August 23rd – August 29th, 2025
Are Grangemouth Funds a Mirage? Tree Planting Won’t End the Climate Crisis; but first …
Don’t Do Anything Odd at Work – You May be on Drugs
Highland Council has announced it may implement ‘with cause’ drug testing at workplaces. Clackmannanshire Council has already been trialling ‘with cause’ tests in order to protect the authority from reputational damage, saying they will support staff found ‘guilty’. This is not unusual for organisations, but there seems to be quite a low bar to trigger a test. Several things would qualify you. If you ‘have slurred speech’, it may be an indication of alcohol problems, which is fair enough, but ‘erratic or unusual behaviour’ or a complaint from another member of staff are more problematic.
Don’t dare have an off day when you are at work. Best behaviour at all times.
Edinburgh Council Bans Arms Company Testing
The council has officially banned arms companies and weapons manufacturers from testing their equipment in …. public parks. Arms firm Leonardo had previously been testing equipment in the Braid Hills area of Edinburgh. Worryingly, Labour, Conservative and LibDem councillors voted against implementing a ban, with the SNP and Greens voting in favour.
Better Together (1) …
Grangemouth ‘boost’ still unpaid
The UK is under pressure to deliver a promised £200 million boost for Grangemouth to transition to green energy production, but none of it has yet appeared. The UK government says it is still considering options. And although the UK refused to intervene to help Grangemouth, they are helping English refineries. But never fear, there is £2 million to help more than 300 redundant Grangemouth workers access advice and training, with Forth Valley College stepping up to provide the skills. One question. Why wait till after the refinery closure to retrain workers? Many have already left Scotland.
Better Together (2)
Job applicants are depressingly used to Scottish Higher Qualifications being classed as ‘other’ when applying for jobs in other countries, but it appears now they are also ‘other’ to the UK Civil Service, which you would have hoped would recognise that Scotland’s education system is distinct, of high quality and predates the union. Scottish Vocational Qualifications fare better and are recognised as such.
When challenged on the matter, the UK Cabinet Office said they are working to update their processes. Better late than never..
Energy Import Dependency
Wonder how the Just Transition is going? Energy import dependency stood at 47% of total in the first quarter of this year, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), with domestic energy production between January and April this year being 25% lower than 2019. Scotland has lost on average 37 oil and gas jobs every day, and trade association Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) pointed out the obvious, that issuing no new oil and gas exploration licences makes the UK more reliant on oil and gas imports.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) says the ‘balanced path’ towards net zero will mean the UK produces only 4 billion of the 13-15 billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent (boe) it will need from 2025-2050, resulting in lost jobs, lost tax revenues and, ironically, an increased carbon footprint due to transportation of imported oil and gas. Already the number of direct and supply chain jobs in North Sea oil and gas has nearly halved since 2013, from nearly 118,000 to nearly 61,000 jobs in 2023, and previous ‘oil capital’ Aberdeen is being hollowed out with the emigration of former oil workers.
Center Parcs wants to limit ‘right-to-roam’
The planned new Center Parc holiday village just north of Hawick has applied to Scottish Borders Council to be exempted from Scotland’s right to roam legislation. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 enshrines a responsible right of access across Scotland, exemptions allow for privacy around homes. A report to SBC on 21st August concluded that there is an ‘exceptional case’ for a by-law to restrict the right of access at Huntlaw and Muirfield Farm. If granted, there will follow a consultation period and consent may eventually be sought from Scottish ministers.
Hearing Assessments Way Off Track
Waits for audiology assessments are exceeding 600 days for many people. The National Deaf Children’s Society, The Royal National Institute for Deaf People and Alliance Scotland have written to Public Health Minister Jenni Minto, saying a review of audiology services two years ago had identified ‘multiple systemic problems’, including questions on the quality of testing very young people. Of 50 recommendations made in 2023, only 23 were complete by the end of 2024; 15 are in current work plans; and 17 have been realigned, meaning other work must be completed first.
The quality of auditory brainstem response testing (ABR) was beset with issues at every health board in Scotland, and many newborn referrals did not meet statutory targets.
Poor hearing in adults is known to be linked to the risk of developing dementia. One patient in Grampian waited 3 and a half years for hearing loss treatment; two Scots patients waited 160 and 165 weeks respectively; and another waited 175 weeks in 2022.
NHS Lothian misdiagnosed many children as being not deaf, which was corrected after an outcry, but misdiagnosis delays further treatment which may be crucial.
Live Facial Recognition
Police Scotland is being urged by Amnesty International, Liberty and others to immediately abandon plans announced last week to work towards introducing facial recognition software. Concerns exist around the technology’s legality, its accuracy and the discriminatory impact of disproportionately higher inaccuracy when identifying women and persons of colour. South Wales Police were found by the Court of Appeal in 2019 to have acted unlawfully and violated human rights. They are alleged to breach the right to peaceful assembly and expression, with the Equality and Human Rights Commission warning recently that the use of live facial recognition was unlawful. There is no over-arching legislation governing it, meaning each police force decides for itself.
Should Baillie Gifford be Boycotted?
More than 500 artists, performers and audience members have called for the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) to cut ties with investment firm Baillie Gifford over its alleged connection to Gaza ‘genocide’. The Edinburgh International Book Festival cut its 20-year partnership with Baillie Gifford last year over its alleged connections to Israel and fossil fuel firms, amid activist threats to disrupt the event. The Wigtown Book Festival and Borders Book Festival similarly ended their relationship with Baillie Gifford. Perhaps they should pay back the sponsorship they were paid in previous years.
Edinburgh International Festival have so far refused to end their links with the firm.
Call to Revoke the Freedom of the City over Calton Massacre
Councillor Matt Kerr is calling for the revocation of the 1787 award to Lieutenant Colonel William Kellett, who was sent to break up a strike by the Calton Weavers over a proposed 20% cut in wages, but who opened fire on the crowd without first reading the Riot Act, killing 3 immediately, and 3 who died later. Kellett and Major Vere Poullet were both awarded the Freedom of the City, with other officers given dinner at the Tontine Tavern; and the troops got new shoes and stockings.
After the American revolt in 1775, the tobacco trade declined, with sugar, coffee, rum, tea, brandy and cotton exports from Glasgow bringing £15 million to the city (£2.3 billion in today’s money). The cost of living rose by 130%, but average wages increased by only 60%, and when the East India Company imported cheap muslin which undercut Scottish cloth, Scottish workers were told to take a huge pay cut.
The third annual Commemoration of the Calton Weavers will be held at Calton Burial Ground from 2 pm on 31st August.
Scotgov Money on the Hook
The Scottish government guarantee of £586 million for Liberty Steel, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, to buy Dalzell steelworks in Lanarkshire and the aluminium plant at Lochaber in 2016, is looking increasingly perilous. The UK government has taken control of a subsidiary of the group, Speciality Steels UK (SSUK), after insolvency courts granted a compulsory winding-up order sought by creditors, and Alvance British Aluminium, owner of the Lochaber smelter, had a notice for compulsory strike-off issued on July 29th, although it was halted a day later. Dalzell workers have been furloughed but the Scottish government remains tight-lipped as to whether the public investment will be lost. Accounts for Dalzell and the Lochaber plant have not been filed, but the Scottish government maintains Dalzell and Lochaber are not directly affected.
Tree-Planting Won’t Solve the Climate Crisis
Professor Caroline Lehmann of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and lead author Csaba Tolgyesi of Hungary’s University of Szeged claim in a new report in Nature Geosciences Journal that we are putting too much faith in tree planting for carbon-offsetting. More realistic modelling of projected outcomes has found that ecosystem restoration has ‘barely any measurable effect on atmospheric carbon concentrations’, with even the greenest options only capturing 17% of human emissions by 2100, and ‘business-as-usual’ only reducing them by 4%.
Finally,
The HALO Trust
Scottish charity The HALO Trust is working to de-mine Ukrainian land and bring it back into safe, productive use. So far almost 7000 explosive devices have been destroyed over 1.82 million square metres of land in Chernihiv region, which was liberated 3 years ago, but remained out of limits due to the level of mine contamination.
Ukraine is the most mined country in the world, with the Ukraine government estimating that an area larger than Greece still needs to be surveyed, 1.71 million square metres in all. There have been almost 1500 civilian mine casualties since 2022.
HALO is based in Thornhill, near Dumfries, was founded in 1988 and employs 58 staff in Scotland and 8,700 worldwide. Drone technology and AI is crucial to their work. The UK government has paid £12.9 million to HALO Ukraine, such is the importance of clearing agricultural land to enable production of corn, wheat, sunflower oil and other agricultural products to resume, help stabilise the global food market and make life safer for ordinary Ukrainians.