Hands Off Our Forsests

You would have thought that a party claiming to speak for the nationalist movement of a nation would understand the mindset of that nation. Not so the SNP when it comes to the nations forests.

Almost three quarters of the respondents to the Scottish Government consultation on the leasing of a quarter of Scotland’s forest were opposed to the proposal. In fact while 71% were against only 12% were in support of the SNPs plan. Is this just the latest sign of how out of touch the SNP are with reality and the concerns of its citizens?

Well as Hamish MacDonell wrote in the Steamie yesterday it is not just limited to Scotland that the SNP have lost grasp of reality. Jim Mather the enterprise Minister is still clinging to the Arc or prosperity.

So that would be:

• Ireland where the government support for the banking sector is currently 220% of GDP, it could get worse as the Banks’ coverage of loans is still 5 times that amount.
• Iceland whose banking sector almost brought the prospect of the nation going bankrupt into being.
• Norway who like Scotland have oil. With a 7% drop in the price recently that is hardly going to be a stable economic structure.
• Of course Scotland’s own two one point five one point two five* Banks are also the pinicles of prosperity.

So the Arc is sinking something that never affected Noah and clearly dodesn’t worry Mather either. Man the lifeboats and lets hope there is a helicopter ready to rescue us like the oilworkers before we sink to fast under Nats pilotage of our economy.

*Really depends how much of HBOS you consider Scottish after the second merger.

 

>Hands Off Our Forsests

>You would have thought that a party claiming to speak for the nationalist movement of a nation would understand the mindset of that nation. Not so the SNP when it comes to the nations forests.

Almost three quarters of the respondents to the Scottish Government consultation on the leasing of a quarter of Scotland’s forest were opposed to the proposal. In fact while 71% were against only 12% were in support of the SNPs plan. Is this just the latest sign of how out of touch the SNP are with reality and the concerns of its citizens?

Well as Hamish MacDonell wrote in the Steamie yesterday it is not just limited to Scotland that the SNP have lost grasp of reality. Jim Mather the enterprise Minister is still clinging to the Arc or prosperity.

So that would be:

• Ireland where the government support for the banking sector is currently 220% of GDP, it could get worse as the Banks’ coverage of loans is still 5 times that amount.
• Iceland whose banking sector almost brought the prospect of the nation going bankrupt into being.
• Norway who like Scotland have oil. With a 7% drop in the price recently that is hardly going to be a stable economic structure.
• Of course Scotland’s own two one point five one point two five* Banks are also the pinicles of prosperity.

So the Arc is sinking something that never affected Noah and clearly dodesn’t worry Mather either. Man the lifeboats and lets hope there is a helicopter ready to rescue us like the oilworkers before we sink to fast under Nats pilotage of our economy.

*Really depends how much of HBOS you consider Scottish after the second merger.

 

Norway Beat Us to South Pole Again: Gratulerer

Gratulerer!*

In 1912 Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s team beat the plucky Brits lead by Captain Robert Scott to be the first to the South Pole.

This year saw the inaugural Amundsen polar race and as 97 years ago it was Norway first but Britain second. Our team of James Cracknell, Ben Fogle and Dr Ed Coats even put in a final 27 non-stop hours on their skies but were still 20 hours behind the Norwegian team of Rune Malterud and Stian Aker. The winners reached the pole in just 17 days and 11 hours when the Brits were 31.8 miles (51km) away.

Unlike that first time when the gap was 35 days and the gap to other nationalities in getting to the pole even greater others, including South Africans and Irish, are still competing behind the polar pioneering nations.

*Trans from Norwegian: Congratulations.

 

Norway Beat Us to South Pole Again: Gratulerer

Gratulerer!*

In 1912 Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s team beat the plucky Brits lead by Captain Robert Scott to be the first to the South Pole.

This year saw the inaugural Amundsen polar race and as 97 years ago it was Norway first but Britain second. Our team of James Cracknell, Ben Fogle and Dr Ed Coats even put in a final 27 non-stop hours on their skies but were still 20 hours behind the Norwegian team of Rune Malterud and Stian Aker. The winners reached the pole in just 17 days and 11 hours when the Brits were 31.8 miles (51km) away.

Unlike that first time when the gap was 35 days and the gap to other nationalities in getting to the pole even greater others, including South Africans and Irish, are still competing behind the polar pioneering nations.

*Trans from Norwegian: Congratulations.

 

>Norway Beat Us to South Pole Again: Gratulerer

>

Gratulerer!*

In 1912 Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s team beat the plucky Brits lead by Captain Robert Scott to be the first to the South Pole.

This year saw the inaugural Amundsen polar race and as 97 years ago it was Norway first but Britain second. Our team of James Cracknell, Ben Fogle and Dr Ed Coats even put in a final 27 non-stop hours on their skies but were still 20 hours behind the Norwegian team of Rune Malterud and Stian Aker. The winners reached the pole in just 17 days and 11 hours when the Brits were 31.8 miles (51km) away.

Unlike that first time when the gap was 35 days and the gap to other nationalities in getting to the pole even greater others, including South Africans and Irish, are still competing behind the polar pioneering nations.

*Trans from Norwegian: Congratulations.

 

Norway No Way for Scotland – Norway

The last unhindered bastion of Alex Salmond’s arc of prosperity turned around and bite him yesterday. With the Emerald Tiger of Ireland stalled and Iceland floundering Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s foreign minister, has said there are major differences between Norway and Scotland and the comparisons and plans made by Alex Salmond based on Norway’s achievements do not add up.

For starters the oil fund that Salmond is so keen to replicate and use in so many ways in Norway is the pension fund. Its monies are “for our children and grandchildren” with very little available for current spending to the exchequer.

Also unlike in Scotland, “We [Norway] don’t consume any of our gas, we export almost all of our production.” The situation is reversed for the North Sea gas in the UK and Scotland, most of it is used domestically.

He also said there were major differences historically in how Norway and the UK were geared up to use the resources discovered in the North Sea in the 70s:

“Our social sector and structural system were ready for the big changes. We
started with major investments in oil and gas in the early 1970s and it was only
in the late 1990s that we went into surplus.”

Finally the often almost robotic call of cybernats when challenged regarding Iceland or Norway has been the fact that both of these have escaped the vagrancies of various forms of some sort of greater Scandinavia through the centuries. Mr Støre however also said that he would be “upset” if he thought that his country were being used as a “source of division or strife in other countries”.

 

>Norway No Way for Scotland – Norway

>The last unhindered bastion of Alex Salmond’s arc of prosperity turned around and bite him yesterday. With the Emerald Tiger of Ireland stalled and Iceland floundering Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s foreign minister, has said there are major differences between Norway and Scotland and the comparisons and plans made by Alex Salmond based on Norway’s achievements do not add up.

For starters the oil fund that Salmond is so keen to replicate and use in so many ways in Norway is the pension fund. Its monies are “for our children and grandchildren” with very little available for current spending to the exchequer.

Also unlike in Scotland, “We [Norway] don’t consume any of our gas, we export almost all of our production.” The situation is reversed for the North Sea gas in the UK and Scotland, most of it is used domestically.

He also said there were major differences historically in how Norway and the UK were geared up to use the resources discovered in the North Sea in the 70s:

“Our social sector and structural system were ready for the big changes. We
started with major investments in oil and gas in the early 1970s and it was only
in the late 1990s that we went into surplus.”

Finally the often almost robotic call of cybernats when challenged regarding Iceland or Norway has been the fact that both of these have escaped the vagrancies of various forms of some sort of greater Scandinavia through the centuries. Mr Støre however also said that he would be “upset” if he thought that his country were being used as a “source of division or strife in other countries”.