I'm really proud of Standingstone today. A baby was born here this morning, in the yurt we erected for his parents a fortnight ago. I'm proud that we have been able to give them a place to be, relatively protected from the stresses of the world, at this important moment.
But I'm a bit ashamed for Scotland that the best place we can offer to a pair of strangers in our midst, only one of whom speaks English well, to bring a child into the world, is a tent in a field.
This is Scotland after 14 years of #SNP rule; this is Scotland after two so-called #LandReform acts and with another, even more derisory, on the table.
#Labour are right to say that Scotland has a #HousingEmergency, but who really thinks they would do better? #ScotGov were right to accept that we do have one, but what do they propose to do about it?
I keep seeing people saying how they're supportive of #Palestine. The ONLY way I have SEEN them be "supportive" of Palestine is by saying "Israel, oh gosh, no, oh naughty, stop..." in a flat monotone. Whilst individually no doubt being on the phone to their brokers to shift all their money out of Raytheon and Elbit...
ScotGov has not expelled, nor openly divested from, any Israeli businesses, or businesses servicing Israel.
1st #dotScot registered was #Highland based Calico Internet Services. #ScotGov migrated to .scot in 2015 & Scottish Parliament the following year. Now? Thousands of users at home 🏴and across 62 countries🌏🌍🌎 Join our global community as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of #Scotland acquiring its own internet identity 🎈🥳
“I did recommend cancelling it,” he says of #Horizon, “and then tried to look at some of the lessons to be learnt – there was a gap in capability in the British Government of people with an understanding of technology"
And still is. More significantly, there's also a lack of in-house project management competence, and that's not something you can farm out to the private sector without getting royally ripped off. The same faults apply to #ScotGov
Of course you all already knew that all this shit about #CarbonTrading and #CarbonOffsetting was never about anything but fraud and greed. Of course you were angry about Brewdog et al's theft of land in Scotland, and #ScotGov's complicity in it. But have you thought about the consequences of that for the #GlobalSouth?
'Estimates suggest that every £1 invested in libraries returns between £5 and £7 – a staggering return of between £5bn and £6bn a year for the UK economy.'
Look, none of these issues are affected at all by the bill, which is a very simple, technical measure about the acquisition of a certificate. It doesn't confer any rights to trans people that they don't already have; it doesn't remove any rights from anyone else that they do already have.
The fact that #ScotGov didn't check whether the moon was made of green cheese, or whether pigs could fly, has nothing to do with the case.
@AnthonyFStevens If the Scottish Government #ScotGov can't get a #Section33 to run a referendum, and the UK Supreme Court won't allow #Holyrood to call one, then civil society will just have to do it.
Under Chapter 1, Article 1, Paragraph 2 of the United Nations Charter, we clearly have the right, and that right clearly overrides Westminster law or UK Supreme Court decisions.
@thecommongreen do you have any figures comparing the per-household capital and running costs of district heating schemes vs individual air source heat pumps?
Is a district scale heat pump (either air or ground source) more efficient than a domestic scale one? If so, by how much?
All these questions triggered by Robin's latest essay.
@thecommongreen If #ScotGov cannot realistically do this because of borrowing restrictions, would there be scope for a ScotGov backed scheme (with some money/commercial loans/project management support) for local heating co-ops?
I imagine getting a bank to loan money for a heating co-op should be pretty easy – there would be good collateral.
[I'm thinking about how we use this policy area to gently steer ScotGov towards collectivist rather than commercial solutions]
@MacNaBracha To be fair, #ScotGov has managed to give away a lot of Scotland's offshore renewables at far below market rates without and help from London, in a scandal which will hurt Scotland's taxpayers far worse than the ferries mess.
I'm not saying I think any SNP politicians acted corruptly in this – I don't believe they did – but there's a level of incompetence that's almost as culpable as corruption.