Monday
Aug032015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Media balance
Aug 3, 2015 Energy: gas Media Talking of crazy, the new SNP newspaper The National has an article about the proposed coal gasification project mooted for the Firth of Forth.
It features quotes from two green anti-capitalist groups who are opposed to the project, a local councillor who is very much against it and an MSP who hates it with a vengeance.
And they wonder why nobody reads newspapers any more.
Reader Comments (66)
If it is owned by the SNP, then The National cannot be described as a newspaper; rather it is propaganda sheet.
Aptly named sheet - The National. The SNP and their version of National Socialism? I wonder when Nicola Sturgeon will write her own version of "Mein Kampf"
No doubt the 2016 Scottish election will see the SNP poster leading with "Freiheit und Brot"
Is there not a way to ensure these idiots recieve only unreliable energy supplies, whilst the rest of us recieve reliable energy? That way, they will soon learn the folly of theur ways, me thinks!
You'd be better off monitoring some of the crazies now visiting your site. Smearing ideological opponents with Nazi insults is not just self-delusion, it is self-defeating.
I am unclear of the science of this. Does the process of gasification reduce the amount of co2 emissions ultimately created or would it be just like burning it in a coal fired power station?
tonyb
Hmmm think they need to be more honest and call it the 'The Notional' instead .
Tonyb
There are several possible processes. Not sure what is proposed. But all must rely on Chemistry 101.
Carbon plus Oxygen = Carbon dioxide (or monoxide) plus heat.
By using Oxygen rather than air, you should get CO2 of higher purity which in theory you can "capture" more economically (if equally pointlessly).
If it is owned by the SNP, then The National cannot be described as a newspaper; rather it is propaganda sheet.
The National, whatever one thinks of it, is owned by Newsquest, a UK publisher of regional and local newspapers. A sister paper of The Herald and The Sunday Herald, it was launched in the run-up to last year's referendum. One has to ask why folk who cannot be bothered to take the 30-odd seconds needed to check out such a basic fact nevertheless feel the urge to comment.
JamesG:
You'd be better off monitoring some of the crazies now visiting your site. Smearing ideological opponents with Nazi insults is not just self-delusion, it is self-defeating.
Couldn't agree more though, regrettably, it's mostly regulars, not passing crazies, who've made it a chronic condition. The Bishop used to exert some control over it but seems to have stopped doing so. Pity, that.
Perhaps more to the point, "eco-fascist" mud slinging is not just self-defeating, it is fatuously a-historical. The connections between far-right political ideology and environmentalism over the last 150-odd years are reasonably well understood by those who trouble to examine them but the links between modern "environmentalism" and political tendencies of left, right and centre alike are more complex than the toys-out-the-pram "analysis" we so often see here seems able to grasp.
Martin
Thanks for that. As there are no realistic means to capture the 'purer' co2 from gas8ification in effect the process is ultimately little different to burning coal in a coal fired power station.
So whether or not we are concerned about this, environmentalists will equate the two processes and as burning coal is so frowned on, so equally gasification will also acquire that demonic status.
tonyb
JamesG "Smearing ideological opponents with Nazi insults is not just self-delusion, it is self-defeating."
Did you say anything when a UK government minister likened us to Hitler?
Did you say anything when the BBC liked us to paedophiles?
Did you say anything when the BBC likened us to holocaust deniers?
There has been a campaign of hate speech against us sceptics which if the law were enforced would lead to many people from government ministers to presenters on the BBC to church of Scotland ministers being in court.
And if you don't believe me, here are a couple of articles detailing the horrific catalogue of hate speech from climate extremists.
link
link
MikeHaseler, Yes. Of course I did
And I was banned at the Guardian for objecting to their smears too.
Does that mean I should sink to the grubby level?
No.
I try to be better than that.
The curious thing, in my mind, DaveB, is that 'Eco-Fascists' (if one can use such a label) tend to be of the hard left. They tend to proclaim their love of the planet while their friends in the left-wing countries of the world do their best to damage it. For evidence I give you the ecological destruction wrought on the world by the likes of Eastern Germany and China - and God knows what damage the Kims have done to North Korea.
According to JamesG's past postings the SNP have a secret Energy policy only known to him that is the best of any political party within the UK, even better than UKIP.
And still unknown to everyone else
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/13507248.Local_SNP_branches_join_push_for_party_to_adopt_blanket_fracking_ban/
THE SNP has been challenged not to dodge a debate on fracking at the party's conference, after it emerged that grassroots members across Scotland are calling for an outright ban.
A series of local SNP branches have submitted resolutions on the topic ahead of October's mass meeting calling for overt opposition to controversial gas exploitation methods, as have the party's 15,000-strong trade unionist group.
A resolution from the Edinburgh Eastern branch states that fracking and Underground Coal Gasification (UCG), a process for exploiting coal underground by setting it alight and capturing gas, poses "serious threats to the environment and water course" and that possible financial rewards are not worth the risks.
Mike H
I remember similar insults hurled by mainly right-wingers to those who opposed the Iraq war. Apparently to oppose it was to be in bed with Saddam the Kurd-gasser and the terrorists who blew up the twin towers. The simple question 'how many innocent people have to die to depose Saddam' was always avoided by those hyper-righteous 101st keyboardists.
All we've learned meantime is that left-wing activists are every bit as sanctimonious and ignorant as right-wing activists and more education actually seems to make the ignorance and dogmata sink deeper. All very sad really!
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
So get mad but stay sane :)
The SNP really need to be consistent about power in Scotland, before asking the population to vote for Power and Independence. Otherwise it will become Scotland No Power.
I am not sure that a powerless Scotland is what any sane person wants for Scotland.
Whatever the language being used on this thread, Andrew's point is a valid one.
The National is an avowedly Nationalist-supporting newspaper from the Herald stable and anyone who looked at the rationale and timing behind its launch could be forgiven for assuming it is a SNP propaganda sheet — mainly because it is and was intended to be,
The article quoted simply confirms that belief. There is not the slightest attempt to provide any sort of balance. WWF and FoE are quoted as are two Nationalist sources all of whom are all anti-fossil fuel in any shape or form. As far as they are concerned (and you don't need to be a genius at reading between the lines to work this one out) Cluff - and by implication Ineos - can eff off any time they like 'cos Scotland doesn't need your filthy industry. Not with all that nice clean North Sea oil. Duh!
And unless my experience is unique no-one is going to have any chance to comment on that drivel because I'm not even allowed access to read the comments, let alone make one of my own. I would say Andrew's comments are reasonably restrained, all things considered, but then I am not now and have never been ... a supporter of the SNP which (like it or not, James) is Nationalist and Socialist and therefore qualifies for the description National Socialist.
Personally I doubt if the SNP's Edinburgh East branch has a clue about 'financial rewards' or their associated risks except that their agin them, whatever they are.
My apologies for the typos in that last post. I did proof it - twice - but then had to rush off to do something else.
I'll go and sit on the naughty step for an hour.
I read the article in The National this morning and was dismayed at the lack of balance. However this is a widespread problem and is by no means confined to The National - the BBC is an obvious and far more influential example. This is a real issue which deserves intelligent discussion. I therefore fully endorse the comments of JamesG and utterly deplore the gratuitously offensive comments of charmingquark. It is acceptable to disagree with the views of the SNP, or other political parties, but to imply that the SNP and presumably their many supporters are akin to the German Nazi party of Hitler is utterly ludicrous and clearly reveals someone who is devoid of any historical knowledge of the appalling atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis. We deserve better on this site.
Always keen to have a lesson in enviro-politics from an expert, Dave. Discussion thread perhaps?
My fault entirely but I don't know if that's a put down or a serious suggestion. Whatever, I claim no expertise on the topic, only that I've read enough serious literature to grasp that trite explanations don't hack it. One thing I did do that proved surprisingly - and tellingly - difficult was to compile a (hopefully balanced) timeline of the evolution of the AGW "meme" in international politics from The Club of Rome's 1972 report to CoP18/MoP8 in 2012. It took several weeks but was most instructive - you'd think the web'd be awash with the wretched things. Nope.
The curious thing, in my mind, DaveB, is that 'Eco-Fascists' (if one can use such a label) tend to be of the hard left
Forgive me if I cop out and leave compiling league tables of regimes guilty of environmental mayhem to others. Back with labels, given their power to offend and, worse, mislead, one ought IMHO to use terms such as "eco-fascist" only after defining them.
A weakness of Rupert Durwall's otherwise excellent The Age of Global Warming is that he doesn't define "environmentalism" despite its being central to a generally cogent and accurate argument. (A valuable book, it ought to be better known.) But "eco-fascist" and like terms are in a different league from "environmentalism" and should be eschewed in climate sceptic circles, esp by those unaware of the considerable literature on the subject.
Here, they are used almost exclusively as terms of abuse presumably with intent vaguely to link their targets with the time when when a Fascist government pioneered European environmental regulation amid much "Blood and Iron" claptrap. IOW, their use expresses only impotence and frustration. It's a curious phenomenon in that people who indulge in such abuse IME typically also deny any link between contemporary centre- and far-right political tendencies and the "environmental" movement though parallel links with the left are not disputed. They seem to feel that they have made telling points when, in the main, all they have done is demonstrate ignorance while alienating opponents and supporters alike. (A considerable merit of Durwall's book is that he doesn't make that mistake.)
BoFA
At your request, I sent you a link from the SNP Q&A about energy policy wherein they stated very clearly that there was a need to build more fossil-fuel-powered thermal plants (ie gas) and I quoted extensively from the document. Whatever journalists know or don't know, it is no excuse for an educated man not to bother looking at the link provided or at the extensive quotes given. That the SNP have to often placate green zealots is no different to any other European party bar maybe Ukip (another recipient of the nazi jibe btw).
Mike J
If I'm nationalist and socialist too then I'm a Nazi? This is the argument of a 5 year old!
As I understand it, UCG involves a process similar to that used to produce Town Gas in the days before the North Sea came on stream. It produces a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide - "syngas" - which can serve as fuel for a power station. It can also be used as feedstock for chemical plants.
Alongside the running debate over fiscal autonomy for Scotland, it would be interesting to propose energy autonomy......
As someone who hates the SNP for their controlling ways, I still think it is daft to call them National Socialists b/c we all know the implications of it. They aren't Nazis because the racial element is completely absent.
They may be suffering from a common modern issue, low quality people whose power had gone straight to their heads.
Often caused by the massive dumbing down of the education system resulting in low intelligence individuals with giant egos walking around with intellectually worthless degrees.
Difficult btw for me to spot the difference in that article from this BBC one
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-29987033
It seems to be par for the course to ask Lang Banks his opinion on anything except wildlife.
Aug 3, 2015 at 2:48 PM | Unregistered Commenteresmiff
They aren't Nazis because the racial element is completely absent.
Then try living up here and saying you are English.
John Constable
While fully acknowledging that the English are racially inferior to Scots, I had no idea that was a major issue in Scotland. How does it affect you ?
:-)
The Left vs. Right war goes on, as does that between the Shia and the Sunnis. And people wonder why so many youths become involved in gangs. It's a matter of misdirected tribalism, devoted to self-serving, false dogma instead of honest reasoning and truth-seeking. The only way to outgrow it is by hard self-examination and removal of obvious flaws -- if you don't like your tribe being likened to Nazis, then you should get your tribe to stop acting like Nazis.
Right now, especially if you're on the Left, you should already have uncovered the fact that there is no valid climate science and no competent climate scientists--only, at best, short-term weather forecasts and strangely hyperactive weathermen (concerned about the weather, changeable as it is), calling themselves climate scientists and "experts", and trying to stampede the public--and thus no good reason for any "climate policy"--like cracking down on fossil fuel use--whatsoever (other than foresight and preparedness against the wilder forces of nature, which are predictable and come around in their own time and season, as they have done throughout history).
Are the Scots completely losing the plot on absolutely everything? They seem to have tipped their common sense into the Clyde and any remaining good judgement into the North sea. Every decision they make seems to be either blatantly anti-English or simply stark-raving bonkers.
Aug 3, 2015 at 3:17 PM | Unregistered Commenteresmiff
Personally, living in an isolated rural area, not directly. But well-documented anecdotes of bricks through windows and many lesser incidents make me want to keep my head down. Crystallnacht, anyone?
Ruth Wishart has a column in the Helensburgh Advertiser, this week it is a compilation of "extreme weather is caused by CAGW" memes topped off with the ridiculous claim that going over to wind power will stop it happening.
The greens seem to have given up on rational argument in the mainstream media and just decided to push the most extreme propaganda as hard as they can as often as they can.
The Herald is now an SNP propaganda sheet. A shame because Neil Mackay was a great journalist.
The SNP leaflet that came through my door just before the election promised to oppose fracking anywhere in Scotland.
It looked like a core policy to me, rather than a minor sop to Green zealots. Furthermore, the SNP is actively engaged in promoting anti fracking hysteria.
This is a disgrace and an insult to a country with a proud intellectual and engineering history.
Not to mention pushing that line in Aberdeen where the pool of expertise could be well used to exploit shale and CSG for the good of Scotland rather than having to deploy it overseas. .
BoFA
At your request, I sent you a link from the SNP Q&A about energy policy wherein they stated very clearly that there was a need to build more fossil-fuel-powered thermal plants (ie gas) and I quoted extensively from the document.
I read the document, it was the usual green bilge and said nothing different from the UK Govt rubbish, it was only your interpretation that it is somehow different by saying that 100% renewable was not really 100% renewable.
To quote
'Now the confusion rises about the 100% equivalent which folk take to mean no fossil fuels. as you can see though that is not the stated position. My conclusion is that they must be including gas with CCS as a renewable equivalent which is of course daft and very optimistic.'
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2015/7/23/scottish-wind.html
So I am not going to rely on your conclusion.
Point of information. The National is a commercially run newspaper out of the Herald, which is, I believe a Unionist newspaper, I would place no weight on the skirmish the paper reports. If it is decided to have as many "renewables" as possible in the UK the period of time over which this is likely to occur is 50 to 100 years. A long enough period to determine whether coal gasification will work. Why this should appear on this blog speaks volumes about Montford and his judgement.
Sir Donald Miller was Chairman of Scottish Power from 1982 until 1992. Colin Gibson was Power Network Director of the National Grid between 1983 and 1987. Together they made a submission to the recent (June 2015) inquiry by the Holyrood Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. Now that would be worth reporting on in this blog. That it does not says much about Montford's judgement.
Here is a short extract: " The present structure of the industry in the UK is defective in that none of the participating companies has a clear responsibility for securing the reliability of our electricity supplies, whether in the immediate future, or for the next ten years ahead which it takes to construct a new generating plant.. There is an urgent need for Government to appoint a competent body to examine the structure and obligations of the UK electricity industry."
Failing that, the submission continued, the Scottish government should take the initiative by pressing to secure powers "to vary the modus operandi of the Industry in Scotland.
This has strong echoes of the Ministerial management of the oil and gas sector. Last year the Wood Review identified mismanagement of the oil and gas industry so fundamental that Sir Ian Wood recommended that regulation of the industry be removed from DECC. I did not see any reporting of that here. Nowhere did Montford report that DECC lacked the numbers, the knowledge and resources effectively to manage the mature basin that is the North Sea.
I have more to say on this subject and Miller and Gibson's submission. That wiil have to wait until tomorrow. I am unwell and going back to bed . i look forward to dealing with the bile, smears and propaganda that characterises much of this blog and has for a long time.
sam
repeat
The Herald is now an SNP propaganda sheet. A shame because Neil Mackay was a great journalist.
The Herald has for a long time been a mouthpiece for FoE, WWF, Greens etc. The difference is the National is nothing but.
You can tell where the Herald's readers stand by looking at their sunday supplements which are thick glossy celebrations of a lifestyle involving expensive houses, flash cars, exotic foreign holidays, fashion and conspicuous consumption in general. As we know, the CAGW scam pays its acolytes generously.
JamesG
The excesses of Germany under Hitler are not an essential part of being a National Socialist party. I assume that as yet The Nippy Sweetie has no immediate plans to eliminate those races and religions she doesn't like or to invade England on the flimsy excuse that the Scots are in need of more living space.
On the other hand the Thuggish Tendency which has been rampant in recent months is familiar (though not yet wearing brown shirts) as are policies such as the "named person" authorised to interfere in family life (presumably in order to ensure that children are brought up in accordance with certain, state-approved, principles) or the plan to steal people's land if they are not using it in a way that meets with government approval. Whether or not that land will then be parcelled out to the party faithful à la Mugabe we shall need to wait and see.
The "once in a generation" referendum has, it seems, now become a "keep it going till we get the 'right' answer" referendum, another fascist characteristic learned this time from our lords and masters in Brussels but all too reminiscent of the dictatorships of the 1930s.
I don't know to what extent you go along with any of this, including the attempts to disrupt parliamentary business and make life as difficult as possible for the duly elected governing party (another activity with hints of the 1930s in it) but bear in mind the old saying that if you lie down with dogs you are likely to get fleas.
The SNP used to be largely a party of the soft right — Labour's criticism that they were 'Tartan Tories' had a ring of truth to it — until they realised that if they were going to get anywhere in Holyrood they were going to have to out-flank Labour and the only vacant ground was on the left. How long they can keep up the pretence and retain the support they have at the moment remains to be seen.
I don't like comparisons with Nazism because that was a particularly virulent form of the disease unique to its time and place but National Socialism is an unpleasant political illness and at the moment the SNP are showing symptoms.
DaveB
My comment was moderately tongue-in-cheek. Having spent many years in a running battle with local enviro-idiots I never quite managed to come up with a definition or a name I was happy with. If you have a) I'd be surprised, and b) I'd be happy to use it.
I will stick with the term 'eco-luddite' for many of their activities since the common thread that runs through them is their opposition to progress. Their attitude to GM crops is a case in point as is their blinkered opposition to "kemikals". In both instances they cannot be reasoned with and cannot justify themselves making their position pure luddism.
I'm afraid that eco-fascism is too useful a phrase to dispose of as well. We all know what the activist left mean by the term so I see no reason not to use it in reverse. It describes perfectly their arrogant, unthinking, intolerant opposition to anyone who doesn't fully agree with their views on climate, fossil fuels, civilisation, development, humanity in general, all of which they hate with a venom I couldn't hope to emulate!
Land reform for Scotland is well overdue, but the problem is the alternative which is on offer looks a lot like Loch Lomond Park Authority which is in no way a better option.
Mike Jackson
I agree, but you forgot the eternal stooshie that is Stephen Hoose and Polis Scotland.
esmiff
Sufficient unto the day ...
I've said elsewhere that the concept of a single police force for Scotland is not the brightest of ideas. The idea of "one size fits all" for law enforcement is not really clever, but then the SNP are not really clever so it doesn't suprise me. For once I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume inanity rather than malice but I'm ready to be convinced otherwise.
As for House he has a wee bit of my sympathy. The demands for his resignation because one police station screwed up is typical of the modern attitude that no-one anywhere ever is allowed to make a mistake and that the guy at the top should resign just because someone at the bottom of the heap cocks up.
What would be nice is if the guy that cocks up gets the bullet and maybe his line manager if the inevitable enquiry turns up a serious lack of proper behaviour but if House goes over this then you'll need a new Chief every week.
NW
Which bits of land tenure are you not happy with? I used to own about 0.1 of an acre but I never felt I was hard done by because Buccleuch or Rosebery own thousands. As far as I know from local knowledge they are good employers; they work their land (their land, note) efficiently and profitably and they pay their taxes.
Grouse moors and deer stalking make a massive contibution to the Scottish economy which Mme
Defargesorry, Sturgeon will need to fill the gap between what that oil is worth and what the SNP would like us to think it's worth, especially if the likes of Ineos aren't allowed to frack and decide to move somewhere more conducive to wealth creation.@esmiff Aug 3, 2015 at 3:17 PM
First hand knowledge for me:
My friendly generous and helpful neighbour - a retired BR manager from Yorkshire - moved to Scotland in the 1970's after being promoted to a new position in Edinburgh. He received frequent anti-english abuse form his subordinates and other BR staff. This culminated in what he calls the most embarrassing/depressing/insulting moment of his life: at his retirement event he unwrapped his gift from co-workers to find a box containing not a clock or watch, but some SNP leaflets.
I am from Ulster and have experienced insults and ostracisation at work when they discovered I supported the Conservative party.
For more see:
http://www.scotsman.com/anti-english-bullying-1-1810591
esmiff: The Herald is now an SNP propaganda sheet. A shame because Neil Mackay was a great journalist.
Neil Mackay is editor of The National (circulation said to have climbed from five to six during the election) and of the Sunday Herald. The two papers had a different line on IndyRef to Glasgow's daily, The Herald, its editor being one Magnus Llewellin. The latter paper's attitude to the SNP is, in my view at least, less fawning than you imply, certainly when compared to its sibling titles or the rantings of The Scotsman whose editor could reasonably be (has been) called Uriah McHeep.
Mike Jackson: I don't like comparisons [of the SNP] with Nazism
So why make 'em? I'll try, if I may, to comment later on your last remarks - I've just read them.
Meanwhile, I accept that the SNP has an unhealthily authoritarian streak (its 'named person' proposal being but one among many, an armed but explicitly unaccountable McPlod perhaps being the worst) but to compare them, in all apparent seriousness, with the NSDAP is tasteless at best.
The SNP has always been an uneasy mix of centre left and nearly-centre right with the occasional whiff of Buchanite far-right nutjob; it was formed in 1934 by an odd merger of the leftish National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party, an offshoot of Unionism. Not for nothing has it been called the world's longest running single issue campaign
BTW, the famous "Tartan Tories" quip was not a general political assessment but an explicit reference to the SNP's role in the No Confidence vote that brought down the 1979 Callaghan government and saw Thatcher come to power. For a more nuanced (but mainstream) assessment of the SNP's current "left" stance, see: http://www.scotsman.com/news/euan-mccolm-corbyn-would-nail-the-lie-of-socialist-sturgeon-1-3847188
(Irish) Neil Mackay is a strong supporter of SNP
https://twitter.com/NeilMackay/status/622520973045145600
Sunday Herald becomes first paper to declare yes to independence
After months of supportive coverage of the independence campaign, the Glasgow-based Sunday Herald has declared itself in favour of a yes vote, months before the 18 September referendum
Predictably, this edition has been selling fast. Its news editor Neil Mackay tweeted to the paper's frustrated buyers searching for scarce copies that it was still available at the Asda in Newton Mearns:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/scottish-independence-blog/2014/may/04/scottish-independence-sundayherald-yes
The BBC is going into full-on climate Obama-hysteria mode. What a surprise.
As a Kiwi whose mum was proud of her Scots heritage and whose Dad's family emigrated from Yorkshire, I discovered when traveling in the UK that it was politic when in Yorkshire NOT to mention my mum's Scots roots and while in Scotland it was equally politic NOT to mention my Dad's Yorkshire roots.
Both the Scots and the English appear to dislike each other without recourse to reason or experience.
Alexander K, in England, people from Yorkshire are very quick to point out they are from Yorkshire. Not unlike the manner in which Texans introduce themselves.
Does New Zealand have such a superior culture?
DaveB
But obviously not very well or you would notice that I specifically did not compare the SNP to the German National Socialist party of the 1930s and was very careful to note the difference.DaveB
The named Person is part of an overall strategy to try to reduce health inequalities in Scotland. From the time of conception, those born into poverty are at a disadvantage. The Named Person provide a point of contact for every child, parents and caers to enable wellbeing concerns to be considered in the round and appropriate support or intervention provided.