2200-affordable-midlothian-homes-over-next-five-years/

Other reports on housing:

‘Social housing: One of Scotland’s best kept secrets?’ Tell our Nomedia

92% of Scots happy with their housing!

SNP Government builds affordable/social housing at almost twice the rate of Tories in England

Scotland increasingly ‘streets ahead’ of England on affordable housing delivery

Scottish social housing more accessible and cheaper than in rest of UK

Good news on affordable housing from the Scotsman despite unnecessary quotation marks, a wee ‘despite’ and a ‘but’

Once more, an East Renfrewshire social rent housing project in Scottish Housing News forgets to credit the huge Scottish Government subsidy

Care Inspectorate rate Shetland housing association 100%

Social Housing spending in England collapses under callous Tories while the SNP pushes on

 

SNP building standards                                 Labour Party building standards

(c) urban realm                                               (c) Andrew Milligan/PA

From news.gov.scot today:

‘£1 billion for schools. 25% more pupils educated in good or satisfactory buildings since 2007. The Scottish Government will invest a further £1 billion in rebuilding and refurbishing schools, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has announced. The new funding, which will kick in from 2021 when the current school building programme ends, will benefit around 50,000 pupils – in addition to the 60,000 who will see their schools renewed or refurbished by the end of this Parliament. The fund will deliver digitally enabled, low-carbon schools and campuses providing benefits to pupils and the local economy. The design of schools will ensure they are inclusive and welcoming places that meet the needs of all who use them. New investment models to support the scheme will be developed in partnership with COSLA and councils, with decisions on which schools will benefit focused on those in the poorest condition. It is expected that partnership design and development work will begin next year.’

https://news.gov.scot/news/gbp-1-billion-for-schools

This news reinforces an earlier report of greater school building under the SNP administration. In 2016, STV reported:

‘The SNP Scottish Government has built or refurbished twice as many schools as the previous administration, Holyrood researchers have found.’

During the SNP administrations from 2008 to 2015, they built 607 schools while during the Labour administrations from 1999 to 2007, only 308 were built. The data was obtained by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice).

https://stv.tv/news/politics/1363964-snp-built-more-schools-than-previous-administration/

 

Above New York and Berlin, Edinburgh has come tenth out of 100 top global cities, for ‘opportunities.’ Here’s what organisers, Movinga, say about their criteria:

‘The research tackles three key areas: economic strength for start-ups and established businesses, standard of living including disposable income and healthcare benefits, and the inclusion of youth, women and expats in the workforce. The final index ranks the top 100 cities by the total job opportunity score, from highest to lowest, revealing the score for each factor. The data can also be sorted by each individual category.’

Here is the key to the table:

Here is the top ten section. You can see the rest at the link below:

https://www.movinga.se/study/cities-of-opportunity-international

Previous reports on Edinburgh are here:

Edinburgh alone has 14% of the UK’s top tech companies

Why was Edinburgh Airport named UK Airport of the Year?

‘Edinburgh and Glasgow in top five cities to work in UK’

Edinburgh’s technology sector increases by more than three times UK average

Edinburgh best place for technology in UK?

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

Glasgow and Edinburgh push London into third place in tourism hotspots survey

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

 

Headlined today and less than two months ago on the 2nd October 2018

When the numbers are too small to worry you, BBC Scotland has language skills to thrill. This morning we heard:

‘Too many adults and children with learning difficulties are being forced to live hundreds of miles from family. A sizeable number is either placed in accommodation outside their local area or stuck in hospital!’

(Did the researcher write these words?)

There is a report but we’re not getting any numbers this time. I say this time because this looks like a second run of a very similar story from the 2nd October, less than two months ago. That one did have numbers but they were on analysis too wee to really shock. See this TuS report:

At 06:29 am (2.10.18), headlined and repeated throughout the morning, we heard:

‘There are still 79 [Scottish] people with special needs and autism in care in England and Wales.’

I don’t mean to diminish the suffering involved for these 79. I just want to understand how big a problem this is at a national level. Comparable figures for England & Wales don’t seem to be available. Is that because BBC Salford and BBC Wales don’t have an awesome ‘disclosure team’ burrowing away under the foundations of trust in government? Makes you feel your licence fee is worth it. Using your own money to make you feel anxious in the morning.  Also, the longer website piece is geography-free, so we can’t see how many are, for example, placed just across the border in a neighbouring region.

However, I did find this from 2011, on the BBC website:

‘Children in care far from home ‘at risk’, charities warn. Charities are warning that thousands of children placed in care far from home are more vulnerable to criminality, drug abuse and sexual exploitation. A third of the 64,000 children in local authority care in England and Wales live outside their local area. The charities say long-distance placements often traumatise children who are already damaged and vulnerable.’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-12295701/children-in-care-far-from-home-at-risk-charities-warn

So that’s around 21 000 children in care placed away from home. Is 79 evidence of a crisis in Scotland?

Come on, BBC Scotland, surely these people are also at risk of criminality and drug abuse too?

Why does the early morning repeat dose matter? See:

The Power of Early Morning Nightmares: The consequences including even death at home for expectant mothers of BBC Scotland’s reporting of one stillbirth

Alert to their sneaky game of provoking us so that we click on the article and boost their advertising revenue, only a screen capture is used above. The article’s opening sentences which you need not read unless you’re desperate, include a ‘warning’ from a ‘leading’ medic that patients will be put at risk.’ I’m guessing that the leading medic is just a trade unionist.

It’s such a wee scare story, you think it must be a deliberate piece of click-bait. But, just in case, here’s a reminder that the reduction in beds is part of a strategy, with cross-party support, to shift care from hospitals to the community. Less beds are thus needed and there’s no evidence that this reduction will lead to problems. In addition, more beds are available as bed-blocking in Scottish hospitals falls:

Bed-blocking in NHS Scotland falls by nearly 10% in one year as the rate in NHS England surges to nearly 500% higher, per capita, than that in NHS Scotland!

To my knowledge this is the first attempt to suggest a looming winter crisis in NHS Scotland. I take the overall lack of such predictions to indicate a limited confidence, in our Loyalist  Nomedia, that such a crisis is actually looming. They can only hope.

NHS Scotland delayed discharges holding steady despite massive increase in demand

BREAKING: NHS SCOTLAND hospitals DON’T warn of lack of preparation for winter as figures reveal next year [in ENGLAND] will be ‘tougher than ever’

‘Oh lord, give us this winter just one pensioner who has slipped on the ice and the ambulance takes too long to arrive so that we can construct a nation-wide panic.’

England has one coming. It’s colder up here so why can’t we get some injury and death to write about?

 

 

 

Poverty is a little less common, except for pensioners, in Scotland than in other parts of the UK.

It’s clearly still a disgrace that we have such levels of poverty in one of the world’s most affluent countries. We saw in the last budget, the lack of concern for the poor in the current UK government, in the recent budget, as they used wealth that could have reduced poverty to, instead, reduce taxation on middle and upper-earners.

That poverty is less common in Scotland seems due in large part to Scottish government initiatives. This has been confirmed in a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. See:

Poverty in Scotland 2018: The positive news that you won’t have heard from BBC Scotland

The role of the Scottish Government in combatting poverty has also been acknowledged in the UN report which made clear the ideological basis for increasing poverty in the UK. See:

Recognised: Scottish Government’s fight to stop life here becoming like Esther’s England

New evidence of the Scottish Government’s continuing efforts to compensate for the worst of Tory austerity emerged today:

‘Pregnancy and Baby Payment applications open on Monday 10 December. The first Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payments will be made before Christmas. The payment will see eligible applicants receive £600 for their first child, £100 more than the DWP Sure Start Maternity Grant it replaces. This payment also provides £300 for all subsequent children – meaning there is no cap on the number of children it supports, unlike the current UK Government equivalent. In addition to the Pregnancy and Baby Payment, by summer 2019, two additional early years payments will be introduced. The first £250 payment will be made around the time a child starts nursery, to help with the costs of early learning and a further £250 when they start school.’    

Notably, these benefits will be available to the parents of babies born in the last six months who already have a big brother or sister and had no support from the UK Government because they were not the first child.

https://news.gov.scot/news/help-for-low-income-families

A major factor in lower poverty rates is the availability of affordable housing. See this:

SNP Government builds affordable/social housing at almost twice the rate of Tories in England