Having gone hell for leather to make wind power the centrepiece of Scottish energy policy, having fought tooth and nail to prevent new nuclear and coal-fired capacity and at best only lukewarm on gas, the Scottish National Party are now having to face the consequences of what they have done. It looks like a case of a cry for help:
Firstly, we have demands that Westminster do something about the perilous security of Scotland's electricity supply:
The First Minister has written to David Cameron urging the UK Government to review the security of Scotland's electricity supply.
Nicola Sturgeon said UK energy policy was compromising energy security north of the border and called on the Prime Minister to act.
And then, having made quite sure that an onshore oil and gas industry will not develop north of the border, it is now crying out for tax breaks for the ailing North Sea:
THE UK Government can no longer ignore calls for urgent tax changes that could spark a “resurgence” in the North Sea oil industry, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Scotland’s First Minister claimed it was clear that “urgent fiscal stimulus” was needed to increase exploration work.
Make no mistake. Sturgeon is not a fool and neither was Alex Salmond before her. Their pursuit of wind power and their wrecking of conventional power generation north of the border was motivated by the desire to win green votes. This is the problem with having politicians in control of anything - you always run the risk of the dumb leading the blind to policy chaos.