Tidal Power wave breaks in Pentland Firth Scotland

While Scotland is never likely to be a hotspot for solar power we certainly have no shortage of other sources of renewable energy. There has of course been a good deal of windpower development but so far at least the tremendous power of the sea around the UK has been relatively untapped.

There has been plenty of cutting edge development work on tidal and wave power in the UK but nothing deployed on any great scale. There were plans for a tidal barrage across the river Severn but as far as I am aware that has now been kicked well into the long grass by the ConDem Government.

There is now welcome news that a group called MeyGen have secured a 25 year lease and are going to develop a huge tidal project in the inner sound of the Pentland Firth in Scotland.

MeyGen is a joint venture owned by International Power PLC, Morgan Stanley and Atlantis Resources Corporation and the construction is likely to take place in phases through to 2020. Eventually there should be up to 400 submerged tidal turbines in an area of around 3.3 sq Km. IF the development reaches that size it should generate enough energy to power around 400,000 homes.

Tommy Sheridan sacks legal team again

Tommy Sheridan has sacked his legal team and is planning to represent himself in his trial for perjury at Glasgow. A strange sense of deja vu now hangs over the case as Sheridan looks to take on his own defence in the trial.  When Tommy Sheridan sacked his legal team in the previous defamation case in order to represent himself it seemed an incredibly high risk strategy - but it was a strategy that paid off handsomely.

He won his defamation case and was awarded a sizable sum of damages against the News of the World in that trial. It can only be speculation of course but his strategy of defending himself in the defamation trial may well have earned him much sympathy from the jury in that case. Whether the tactic will have any influence on the jury in this case remains to be seen.

Sheridan was being represented by Maggie Scott QC in the current perjury trial. The first week of the trial saw a succession of witnesses testifying to Sheridan having made admissions to colleagues in the SSP, individually and at meetings, about his sexual conduct.   The court also heard a 40 minute tape which allegedly contained audio of Sheridan substantially admitting the allegations made by the News of the World.

Tommy Sheridan has now asked the court for an adjournment of the trial so that he can prepare his own defence. This move would seem to indicate that Sheridan has either not been happy with the way his legal team have tackled the evidence which has been presented to the court so far or suggests a disagreement about the broader tactics of the defence approach.

As expected the Sheridan perjury trial is taking fascinating twists and turns. The trial was already expected to be the longest case of its kind in Scottish legal history and this further development now makes that almost a certainty.

Tommy Sheridan perjury trial day 1

Tommy Sheridan and his wife Gail faced a seven page charge sheet on day one of their trial for perjury at Glasgow high court today. He was cheered into court by a small contingent of loyal supporters but the press clearly outnumbered them.

Sheridan and his supporters have been keen to paint the charges as a class war action but for many people the trial is simply about truth and lies. Did Sheridan perjure himself during his defamation case against the News of the World?

SSP members told the defamation trial that Sheridan had admitted visiting sex clubs at a meeting in Nov 2004 . There had been a minute taken of that meeting at which the discussion was minuted as beginning with Sheridan talking about a newspaper having got a story about him visiting a sex club. He is minuted as admitting the allegations but saying he would fight the newspaper and claiming the paper would be unable to prove it's allegations against him.

The jury of 13 women and two men heard today from a Scottish Socialist party (SSP) official, Barbara Scott, the member took the  minutes at an emergency party executive meeting in November 2004 after the News of the World stories broke.
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Scott today recalled that Sheridan, then a member of the Scottish parliament for Glasgow and the SSP's convener, had admitted at the meeting that he had twice visited Cupids " sex club" in Manchester in 1996 and 2002 and that he had admitted to it being a "weakness ".

SNP Blog the-Universality-of-cheese still available

Update: Since I originally posted this the universality of cheese blog went back up after it's author Mark MacLachlan was revealed as its author and sacked from his post by SNP Minister Mike Russell. MacLachlan later posted e-mails on his blog to Russell implying that Russell had known about his "cybernat" blogging activities. SNP Minister Mike Russell then suggested he would consider suing if the allegations were not retracted.
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Original:

The Scottish Nationalists here in Scotland have for some time operated a "cybernat" strategy which involved regular and often anonymous posting on the Internet of material and comments attacking anyone who they thought opposed their aim of Scottish Independence. Go to the comments pages of any Scottish paper ( try the Scotsman) for example and you would find a small posse of Cybernats not only attacking other commenters but also often attacking journalists who did not toe their line.

The SNP has always distanced itself from the behaviours of the more rabid cybernats and claimed that they have no connection to the core of the party and do not represent them - but many suspected that the connection was much closer and that the "cybernat" program had at least the tacit endorsement of the SNP hierarchy or even that it was part of their strategy.

These suspicions have been confirmed with the exposure of the author of a well know cybernat blog - the-universality-of-cheese.blogspot.com

It turns out that the author of this blog was none other than Mark MacLachlan, an SNP aide and adviser to SNP minister Michael Russell. Mike Russell is at the heart of the SNP and has been closely associated with Alex Salmond’s White Paper on an independence referendum,

Read More of this Post>>>

Glasgow Anti Fascist Rally SDL No Show

Well as I expected I had some mixed feelings about the anti-fascist demonstration that I took part in yesterday in Glasgow.

On the positive side the day appears to have ended as a more or less shambles for the Scottish Defence League - the group which had attempted to organise an "anti- jihadist" rally outside the Glasgow Mosque.

As I said in my previous post if I could believe that they were simply out to protest against Islamic fundamentalism then I would have a great deal of smpathy with them. The problem is that even if one believes that the founders and organisers of this group aren't looking to create a more Islamophobic agenda then at minumum the group certainly suffers from attracting out and out fascists and racists to its rallies.

One of the speakers (I believe it was Aamer Anwar) at the Anti -fascist rally made the point that if people have criticism of the Muslim community over the issue of terrorism or extremism then they should engage the Muslim community in debate and not seek to come out onto the streets and rally outside their Mosques to provoke them.

That is a sentiment that I wholly agree with. I have personally been very critical of Muslim thinking over recent years and the failure for a long time to take on fundamentalists. Its an entirely different thing though for people to take an issue like that to the streets. Its even more unacceptable when the clear intent is simply to provoke trouble.


I am sure Mr Anwar applies this same logic to extremists within his own community. I do wonder though as this is the same guy who, after the attempted terrorist bombing at Glasgow airport, made the disgraceful statement that ""A Stealth bomber in Iraq is the moral equivalent of a suicide bomber in Scotland". Hmm ....

The attempt by the SDL to organise a rally ended in abject failure anyway as the police used the Public Order Act to ensure that they would not rally outside the mosque. In the event a fairly small group appear to have met in a pub in the centre of Glasgow from where they were eventually bundled onto buses and shipped out of the city.

The turn out for the anti-fascism rally called by Scotland United was good given that the weather was awful on Saturday. The crowd really needed their umbrellas and waterproofs as they stood and listened to speakers from all the main political parties before the march began.

The presence of politicians from all the main parties was one of the most encouraging aspects of the event. When Annabelle Gouldie from the Scottish Conservatives took the stage there was a ripple of mumbling among what was a fairly partisan crowd. But she spoke forceably and the crowd showed their approval even for her as she finished her speech.

There were of course the usual political plonkers that these sort of events attract - not least in this case Tommy "Party Boy" Sheridan who readers of this blog will know has had lets say an "interesting" relationship with the Scottish Courts in recent years

Almost all the speakers stuck to the agenda for the day which was about rallying against Fascists and Rascists. Unfortunately Aamer Anwar, and Osama Saeed both tried to include Anti-war rhetoric in their speeches which I felt was uncalled for as by no means everyone who wants to protest about fascists agrees with their views on this.

One of them ( I believe it was Saeed) tried to suggest that Muslims were "being killed all round the world" and that Muslim extremism was entirely due to this. While this played well with a sizeable proportion of the crowd that does not of course mean that there his any logic in this assertion. Muslim extremeism was building in this country long before the war in Iraq or Afghanistan and most Muslim deaths around the world are clearly the result of Muslim on Muslim violence.

This is of course one of the perils of attending these types of events, there is a great deal of simplistic sloganising and it's difficult to distance yourself when the organisers of something that you basically support start spouting this kind of nonsense. Still in the greater cause of showing support for the anti-fascist cause I was prepared to stand and listen to such tosh - this time.

I have some photos from the rally which I'll add in here later.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf or How The Swine Flu

Comments on my last post on Swine Flu and a link posted by Looney to a list of Philosphical analogies got me thinking what would be the best analogy to the state of Public attitudes towards public health alerts.

Many take the attitude that these are just things whipped up out of all proportions by the media. I have a little sympathy for that view but a twist to an old story reminds us about a boy who cried wolf - and the problem of success.

The boy was given the task of guarding the sheep from the village. His best friend Lucky the dog helped him.

Lucky was a very alert dog and on their first day he smelled a wolf pack on the wind and began to bark. The boy trusted his dog and so he ran to alert the village. "Wolves" , he cried.
The wolf pack were still some distance away and hearing the commotion from the boy and the dog they turned and hunted elsewhere.

The men from the village came running but despite searching they found no sign of the wolves.

The Village crier, who each day announced the village news in the village square, interviewed the boy that night.

And so the next day....

"Hear ye Hear ye", the Village Crier cried, "Wolves are in this area! The boy and his best friend Lucky the dog have saved the sheep of this village from being eaten by the ravening wolves. The boy will guard your flock today and all is well."

The villagers hearing the news were happy and the boys back was sore with slapped praise as he went to tend the flock.

Of course the same thing happened. The Wolves came to the area but the dog barked before they could get near. The boy ran crying "Wolves" and the men of the village came to hunt them. But there was no sign of the wolves because on hearing the fuss they had slinked away. But they had been a little closer to the sheep and the village before they did so.

Again the village crier announced the news that the boy and the dog had protected the village. Again they were praised by the villagers.

After the fifth day of this happening the Village Crier was getting a little pissed.

"Look", he said to the boy, "This is the fifth day you have cried that there are wolves but wolves are never found. People are starting to grumble. They keep shouting that there are no wolves and that I am just doing this because there is no other news in this village for me to cry. You can't go round crying wolves when there are no wolves. If you don't see the wolves then don't cry wolf ok?"

The boy noticed that people no longer slapped him on the back with praise as he went out to the flock. They looked at him with glowering faces and muttered about him causing panic and making an unneeded fuss.

By the time the boy got to the flock he had begun to wonder if he should believe Lucky anymore. Perhaps it was rabbits he was barking at, or shadows. Anyway , he decided he would not run to cry wolf unless he saw the wolves himself. So he tied his best friend Lucky to a tree and muzzled him.

The boy was watching the flock when the wolves came at him from behind. After killing the boy they decimated the flock. Then they moved to the village where they stole and ate five children before the villagers managed to drive them away.

And Lucky? The villagers found him the next day. He had been forced to watch silently as his friend the boy and the sheep were killed. The villagers took care of him and he always barked when wolves came to the area. And the villagers always took notice of his barking.

Until some years later and the villagers began to whisper to one another"Why do we bother listening to that dog? He barks but there are never any wolves ......."

Swine Flu stalks Scotland

It's a good headline but just how risky is the current position? What are the chances that we might be standing at the brink of a flu pandemic that might kill millions worldwide?

First of all we must factor in that there is very strong evidence that regular and sometimes deadly flu pandemics have occurred in the past. Some of them within living memory. We have had an unusually long period without a pandemic happening so the odds are clearly shortening on another pandemic at some point in the not too far future. But is that future upon us?

Certainly the Mexican Swine flue virus would appear to have an unusual genetic mix. There were suggestions that this strain had different genetic material some typical of South American swine flu and some from North America. It was suggested that this was an unusual risk.

With my paranoid hat on I wondered if this had been a created strain that someone had released. An unlikely conspiracy I think, but who knows.

More likely there has been animal movement between North and South and different strains have found themselves in the same animal at some point and have exchanged genetic material. Evolution in action can be scary.

The virus has spread rapidly from its initial base camp in Mexico. It looks as though it has been there for between four to six weeks. One of the fortunate things is that the outbreak didn't occur at the height of the tourist season. That could have spread very large numbers of infected people all around the world. The pace at which infections would spread in our populations would have been all the faster.

Even so there have been a large number of people showing possible signs in other countries. Whatever happens it looks like this strain is with us for some time to come.

On the plus side there have , so far been no deaths anywhere but Mexico. This is interesting as is the percentage of deaths among the infected.

Figures i saw recently , if my memory is correct showed there had been around 140 plus deaths and around 1600 reported as infected. That's a death rate of 8.75%. The infections and deaths in Mexico are likely to have been among people who were poorer, less well nourished. The odds are that in a Western setting, with good health care systems the death rate will be lower. But how much lower?

There are around 20 reported case in the UK I believe. With a death rate at 5% we would be likely to see the first fatality over here as the next batch of cases are identified.

But all the reports so far are that people who have the infection have not been gravely ill. If this remains true over the coming days then the virus may be attenuating as it is passes from host to host or there may be some other factor at play ( climate, diet, population health or genetic makeup).

So what does this all mean for the chances of a Flu Pandemic?

My money at the moment would be on this infection continuing to spread through our populations. It's probably now at the point that this cannot be prevented. It's happening now. The evidence at present points towards the virus having some deadly effects but less so either as it spreads or in healthier populations. The infection rate will likely continue to build in the next few weeks. I wonder if it might hang around during the summer months here then really take off this autumn or winter.

So I think this one will spread and we will have deaths. But I don't think this is the really big one like the 1918 Spanish Flu. I hope I'm right.

Sheridan Perjury Charges Go Ahead

It has been confirmed that former MSP Tommy Sheridan, who recently appeared on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother, is now to face trial on perjury charges. The perjury charges relate to his newspaper defamation case which resulted in him being awarded £200,000 damages against the News Of The World in 2006.

Gail Sheridan his wife is also reported to have been served with a perjury charge indictment. As well as the perjury charge Sheridan faces a charge of attempting to persuade another to commit perjury.

The defamation case which lies at the root of the perjury charges took place at a 23 day trial at the Court of Session in August 2006 when Sheridan claimed defamation against the News Of the World. The trial lead to splits in the Scottish Socialist Party and Sheridan later went on to found the Solidarity party which performed dismally at the polls.

In what was claimed at the time by some to have been a perverse decision the jury dismissed the News of the World claims that Sheridan was a serial adulterer and that he had visited a swingers club and also used drugs.

Mr Sheridan has always maintained that he is the victim of a political "witch-hunt".

It seems likely that the media once again will follow this salacious story in detail as it unfolds with the new perjury charges. Whatever the outcome it seems likely we are in for more Tommy Sheridan grandstanding.

HBOS share price fall was long and sustained

It is a common place at the moment that the recent spate of bank crashes was a sudden whirlwind that blew through the banking sector. Sure there had been sub-prime problems brewing for a while but the crisis came from a collapse in confidence that occurred over a short period.

At top right is a chart of the share price of HBOS over the last twelve months. HBOS is at present lined up for takeover by LloydsTSB following a collapse in the HBOS share price a few weeks ago. However a look at the chart reveals that the decline in share value of HBOS was a well established trend throughout the year. barely discernible among the yearly trend is a step drop in the share price around mid September onwards. This drop compared to the overall decline in share value for the year was simply like the final slash in a death of a thousand cuts.

What is clear is that there were indicators of the present crisis building over the whole course of the year.

Which begs the obvious question - what where the senior bankers, the regulators, the governments, and the risk agencies doing as this crisis began to bubble and brew? Precious little is the answer. Each in their own way was locked into the situation.

For the banks it was profit and the need not to be left behind as each bank out did the other in seeking to climb on board the new financial instruments which promised so much.

The regulators ( and politicians ) were locked into thinking that the issue with regulation is over-regulation. It is not. the issue is what is the correct regulation for any given market. It is about regulators anticipating risks in the system and requiring the regulated institutions to operate in a way which keeps those risks to manageable levels. In all this the regulators, and their masters the politicians singularly failed. ALL of them. No party was calling for more thorough regulation. De-regulation was , to one degree or another, the mantra of all the parties.

Governments were locked into the situation because booms , while they last, are popular. People feel wealthier and no politician wants to be the first party pooper. This is of course an indictment of our political system and of all of us as citizens. There are times when politicians must lead and not follow public opinion. Politicians have a duty not to feed unsustainable booms simply to maintain popularity.

The risk rating agencies have been little mentioned in this crisis. But they were still giving strong ratings to banks until very recently and to banks which have now collapsed. Questions need to be asked about the standards that these risk rating agencies operate to and how they are held to account.

£37 billion saves scottish banks in Darien sequel

It has taken £37 billion of public money to unseat four senior board members from some of the largest of the UK banks. Despite weeks of turmoil in the financial markets, caused largely by banks who had got themselves involved in trading financial derivatives of dubious value and provenance, until today few heads had rolled at the banks.

The Uk governments bail out of the banks which was this morning revealed to be costing around £37 billion has it appears come with strings attached and this has included severe restrictions on remuneration packages and bonuses for the members of the boards of the banks. The report that four senior Bank board members are resigning also appears to have been part of the package that was negotiated over the weekend.

The largest part of the bailout money has gone to Royal Bank of Scotland and seen the resignation of Fred Goodwin its chief executive. Not before time will be the reaction of many to this news. Indeed the surprise is not that resignations have now happened but that it took this long for corporate responsibility to be demonstrated.

HBOS ( Halifax bank of Scotland) has also now negotiated a major re-capitalisation fund with the UK government and this leaves both RBS and HBOS now in effect as part nationalised banks.

Both of these banks are nominally Scottish institutions and on one view it could be seen that this is a massive failure of the Scottish financial establishment. It is arguable that the last time that Scottish finance was so near disaster was during the 17th century Darrien adventure when Scotland had to be effectively bailed out by the Union to prevent financial collapse.

This analogy has some merit but it should be noted that RBS and HBOS, although nominally Scottish, are in reality cross national institutions with major business across the UK and worldwide so this is not so directly a bail out of Scotland. Nevertheless this debacle has not been good for the Scottish financial brand. The largest financial Scottish business brands have in effect now been nationalised by the state to prevent them going under.

The longer term political ramifications of all this are still to emerge. It is unclear what lessons the Scottish ( or indeed UK) electorate will draw in regard to the question of possible Scottish Independence. Alex Salmond of the SNP has been remarkably quiet over the last week so the assumption must be that he sees little advantage for the case for independence at this point.

The impact on Gordon Brown's standing in the short term will almost certainly be to the good. He has been seen finally to have acted with good firm leadership. Indeed the bailout plans emerging around the world bear a striking resemblance to the plan that first emerged in the UK. For this he and the chancellor may be able to take much credit. The markets appear to have stabilised today and hopefully the worst of that turmoil is behind us.

In the medium term though the electorate may not judge the matter so kindly. it may have been Thatcher who first de-regulated the markets but this crisis has its roots and developed during Gordon Browns watch. In the near future he must answer some pointed questions about the failure to monitor and regulate what was going on on the markets.

The Tories are unlikely to take much comfort from what has happened either given that they are the prime proponents of de-regulation.

So who wins out of Darrien 2? Well no one really. We will all pay over the next year or two for the overwhelming greed of the bankers and financiers and from our own desire to expand our lifestyles through excessive credit.

Ayrshire Councils money frozen in Icelandic banks

The three Ayrshire councils, North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire all appear to have had money on deposit with the Icelandic banks which have effectively folded and been taken over by the Icelandic government. Their position is different from Aberdeen City Council's problems over a £120 million loan from one of the Icelandic banks. At the moment it would appear that the money that the three Ayrshire Councils have on deposit with Icelandic banks will have to be written off.

Councils are required to manage Council Tax payers money efficiently and this requires them to seek return on any monies they have in hand. It was legitimate therefore for the Councils to have money on deposit with Banks. It will be legitimate however to question if they were sufficiently monitoring the risks recently in respect of the banks that they were using.

North Ayrshire Council had largest Icelandic deposit
It would appear that of the Ayrshire Councils, North Ayrshire Council has the most money in an Icelandic Bank with a sum of around £15 million being quoted. A figure of around £1 million has been suggested for East Ayrshire Council.

(Update: Figures on deposit with Icelandic banks now estimated at North Ayrshire Council £15 million, South Ayrshire Council £5 million, East Ayrshire Council £3.5 million. It would appear that among UK Local Authorities North Ayrshire Council had the fifteenth highest amount of money on deposit with the Iceland banks.)

It remains to be seen if the UK governments use of anti-terrorist legislation to freeze Icelandic assets in the UK will persuade the Icelandic Government to release the money owing to UK public bodies.

There would be much sense in the Icelandic Government and the UK government finding a mutually helpful solution here. Iceland is at present going to Russia for loans, something which it may not have done entirely enthusiastically.

For Russia , with the potential opening of Arctic waters due to global warming induced sea ice reductions, it makes sense to seek leverage with another Arctic nation.

UK relations with Iceland are also important, not only to the UK but also to Iceland. Until the recent crisis we provided a natural line of expansion for Icelandic business and there is no reason that we or Iceland should wish this to be problematic in the future. Similarly it is in UK interests to have good relations with a strategically placed Arctic nation such as Iceland.

Within both states the public will want their economies to settle and debt problems to be resolved constructively and fairly. It is to be hoped that Iceland and the UK can identify a constructive solution soon to this problem.

Scottish Council's 120m Iceland problem

The global financial crisis of recent weeks is causing a headache for at least one Scottish council. Aberdeen Council has a 120m public private contract involving one of the failed Icelandic banks.

(see also update on Ayrshire Councils money with icelandic banks)

This news emerged as it became clear that 860m of UK public authority money was invested in Icelandic banks. A long list of bodies had monies with the banks - mostly on long term deposit contracts.

The UK governments response has been to use anti-terrorist legislation to freeze Icelandic assets. The government has described actions by the Icelandic government as illegal and unacceptable.

This comes at a time when the Iceandic goverment has been negotiating with Russia for loans to help it with the collapse of banking in Iceland.

In this wider context the problems of a Scottish Council may seem small. But these funds were earmarked for school building programs.

The financial crisis is having impacts internationally, nationally and at local level. This is the nature of things when economies. turn towards recession.

Across the world the crisis will have its impacts on ordinary people., with those who have the least often bearing the heaviest cost.

In all likelihood this crisis will pass in coming months and a year or two of recession will follow.. The impact of this though will be felt in all communities.

Scottish Local Income Tax is a Poll tax on steroids

The Tories failed to introduce a Poll Tax but it looks that the SNP are determined to introduce a Poll Tax on steroids into Scotland. Alex Salmond and the SNP Scottish government seem set on a course which will introduce a system of taxation on Scotland which is a "per head" taxation system based on a flat 3p in the pound.

The Scottish Local Income "Poll tax" that the SNP is seeking to introduce will differ from a more traditional Poll tax only in probably having a built in pre-tax allowance based on the UK personal allowances and in not being levied as a set amount but rather as a percentage of taxable income. In other words a Poll Tax by another name.

The SNP have however been skillful and deserve credit for the way they have managed this agenda and the SNP Poll tax on steroids proposals have so far failed to cause the excitement that the Tories Poll Tax proposals did. Perhaps in some ways the Tories have buttered everyone up for a change like this.

Even if the public do not understand the Poll Tax nature of the proposed Scottish Local Income Tax and react against it there are still some major hurdles to be overcome before such a tax becomes a reality.

Labour and the Tories are opposed to the Local Income Tax proposals while the Lib Dems are perhaps best described as lukewarm. An even larger barrier may be that the UK government has made clear that it will not release a very significant sum of money tied up in Council Tax benefits to help fund the new system. The UK government argues that as Council Tax would cease there would in effect be no such thing as Council Tax benefit and therefore the Scottish Government would lose the right to get such monies.

Then of course there is the administration of a Local Income Tax. It is clear that Local Authorities would be in no position to do this without a massive increase in bureaucracy. The only organisation in a position to collect the tax would be HMCR - and again the problem arises as to whether there is any incentive for the UK government to use a UK organisation to assist the SNP in delivering a policy which it opposes.

For Alex Salmond this may be win win though. If he delivers the Local Income Tax proposals then the Scottish Government will have been seen to have extended it's authority very significantly and to have developed the basis for a distinctly Scottish taxation system.

If the proposals fail then Salmond will of course blame the unionist parties and in particular the UK government and accuse them of thwarting the will of the Scottish Electorate.

Tommy Sheridan Case More Perjury Charges

Rosemary Byrne, the former MSP, is showing solidarity with her fellow Soldarity party co-convener Tommy Sheridan by now also being charged with perjury in connection with the lurid damages case that Tommy Sheridan won against the News of the World newspaper in 2006. Tommy Sheridan was himself charged with perjury in December last year. Rosemary Byrne was charged by Lothian and Borders police on Tuesday.

Byrne had given evidence on behalf of political firebrand Tommy Sheridan during his defamation case against the News of the World newspaper. The damages case arose from various allegations made in the newspaper about Tommy Sheridan's alleged lurid sexual antics, conduct and character. Tommy Sheridan sued the paper for defamation of character and, in what some described as a perverse verdict, he was awarded £200,000 damages.

The case split the far left Scottish Socialist Party assunder with members giving conflicting testimony for and against Sheridan. After the trial an investigation into allegations of perjury was ordered.

Following the splits in the Scottish Socialist Party, Sheridan went on to form the Solidarity Party but it recieved virtally no support in subsequent elections and Sheridan's political career seems finished.

A spokesman for Solidarity, Jim Monaghan, said "We consider this to be nothing more than a political witch-hunt."

Many of us considered that the damages trial result was a travesty and it will be interesting to see if the perjury charges which have now followed will at last reveal the truth about this murky episode in Scottish far left politics.
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What do you think about the Tommy Sheridan Case and the Perjury charges? I welcome comments. The best substantial comments will be edited into the end of this post to give you lovely link juice.

The Haggis - Secret Traditional recipe

With it being Burns night last night I thought it was timely to post up a link to an old post of mine which gives the secret recipe for making your own traditional Scottish Haggis. The Haggis is traditionally eaten with Neeps n Tatties ( Potatoes and Turnip to you foreigners). Here's to Rabbie Burns.
Traditional Haggis Recipe(Secret)

Ayrshire school: Shocking abuse revealed at Kerelaw

The full extent of the abuse which took place at Kerelaw Residential school in Ayrshire is becoming clearer as Glasgow City Council today publishes a report of it's investigation into what went on at the school. ( see also the report of the later independent enquiry published in 2009 )

The report reveals that forty care workers sexually or physically abused children in the residential school in Ayrshire. This may yet prove to be one of Britain's biggest abuse scandals.

The three-year investigation found "a significant core of staff" at the residential unit were directly involved in abuse. The victims were some of Scotland's most troubled and troublesome youngsters. It also appears that the abuse sometimes occurred with the full knowledge of colleagues and superiors and that there was "a culture of fear and collusion".

Kerelaw school , although based in Ayrshire, was run and managed by Glasgow City Council who have much to answer for in this whole scandal. Of more immediate concern is the prospect that some of the workers suspected of being involved may still be working in Scotland's child care sector.

The report suggests that over and above the forty staff directly alleged to have been involved there were a much larger number of staff who knew about abuse and potential abuse but who failed to report it or take any action about it.

The report is also, rightly, critical of senior social work and education managers in Glasgow City Council who must take a very large share of the blame for what have clearly been gross and inexcusable deficiencies of direct and of external management.

Insiders have spoken of possibly many hundreds of victims. In the main it should be said this seems to have involved rough or violent restraint rather than sexual abuse. Not that this makes the matter any better.

Glasgow City Council, who took over running the school in 1995 from Strathclyde Regional Council, closed Kerelaw last year after they removed the school's entire management in June 2004 following a tip-off from a whistleblower within the school. At one time the school had 165 care and teaching staff and up to 74 pupils ( mostly boys aged 13 plus), including 24 in the secure unit.

The investigation report also indicates that around 20 members of staff have been the subjects of reports to the procurator-fiscal.

So far two members of staff have been jailed - art teacher Matt George ( 10 years) and care manager John Muldoon ( two and a half years). One member of staff has died and two others have had their cases dropped.
Outstanding cases remain against 15 members of staff of which five are for sexual offences and 10 for a number of assaults.

It is clear that reports of the abuse, many by children, had been made over the years but in a "culture of fear and collusion" such reports produced no clear action. Those involved in the external management of this establishment must shoulder much of the blame for this.

The investigation resulted in staff dismissals and suspensions but some former staff members continue to claim they are victims of false,malicious allegations by former pupils. Some former staff members have suggested that the former pupils may be motivated by financial compensation and the prospect of lawsuits against Glasgow City Council. They have also attempted to organise an internet campaign claiming that the Kerelaw allegations are false.

Many of the children at Kerelaw were tough and difficult kids - often there because of a history of offending - but this can in no way reduce the shock of this scandal or excuse the total failure of management at this establishment. Neither does it mean that these youngsters will have been any less traumatised by their experiences. Such youngsters needed firm but caring handling by well managed staff. Instead it appears they suffered physical and sexual abuse and neglect by inaction.

At least one part of the Scottish system appeared to function appropriately, when the Care Commission, in a joint inspection with HM Inspector of Education in 2004, helped ensure problems were exposed and action taken. We must not be complacent though. It is vital that regular external scrutiny is in place for all care establishments to ensure that such abuse of the vulnerable in our society cannot go uncovered. The children in our care deserve no less.

As for those involved in the internal and external management of this Unit - they should have no place within our care sector due to their disgraceful failures which allowed this situation to run unchecked.

It is also clear that there are worrying potential loopholes in Scotland's arrangements to protect children. Where staff had already moved on to new jobs with other employers Glasgow City Council was unable to fully investigate their conduct and some of these individuals may be working yet in other parts of the child care sector.

There are many lessons that must be learnt from this sorry sad affair. Care Staff must always remember their professional responsibilities not to remain quiet when they are suspicious of abuse - it is their professional responsibility to report it. Troubled or not, these were Scottish Children and they were being cared for on behalf of us all.

This must never happen again.

The State of Scotlands Health Service

An article in the Sunday Times today reveals the deplorable state of Scotland's health Service.

The results of an investigation by doctors at Glasgow University have shown that 462,000 people died unnecessarily in Scotland between 1974 and 2003. Much of the blame for this excess death rate is laid at the door of the health service itself with the suggestion that the deaths would not have occurred had there been timely and effective health care.

Scotland spends more than any other European nation on Health Care but according to the study the excess death rate for men in Scotland is 176 per 100,000 compared to 159 in Portugal and 100 in Italy. For women the rate is 123 per 100,000 compared to 106 in Portugal, 85 in Austria and 76 in Italy.

The study showed that between 1981 - 2004 almost a quarter of a million excess deaths occurred due to poor quality care, delays in treatment or deprivation.

These figures must act as a wake up call to the Health Services in Scotland. It is clear that despite significant amounts of money having been poured into the system - much of it on GP and other wages, there are still major organisational weaknesses in the system which have not been addressed. The people of Scotland have a right to much better than this and those who run the health Service must be held to account and demonstrate that major, and successful, efforts will be made to resolve these problems. Frankly when surgeons and GP's and nurses have had significant pay rises these findings are a major scandal.

Glasgow 48th in World Wide 2007 Health and Sanitation Ranking

Glasgow has been placed 48th in the top 50 cities world wide in the Mercer Health and Sanitation ranking index. The list was topped by Calgary in Canada and interestingly no other UK city was placed in the top 50. Mercer also have produced their Top 50 cities for Quality of Life in which the top two spots were taken by the two Swiss ciities of Zurich and Genva. London was ranked 39th for Quality of Life. There were no UK cities in the top 50 Quality of Life ranking.

Top 50 Cities 2007 Quality of Life

Scottish blog roundup

Today we are mostly doing - a brief round up of blog posts about Scotland and Scottish Issues.

First of all - One of the articles here about Wind farm applications in Ayrshire has been reproduced by an interesting and informative US site Wind Watch that monitors wind farm issues. and which is generally opposed to large scale wind farm developments.

Some bloggers have been commenting on the Royal bank of Scotland threatening its staff with disciplinary action if they dont have their main bank account with the Royal bank of Scotland. This is fairly universally condemned by bloggers and rightly so. eg Ballots,balls and bikes Ethx blog

There has also been much comment on the funding of the SNP by Brian Souter and the fact that he is allegedly right wing and anti-gay ( he funded a campaign to keep section 28). votelaw
Another blogger, Progressive politics, suggests that this calls into question if the SNP are really the left of centre progressive party that they like to portray themselves as. In fact Peter Tatchell has been quoted as saying;

“The SNP would never accept a donation from an avowed racist, so why are they accepting funding from a man who is clearly homophobic? Accepting this tainted money is an outrageous insult to every gay person in Scotland and to everyone who loves and respects human rights.”

Blogger Mcgellie argues that the SNP are talking too much about tax rather than independance itself. Could this be because they realise that once the public starts examining the details of the costs of setting up Independance there will be some hard questions asked? Could this be because of the black hole in the SNP's financial planning?

We are not the only ones to detect the whiff of a strategy for causing constitutional chaos in the SNP plan for the "first 100 days" if they win the forthcoming Scottish elections in May. Will their tactic if they win be to pick fights with the UK parliament and to then launch an independence referendum on the back of this? We think this seems a likely scenario and so does Popular Alliance. - but a word to them - you might be right about SNP tactics but the bad news for you is that the Popular Alliance itself doesn't have a hope of political power anywhere and so won't need a 100 day plan!

And for those ladies who are sick of diets that don't work - Scottish doctors have reported an amazing diet breakthrough.

Scottish Council risks ID theft of employee data

The Perth Advertiser reports that of scores of workers of Perth and Kinross Council have been exposed workers to ID theft due to a USB memory stick containing their pay details which was left in the street. The USB key contained 59 documents, many from the council's Environmental Services Department. It was found near a bike shelter close to the council building at Pullar House. A retired man found the memory device and handed it to the local paper.

Documents on the key included 25 spreadsheets some of which included details of council workers' pay, National Insurance contributions, and overtime hours. The USB key also contained health and safety reports, performance reviews, and budget information.

Information on workers ranged from HGV drivers to cemetery workers.

The loss of the device seems not to have been reported to police. A spokesman for the council thanked the paper for the recovery of the lost memory device, which he described as "an unfortunate accident".

A spokesman at the council explained that council workers sometimes take work home with them on USB sticks. "Officers in this situation are all aware of the need for care and it would seem that this was an unfortunate accident. The device contained some historical information but much of the documentation was on the device in order to assist the owner in preparing some draft material for the new Business Management Improvement Plan."

Far from being grateful for the return of the USB key the council criticised the man who found the key for not returning it directly to the council. "The failure by the finder of the USB device to return it to the council constitutes theft and the council would like to thank the PA for its return," he said.