September 20th – September 26th, 2025
Special Needs Provision Faltering; Are the Islanders an Afterthought? Is ScotGov’s Marine Plan ‘duping the public’? ….. but first ……
1000 GB Energy jobs turn into …. 29
After all the hype about 1000 jobs being created through GB Energy, it turns out that there are currently only 69 employees in total, only 13 of whom (18%) are based in Aberdeen, with only 42% over the whole of Scotland, whereas 31 are employed in London (45% of the total). That is even worse than the admission earlier this year that the 1000 promised jobs could take 20 years to appear. Other staff are dotted singly around the UK.
But the firm is still promising ‘up to 300 people’ in Aberdeen in the next five years. As SNP Energy spokesman Graham Leadbitter pointed out, it is scant return for the £400 billion sent over the years to London from Scotland’s energy.
Community Orchards Stripped Bare
An unusual problem has developed with the increasing presence of community orchards, with the sheer scale of some thefts wiping out any money made, even just to cover costs, and some involving wholesale thefts. Some people just take an apple or two, others come with 4-wheel drive vehicles or vans, and spades to dig up trees.
Some orchards are intended to bring back varieties which used to be common in Scotland. If the orchards are on public land, anyone has access under the ‘Right to Roam’ and no-one taking one or two apples will face any consequences.
One huge theft at National Trust for Scotland property The Pineapple at Airth, Stirlingshire, saw an entire orchard of 40 young trees dug up and removed by thieves.
Are Islanders the Priority or is Ferguson Marine?
Fiona Hyslop seemed to suggest that the islanders’ needs for livelihoods and long-term sustainability must prevail over Ferguson Marine’s desire for a direct award of a contract to replace CalMac ferry MV Lord of the Isles. She fears the direct award of a ferry contract would fall foul of procurement rules and subsidy controls. And although the ‘social value’ of contracts is included in the tendering process, it is not actually weighted or scored.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has claimed that his party would have all buses, ferries and infrastructure built in Scotland. Honest.
Unjust Compensation Scheme
Six Hebridean islands have lodged a formal protest to the Scottish government about the £4.4 million scheme aimed at compensating islanders for years of ferry disruption. The six islands – Mull, Iona, Coll, Tiree, Islay and Jura – say the stringent criteria set by the Scottish government ‘breaches the Islands (Scotland) Act of 2018. The scheme can only be accessed by businesses in Arran, North and South Uist, Benbecula, Berneray, Grimsay, Eriskay and Colonsay, which Mull and the others say is unfair.
The eligible threshold is to have suffered 15% of service cancellations between 2022 and 2024, but has effectively excluded the majority of islands served by CalMac. Islanders feel the cancellation level reported is inaccurate as CalMac excludes from the figures services cancelled in advance. For example, Islay and Jura say the timetable looks like all scheduled services are running, but one of their ferries is not running at all, i.e. 50% of their ferries is out of commission.
Mull Community Council said its usual ferry was replaced with a much smaller one, reducing passenger and car capacity, and for four months vehicle capacity was cut by 33%, and passenger capacity by 80%.
The Scottish government said it carried out an impact assessment, but under the Islands Act it must consult with islands over policies and strategies BEFORE any material change to policy, strategy or service’ is made, with ‘robust community engagement’, which islanders claim is missing.
Farcical Rural Bus Timetable
The new Saturday and school holiday timetable between Glentrool and Newton Stewart in Dumfries-shire requires shoppers to be extremely fleet of foot. After arriving in Newton Stewart on the first bus to have left Glentrool, they have five whole minutes to do all their shopping and chores before the LAST bus leaves Newton Stewart to go back to Glentrool. That’s without trying to arrange appointments with the doctor or just socialise, or visit the International Dark Sky Park.
The farcical situation has already cost Galloway Forest Holiday Park visitors, and local residents say it will have a damaging social impact on the community. The Scottish government could only say that all involved in the timetable must urgently find a solution which means rural residents are not effectively cut off.
Scotgov Marine Plan is ‘Duping the Public’
So says Howard Wood, winner of the international Goldman environmental award, accusing the Scottish government of ‘duping the public’. The government is seeking to plant seagrass and oysters, but is studiously ignoring the most damaging fishing activities which are dredging and bottom-trawling, which Marine Protected Areas still allow. But the Scottish government consultation paper still claims that dredging and bottom-trawling are being dealt with in the MPA and other measures. Howard Wood points to Arran’s No-Take Zone in Lamlash Bay as a real MPA, where the seabed is now showing strong signs of recovery, and is calling on the government to take note.
MoD refuses Nuclear Enquiry
Following a debate on nuclear safety concerns at Faslane and Coulport, MSP Bill Kidd obtained the backing of 28 other MSPs to debate the matter fully, although it was not voted on due to the technicality of being debated after decision time. A Freedom of Information enquiry lasting 6 years finally revealed that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) stated the Royal Navy failed to properly maintain 1500 pipes at Coulport, which hosts the nuclear warheads for Trident submarines. It also revealed a Category A nuclear incident at Faslane earlier this year. Kidd demanded an enquiry from the UK Government and Holyrood’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee. The UK merely stated there is a ‘robust safety culture’ in place, without showing any evidence of it.
Techscaler Success Mirage?
A favourite project of Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and backed by £42 million of Scottish government money, allegations are swirling of money being wasted, with little success. It was supposed to create a national network of business hubs and tech entrepreneurs, with part of the remit being to fly budding entrepreneurs out to places like Silicon Valley and Singapore, but these often turned into nothing more than holidays, with little organisation and less accountability. Some participants were hand-picked to attend, rather than having to go through a rigorous process; some were not actual investors or innovators; others appeared to participate little during the visit, treating it more like a holiday.
Questions surround the choice of attendees, with some being marketing officers who would gain little from meeting with international leaders. They were apparently last-minute substitutes for the founders themselves. Meanwhile, the Scottish government claimed the Techscaler programme had supported 1,300 new businesses.
Homelessness Breaches Rocket
Despite laws requiring councils to provide accommodation for all those unintentionally homeless, councils have breached the requirement over 40,000 times in the last 8 years, almost half in the last year, without any penalty. In the last year, 34,067 households were either homeless or threatened with homelessness. Glasgow Council Leader Susan Aitken blamed the UK’s decision to speed up asylum decisions for the rise in numbers moving from asylum seeking to homelessness status, and is forecasting a £66 million homelessness bill next year.
Special Needs Provision Faltering
(1)Surprise Closure of New Struan
Scottish Autism, which runs New Struan School in Alloa, has just announced it will be closing altogether in June 2026. The much-reduced pupil roll will further reduce to 3 pupils next year, and it is no longer financially viable. It appears to be due in large part to the reluctance of local authorities to sign off (and finance) children in their area attending a school which may be much better suited to their needs but is also much more expensive.
(2)Falkirk currently consulting on changing ASN provision
Falkirk’s current 15 Primary Enhanced Provision teams support around 281 pupils, but proposals currently being considered would ‘redistribute support more evenly’ across all 47 of its primary schools. They say it would allow pupils to stay home and attend their local area school, reducing travel time and increasing access to support, but parents are doubtful. The consultation is open until 27th October 2025.
12-hour A&E waits ‘blamed for deaths’
Long waits in A&E caused the deaths of a third more people last year over the year before, with 818 people dying as a direct result of staying 12 hours or more in A&E, an increase of 202 deaths over the previous 12 months. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) blamed a lack of resources and staff, with not enough emergency consultants in Scotland’s A&Es, and planned retirements will increase the problem over the next five years without some action from government.
Health Secretary Neil Gray said his focus was to move away from the need for acute care and on better provision in community care, which doesn’t really answer the question.
Property Checks Abandoned
The Scottish government working group on building and fire safety was established in 2017 to oversee building safety in the wake of the Grenfell Tower Fire Disaster in London, where 72 people died, and as many were left seriously injured. The checking of construction and fire safety in high-rise buildings was meant to be carried out annually, but the working group headed by social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has quietly abandoned the plan.
Over 230 Scottish residential blocks were built using Large Panel System (LPS) concrete, a method linked to structural weakness and increased risks if not checked and reinforced if necessary. Even ‘normal’ events like gas blasts, fire, a vehicle impact or strong wind can impact the panels’ integrity.
Repairs on dangerous cladding have hit a standstill in Scotland, with only 11% of the money sent by the UK government under Barnett Consequentials having been spent on remediation works. Up to 1500 tower blocks may need remediation work, but so far only TWO have been made safe. The Scottish government said the High-Rise Inventory was no longer required as it did not vary much from year to year.
It all looks like safety requirements are slipping. What is keeping residents in high-rise blocks safe? A wing and a prayer?
Finally,
Rent a House for the 2027 Open
Here is the ideal one for all budgets…. A five-bedroom townhouse in Murray Park, a couple of miles from the St Andrews course, a snip at £57,388 for the week July 11 – July 18, 2027! True, the price is a little inflated by Airbnb’s service charge of £8,313, but all Airbnb could say about the rest of the cost was that hosts determine and set their own prices. And on other weeks it seems the hosts are only asking just over £4K for the townhouse.
The house ought to stay empty till the price is reduced A LOT, but greed and one-upmanship dictates it will not. The price is so outrageous it even makes the average £5K a week for houses in Open weeks elsewhere look positively frugal.
Another American import – ‘dynamic pricing’, or as others call it, ‘price-gouging’. Isn’t it illegal? If it isn’t, it should be.
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