Month: September 2023

NOT SURE YOU’VE THOUGHT THIS THROUGH, MR D ROSS

Just following instructions from head office?

Says Ross:

Rosebank is fantastic news for the North East, Scotland & the UK (It’s much better news for Norway.)

Boosting our energy security (Nope. It will be sold on the open market…something you should approve of, I expect (markets being your kind of thing.)

Protecting jobs (It’s estimated to create 1600 jobs for a few years, then 450 +/- so you have a point, but it’s minimal.)

Bringing £6 billion of investment (Yet to be proven. It’s not that many jobs even during the construction phase.)

Better for the environment than costly foreign imports (It will be a costly import. It’s sold on the world market. Norway will benefit much more than Britain.)

Only the Conservatives are standing up for Scottish oil & gas. (Actually, it’s Norwegian and and British/English oil the way you’ve sorted it.)

TARTANARSE.MBE on Twitter replies:

You really don’t know anything about the subject do you Dougie? Your tweet is just embarrassing.

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To be fair, I know very little about it, but as far as I can see from briefly reading around:

Rosebank oil and gas field lies about 80 miles north-west of Shetland and is one of the largest undeveloped discoveries in Scottish (but for these purposes) UK waters.

It is supposed to contain around 300 million barrels of oil and is owned by Norwegian energy giant Equinor (Statoil) and British firm Ithaca Energy.

Broke Britain is giving Equinor, (Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway)  a massive £3.75bn tax break. Then the Norwegian government then taxes Equinor at 80%.

So Britain, who is relatively poor, is giving Norway (which is rich by any standards) loadsa money.

About 1,600 jobs are expected to be created during the peak of construction. Long term, the operation will create an unimpressive 450 jobs.

What Rosebank produces will be sold at world market prices, so the project will not cut energy prices for UK consumers.

The Norwegian state oil company Equinor , the majority owner of Rosebank – has confirmed that.

“If the UK needs Rosebank oil, it will go to the UK through open market mechanisms”, said Arne Gurtner, Equinor’s senior vice president for the UK.

Jeez. Well done, Britbin.

Oh and while we are on the subject, Mr Ross. Where’s this poil come from?

Did you lie to us about oil in 2014?

Mustn’t forget the Governor General Viceroy Jack Boots.

Luckily for Norway, he was wrong!

I’d welcome comments from people who know about the oil and gas industry.

And Dave, if you want to comment, just send me an email.

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MORE USELESS TORIES ELEVATED TO THE JUNIOR ARISTOCRACY

But despite all that, bless him, Rees Mogg was knighted, presumably thanks to BlowJo’s removal list.

Poor old Anne had to do the swordy thing with him. As we know Anne doesn’t suffer fools gladly, so I’d not have been terribly surprised if this had happened. She should definitely ask Snarls for a pay rise.

Then this dreadful woman was elevated to Damehood. Poor old Anne, for all her faults, didn’t deserve that. No wonder the old bloke delegated that one.

She’s such a classy woman, whose career amounted to being a junior minister for a whole three months. Lessons to learn there, Truss!

I wonder why Boris thought she was worthy of a damehood.

I also wonder which poor sucker of a royal will get the horror, I mean honour, of raising Jackie Baillie to aristocratic heights.

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THE JOY OF ANNIE WELLS

DUH!

So Annie Wells, a constant source of mirth to we Scots, bless her, tweeted today, something which looks suspiciously like it came from the Scottish edition of the Daily Mail, which as we all know loves the Tories and hates the SNP.

She pointed out that it was a scandal and that the SNP was letting people down in the worst way.

Now let’s be absolutely honest about this. If people cannot get treatment for horrible diseases, Wells is right. It is a scandal. And the SNP and Green (yes Annie, it’s a coalition…like what you had with the Liberal Democrats) are responsible to an extent for the funding of the health service.

Fair at this point to say that I know two people who are being treated for cancer at the moment. Both of them have absolutely nothing but praise for the treatment they are getting, but that’s a tiny number and I don’t doubt that some people will be facing problems, given the pressures that the SNHS is under.

Coved took its toll on staff. Some died, some got very sick and are still suffering Long Covid. Some decided that now was the time to retire or leave and get another job.

“Clap for the NHS! They truly are magnificent. Why, they saved the life of our beloved Boris BlowJo. What? They want a pay rise? Tell them to get stuffed, greedy scroungers!”

Then there was Brexit and the mishandling of the issue of EU personnel working here by the then Home Secretary, hard right Pritti Patel…

Or, better still, we could squander it on royal funerals and crownings and yachts for noblewomen.

Some had been here for many years, living as if they were Scottish or British. They suddenly they had to apply for residency, which the Home Office made as difficulties possible and which would have afforded them very limited rights.

Again, I only know two EU doctors, but both decided to go home rather than be treated like second class citizens. Thanks Patel.

If this were a uniquely Scottish problem, then I would happily join her in condemnation of the SNHS, and by association, the Scottish Government.

But, of course, it is not a uniquely Scottish problem.

Because the Express (note, not the Scottish edition) says that patients (in England) are spending their life savings to pay for treatment in private hospitals.

And at the moment things are only getting worse in England, Annie.

A million appointments lost in the Tories’ country. Consultants’ pay has decreased by over a third in the past 14 years. It’s not greed. It’s economics. Who can afford to lose a third of their income, while still doing a difficult and incredibly responsible job?

But whilst we can’t do anything about the shambles they made of Brexit, we can find a way to solve the pay problem. Give them a pay rise.

Otherwise they will leave and go to work in a country that appreciates them.

Additionally, when you annually cut the Scottish budget, as you have, what on earth did you expect to be the outcome?

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RANDOM THOUGHTS

World beating Britbin Rail

High speed rail in France.

Les TGV (Trains à grande vitesse).

Delays are now final. HS2 will now go from somewhere just outside Central London (5 miles from Euston Station) to Birmingham. About 100 miles. One line.

Great British Railways, eh?

Embarrassing.

Officially launched by Labour in 2009, HS2 was reviewed and tweaked by the coalition government and green-lighted in 2012 as a Y-shaped network linking the English capital with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Manchester and Leeds are long forgotten…as is Cameron and Osborne’s levelling up the English north.

The new world beating shortened route is expected to be ready by 2029-2033. So I’d guess probably up and running about 2044.

In 2010, when the Tories and the Liberal Dems took over government, the construction costs of HS2 were estimated to be between £30.9 billion and £36 billion.

Nine years later, in 2019, the costs had risen to £71 billion… in short doubled.

Currently the costs are estimated to be £100 billion. In other words, in 4 years they have increased by a third. It’s anyone’s guess what the costs will be by the time of completion.

I suspect we may have to accept substandard trains on the line.

The future in Europe?

And in Britain?

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Iain Duncan Nosepicker, the rebel?

So , is Picky giving us the green light to smash up things that we disapprove of, because if he is, I imagine that there is quite a list.

Starting with this

…and this

Not, you understand, that I am advocating that myself (although it might be amusing to watch), but I’d say it was dangerous practice for a minister to advocate destruction of state owned equipment. ULEZ may be unpopular with some people, but I’m pretty certain the same could be said of Buck House and the Palace of Westminster, not to mention the aforementioned rhinotillexomaniac.

Goose, Gander, Mr Bogeyman.

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This should cheer you up

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I suppose that minister means that Labour were not elected as the government (under the ridiculous FPTP system) and that with other parties Labour has voted down the government’s plans to build houses (presumably dodgy ones). But remember that the Tories got a massive majority at the last election… so maybe she needs to ask why their MPs didn’t come out to vote.

But Britain is all about the unelected.

The head of state that costs us all a fortune and is above the law (criminal and financial)… as, it appears, is his massive family was never elected and almost certainly wouldn’t be regardless of who was up against him.

The House of Commons is elected by First Past the Post, which in a multi party system returns a totally unrepresentative membership. (Remember the time the SNP got just under 50% of the vote in the Brit elections and yet won 56 out of 59 seats from our country? Well over 90%.)

Then there’s this load of freeloading chancers claiming vast amounts for sleeping, and eating and drinking in subsidized facilities. Not to mention the Privy Council which can be used to bypass the ridiculously unrepresentative parliament.

Opposition parties ARE elected in the Commons, however unfairly.

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As usual, the UK is so vain

In this new Federal Trust video John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly discuss the recent report commissioned by the French and German governments on the future governance of the European Union.

They conclude that the conclusions of this report have been grotesquely misreported in the British media; and that political reactions to this misreporting have, not for the first time in the UK’s European debate, only compounded the confusion.

SPEAKERS: Brendan Donnelly is the Director of the Federal Trust and a former Conservative MEP. John Stevens Chair of the Federal Trust and an analyst and commentator on economic affairs.

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SOPPY SUNDAY

I had to get mummy to carry me to work. I didn’t want to get my feet wet and make a mess of Munguin’s carpeting. He’s a bit fussy about these things.

2. Where’s Dave?

3. Now dig that bit over there and scatter these leaves… and it’s my tea break.

4. I’m a Blue Admiral…you know, as opposed to being a red one. But I want to make it clear that I am NOT Penny Mordaunt.

5. Petite and Bijoux? I think they overdid it on the advertising.

6. I wouldn’t like to have to carry my groceries up there… or walk up after a night out.

7. Well, hi. Not seen you for so long.

8. That’s my life’s work.

9. Snap of a lifetime.

10. So this is the video that Kay sent me… and I lacked the skills to put it on the blog. I was going to attempt a YouTube channel but very kindly, Claire in Srem took care of it for me. So thank you both very much. What an amazing collection of birds.

11a

11b.

11c. Where’s Panda Paws?

12. You should carry me, mum. My little legs is tired.

13. We’re like triplets.

14. Cuddles with mummy.

15. Shield bug.

16. It looks like the kettle’s boiling… but it’s not. Sidney the Bulgarian Spider has built a corker of a web.

17. Are we like brothers or sisters or whatever these peoples call family?

18. Kay finds Mantises rather a lot. This is a beauty. Wish we had them here.

19. So am I going to be on Soppy Sunday?

20. Did I remember to turn off Munguin’s lights?

Thanks to Panda Paws, Claire, Dave and Kay.

Bonus: