Enquiring minds focus on far north renewables

I WAS delighted to encourage a cross-party group from the Scottish Parliament to visit Orkney and Caithness earlier this week.

As vice-convener of the economy, energy and tourism committee I was able to introduce MSPs from further south to the huge opportunities and challenges of the marine renewable sector in the Far North as part of the wide-ranging energy enquiry that our committee is drawing up for debate in Parliament this June.

The challenges of the Pentland Firth were underlined by the raging weather we experienced.

Some weaker tummies were severely challenged on the Stromness to Scrabster ferry on Monday afternoon.

This only underlines the conditions that will have to be catered for by wave and tidal machines and the infrastructure to support them in such stormy seas.

As ever, the various strengths on each side of the firth need to be harnessed to achieve the marine renewables revolution.

At EMEC in Stromness the can-do attitudes for building and testing the machines that are tethered to the seabed was evident.

Equally, Scrabster harbour, the Environmental Research Institute in Thurso and NES Engineering in Bower all show what eager industry leaders want to achieve.

They all want us to develop and build this new technology in Caithness, based on our huge engineering heritage from Dounreay.

They also see the ground-breaking work in tidal and wave research off Orkney as a complimentary component of the drive for success.

However, MSPs were given pause for thought when issues about regulation of the firth were touched on.

Between Scrabster trust port and Scapa Flow port, controlled by Orkney Islands Council, there is a huge sea area managed for navigation purposes by the Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

The last of these is a reserved body responsible to Westminster.

That means London rules the waves. They were not in evidence to give a view to our European-level development potential.

The Scottish Parliament's enquiry will have to highlight these split responsibilities.

Also the self-interested role of the Crown Estate Commission, which rents the seabed to ports, offshore equipment, and which reports to the Treasury in London.

With devolution we have a halfway house.

We need to have more certainty over governance issues to create a single marine agency to oversee the Pentland Firth and Scapa Flow potential as a high priority.

The MSPs' visit to the Far North will feed genuine opinions and opportunities that affect the whole of Scotland and our clean, secure energy future.

*

LAST week BT announced that it was to implement super-fast broadband to areas including Edinburgh and Glasgow.

However, it seems that remote and rural areas will have to wait.

The news came on the day that the European Council of Ministers, as part of their economic recovery plan, agreed to make money available to programmes which will focus on promoting broadband and energy projects.

A roll-out of 40 megabyte broadband in Glasgow is all very well and good, but what about people in the Wick or north-west Sutherland postcode area who are still reliant on dial-up and reduced to speeds of half a megabyte. This hardly seems fair.

BT needs to commit itself to parity of service across the country for internet provision as opposed to the system which it currently adopts which severely hampers those in remote and rural areas.

I understand that high-speed broadband will be charged at a higher rate if you receive that rate.

Conversely those receiving woeful speeds should be charged for the actual speed they receive.

It is clear that the EU Council of Ministers highly values improved internet links as a way to get out of recession.

Subject to agreement of the European Parliament, it is making millions of euros available to help broadband projects across the member states.

These recovery packages will need to be underpinned by the cash-strapped Scottish Government.

BT also needs to help or else Scotland will lose out on a chance to narrow the wide gulf between broadband provision in remote areas and urban ones.

In my recent consultation on broadband in the Highlands and Orkney, it became clear that broadband provision is patchy and fairly unreliable, even in the outskirts of Wick.

As it is stands it is a real disincentive to people with businesses to stay in the area.

There are many strands which make up a desirable community to live in but broadband provision is fast becoming a dominant strand.

It is now time to make absolutely sure that parity is achieved throughout Scotland.

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MY constituency assistant in the Wick office has begun work on a very important campaign on my behalf.

It will find out what we can do to cut down on the number of young people who are killed or injured on our roads every year in the Highland region.

Although work is in the early stages at the moment, we are starting to gather evidence and are building up a picture of what to do.

By involving the Institute of Advanced Motorists, the police, insurance companies and young people, we hope to have a meeting in the near future to discuss how we can proceed.

Some insurance companies already give young people the incentive of reduced premiums if they have taken the Pass Plus or their advanced driving test, but more sustained work over a longer period of time needs to be done.

It will fit in well with the road safety strategy being worked up by the transport minister Stewart Stevenson who I questioned on March 12 on this subject.

Also, I know it will be warmly welcomed by all my constituents, several of whom have come to surgeries in despair after a fatality has robbed us of another young life.

Eventually we would like to run a pilot scheme with some young people in the area to actually see the benefits and prove to young people that it's cool to be safe.

Earth Hour 2009

Motion debated:

That the Parliament supports WWF's Earth Hour 2009, which aims to encourage millions of people worldwide and across Scotland to switch off their lights for an hour at 8.30 pm on Saturday 28 March 2009, to send a powerful global message that we care enough about climate change to take action and demonstrate widespread public support for an equitable, binding and scientifically credible global deal on climate change and, in Scotland, strong Scottish climate change legislation; considers that 2009 is a critical year for action on climate change with a new global deal to be agreed in Copenhagen in December; acknowledges the opportunity for Scotland to take a global lead with the most progressive legislation in the world through a strong Climate Change (Scotland) Bill; recognises that the global deal must address the historical responsibility of the United Kingdom and other developed countries as major contributors to climate change; commends local government in Edinburgh alongside the many individuals who are early signatories to support WWF's Earth Hour in Scotland, and further considers that the Scottish and UK governments are in an ideal position to take a proactive, progressive and leading role throughout the 2009 negotiations.

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): I congratulate Shirley-Anne Somerville on bringing the debate to the chamber. I fully support the protest of switching off the lights for earth hour in 2009, and for every year until we make it happen for real by turning the economy round to become a carbon-saving economy…...

Earth hour will be difficult to illustrate—we will really only be able to tell that there is a shroud of darkness by looking at the earth from outer space. The famous photographs that show where the earth is lit up at night ought to show far less of that if earth hour succeeds. I hope that we can get some images to show how successful it is as we go along.

Earth hour, on Saturday night at 8.30 pm, will bring other opportunities. Some people will not necessarily be watching the football—indeed, there might be some surprise candlelit dinners for two, or for many more. That would be a good thing to do—and I did not mention the idea of candlelight for nothing. In the past, candles were made from beeswax, and part of the biodiversity of the planet involves ensuring that there are bees left to make that wax in the future.

In celebrating our earth hour, it might be a good idea for us to ensure that we remember how those things are all connected—perhaps a candlelit dinner would be a good celebration for earth hour this year.

The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change (Stewart Stevenson): I, too, thank Shirley-Anne Somerville for bringing the matter to the Parliament for debate.

On behalf of the Government, I am pleased to support WWF's earth hour 2009, as countries throughout the world will do. On 28 March, we will turn off non-essential lights in all 44 of our core buildings, as indeed will the Parliament. Earth hour raises awareness of sustainability and climate change globally and throughout Scotland…..

I am delighted that Rob Gibson's partner Eleanor is in for a surprise dinner on Saturday night. I, too, think that protecting bees is important if only because I have a rather sticky complaint in the back of my throat. Some royal jelly—which was, of course, the Queen mum's favourite remedy for many problems—is probably called for.

No folly over firefighters

ROSS-shire's retained firefighters don't need scaremongering about the invaluable service they provide, particularly those in remote and rural areas.

Setting a 48-hour maximum to the working week as currently proposed in relation to retained firefighters could greatly reduce the hours for which they would be available for duty, to the detriment of fire services. LibDem disarray and hype won't do.

SNP MEPs voted against the move in the recent European Parliament vote as we recognise the concerns raised by the Retained Firefighters Union in relation to the ending of the UK opt-out to the EU working time directive. We agree with the STUC and Fire Brigades Union that, as the issue is now subject to negotiations at European level, there is no immediate threat to fire provision, and hopes that the mature and responsible joint efforts by the Scottish and UK governments will ensure that any future changes to the EU working time directive ensure the flexibility required to allow the continuation of retained firefighters and the protection of workers' rights.

*

EVERY effort must be made to resist the threat to close Hugh Miller's cottage in Cromarty by a cash-strapped National Trust for Scotland.

I fully back my Black Isle councillor colleague Craig Fraser with his campaign and on-line petition.

Additionally, questions at the national level need to be raised. When the NTS was founded in 1931 the Trust began to act as guardian of the nation's magnificent heritage of architectural, scenic and historic treasures.

At that time the bequest of wild land such as Glencoe by Percy Unna was a key driver to protect an iconic area of Scotland's scenery. This was long before National Parks were established. Soon historic properties were added especially in lieu of death duties which brought castles, gardens and more mountain areas such as the Arran Hills.

A disproportionately large part of our heritage held by NTS is in the form of country mansions and castles with their gardens and policies. This inevitably leads to huge upkeep costs. Also at a time of falling entry charges the whole basis of the NTS is far from sustainable. I believe that the time is ripe for the Parliament to investigate how to fund and prioritise the uses to which NTS properties and those in the guardianship of Historic Scotland.

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THE bureaucratic crawl towards freeing up the Nigg yard must speed up if it is to play its part in the national fight against climate change. The need to secure land bases to build the structures to capture offshore windpower is urgent. I am delighted that the SNP members of Highland Council started the ball rolling in mid-2007. Yet in March 2009 the much-needed Compulsory Purchase powers are still to be agreed.

I take part in the Parliament's Energy Enquiry. Its remit is to determine what type of future we want in Scotland in terms of the production, distribution and more efficient use of energy, and how and when it can be delivered to meet the Scottish Government's objectives of increasing renewable energy generation and reducing emissions. Also we are considering how energy supplies can be secured at an affordable price and how economic benefits from the energy industries can be maximised.

This week we are promised action by May by the planning chiefs in Highland Council. Meanwhile I read of the opposition to CPO procedures by major companies involved with Nigg.

I believe that the local and national interest must override any further delays.

Waste Warrior

I attended the RoWAN Ross-shire Waste Action Network meeting, introducing a new generation to how to reduce, reuse and recycle in Dingwall last Saturday. Appropriately the Waste Warrior attracted lots of kids to get their photo, including the big kid in me. Its message is clear and I know that progress with other MSPs on the Climate Change Bill and Energy Enquiry will only happen when all our people support the message.

Truly on the verge of a renewables takeoff

On Thursday 5th March we debated National Planning Framework 2 that identifies national planning priorities for the next ten to fifteen years. I majored on the potential of the Pentland Firth marine power, of the container hub at Scapa Flow, but particularly welcomed the commitment to upgrade electricity lines south from Dounreay.

I can’t underline enough the sequence of development needed to harness our wave, wind and tidal electricity resources. We need power lines upgraded on land and later undersea cables. This is because it will take far longer to get the undersea cables laid and relies on big developments offshore which will take between three and fifteen years.

This was confirmed by a cross party meeting also held that day in the Parliament. I was able to discuss the developments planned by SeaEnergy and their Portuguese partners EDP renewables, the fourth largest wind farm developer in the world. They have submitted bids to the Crown Estate for UK Round 3, and hope to hear of a successful outcome by the end of 2009.

Photo: Rob with SeaEnergy Renewables group in the Parliament

Scotland is truly on the verge of a huge renewables take off.

***

I attended a crisis meeting of the Scottish Building Federation in Inverness last Friday. The firms present from Highland and Moray employers were hoping against hope that the public sector can kick start their businesses. Agreed spending targets at Scottish Government level have to be turned into new projects to stop inevitable redundancies of apprentices and tradespeople who work for house builders and general contractors.

We all agreed that the banking crisis had stopped building in its tracks in the Highlands as elsewhere. The Downing Street downturn is well understood. What firms want is agreement to start projects earlier than planned. But we hear that Highland Council feels it does not have matching cash to start council house building. New build by Housing Associations will be key. How we facilitate this will be a high priority for me in quizzing Ministers.

We know that the SNP Government has made sure Scotland is ahead of the rest of the UK in tackling the economic downturn by acting quickly to bring forward measures to give businesses and households a helping hand. Some key points are as follows:-

1. The Scottish Government’s spending of £120 million on the Affordable Housing Investment Programme is roughly twice, on a pro-rata basis, as the £550m English package dedicated to new supply.

2. The Scottish Government is making £25 million available to support the building of new council houses. The provisional figure for the number of new council houses started in England in 2007-8 was 250 compared to 432 in Scotland.

3. The Scottish Government launched its new energy assistance package and spends more pro rata. For 2009-10 the £55.8m budget in Scotland, is almost 15% of English Warm Deal Budget (£374m) while for 2010-11 Scotland’s £55.8m is almost 28% of Westminster’s £200m.
This is swift, decisive action by the Scottish Government in responding to the challenges thrown up by the current economic climate. The SNP’s six-point economic recovery plan announced by Scottish Ministers last October – more than a month ahead of the UK Government’s plans – forms the basis of the Government’s strategy for making sure Scotland is well-placed to weather the downturn and emerge stronger, and in a position to take advantage of new opportunities.
I will be seeking opinions around the North to gain our share on top of the NDA work and tidal powers development. Please feel free to contact me.

***

The SNP’s positive approach is in sharp contrast to Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy’s speech at Labour’s Spring Conference last weekend in Dundee. He should have said three things in his speech.

First, he should have apologised for the UK Government’s role in causing the recession. For 12 years, they have presided over the ‘age of irresponsibility’, resulting in the Downing Street downturn.

Second, he should have announced the scrapping of Labour’s disastrous plans to impose £500 million of cuts each year in Scotland’s budget.

And third, he should have said that Labour’s part-privatisation of the Post Office will be scrapped.

Since Jim Murphy did none of these things this confirms that he is indeed the UK Cabinet’s man in Scotland. It was an unremittingly negative conference – almost entirely focussed on criticising the SNP. This was a reminder of exactly why Labour lost the last election.

The SNP are entirely confident about taking our positive case for Scotland to be an equal and independent nation – with full economic and financial powers so that we can overcome the downturn – to the people in a referendum. It is Labour and the other London parties who are running away from the people’s verdict.

Two years into government and the SNP Government are ahead in the polls on the basis of our excellent record of policy delivery.

www.robgibsonmsp.blogspot.com

The North's contribution to the national picture

At long last, we are seeing measures that will support the clean energy developments in the far north. The development of the Pentland Firth as an area for co-ordinated action on clean energy can go ahead. The National Planning Framework points to the importance of that development in relation to our efforts to reduce emissions and tackle climate change. If we do not go ahead with that development, in the medium to longer term, we will have bigger problems than we think.

Photo: Rob with SeaEnergy Renewables group in the Parliament - A group whose vision statement is to be the world’s pre-eminent marine renewable energy company, developing, owning and operating large-scale offshore power generation assets globally.

The Scapa Flow transhipment development in Orkney puts the north of Scotland—which was ignored by many transport projects of the past—into the planning framework for Scotland for the first time. That kind of thinking might allow us to be a Parliament for the whole of Scotland, now that we have a Government for the whole of Scotland.

We can see from the approaches that have been taken to upgrading the railways towards Inverness that it has been ignored until now. To suggest that the Halbeath exercise, which is important if we are to link up parts of the central belt with points further north, should be added should not take away from the fact that we need to deliver quickly the time savings that can be made on journeys between, for example, Aberdeen and Inverness and Perth and Inverness.

On the development of the high-speed rail network, the Scottish National Party's manifesto mentioned that positively. Across the debating chamber, we have people who believe that the high-speed rail network should be a priority. However, that is one very good example of the fact that projects come along out of phase with the creation of the national planning framework, as is the rebuild of the Beauly to Denny power line.

On that issue, I point out to people who lobby us from organisations such as Highlands before Pylons that the transmission of electricity from the north of Scotland to the centre and the south relies on land transmission and, eventually, on undersea transmission. We cannot have one without the other, because the process of expanding our clean power development relies on those upgrades. I am delighted that the east-coast upgrades and the one from Dounreay to Beauly are included in the NPF.

We are beginning to get a rational view of what the parts of Scotland that have often been ignored can contribute to the national picture.

A truly global affair

I met the penguins who visited the Parliament to promote The Big Ask Scotland campaign that seeks to comabt dangerous climate change. It was organised by Freinds of the Earth Scotland [FoES] to coincide with the final evidence from Climate change Minister Stewart Stevenson MSP given to the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change committee. The penguins danced a strip the willow to the sound of John Lewis pipes and drums.

I took along my WWF polar bear 'Rolly polar' to make it a truly global affair. As the Big Ask leaflet says, "It's not just penguins and polar bears that will be affected..." It is the poorest communities in the poorest countries who face the worst consequences of extreme weather events - flooding, drought, food and water shortages and the spread of disease.

Hopefully the Scottish Climate Change Bill will deliver a morally sound and properly deliverable emission cut of 80% by 2050. The SNP is trying to take this nation on a journey to a cleaner, greener future in which we have set an example to others. It will be tough but acheivable to be on the right road before the Copenhagen climate conference later this year. The real penguins, the real polar bears and all the world's inhabitants rely on our actions.

SNP MEP Candidate Dr Aileen McLeod

MEP candidate Dr Aileen McLeod spoke at the Highland Euro Hustings in Eden Court on Saturday 21st February and since then at various Hustings across the country. Ballot papers have been circulated to all SNP members and the last day to vote is TOMORROW!


To read her candidate statement or find out more about EuroThinking, visit her blog at:

http://www.aileen-mcleod.eu/

On course to be the clean energy capital of Europe

Published in the John O'Groat Journal, 27 February 2009

IT makes your eyes water thinking about the demands of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling.

He wants us to find "efficiency savings" of £1 billion on the Scottish budget from 2010 to 2012. Right now, as agreed with local councils, actual savings of two per cent from the services and costs of all public bodies are being returned for frontline use. Mr Darling's ideas are very different. They amount to a £1bn raid on the Scottish budget.

The Downing Street downturn is going to hit every family and community. That's why the Scottish Government's First Minister, Alex Salmond, told the British-Irish Council last week that Scotland and Wales need borrowing powers just like Westminster. This week he has met with Messrs Brown and Darling to press the point.

Some of you may know of the Calman Commission, a damp squib lit by the Labour, Tory and Lib Dem parties in the Scottish Parliament to review devolution. You will be keen to know how such issues like borrowing powers for Scotland were received by Calman to dig Scotland out of depression. It seems that a veto has been placed on anything radical like tax powers, but Andy Kerr, speaking for Labour, agreed to the need for borrowing powers. After 10 years of devolution when Scotland's Parliament takes on more and more responsibilities, the Labour Government in London is hanging on grimly to every lever of control that it can.

The polls in England suggest the Tories are set to trounce Labour whenever a UK election is called. My hunch is that we will have to wait until spring 2010 for that.

This year, meanwhile, on June 4, the European Parliament elections are held.

Most electoral tests are a referendum on the popularity and effectiveness of the current UK Government. So it is obvious to me that Labour will get a shock.

*

A YEAR ago I was on committee business in Brussels exploring the development of climate change laws. Earlier this month, as part of a delegation from the energy committee, I joined colleagues in Brussels to take the temperature on the EU Commission's plans for clean energy, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) plans which hugely affect Scotland.

The message is that Scotland has 40 per cent of the EU's renewable capacity. So why does London's man in Scotland, Jim Murphy, keep pestering us with demands to build nuclear power stations? The fact is that we have a growing UK distribution grid. Ofgem, the electricity and gas regulator, forces our producers to pay more to access the grid if the source of the power is north of Derby.

So I very much welcomed comments by Scotland's chief scientific adviser Anne Glover about the enormous clean, green-energy potential that exists in Scotland.

Speaking on BBC Scotland's Politics Show last Sunday, Professor Glover confirmed that Scotland has the scientific and engineering skills to develop 40 per cent of Europe's renewable potential. Her intervention confirms that Scotland's ambition to develop our renewables potential is matched by our capability.

Scotland can and will be a world leader in clean, green energy. Our wealth of natural resources, combined with our scientific and engineering leadership, means that the country can develop 40 per cent of Europe's renewable potential.

I hope Jim Murphy and Labour leaders were listening to the chief scientific adviser's remarks. Every penny wasted on new nuclear technology in Scotland would be a penny less for the development of clean, green energy. Scotland is well on course to be the clean, green energy capital of Europe – we already have a greater installed capacity of renewable energy than nuclear.

Developing this massive potential is the way forward for energy security and safety in Scotland.

We can secure clean, low-carbon energy by harnessing Scotland's vast green potential and tackling climate change without adding to the burden of toxic radioactive waste.

That's one of the reasons why the SNP Government is so enthusiastic for clean power in the Pentland Firth as a key to our local economic future.

*

OVER the recess, from February 15 to 23, I have undertaken a series of meetings with the Scottish Ambulance Service, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the UHI Millennium Institute and, along with other MSPs, British Telecom, to discuss how we kick-start the Far North economy. I am hearing positive messages. So when it comes to speaking up for the Far North I am optimistic; if we pull together we can sort out various issues.

The Working Time Directive will have to be negotiated and the SNP and UK Governments will get it fixed for retained firefighters and ambulance crews without scaremongering.

The UHI is gradually reaching the point when it will be a full university and be ready to play an even bigger part in the knowledge economy we need to succeed.

British Telecom will have to show us what it takes to get satisfactory broadband speeds for our rural areas. This will require government help, hopefully backed by the European Recovery Programme which identifies broadband connection as a key tool in spending our way out of the recession.

With the Euro polls coming round in June, a big SNP vote will underpin that positive message and show that Scots are ready to take advantage of our great resources and ride out the international financial gloom with the determination to land on our feet.

The Scottish Political Scene Today

Scotland: Questioning National Identity

Presented at the Nantes Conference by Rob Gibson MSP

Held in the University of Nantes in October 2007. The transactions of the conference were published recently by the Nantes University Research Centre for National and Intercultural Identity. They were compiled by Bernard Sellin, Annie Thiec and Pierre Carboni. It is published by CRINI in 2009. ISBN 2 - 916424 - 14 - 8.

"Scottish identity is clear. The idea of Scotland as a historic nation has meant that whilst for nearly 300 years Scotland did not have a Parliament, it retained a civil society which included control of local government, the Church, the law, and it was the way in which education and this civil society perpetuated the nation that allowed the twentieth century flowering of a national movement. You will know in more detail in your history about how that developed, like the small nations after the First World War, but Scotland as a historic nation was very much involved in the Empire – the British Empire – and we can compare cities like Glasgow and Nantes and Bordeaux and Bristol, which made their money from slavery, and the cities look very similar and they were involved in a world project.

When the world project imploded, with decolonisation, Scots started to think what they had to look forward to in the future and in most of my political lifetime the battle to change Scotland from being a unionist country, as it was in the 1930s, to a nationalist country as it is increasingly today, in terms of politics, has been the backdrop that is different from the politics of Britain as a whole. So, we have as a result had the rule of the Labour Party for basically 50 years in local government in Scotland and, apart for the Tory 18 years, for much of the last 30 or 40 years in the British government. But the Labour Party had to confront, not the Conservatives who were a diminishing force in Scotland, the rise of, not an even rise, but the rise and fall of the Scottish National Party. So in 1997, when Tony Blair was elected overwhelmingly in Britain he had in his baggage, in his manifesto, the unfinished business of creating an assembly or parliament in Scotland with domestic powers, and, although he was sceptical himself, the people in Scotland overwhelmingly, by two thirds, voted in favour of the package. They put in a second question to make it more difficult, about varying the taxes, but they insured that the people had to vote strongly for it and they did. So they voted for the idea; what they received was a limited set of powers over the local economy, health, education, the environment, some transport, agriculture, fisheries, but the purse strings controlled in London, no control of tax, only receiving a block grant, allowed to make subventions through local government taxation. So this tension about how much power the Scottish Parliament has, or should have, is the underlying battle that is involved in Scottish politics today.

In the first eight years of the Parliament, after the referendum on September 11th 1997 - which of course becomes 9/11 in everybody’s mind several years later, but we have a happy remembrance of it – that’s the day in which you could say people were most united, but in the elections which followed there were expectations which led to a Labour and Liberal Democrat administration, a coalition, which lasted for four years, and then a second four years till May of this year. The voting system is a modified version of de Hondt Additional Member System, which is practised in Germany, but it is fixed, so that there is less proportionality than in Germany, and it is very difficult for any one party to get a majority. So in this election, to make any change in Scottish politics, people had to vote for the party most likely to change things, which was the Scottish National Party, which had been ahead in the sondages, in the opinion polls, month after month in the whole of the year preceding the elections; and this meant there was a squeeze on other parties such as the Greens and the socialist parties which split up, and the Conservatives went nowhere, and the Scottish elections led to the circumstance where I think about 50,000 more votes went to the Scottish National Party than to Labour. So the SNP actually won one more seat, 47 seats out of 129, and tried to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats who refused, and so Alex Salmond sought the support of the two Green Members who were left in the Parliament, and we had elected a minority government. At the same time the voting system, thanks to the Liberal Democrats pushing Labour, was changed for the local government to Single Transferable Votes in multi-member constituencies, and this actually cut the feet from Labour power in Scotland down to three or four councils instead of about 15. So, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire are the main ones with a Labour administration in local government, the rest of the country has coalitions of all sorts. So it has been a completely liberating experience which will not be changed because the voting system for local government is the one which I think eventually we should have for the Parliament.That made very important that the Scottish National Party was fighting on all fronts and because of the surge in support for Parliament they were able to gain support in many local elections as well and form coalition administrations. Where I live, in Highland, there are many Independent councillors, but there are also 17 SNP councillors, and it is the SNP manifesto which has been adopted because Independents are like a bag of cats. So, we have a situation which has developed in Scotland as a whole, which meant that a new government which had been... you know, it was suggested that with the government of the SNP, everything would be destroyed, the whole country would fall in, the roof would fall down, well it didn’t... indeed there is an enormous liberating experience of the fact that democracy can work because you can change your government. So that’s a step forward for Scotland that you can have a different government than the one which has been there for the previous eight years, and I’m sure that that will happen again, but hopefully not too soon.

Alex Salmond is undoubtedly the biggest political figure, the most prominent political figure in recent Scottish history, and his personality, his determination – he decided that we were going to win and it was possible for us to win for a number of reasons. The negativity of the last three years in the government led by Labour was “no more powers for Scotland, No, you can’t, it’s all going to be terrible if you change things”, but many people realised that Scotland’s economy is underperforming on a British level, and most certainly underperforming compared to small nations in the advanced countries of Europe. So, many people who are financiers, and business people, realised that Alex Salmond, the economist, was a better bet than Jack McConnell, the previous Labour leader and First Minister, who was a teacher, of Maths, that Alex Salmond’s idea that you could grow the economy by liberating business, especially small business, was a good idea. So the former chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Mr Matheson, supported the SNP at a critical point in February, and also the entrepreneur, Tom Farmer, gave the party £ 500,000 and, latterly also, the Stagecoach boss, Brian Souter, also gave the party this money. So for the first time the SNP with over a million pounds to spend could take on the British parties financially in an election campaign, for the first time; and that helped enormously to put over a positive message for change.

Basically the political situation is that in a minority government you cannot deliver all your policies, you’ve got to try to get the support of certain other parties, and in this respect, there is a tension with each of the different parties but some support for certain kinds of change. One change which could be achieved in the next four years is to change the system of local taxation from the council tax, which penalizes poor people - because it is a flat rate on property - and old people, and change that into a local income tax. That has the support of the Liberal Democrats, and it is possible that if we can do that many people will be freed from paying tax at the poorest levels and that will be a major gain. The second issue is that the tax on small businesses can be removed. In our powers we can do that; if we can do that perhaps a small business could employ one extra person or make some investment for the ten or fifteen thousand pounds they pay in tax at the moment. It’s a small amount, 150 million in a budget of 30 billion, so it is a lot of incentive to people, and all over the country in the election campaign, these two issues inspired people to say ‘Yes, we want to have these things, they’re fairer, they can help’; and kickstarting the economy at the local level is the sort of thing we can achieve.

In terms of the wider debate, the SNP government set out a list of aims for its first 100 days and it created an atmosphere of change. We were heavily criticised for changing the name of the Scottish Executive, which is in the Scotland Act, to the Scottish Government. We spent £100,000 on changing the signs. But the sheer fact of saying “We are a government, why call us an Executive? It’s so demeaning, that sounds like a civil servant, it’s not, it’s the elected government of Scotland”– sets the tone. Also at the national level, two critical issues were dealt with; first the First Minister launched a civil service based document to discuss the governance of Scotland, called A National conversation on the Constitution. By taking this initiative the other three parties, the Liberals, the Labour Party and the Conservatives, were forced into a situation to respond to this, and although Labour had previously said ‘no change’, the Conservatives said ‘some change’, to make us more responsible for spending money, and the Liberal Democrats wanted more powers for the Scottish Parliament. We now know that no party in Scotland believes that the powers of the existing Parliament are adequate, so the national conversation, which Alex Salmond launched, is a means to say we want to have a referendum on the constitution about independence in 2010, but we know we cannot pass it through Parliament, because the others would vote against independence; but the people can have their say in the conversation – tens of thousands of people have been entering the website to make their comments – and the other parties have now to define what it is they want more than the present.

Secondly, because Britain controls the broadcasting system we have a grave disadvantage to express Scottish opinions about ourselves and about the world directly. Indeed the spending in Scotland on broadcasting through the BBC amounts to 3% of the amount which is spent in Britain as a whole. But Scotland’s population share alone is 9%. So a major argument has ensued because Alex Salmond has set up a National Broadcasting Commission to discuss the future of broadcasting to allow a debate about what should happen. London controls the powers on broadcasting and on many other things. That would be our intention to have these things controlled in Scotland, even a one-hour news programme every evening which was produced in Glasgow and had worldwide feed from all the BBC’s other services but run from Scotland with a Scottish accent, would mean we wouldn’t need to hear about English education, health and other issues and the interesting little funny stories about people with funny hats and faraway places with strange-sounding names. We could have our own funny little people with strange-sounding names. But the point is that you cannot see Scotland through a prism of Scottish views and the world through those views without the diversity of nations. Also these kinds of issues have transformed the outlook of people in Scotland in the last few months to allow a very strong support for the Scottish Government, a very strong support for the First Minister and a belief that the change is necessary. It has got to go on, and although it is possible in some cases in the Parliament for the Opposition to gang up, and they did so a week ago on Thursday - Labour , Liberals and Tories voted about the failure of the SNP’s promises to deliver, they outvoted us – so, what does it mean? They don’t like it, but we are in government; so they have to decide if they want to vote us out of government, the process of that would have to be on some very major issue. The people outside like what we are doing, so the opposition parties in the Parliament can, they can fume about the way that we are making a change and making a difference, and indeed opening up the possibility that Scotland can look at itself in a more relaxed way, we can project ourselves into the world and we can stop being the best little country in the world, which was the slogan adopted by the last government. We are not, nor are we little, because there are about 50 countries in the United Nations that are smaller than Scotland. But if we think of Scotland as being a country which is gaining a more positive view of itself, then that’s what the politics of the present have meant. So, we can be more positive about our languages, we are also existing in politics at a time where there are changes elsewhere. For the first time ever the regional administration in the province of the North of Ireland has Nationalists in government along with Ulster patriots. In Wales, there are Nationalists in government with the Labour Party in a coalition. So Gordon Brown faces a very different United Kingdom where three of the autonomous areas which can make laws have Nationalists of their local persuasion in those governments. So three hundred years after 1707 when the Parliament of Scotland was ended forever it’s all changed.
[...]
The way in which Scotland is able to build upon the foundations of the civic state which we are in the modern world means that if we get control of our economy we have huge resources which, when we control them, will make all the difference.
I had better stop because we’re now overtime but I should say that just this week the First Minister was in the USA for his first official visit there and he is speaking with people about financing Scottish projects and the idea is that of course since Scotland’s ideas virtually created the United States of America, the economy, the ideas of government and so on, there is a strong feeling that people in Scotland are trying to do the best for our country and project the idea of being partners, being friends, then that will be a good thing for the future debate; but at the moment we are a minority government, we made a little change, and potentially in the future the people of Scotland can decide, we hope, to give us a majority in the next election in 2011."

Forests for climate proofing

Published in Am Bratach Magazine

Sir,

It's a strange argument against global warming to suggest [Am Bratach Jan 09] , on the evidence of US scientists that no forest plantings should be done north of 50 degrees N, i.e. north of The Lizard in Cornwall. Clearly they don't understand a temperate maritime climate such as we have where the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift warm the seas around Scotland and on round Norway to Murmansk. I live in Easter Ross north of Moscow, Russia, should they cut down all the trees on Fyrish - Norse for pine or fir hill?

We have always had woods in high latitudes. Look at the range of Scots pine and birch over Eurasia. Is the Climate Change Bill is to ignore the role of forests in capturing CO2 in Scotland? If so, the North Sutherland Community Forest trust is wrong, the Assynt Crofters is wrong and we should cut down all the trees in Norway to allow the lighter shades of land with winter snows to refract back more of the sun's rays into space to keep the planet's temperature down.

The albedo effect is well known, but it should not deter Scots from seeing the Forestry Commission lands as a possible contributor to mitigate climate change. We also need timber for eco-friendly housing and fuel. So the more we develop woods as there used to be in the North West before over grazing, the better.

The Climate Change Bill has started its Scottish Parliamentary passage. I hope NW Sutherland gains the benefit of sound science to regenerate our woodland cover in a sustainable fashion as part of its work.

Yours,

Rob Gibson SNP MSP
Highlands and Islands,
4 Grant St. Wick

Borrowing is the key to upgrading country's schools

NOW that common sense prevails and the Scottish budget can set the path for our public services, parliament has turned its attention to improving the powers we need to meet the difficulties of this looming depression in London and across the financial world.

It has to be said that in the snowy north we have particular concerns about gaining cash for public investment to build a sustainable Scotland.

Last week I spoke in two debates with strong local resonance. The first concerned the need for built-in borrowing powers for all levels of government. The second, a member’s debate, concerned the state of the fabric of Wick High School.

Firstly I believe the Scottish Futures Trust must tote up borrowing requirements from around Scotland then deploy our borrowing ability to pay for many types of projects.

That part of the debate about borrowing requirements will not go away.

I said: “Although the SNP believes ultimately in full tax-raising powers – naturally borrowing powers are part of that picture, too – we recognise that the public sector has triple 'A’ credit ratings… this is a great benefit.”

The wider debate on the constitutional future of our country is taking place – through the Calman Commission agreed by the Unionist parties, but to a greater extent through the National Conversation in which there has been huge public involvement.

Scots want more powers for our parliament, enabling us to live a normal national life. As it is, having one hand tied behind our back hampers the government of Scotland.

The Scottish Parliament should have borrowing powers; we should build on them from the base up. That would be a strong step forward for the democracy of Scotland. It is essential that we move forward as fast as possible.

Therefore I am keen for non-profit distribution models to be part of the debate on borrowing powers.

It would help the Highland Council to pay for projects that get round inadequate funds available to Scotland from the London block grant.

Next year the expected £500 million reduction in that grant will need innovative ways to pay for urgent investment. That underpinned my reasoned speech on the Wick High School issue.

I said: “It is important to acknowledge the history of the problems that Highland Council has faced over decades.

“Indeed, I understand that the evaluation that ministers in the previous Executive and the current Government made of the most likely candidates for school improvement funds showed that some 50 primary schools in the Highland Council area have toilets that are not fit for purpose.”

People who were pupils of Wick High School 15 years ago tell me that there were buckets on the floor and broken roof tiles then. Some of them said that when they were concentrated on learning it was not too much of a problem for them, but in the long period since then there has been a decline in the condition of the dilapidated fabric.

I asked the minister Maureen Watt to find out, if possible, why the fabric of Wick High School has deteriorated to its current state, which has forced concerned parents to go to the local MSP with their campaign for improvement.

I understand their concerns for the current generation of pupils. Given the circumstances of this Scottish devolved administration, there is not enough money to do all the required jobs. I hope that the national classification system will put Wick High School towards the top of the tree for being dealt with.

We need to get this matter into perspective and learn from what has happened, and consider more local choices for borrowing requirements.

The potential for prudential borrowing has led, at least in the case of certain local authorities, to emergency work being done on schools. I would like to know whether something of that sort can be contemplated in this case. I will now press Maureen’s successor Keith Brown, the new minister for schools and skills, on this.

*

ON a sad note, the sudden passing of my colleague Bashir Ahmad, MSP for Glasgow, has been mourned by all sections of opinion.

He was the first Scots Asian MSP in the Scottish Parliament and a kinder, more concerned man would be hard to meet. As I was speaking with pupils at Dornoch Primary School last Friday morning, little did I know Bashir was ill.

I emphasised to the P7 class that no matter where we come from, as we live in Scotland it matters that we all have a place. The SNP has found the broad support of many sections of the people. Bashir was a champion for Scots Asians for Independence. He will be sadly missed.

*

ON a much lighter note, fans have been making the long trek from the Far North to Glasgow each January for Celtic Connections for the past 16 years. This year I enjoyed five concerts over the three-week event that kicked off this Year of Homecoming. I much enjoyed Jerry Douglas, the US Dobro player who co-hosts Transatlantic Sessions with Aly Bain both on BBC TV and at Celtic Connections.

His own concert in the Old Fruit Market was a treat of sheer musicality, from jazz funk to bluegrass. His latest album Glide is a fair showcase.

I was also struck by the support act, the all-action family band Cherryholmes who I can imagine gracing the stage at the Northern Nashville Caithness Country Music Festival at some future occasion.

Check them out on My Space Music for yourselves.

It all adds to the great wealth of Scottish musical experience to hear such an international array from across the globe. Let’s get more of it played here in Caithness.

Rural Affairs and the Environment

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
WRITTEN ANSWER

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans there are for the establishment of a new marine management organisation in Scotland.
(S3W-20664)

Mr Richard Lochhead : Following consideration of the responses on the recent consultation exercise on Sustainable Seas for All a Consultation on Scotland’s first Marine Bill and related delivery arrangements, we plan to establish new integrated marine management arrangements for Scotland – under Marine Scotland as part of the core Scottish Government, as of 1 April.

This will enable coherent management of the seas with integration of policy alongside delivery functions, as well as contributing to the Scottish Government’s aim to simplify the public bodies landscape. Our proposals signal our commitment to a step change in marine management arrangements for Scotland.

Marine Scotland’s role will be, in partnership with others, to deliver our marine vision of clean, healthy, safe, productive, biologically diverse marine and coastal environments within the overall Government’s purpose of sustainable economic growth. This will include, for example, working closely with bodies such as SEPA and SNH. It will manage Scotland’s seas for prosperity and environmental sustainability both by leading and working with others and in carrying out its own functions of evidence-based policy development and marine planning, streamlined marine licensing and consenting, sound science and effective compliance monitoring and enforcement.

We plan to establish a Marine Strategy Board, to be led by Marine Scotland and involving key partners with marine management interests, to deliver strategic management of Scotland’s seas.

Marine Scotland will have direct responsibility for core marine functions, which include both the existing functions of the Marine Directorate, Fisheries Research Services (Marine and Freshwater Fisheries) and Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency, and also planned new functions of marine planning, improved nature conservation measures and better integrated licensing, consents and monitoring arrangements. There is strong support for the establishment of such a body with the largest group to comment on status supporting its establishment within Government. It will build on the success of the organisation involved and will enable a strategic approach to marine management.

In light of the importance of the new body’s science function we will, as part of the new governance arrangements, also be establishing a Scientific Advisory Board to assure its scientific objectivity and credibility. We will also be developing appropriate appeals mechanisms with an independent element.

We believe it is important to establish Marine Scotland quickly so that it can begin the process of integrating and streamlining currently separate functions and processes and so that it will be well placed to deliver new functions and responsibilities, following agreement on new marine legislation, effectively and efficiently. Decisions now about its role, status and establishment will also remove uncertainties for the staff involved, partner organisations and stakeholders and help us to gain the benefits of better integrated, more streamlined arrangements more quickly.

EU Sustainable Energy Week February 2009

I attended sessions of the programme with MSP colleagues as part of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee's Energy Enquiry. The meetings focused on carbon capture and storage (CCS), marine renewable development and the need to accommodate areas of high nature designations that are most suitable for Scotland's contribution to EU energy security. From Commissioner Piebalgs and the EU Parliament Committee clerks we got a range of views. They underlined the opportunities that Scots should grasp with both hands when we contemplate our contribution to EU 20-20-20 targets. With unique resources of clean power, especially in the Pentland Firth and Moray Firth, a European supergrid has to be built.

An urgent need for concensus

THE passage of the Scottish Government's budget has occupied the headlines following the Labour and LibDem parties playing politics with the proposals ten days ago.

Additionally the two Green MSPs would not accept the assurance of John Swinney the Cabinet Secretary for Finance that the home insulation scheme they desired would be funded to the tune of £34 million.

Under threat was the process of setting the council tax in each local authority. The council tax freeze which has cushioned hard-pressed householders in this recession was threatened. If the budget was not adopted over £220 a year more would have been demanded from Highland taxpayers. A whole raft of proposals was included in the SNP Budget to help us ride out the recession. Of course with no borrowing powers for the Scottish Parliament, unlike Westminster, the Northern Ireland Assembly and local councils, the SNP plans had one hand tied behind our backs.

In effect Labour and the LibDems voted against abolition of business rates for 120,000 struggling, small businesses, against accelerated investment in affordable housing, cash for free personal care, additional spending in the NHS, extra cash to put more bobbies on the beat and funds to reduce prescription charges.

Last Thursday common sense began to dawn as the Labour leader had his ears pinned back by Mr Salmond. Iain Gray in voting against the budget had put 35,000 jobs in jeopardy said the First Minister as he underlined the SNP's determination to pass the budget quickly to insure that these investments can be saved. Now this will involve moderation from all parties. Why did Labour and LibDems play politics with local services in a recession? I'm sure Gordon Brown would not want a Scottish election at this time.

*

THE SNP government has approved 24 renewable energy developments in the last eighteen months — more than in the whole four years up to May 2007.

With the recent approval for the Siadar marine energy project in the Western Isles — an internationally significant development — Scotland is leading the way in green energy. Siadar, the two bio-energy plants under way at Tullis Russell and Diageo in Fife, offshore energy in the Pentland Firth and Scotland's future role in the North Sea Super grid will all create jobs in construction and in operation as well as cutting our reliance on non-renewable energy sources.

The Energy Committee enquiry continues to occupy my attention and I am delighted about the above news. However, we need to gain support from the European Investment bank for our renewable energy developments. I am deeply dissatisfied with the failure of the formerly high flying Royal Bank of Scotland which played no part in funding renewable projects in Scotland, instead it supported such clients abroad. I am hoping that the UK Government's control of the bank's assets will bring instructions to reassess the risks of tidal and offshore wind projects. They certainly can't be as crazy as the billions lost to sub-prime mortgages that were waved through by the previous management.

*

THE Climate Change Bill is now centre stage. House insulation was an issue regarding Green dissent from the budget, but the same day I shared a prize in the MSP Home Challenge for the Best Future Energy Saving Plans. In attempting to get the biggest reduction in CO2 equivalent emission from our Evanton home we started favourites. Our house has the lowest overall emissions even after others did better at reducing electricity uses. I will report on the difference our solar panels make when fitted.

Energy Saving Awards

I shared a prize in the MSP Home Challenge for the Best Future Energy Saving Plans. In attempting to get the biggest reduction in CO2 equivalent emission from our Evanton home we started favourites. Our house has the lowest overall emissions even after others did better at reducing unnecessary electricity uses. I will report on the difference our solar panels make once fitted.

We're paying price for high-flying gambles

HAVE you tried getting a loan from a bank recently? It was always a daunting thought any January after the Christmas splurge.

Of course, the loan sharks are ever obliging, but your friendly High Street bank manager, he should be keen to do business. But he has added new costs and hidden charges.

When banks won't lend to banks what chance a fair deal in Wick?

In recent times, say from 1993 to 2008, getting into debt was the fashion. As a result of light bank regulation under Tories and Labour alike, and multiple credit card offers, our citizens became the most heavily indebted in Europe.

Big government became more and more in love with big banking and a huge new financial services industry built palaces at Canary Wharf or, in the case of RBS, at Gogar near Edinburgh.

It emerged last autumn that the palaces were actually casinos and you and me would have to pay for high-flying gambles that went up like a rocket and came down like a stick into our backyard.

Since we own 70 per cent of RBS, when will we get down to decent terms for local businesses to tick over and families seeking the means to improve their homes?

Trying to get governments and bankers to take responsibility is headline news.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer addressed the International Monetary Fund and World Bank AGM in September 1998 when he advised setting up a worldwide copy of his own model in London.

He said: "In the UK, we published last year a Memorandum of Understanding, setting clear divisions of responsibilities and establishing a regular system of meetings and surveillance to ensure co-operation between our national financial institutions to identify and address systemic risk at an early stage."

Clearly the UK Government has to be asked why it did not work and warn of the economic collapse that befell us last year.

That was made less easy when we were told last week in committee by letter from Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, that his agent in Scotland would not attend our hearing on the health of the economy.

The whole committee agreed to demand a replay.

Later in the day we heard some astonishing news. Having snubbed the Scottish Parliament in a request to discuss the state of the Scottish economy with the economy, energy and tourism committee, the Bank of England now plans to hold a briefing buffet in Glasgow in February.

If the Bank of England is meant to consult stakeholders assiduously, why won't they meet the Scottish Parliament representatives?

It is after all one of the premier stakeholders in Scotland?

They prefer, it seems, an invitation-only breakfast buffet in Glasgow to talk about the "bank's views on the economy".

Do they even tell their agent in Scotland what relations they have with the Scottish Parliament?

We need to get a full picture of recent economic events and their impact on Scotland – the Parliament must get that full picture for you.

That not only means evidence from bankers but also from the Bank of England, the UK Financial Services Authority and current and previous chancellors of the exchequer.

With the financial services sector playing a significant role in Scotland's economy, it is only right that the Scottish Parliament hears from all those involved in the UK Government, banking, oversight and regulation about how this situation came to pass.

THE Year of Scottish Homecoming has officially extended the haggis supper season to a year-long celebration of Scotland's bard, Robert Burns.

We know he has been translated into many languages, including into Gaelic by the grandfather of my assistant, Niall MacDonald.

Indeed Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, will speak in Scotland of Burns's global reach.

It is salutary to think that of all the exports from Scotland the most welcome from the South Seas to Russia and China and on to the USA is our national bard.

Incidentally Burns formed the idea himself.

The nation gratefully accepted and the English belatedly called Shakespeare their bard out of envy.

I had the pleasure of addressing the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross SNP members and guests in Tain last Friday.

It was equally a pleasure to contemplate the stellar influence of a well-educated Scot, helped by his father's strict upbringing to devour books and observe life around him.

From his earliest verse to the songs of the dying days in a short life he reflected the values of his rural society.

To these he mixed a dash of biting satire, a love of the lassies and some of the most advanced political views in the land.

These views were very dangerous to hold in a Tory terror time when he asked, "Does haughty Gaul invasion threat?", as a cover for his real views.

This week's publication of the first Scottish Government Audit of Scots Language Provision is very relevant to us.

You can find the details in a 157-page report posted on the Scottish Government's website.

Suffice to say this SNP Government has put in place direct support for using Scots in the Curriculum for Excellence and many other ways untried before.

There are years of neglect to overcome. It is not so difficult for Scots – which is widely spoken from the Northern Isles and Caithness on to the Borders – but there are centuries of neglect for Gaelic which was rooted out not just as slang but as backward and barbarian.

Both of our native languages need their own prescriptions to prosper and boost our self-esteem.

They underpin who we are, and when the Homecoming TV advert uses Dougie MacLean's song "Caledonia", which is getting more and more airings round the globe, it is a welcome to all parts of Scotland.

On Tuesday evening we were delighted to welcome many of the Far North subjects in Mike McCartney's new documentary photographic album. Even singer Sandi Thom, of "Caledonia" fame, attended at the start of this Year of Homecoming.

We have been happy to share Burns's legacy of freedom and justice with the world, what we don't need in return are the birkies on the bank boards taking a loan of us!

Homecoming 2009 aiming to be a cultural bonanza

Published in the Inverness Courier, 16 January 2009

The Year of Homecoming is a Scottish Government initiative and SNP Highlands and Islands MSP Rob Gibson believes it will bring positive results to the area.

"I think the benefit for the Highlands is to make the kind of links which could lead to people travelling more often and not just once," he said.

Rob would also like to see more money for the campaign so that the "Caledonia" television advert featuring Sean Connery, Chris Hoy and other well known figures from sport and entertainment, can be shown in even more countries. He dismissed criticisms that the advertisement and initiative as a whole played on an out-dated and romanticised view of Scotland.

"What's false about it?" he asked.

"That we have castles or fine golf courses or that we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Bard? All of these things are attractors to Scotland and I don't think they are not symbols of modern Scotland. Modern Scotland is about more than just the hipness of shopping centres or city restaurants. This is all the more essential given the financial crisis we are going through so that we attract people who have some affinity or interest sparked by a modern Scotland that has not lost touch with its traditions."

Plea for calm in stormy waters of recession

IN the second budget round of this SNP Government we are thrust into the most difficult times Scotland and other developed countries have faced for decades.

Some say we have never faced such economic fallout since the 1930s.

As John Swinney, the finance secretary, argues for calm and steady management there have been far-from-helpful signals from Westminster with the certainty of a £500 million cut to the Scottish purse this year.

Yet the Scottish Government identified ways to secure jobs from the sources of cash available to us months before Gordon Brown's ministers got their act together.

This week the SNP's second budget is having to work with one hand tied behind its back.

Why? Westminster has borrowing powers; even the Northern Ireland Assembly has them.

But devolution as written in 1998 would not allow us the chance.

So the clamour from a cross-section of far-sighted business people to back the SNP demand for more financial powers is growing in strength.

They can see that as we begin to feel the full effects of the downturn, the choices we made 14 months ago in Scotland mean tens of thousands of small business will pay no business rates at all from April this year.

And it is the SNP's foresight that put in place the resources to freeze the hated council tax, providing vital relief for hard-pressed bill payers.

What's on offer in this £30 billion budget is the chance to ensure that almost 5000 jobs will be secured in the next year.

That is set out in the Budget Bill for 2009/10. Spending amounting to £230 million has been brought forward to help weather the economic storm.

This includes the building of safer road junctions, health and dental centres, as well as college and university facilities that are among the projects being accelerated through the additional funds.

These spending decisions have at their heart our plans to help Scotland weather the economic storm and spark a strong recovery.

Across Scotland, local councils are to receive £90 million of the accelerated spending to support schools and housing.

So the arguments made by Lib Dem and Labour councillors that the Highland Council is short of money is to do with the credit crunch and PPP debt, not the historic concordat between Scottish Government and local councils.

The Scottish Government is also providing additional funding to local authorities for a council-tax freeze again next year.

As the budget was debated in parliament this week, Mr Swinney said he remained open to possible changes proposed by opposition parties on the final make-up of these spending plans. He said: "If we're going to improve expenditure in one area, we've got to identify where the money is coming from."

That's why the SNP has already ruled out a two-pence income tax cut proposed by the Liberal Democrats which would cost £800 million to the public purse. So demands by Jamie Stone for dualling the A9 from Tore to Tain looks like a cruel hoax on voters.

*

ONE of the best ways to underpin sound development of the Highland economy is to see the full university status granted to the UHI Millennium Institute.

Recently I asked the Scottish Government what progress is being made towards granting university title to the University of the Highlands and Islands, given that it now has the ability to award its own taught degrees.

The cabinet secretary for education and lifelong learning, Fiona Hyslop, said that the Scottish Government, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council are actively working with the UHI Millennium Institute to assist with its preparations for an application for university title.

The timing of such an application to the Privy Council is ultimately a matter for the UHI Millennium Institute in the light of its assessment of its ability to reach the quality and standards that university title in Scotland carries with it.

In addition, I asked Fiona Hyslop if she agreed that it would seem appropriate for the UHI to achieve full university status in the Year of Homecoming, given that the collegiate model that it represents has been exported throughout the world, and that the UHI can and will play a huge role in leading the Highlands and Islands towards sustainable development.

She shares my ambition, and perhaps impatience, to proceed to university title.

However, it is important to recognise that university status will be granted not only on the basis of taught-degree awarding powers, but on the basis of research.

That is a differentiation between the Scottish university system and the system in England, where the number of teaching-only institutions is increasing.

The Scottish Government officials and the sponsoring universities for the UHI are working to ensure that provisions are in place and that the concerns that the QAA has raised are dealt with swiftly but properly, to allow university title to be granted.

That could be one of the biggest rays of hope in an economically bleak year.

*

TWO particular parliamentary events affect us in the Far North.

Firstly, the Scottish Housing Expo was celebrated in the Garden Lobby.

It's a practical competition and display of advanced housing designs that are aimed to go on show in August 2010 on the outskirts of Inverness.

Of course if it succeeds then every two years a brand new set of designs can be displayed and bought. It shows that family homes can be affordable.

It shows also that we can build carbon-neutral homes for average house prices.

The ideas came from Finland and we need to show the way in Britain.

So the Highlands have architects who won places in the competition and were lauded in parliament. That could be the second bright spark for a sustainable and desirable future for young families in Caithness this year.

Finally, the Scottish Homecoming year kicks off with Burns Night.

My office is trying to contact people from places round the globe with Far North place names like Thurso and Halkirk.

Every family has relations abroad, why not encourage them to join us this year and celebrate? Ironically the weak pound sterling can be the biggest opportunity for another bright spot in the Scottish year.

www.robgibsonmsp.blogspot.com

Cross Party steps forward on ambulances in the NW

Thanks to a local partnership between Dr Andeas Herfurt, clinical lead for the NW Sutherland Local Health Partnership and Alan Miller area service manager for North District, Scottish Ambulance Service agreed proposals to solve the recruitment and retention of ambulance staff in the NW.

This was made possible by a cross-party agreement at a meeting held in Melvich today (Mon. 12 Jan).

Myself and Jamie Stone MSP, along with local Highland Councillors George Farlow and Robbie Rowantree, agreed a set of practical proposals to ensure that the needs of patients are put first in our sparsely populated area.

The meeting unanimously agreed to submit proposals to the Cabinet Secretary for Health based on the employment of full time ambulance staff in remote stations.

They agreed that the essential difference from the past would be that ambulance personnel should be able to undertake complimentary health duties.

Since Nicola Sturgeon repeated her instruction that each part of the NHS "must work together" at Parliamentary Questions last Thursday, the meeting in Melvich is looking for steady progress to apply their detailed proposals in practice.

Justice, not War

In rainy Inverness, Justice Not War organised a vigil and march. Over a hundred from various parties, and none braved the gales and soaking wet. The Gaza Strip is not much bigger than the Black Isle near Inverness. Respectively they are home to one million three hundred thousand souls. The latter is home to 9,000.

In the picture are SNP Cllrs Craig Fraser and John Finnie accomapnied by John Martin in horror disguise and myself. the Parliament's unanimous call for an immediate cease fire adds Scottish weight to the worldwide calls for a permanent solution to the Palestinian desire for a homeland.

Braes of Doune Wind Farm

Today I joined the other members of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee in their energy investigation at the Braes of Doune windfarm. Misty, slow motion, but powerful in the fight against climate change.

It's time to move the focus of the economy northward

Published in the John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier

THE year 2009 has to be the year we take our natural and human resources far more seriously.

I've been a long-term champion of the Far North as an economic dynamo for our nation's future. In the committees of the Scottish Parliament that recognition is rising. That's my job and that of other MSPs but it requires a huge adjustment to many of their outlooks.

In the 1970s the emergence of the Aberdeen-based oil industry led to a major shift in Scottish economic thinking. The old heavy industries of west central Scotland were destroyed in the 1970s and '80s by merciless Thatcherite logic and when clapped-out businesses failed to modernise, so the eastward shift of population, jobs and ideas began in earnest. Aberdeen and Dundee United became the New Firm of Scottish football and the recent census information shows clearly that it's the eastern counties and seaboard that grows their towns and villages while Galloway, Ayrshire and the Clyde Valley decline. We can work for some population reversal in Caithness and north Sutherland as the next phase.

However, the fallout from world financial chaos has to be carefully understood. On the one hand Gordon Brown tries to avoid a terminal run on the pound sterling by urging shoppers to spend their last pennies in the sales; on the other hand wiser heads are saying you have to invest in new, more resilient, types of work than just financial services. The headline spats between Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel don't tell the whole story. On the one hand Brown claims to have saved the world by resorting to Keynesian-based government spending while the German chancellor is mindful of the disastrous decade of inflation and ruin in the 1920s that led to Hitler and the scars in the German psyche against over-borrowing.

In Scotland we have other options. Like the Germans, we still have manufacturing skills to build on. Albeit Germans earn 30 per cent plus of their annual income from making things, while in Britain it's about 14 per cent. Because of the oil industry, of the nuclear decommissioning in our midst and the push to tap the infinite power of waves, tides and winds, we have a different outlook.

That's why 2009 has to be a year for a united effort to get the transport, research and development and production of new clean power up a gear.

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WHILE commentators laughed at the collapse of Iceland's banking-based economy, and the troubles that beset Ireland with a housing crash as spectacular as their housing boom, the jibes about "arc of insolvency" will not show Iceland and Ireland going under for ever.

Far bigger countries, such as the UK, are able to hide, more successfully for the moment, the dire straits we face due to Mr Brown's deregulation mania and his age of irresponsibility.

Near this year's end, the European Union in its Council of Ministers and Parliament agreed that Scotland's green power should be a key part of Europe's powerhouse. We can provide secure and accessible electricity fit for this climate-change age. My party, in Scottish Government for 18 months now, has been building these ideas and the international contacts to create a new age of climate responsibility and resilience.

Look out for more developments along with our European friends in 2009.

London Labour has so far rubbished Scottish energy links to Norway: witness Jim Murphy traducing the Norwegian foreign minister's words which were speedily rebutted by the Norwegian embassy in London. I predict New Labour will accept that reductions in greenhouse gases via Scots clean-power production must bring targets into reach as set for the UK in the European pitch to lead the world's aim of climate common sense.

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'WHAT'S on your plate?" was the big question posed by the National Farmers' Union of Scotland.

Was your Christmas dinner locally sourced? Can we sustain week after week a majority of our food and drink coming from Scotland? I believe that producers and consumer deserve a real choice in the matter. That's what most supermarket chains have so far denied. When they fly Scottish saltires near their produce take a close look at the labels. If price is your main criteria then you are unlikely to source local produce. That's because farmers, growers, crofters and distributors find it hard to compete with cheap imported food that has far more questionable ingredients and farming practices than supermarkets let on. That's why high-quality Scots fare costs a little more.

This year I hope many more of us will learn that making our own food from basic ingredients can be fun for all the family. Jamie Oliver showed TV viewers how, while the Scottish Parliament vote agreed on the principle of free nutritious school meals for P1 to P3 pupils. It's also why support for more home-grown produce, such as that from Mey Selections, will be good both for economic recovery as well as individual health and wellbeing.

For our Christmas family meal we had Black Isle-reared turkey and potatoes accompanied by peas, red cabbage, kale, Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips from our garden as well as frozen greengages to make the base for our trifle. The bread was made by A-Bun-Dance in Invergordon, one of the new artisan bakeries setting up locally. The cheese board carried Caithness goat's cheese and blueberries, Orkney cheddar and Connage crowdie. Climate change doesn't yet mean making quality wine here so French Côte du Rhone was just dandy. Finally the Maritime Malt of Wick followed with the Fairtrade coffee and Culloden-made mince pies.

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OUT of this column come some possible New Year resolutions. It's up to you, attentive readers, to make you choices. Let's all toast the prospects of our northern land as we seek the best for our families and our neighbours as we enter this New Year. A' the best to ane an' a'. Bliadhna Mhath Ur 2009!

Bickering into the recess

AS ever the winter solstice is a time for reflection.

The global financial contagion was predictable as the end of the 18-year trade cycle always ends rash speculation with a painful 'corrections'. Woolworths' staff, Lloyds TSB and HBOS employees are the obvious high street victims. However, Scotland's natural resources can create a new economy that is less in hawk to hair-brained money raising schemes and based on manufacture, growing and building resilience in local communities.

The parliamentary session bickered into the recess with the opposition determined to paint it black.
For example the forestry consultation launched by Environment Minister Mike Russell has been sorely misrepresented. Forestry workers, encouraged by their unions and opposition New Labour MSPs have cried fowl. Clearly they believe consultations which were a sham under Labour apply under SNP Government. We must plant more trees to soak up CO2, putting the huge national forest estate to work. Let's all have our say.

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I WAS delighted to support the Evanton Community Company that seeks to buy the woods on the edge of the village for local uses. Their application, the 100th under land reform legislation, is a second slice of Evanton sought for community uses.

When I was in Kiltearn Community Council before 2003 we set out to buy the old garage site in the centre of the village which took several years from our first steps. Thanks to dogged hard work from local volunteers the site was secured earlier this year. Let's hope the woods can be secured more quickly. But from what I've seen the complex processes are bound in red tape, not tinsel.

Much of the political inheritance from the LibLab Executive is flawed laws that need post-legislative review. Not only does the community land purchase need attention also the landlord and tenant system in farming is not working as Angus McCall and the SFTA continue to show. Meanwhile clearing up the mess after ten years of prevarication and botched crofting reform, the SNP government is getting little thanks for offering solutions.

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EVERY sector in Scottish life must play its part in the deep cuts we need in greenhouse gas emissions.

Our historic Scottish Climate Change Bill is also out to consultation and it will reach the committee I serve on next month. If the UK government took some early actions they could help us achieve 80 per cent cuts by 2050. I am slightly heartened by news that the energy regulator Ofgem said last week that it would do a U-turn and help SSE and other companies to speed the transmission of electricity generated from our on and offshore wind, wave and tidal power to markets in the south.

Another climate change contribution would be to make modern life viable in scattered Highlands and Islands communities. I have been conducting a widespread consultation on super broadband. However the low power of current broadband or its absence for many people has dominated the returns.

I will lobby BT, Ofcom and Jim Mather our Economy minister in the New Year.

Internationally, vehicle manufacturers demanding government bail-outs should be given binding conditions to double average miles to the gallon within three years.

Brown, Merkel and Obama can give the world the best Christmas present since internal combustion engines accelerated climate change. BMW, Vauxhall, Ford and the rest must sign up or else.

Simple technological changes can end greenhouse gas guzzling and save essential vehicle users a small fortune. Will the leaders of the G20 have the guts?

A merry Yule and a healthy, greener New Year to you all.