IT really is “last-chance saloon” for Skye this week as the next phase of this disturbing Scottish Western plays out.
Highland councillors will today re-evaluate their “no objection” decision on SSEN’s application for new catastrophic overhead power lines and further infrastructure in stunning Skye. It is specifically designed to encourage and enable new multiple wind turbine applications despite there being no guaranteed route to market for yet more excess wind energy. This can only increase the constraints burden on consumers, who will have to pay millions to switch these monsters off.
READ MORE: North Sea oil and gas plan in King's Speech condemned by activists
What a bizarre business model, except for those gleefully raking in the spoils of a half-cocked policy that surely everyone, except the green-sloshed politicians, can now see is not fit for purpose.
With SSEN submitting further environmental information regarding Skye after the councillors’ original decision, it is only correct that planners revisit the application and make the right call this time. Without an objection, Skye will not get the public inquiry it deserves where SSEN can be cross-examined by independent experts and their proposals scrutinised in the public domain. If SSEN is allowed to succeed, Skye will be changed forever and not for the better.
Rural Scotland is fast becoming like the wild west as Scottish Government-backed Big Energy rides roughshod into pristine environments and over residents’ wishes to stake their claim and spear their money-making industrial junk into areas that should be fiercely protected.
READ MORE: Big Wind is no less ugly than oil and gas giants
There are two definitions of “last chance saloon’’ according to the Collins dictionary. One is a place frequented by unsavoury characters and the other is a situation considered to be the last opportunity for success. If you have ever encountered the dismissive attitude of those intent on colonising rural Scotland in the name of “green”, you will know that both definitions will apply.
It may seem dramatic to refer to Custer’s Last Stand, but the enormous pressure and distress felt by targeted communities in Skye and across Scotland feels like they are fighting for their way of life against a ruthless “green” invasion with no-one in authority on their side. Attitudes are hardening as citizens become more aware of the scale of the industrial devastation they are expected to accept even though evidence of need has not been given to them. Politicians must stand with us and demand answers, and not just hitch their wagons to the destructive “green” gravy train choo-chooing its way through our world-famous natural environment.
Lyndsey Ward
Spokeswoman for Communities B4 Power Companies
AS in most things whimsical (my letter on “stop the oil”, Nov 1), there is also a serious point to be made. Mr Forde (Letters, Nov 5) is correct to point out that petrochemicals only reflect 12% of the total demand for crude oil stocks.
All the industry and supply chains which were based around wool, flax and cotton-based materials in Scotland during the 1950s and 60s are gone, except on a niche scale which tend to be expensive.
READ MORE: North Sea oil and gas plan in King's Speech condemned by activists
The late Sean Lock, the comedian, when he checked the labelling on his clothes, his furniture and his washing machine, found the labels marking place of origin all said “China”. He reflected that the UK was now made in China.
The next UK Government will not do anything about the UK’s collapsing industrial base, as made clear by Starmer’s constant backsliding on promises made on green energy, a UK wealth fund and everything else he said he was “for” so he would be anointed Labour leader.
I think we can both agree about the naiveness of the blanket “Stop the Oil” campaign, but where we differ is that I see no UK Government investing in a return to the days of cotton mills, weavers, fullers and dyers of my childhood – when Dunfermline was a major producer of linen, Kirkcaldy was the linoleum capital of Scotland and my own wee burgh of Inverkeithing was a big player in steel recycling and paper milling – nor do I see any real political desire to cut back on the use of petroleum products in transport systems across the globe. Window dressing, yes, but real change, no. Just follow the political donations and the economic demands of the City of London and other stock markets on government bonds.
Peter Thomson
via email
MUCH comment has been raised recently about the current UK Government attitude towards the poor. Their views can be simplified. One is that poverty is self-inflicted and those in poverty deserve no sympathy or help to get out of it. The other is their need for VISIBLE poverty to reassure their not-so-poor support of its relative economic success.
Rough sleepers, on the other hand, are visible reminders to the wider electorate of the government’s failure and need to be kept out of sight; therefore, criminalise them.
Drew Reid
Falkirk
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