October 25th – October 31st, 2025
Ewing Demands Inquiry into ScotWind leases farce; Police Scotland keep Non-Crime Hate Incidents; Calton Drugs Controversy; ….. but first ….
‘Secret Briefings’ for SNP ministers
The legal team working for Sandie Peggie has uncovered confidential correspondence between NHS Fife and the Scottish government which gave details of her occupational health appointments and other employment matters, including NHS Fife’s account of events surrounding the ongoing employment tribunal. NHS Fife says in the documents that Peggie should have de-escalated her complaint; they suggest involving the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which could have de-registered her; and justified its actions against her by saying (eventually) that she was ‘entitled to her belief that Dr Upton is male’ but she didn’t say it nicely!
The board was going to demand she undergo a ‘facilitated reflective practice discussion’ of her decision-making during the changing room incident, to be recorded for her next midwifery council revalidation. Incredibly they also said she should have considered other options HR policies. But she had raised the matter on numerous occasions prior to the Christmas Eve confrontation. Peggie’s solicitor has demanded that Fife Health Board must explain why they divulged personal details about her unredacted and without her consent.
Neither the Scottish government nor NHS Fife were prepared to comment.
The Cameron Barracks
Not only will Inverness’ Cameron Barracks be housing 300 asylum seekers, it will be getting a £1.3 million makeover beforehand. But this is causing disquiet among service personnel in dilapidated military quarters which are not being repaired.
Some residents feel their city will no longer be ‘quiet and peaceful’ and that a large and sudden influx of people will have a huge adverse impact on local services, but how long before they are called ‘racists’? And why can’t we house the homeless in Cameron Barracks and other such buildings? Why do local people seem forgotten?
‘Just Transition’ not training enough Skilled Workers
The Babcock-owned shipyard in Rosyth, widely tipped to secure a £1 billion contract for four frigates for the Danish Navy, has been forced to recruit hundreds of Filipino welders, citing a lack of local skills due to colleges not offering such courses due to real-terms cuts in further education college expenditure in Scotland. The Babcock yard is also one of the final bidders for a Swedish navy contract for up to seven Type 31 ships, with the yard currently building similar ships for the Royal Navy.
The Scottish government is said to have refused to back a dedicated welding centre, with trade shortages of electricians, engineers, mechanics, plumbers and others going unmet, and is still implacably opposed to anything to do with nuclear energy. But they countered that they are transforming the post-school skills system and taking targeted action to meet urgent skills demands, with over 14,000 full-time equivalent college students on engineering courses.
A ‘Grangemouth every two weeks’
Richard Hardy, national secretary for Scotland and Ireland of the trade union Prospect, said he saw nothing of a Just Transition at Grangemouth. And he is on the Scottish government’s Just Transition Commission. Hardy says Grangemouth refinery was the only Scottish site capable of producing sustainable aviation fuel, production of which is now much less likely in Scotland.
Grangemouth may just be the start of many such losses, according to the Striking the Balance report by Robert Gordon University, which predicted there could be Grangemouth-level future job losses every two weeks by the summer. A number of job losses have been announced by contractors at Mossmorran, and North Sea platform company Petrofac has just filed for administration, putting 2000 Scottish jobs under threat.
Hardy says the impact was not so great at Port Talbot Steel and Alexander Dennis bus manufacturer, solely due to state intervention, which the Scottish and UK governments refused for Grangemouth. He despairingly describes Grangemouth as a blueprint of ‘How not to do a Just Transition’. Research by the STUC has shown 1 job created per £1 million investment in wind compared to up to 13.4 jobs per £1 million in fossil fuel industries.
From Alba to Your Party
Former UK ambassador Craig Murray, one of the leading lights in Scotland’s UN attempt at decolonisation, has rather surprisingly defected to UK party Your Party after being blocked from running for Alba possibly due to a contempt of court conviction and jail sentence, or possibly because he stood last year for George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain in the most recent UK elections. And despite Your Party having no stance on Scottish independence, former Scottish Green Ellie Gomersall is convinced they are the BEST party to secure Scottish independence. Really? Based on what?
Some of their new colleagues in Your Party are not so happy, accusing Murray and fellow Alba defector Hugh Kerr of transphobia when they were in Alba. Murray countered by saying he ‘has always supported gender self-ID’. Kerr said he is not transphobic but supports single-sex spaces for women. So fun and games to come, then.
Trees Planted to Stop Rest and Be Thankful landslips
400,000 of them to be exact, in the slopes over the road. Transport Scotland has purchased land and planted 160,000 native species of trees. Forestry and Land Scotland has planted 241,500 native trees including downy birch, aspen, oak, blackthorn, hawthorn, alder, hazel, juniper and Scots pine, but it will obviously take time to take root.
Is Calton Mayhem exaggerated?
Health Secretary Neil Gray is once more under fire to apologise after an official briefing prepared for him included the claim that local Calton residents have spread misinformation about the Thistle Drug Consumption Room, that community meetings have been ‘orchestrated by those who were always opposed to the project’, and that some information was incorrect and just stoked ill-feeling. Officials are not keen on descriptions portraying the area as a war zone, with increasing numbers of discarded syringes and street dealing, but the Scottish government has managed to dispel these concerns. And despite a 13% fall in the number of drug fatalities, Scotland remains the drugs death capital of Europe for the seventh year running.
What is going on at HES?
Allegations include power struggles, complaints about the behaviour of senior staff, allegations of racism, misuse of hospitality and twerking Martin Compston! The twerking incident occurred at an Edinburgh Castle event, involving an unnamed senior HES leader who was drunk at the time. The complaint was upheld, but the punishment was not disclosed. Historic Environment Scotland continues to get funding of £74 million from the Scottish government, and can raise extra revenue by imposing visitor charges and increasing sales. It can keep underspends of its government revenue, which in 2023/24 was £500,000, useful to tackle the backlog of building repairs costing £843 million.
Sir Mark Jones has been appointed as the new chair, and a new Chief Operating Officer will be appointed for 6 months to address ‘the challenges facing the organisation’. Outgoing HES chair Dr Hugh Hall, who stepped down in August, said the organisation is ‘in complete meltdown’
For Women Scotland
Susan Smith of FWS has been offered a Recorded Police Warning (RPW) for damaging a counter-protestor’s umbrella at a recent Holyrood rally, despite that it may already have been broken. An RPW was all that one male got when he punched a female at a gender-critical rally at Aberdeen. Are the two on a par? Part of Susan’s frustration came from the fact that Police Scotland did nothing to stop a very disruptive and provocative counter-protest by a very loud trans supporter at the Holyrood rally. After an outcry, Police Scotland is said to be reconsidering the RPW for Smith.
Police Scotland to Keep Non-Crime Hate Incidents
Despite the Metropolitan Police’s decision to abandon recording Non-crime Hate Incidents, Police Scotland is doubling down, saying they have always recorded them. From April 2023 to March 2024, 1331 NCHIs were logged in Scotland, falling to 912 from April 2024 to March 2025. But it is extremely worrying that politically-charged ‘incidents’ seem to be used just to build up ‘intelligence’ on people.
Ewing Demands ScotWind Probe
A report by Future Economy Scotland co-director Laurie Macfarlane into the ScotWind lease sale said the leases were sold off on the cheap due to an arbitrary price cap, there was nothing to encourage investment in Scotland’s supply chain, with weak penalties ranging from £50,000 to £250,000, and three quarters of the companies involved having headquarters outside the UK. He says the country’s energy riches have been squandered again and places the fault squarely at the feet of Crown Estate Scotland.
He says the next round of leases, due in the next decade, should do the opposite of last time – not set artificial price ceilings, take a public equity stake, incentivise using the domestic supply chain and impose mandatory fair work conditions.
It is said the initial round could have raised between £3.5 billion and £28 billion, prompting former SNP Minister Fergus Ewing to call on Audit Scotland to stage a full independent review.
Finally,
The Dumbarton Witches
Today’s children celebrate Hallowe’en by dressing up and scaring each other, but historically Scotland and other countries were riven by genuine ‘witch hunts’ against mostly ‘troublesome’ women or those who had property someone else wanted. Or they were a handy scapegoat for natural disasters totally out of their control. If someone was accused of witchcraft, that person had a very short life expectancy.
Scotland’s execution rate for witches was five times the European average. Signs of witchcraft apparently included not attending church, talking to animals or even just being a loner or a bit odd. Scottish witches were strangled or burned, tortured with sleep deprivation and thumbscrews and dragged through the streets naked with heads shaved to ‘trials’ that decided their fate.
West Dunbartonshire Council is liaising with Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland to instal a fitting memorial to them.