Category Archives: between books

Glasgow Belongs to Everyone – COP26

Posted on by
Reply

Jack just scrapes in under the wire again –

It’s been quite a couple of weeks for Scotland and Glasgow in particular with COP26.

I wanted to focus particularly on the Scottish aspect, how it has benefited and what it has contributed.

A few months ago the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said he didn’t mind a few saltires (the Scottish flag), but he didn’t want Nicola Sturgeon (the First Minister of Scotland) anywhere near COP26. This was rather strange, not only because it was taking place in Scotland, but because the nation is leading the world in the use of renewable energy.

In the end they seem to have agreed to back off from any confrontation and Nicola was pictured shaking hands with President Biden and accepting a gift from him. She also gave a significant speech and was introduced by Nancy Pelosi. Before that she met with youth leaders including Greta Thunberg.

But let’s get to what is happening –

The Scottish parliament voting system was deliberately designed to avoid any one party having an overall majority. In the last election in May this year the Scottish National Party was just one short, so entered into a semi-coalition with the Scottish Green Party who had eight elected. This has pushed the SNP Government (politically centrist) in a more environmental direction.

Here are some significant Scottish achievements and targets –

  1. Already producing almost all domestic electrical supply from renewable sources.
  2. All coal fired power stations closed.
  3. No new nuclear powered stations allowed
  4. No fracking allowed.
  5. Target set to reduce vehicle mileage per year.
  6. Target set to increase rail and bus usage per year.
  7. Target set for big expansion of electric vehicle charging points.
  8. A managed shift away from North Sea oil and gas dependence.

A quick reminder – The UK (The United Kingdom) consists of two nations – Scotland and England, a principality – Wales, and a province – Northern Ireland. Wales was annexed by England in the 13C, and N. Ireland was created in the 1920s when the rest of Ireland gained independence as a republic. Scotland and England signed a treaty in 1707 joining the two nations under one parliament, but with continuing separate legal, educational and Church systems up to the present. The Scottish parliament was reconvened in 1999 but the UK parliament is supreme and can over-ride anything that they legislate on.

Words in a Miner Key

Posted on by
Reply

Jack did the Monday book, so he gets to be late for the Wednesday guest post –

How I failed to write a song.

The corner of West Fife where I was born and lived most of my life has a long history of coal mining. One of the villages on the coast of the river Forth is Culross (pronounced Kooross) and nearby was the Valleyfield colliery. It closed in the 1970s and I knew something of the history so it seemed like a subject for a song.

Culross, with a 16th Century car!

Back in the late 1500s a local landowner discovered there was coal under his land that extended out under the river, so he had an artificial island built there and tunnel to reach it. King James the sixth (who later became James the first of England as well – the bible guy) heard of it and asked to visit it. When he emerged on the island he thought he’d been hoodwinked and was about to be killed!

Eventually The Fife Coal Company sank a deep mine on the shore nearby which tapped into that same seam. That was Valleyfield colliery.

However even before coal was discovered there had been salt pans in the area where the salt water from the estuary was boiled to produce a valuable and much sought after commodity.

Then in 1939 there was an underground explosion that killed over thirty miners and injured many more. Following the end of WW2 and the election of the Labour Government the coal mines were nationalized and better safety measures were introduced.

In Valleyfield Colliery in the 1930s.

In the late 1970s the coal was running out, but not before the underground workings linked up with others from mines on the other side of the Forth, creating the only under-river crossing to this day. But time had run out for the mine.

Culross is owned by The National Trust for Scotland and kept as it was from the 1600s, so everyone who has ever watched a historical film set in Scotland has seen it – most notably ‘Outlander’.

Back to the song. All I ever managed was a tune and a chorus, but I hope I can eventually make verses as well.

“Farewell tae ye Valleyfield, we’ll a’ mind yir cage o’ steel.

The roads and the paths, oh we’ll mind every name.

But time plays a waitin’ game, she’ll soon haud her sway the same,

The saut pans will soon ha’e their freedom again”