Please Help Save Scotland

The Germans are arguing and it's not about the EU or immigration.  In June 2011 Angela Merkel's government launched a new energy policy which was prompted by the Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe in Japan.

Now the German environmental movements, the Green Party and the conservative Christian Democrats, are at loggerheads.  Many environmentalists want to see the expansion of renewable energies at any price but there is now a conflict because those who have been feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the way things are going have decided they can keep quiet no longer.

What has happened is that the environmentalists role has changed from fighting road and rail projects to protecting birds and rare frog species.  Now they are forced to defend massive high-voltage power lines while being careful not to scare off their core environmentalist clientele, (those providing the basic funding).

A senior German politician claimed that investors in renewable energies were being 'serially harassed by the low-level regional nature-conservation authorities' and the state government wasn't helping to combat this.

According to the Speigel wind energy's fast growth has ended in Europe and nearly every country that subsidises renewable energy has been tinkering with changes or rewriting regulation.

At the moment the Scottish government continues to permit turbines to be built all over the beautiful Scottish scenery.  Soon the scenery on a journey from Perth to Edinburgh will include turbines for most of the trip and planning departments continue to approve applications very frequently.

I had no problem with small wind farms being built to aid small communities or a few major projects which would provide energy to the cities but do we want our famous and loved scenery to be blighted by turbines at every turn in the road?  I say no and concur with Rhona Weir's opinion. Rhona Weir is the widow of Tom Weir and is a great champion of the Scottish landscape.  You can hear an interview with her and windwiseradio here.

The petition to save our countryside is here and the deadline for signatures is this Friday, the 15 March.  I would ask you to contribute by adding your signature if you agree with Rhona Weir.

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How To Lose Voters in One Letter

The SNP plans to contact one million potential voters in the next week as it launches its campaign to win a second term in office.  Moray MP Angus Robertson will be leading the campaign for a second time, after successfully steering the Nationalists to victory at Holyrood in 2007.

However the SNP intends to loose the support of Dundee East voters.  Stewart Hosie (pictured) is the MP for Dundee East and his wife, Shona Robison is the MSP, and minister for Public Health and Sport in the Scottish government, for the same area.  Therefore the Dundee East constituency is well covered by Mr and Mrs Hosie.

Mr Hosie has irritated Dundonians.  Not so long ago there was much controversy about the installation of two giant turbines for Dundee harbour.  More recent is the debate out Forth Energy wishing to build a renewable energy plant, which includes a 300ft chimney, at the Port of Dundee.

A Courier reader, a John J Marshall, sent a letter to the paper, at the end of September, complaining about the building of this biomass plant - unfortunately that letter is not online - and Mr Hosie responded.  A couple of quotes from his letter:

'It is the same regurgitation of claims and assertions of those who have always been vociferously opposed to the plant and the same attack on politicians who have dared not to automatically accept these as fact.'


'That decision will be based on impartial evidence by those qualified to provide it independent of any vested interests.'

The tone of his letter (if you read all of it) is scathing and somewhat patronising.  However Dundonians don't take insults lying down and the following are just a few quotes from readers' letters in response to Mr Hosie's missive.

'The debate now should surely be about how we develop renewable energy and what locations are suitable for different types of production. For example, the biomass proposal for Dundee port does not sound like a good sustainable proposal — apart from anything else, it involves importing the raw materials.'

'I have voted SNP for many years now but feel let down by those chosen to represent the council and therefore the people of Dundee. The biomass plant and turbines being mooted as a valuable addition to our city is laughable if it wasn't so threatening.'

'Nowhere in the letter does he mention the wishes of his constituents. Do we only matter to him, his wife Shona Robson and the SNP councillors when they are standing for re-election? There is considerable opposition among the public.'

'Sir, — Once again we witness the unedifying words and behaviour of a politician, this time an SNP MP, Stewart Hosie with his patronising and personal attack on your columnist, John J. Marshall, simply because he has no substantive and fact-based counter-arguments of his own.'

'Mr Marshall's column last week presented a logical, defensible and fact-led argument against the proposed biomass plant at Stannergate and yet Mr Hosie resorts to personal vilification as his sole means of counter-argument.

Shame on you, Mr Hosie — surely our MPs are not all that shallow?'

I would suggest Mr Hosie isn't doing much for his wife's chances of being re-elected next year for the Scottish Parliament and Mr Robertson should hot foot it to Old Glamis Road, (where the SNP constituency office is situated and which was my local sweetie shop as a teenager), to have a quiet word in the ears of both Mr and Mrs Hosie.  I could never imagine my own MSP writing in such a tone to my local paper.  He's far too respectful of his constituents' concerns.

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