the dunmaglass vultures

Sat, Jan 1, 2011

I’m sick of being patronised. I’m sick of being treated like a basket case by low brow individuals collectively known as politicians. These days I call Alex Salmond “The Sandman” as his preferred stance on powering Scotland in the face of diminishing fossil fuel resources is to bury his head in the stuff, howk his arse in the air and emit muffled cries of “wind”, “wave”, “anything but nuclear”. Now, I’ve said before that powering a country with renewable energy is an admirable idea but as has been said by better men than me, an idea is useless without the skill to implement it. And the SNP do not have the skill to deliver a renewable future without recourse to environmental destruction and bestowing favours on individuals as blinkered as they are. As I said in The Great Renewables Ripoff, we don’t need this shit. The numbers don’t add up but then again that’s no surprise considering the recently exposed lack of arithmetic powers of politicians.

There is an interesting political divide opening between England and Scotland. David Cameron is selling his idea of a Big Society, where everyone can contribute to causes which they feel are important to their way of life. In Scotland, the government clings to its hand holding, “we know best” methodology. As a Scottish citizen, it’s increasingly difficult to contribute to the future of our environment. As an example, read my thoughts on common sense initiatives that are so bound by red tape they are non starters. Contrast this placing of obstacles in the way of the ordinary public playing their part in our environmental future, with the ease with which moneyed landowners and “green” conglomerates get what they want. The result is yet another obscenity on the landscape. The Dunmaglass windfarm. Approved despite pleas from educated people, experts even, on the likely consequences of building these 100m plus towers.

In fact the two faced attitude of the Scottish Government to our landscape beggars belief. On the one hand, they promote its use for preserving our health and sanity in an increasingly automated, technologically inert society, while on the other, they simply destroy it. If I was Shona Robison, I’d be nipping down the corridor and banging on Salmond’s door, asking why he’s undermining her attempts to get the populace off their couches and into “…some of the world’s most spectacular scenery…” as she puts it.

I have no faith in wind power as a successor to fossil fuels. Turbines simply cannot provide the amount of juice a modern technological, power hungry society wants. I’ve lost count of the stationary turbines I’ve driven past, wondering how many of the X thousands of homes they’re meant to power will go without, in a post fossil, nuclear free, wind powered Scotland. Last winter was exceptional in its lack of wind. For the first time anyone can remember, Scotland enjoyed an Alpine winter, with snow conditions never seen before, due to the complete absence of wind. This winter is the same it seems. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a full on winter storm. But just as the Scottish government fail to equate “spectacular scenery” with what turbines sit in, so they fail to equate that blowy thing that messes their barnets with the stuff that makes those turbines go round. I wait with baited breath, the first utterance of “The Wrong Wind!” when they address the question of “why don’t the blades turn?”

The oppressed are rising though. Cameron McNeish and Chris Townsend have already made their views known and what they have to say is well worth reading. It’s good that our little community has such educated, informed and eloquent spokesmen. Alan Sloman has a map of the extent of the wind farm here.

If you feel strongly about this silencing of the populace in their attempts to live more sustainable lives and instead be dictated to by ignorant profit fed vultures and fatuous clowns, think very carefully about joining the protest Alan Sloman is getting in gear.

There are many aspects of SNP rule that I can live with. This isn’t one. I’ve enjoyed having a national identity emerge on their watch. I’ve detested watching the other parties bitch and backstab and the current pack of liars and two faced shits makes my skin crawl. So for me, there isn’t much of an alternative to the SNP. I think they’ve breathed new life into what’s become a run down colonial dump. It would be a shame to go back to the old days. So grasp the thistle, protest and let them know what they are doing is not how we prepare for a post fossil future.