October 4th – October 10th, 2025
Should Future Scotland Be in NATO? Sandie Peggie Tribunal Chaos; Mixed Card on Health Outcomes; but first …
Scotland should NOT be for Sale
It’s good news for some, of course, including Equilibrium Futures, who urged the Edinburgh Finance Festival to ‘less doom and more boom’ recently. Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf listened enthralled as contributors urged Scotland’s green transition to be entrusted to market forces.
The Scottish government was an ‘anchor partner’ at the EFF, along with ‘event partners’ NatWest Group; the City of London; and the Aberdeen Group which has $518 billion under management.
The green boom does not bode well for Scotland. ‘Green’ freeports are nothing of the sort, and will take money out of the freeport areas and the local coffers, not make them richer. Lorna Slater brought in a £2 billion nature restoration deal, with most of it to come from private investors.
Are the ‘Big Four’ an extension of government?
The Scottish government is keen on outsourcing things it should be doing in-house, like formulating a National Care Service, developing rewilding policies without paying Brewdog and others millions to further their self-serving policies. Some argue that the £158million Scotland has spent on private accountancy firms KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC (the ‘Big Four’) makes them effectively a privatised extension of the state.
Scotland’s Future NOT in Scotland’s hands
Not taken by England/rUK, but given away by the Scottish government itself. In recent years, we have seen the ScotWind auction in 2022 hand Scotland’s renewables future to private investors and other nations’ governments for a song. The Scottish government still claims it cannot set up a Scottish Energy Company. Grangemouth refinery closed with a whimper from the Scottish government, not a bang; merely an encouragement from Neil Gray that redundant workers ‘should not be too despondent’.
Land ownership is still the most concentrated in western Europe – fewer than 450 individuals own or control 50% of Scotland’s countryside.
Scotland’s asset-stripping was clearly the fault of Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s. Now those giving Scotland away seem to be its own government.
How Should Future Scotland Defend itself?
The Scottish government has published its proposed policies for defence in an independent Scotland. Its priorities are joining NATO, committing to the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy and building a ‘collaborative, mutually-beneficial defence and security relationship’ with the UK and other strategic partners.
This sounds reasonable, given that the Global Peace Index 2025 states that the international order is approaching a tipping point with a confluence of rising economic problems and widespread rearmament and local crises creating the conditions for large scale conflict and economic destruction.
It is likely that after Scottish independence, Scotland will need to be in a security alliance like NATO; some are adamant we must not. What about a common trade and travel area?
Would a local international alliance (not federalism) be acceptable to all parties, where each retained sovereignty, were independent and crucially each nation had a veto? Would it be workable? Would Scotland want it? Would we keep Trident?
Angus Pylon Decision ‘within a year’
SSEN Transmission has submitted a section 37 consent application to the Scottish government for a key component of its £22 billion overhead line between Kintore, Aberdeenshire, and Tealing, Angus. Following 40 consultation events, opposition is still strong, despite what SSEN claim are significant changes which it has made to its previous plans, although local people say SSEN have not really engaged with them, and have even belittled the few objections they have listened to.
Objections have included the impact on the White and Brown Caterthun hillforts, revered for centuries as a focal point for military gatherings and burials, but which would both be surrounded with power lines to the north and south.
SSEN has lodged hard copies of the Environmental Impact Assessment and supporting documents at Angus House, Orchardbank Business Park, Forfar; Fintry Library, Dundee; Mearns Community Library at Aberdeen Road, Laurencekirk; and Stonehaven Library. Or you can lodge your views via email to representations@gov.scot; or by post to the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit, 4th floor, 5 Atlantic Quay, 150 Broomielaw, Glasgow G2 8LU.
Swinney ID-card hypocrisy
Fresh from slamming Kier Starmer’s plans for a national ID-card, First Minister John Swinney is under fire for the Scottish government’s rollout of the ScotAccount, which bears much the same features as the one they are criticising. ScotAccount creates an electronic profile and is being trialled as a means of accessing a limited number of public services, which would in time extend to accessing services like health and benefits.
The Scottish government could only say that the ScotAccount is not mandatory. Not yet.
19,000 Scots waiting for cataract ops
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists have tried without success to meet up with Health Secretary Neil Gray to discuss the matter, and are calling for more urgency from the Scottish government, given that untreated eye conditions can lead to irreversible sight loss like complex glaucoma or wet age-related macular degeneration.
The waiting list for an outpatient ophthalmologist has risen by 158% over 5 years to total 70,000 patients now waiting for a first appointment.
The long waits have prompted those who can afford it to go private for surgery, with 8,500 paying approximately £2,500 for surgery last year, double the 2019 figures.
But better news for Stroke patients
The Scottish government has made £1.9 million available to support the deployment of ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG) patch monitors for 8000 recent stroke patients a year. Research has shown that this could prevent 689 secondary strokes and 319 deaths over a five-year period.
The devices are worn for up to 14 days to detect rhythm abnormalities in the heart, especially atrial fibrillation, which is a leading cause of stroke. The patches can be applied during diagnosis or sent out to people at their homes, reducing travel times and regional disparities in outcome.
What have Musselburgh and Brechin got in Common?
Answer – Floods. Brechin in Angus has still not recovered from Storm Babet in October 2023, which caused the river South Esk to rise over 20 feet. Flood defences which had been recently upgraded were still not enough to save River Street and its housing, including the Bridgend Bar.
Now, ruined council housing will be demolished, and the river wall will be raised yet again. But it is not always clear who is responsible when flooding hits. Councils liaise with Scottish Canals and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), but after Storm Babet help was slow to arrive from the Scottish government, although Angus Council provided help.
Montrose, on the Angus coast, looks to dune restoration and beach maintenance and recharge to protect it, but residents say the sand is being eroded and not replaced, despite rocks being set up to reinforce the beach; the dunes are also being eroded, creating corridors which could end up channelling water into the town instead of keeping it out.
And Musselburgh in East Lothian has plans for a £54 million flood prevention scheme, but such is the strength of objections (481 in all), if East Lothian Council does not vote against it, the Scottish government will have to step in. Objections include the rising cost; the plan to build high concrete walls along the River Esk, which will visually impact the town’s green spaces and damage the environment.
The original cost of the scheme was £8 million, which it is estimated may well rise to over £200 million, and may only be resolved with a public inquiry.
Green Targets Risk a Worse Rental Crisis
The Scottish Property Federation, which represents landlords, developers, investors and agents, has warned that energy-efficiency targets to be brought into the private rented sector may force landlords out, and is appealing to the government to push back the deadline to give landlords more time to make improvements. The Heat in Buildings Bill, due to be presented in Holyrood by the end of this year, sets a 2028 target of C for Energy Performance Certificates for new lettings and by 2033 for all existing lets.
The SPF is calling for a new deadline of 2030 instead of 2028 for new lettings.
Finally,
‘Accidental Oasis’ Swans Relocated
The SSPCA have relocated a family of swans from Edinburgh’s Western Harbour after their home was reduced to a small muddy pool. They are now in Blackford Pond, which will help the four cygnets develop and learn to fly. Prior to their evacuation, local people had provided food and water to the swans.
Their previous habitat at Western Harbour accidentally became a thriving wetland following its abandonment by developers after the 2008 financial crash. Now the developers are eyeing up the property again to the dismay of local people who are enjoying the nature and greenspace which sprouted up in ditches dug before the building project was abandoned.