Fuooled again

Rather a coincidence that a few days after I comment about fuel poverty in Scotland, I happen to turn on the Scottish news to see only bad news, growing expenses, “silent” tax windfalls, and a loss of business.

First off was a request for the rising cost of fuel in Scotland to be addressed by the Westminster Government, which brought a wonderful response, “Sure lads. Nae bother at all. We’ll get right on it – some time round about October if that’s ok”. Of course, nice Westminster person, provided you don’t mid us keeping double round of tax windfall you get as the price rises and VAT is is charge on both price, and they fuel duty, so you get to collect a tax on a tax.

Next up was the loss of the once “new” ferry which operated out of Rosyth. Having been launched only a few years ago, this services has slipped from full operation, to operation for only a few day per week, and has now been announced to be closing. Reasons given include fuel costs, which these big ferries drink in abundance, almost regardless of how laden they are. They’re big, heavy lumps of metal to push through the water, with or without any cargo.

It’s not a flag I wave often, if at all, but it’s hard not to see the point of those that run around beating their chests and screaming things like “It’s Scotland’s oil!”

Taxes on transport are insane in this country, and for the first time my annual car tax has just cost me more than my insurance. A few years ago it was the other way round, and my insurance (completely claim free) was three or four times the cost of my tax. How things have changed.

Sun shines on eatBute08

eatBute08 seems to have started well, being blessed with decent weather on Saturday (24th) and some “bums on seats” as it were, willing to have a taste of the produce on offer.

You can see a few pics of the event in Zak’s gallery for the 24th.

My vote goes for something sweet’n'sticky from the Electric Bakery:

Pic © Zak

Scots fuel poverty and punitive taxes

As the government continues to wield the only weapon it seems to have, taxation, the effect is felt not by those it is aimed at, but ordinary people, with ordinary incomes and ordinary lifestyles.

Tax is endlessly hiked on fuel (all types) in the name of environmental protection, greenness, carbon reduction, global warming or whatever (while the east spews pollutants out as hard as it can in the name of catch-up). It’s used as a deterrent on tobacco, and it’s now to be used as a deterrent on alcohol.

The rich (and you can define that broad term as you please) don’t give a damn, and simply pay up without noticing the difference, and continue their privileged lifestyles unaffected.

The criminal and the addicted classes don’t give a damn, and don’t pay up, because they don’t pay the tax anyway, so it makes no difference to them as they just steal what they want, or to pay for what they want.

However, the ordinary folk, on average, or below average incomes, or hovering on the poverty-line, feel every punitive tax hike aimed not at them, but some other group the government want to ‘control’. They pay their taxes, are accountable, and can be easily found and punished by the authorities if they don’t pay up.

A recent news report highlighted the effect these increases have, particularly in the communities of the Scottish Highlands, where rising food and fuel prices are said to be endangering the council’s education budget.

Anticipating a 2% rise in transport costs, the likely rise is now likely to exceed 6%.

Heating cost are now estimated to increase by 25%, or £700,000.

It estimated that heating costs would rise by a quarter, leading to increased costs of at least £700,000.

Some £500,00 could be added by current increases in food prices.

School transport could suffer, with fuel price increases adding £400,000 to the cost, and school heating costs rising by £371,000.

The report also estimated that rising food prices could add a further £500,000 to its expenses.

Planning committee chairman Drew Hendry said: “I would like to see the chancellor of the exchequer recognise that rural communities have special needs in terms of fuel. It is important that when you are talking roughly 80p – and the way things are going, probably £1 – a litre in tax, that you make some concessions to help those that are hardest hit by this kind of thing. If we have to restrict any educational function because we can’t afford to pay the fuel bills then that is just clearly wrong, but the issue is about wider fuel poverty and people being disadvantaged in the Highlands.”

Proposals to introduce a scheme modelled on the system used by several other European countries, which would see a lower rate of fuel duty for people in remote rural areas, will be voted on by parliament in June.

I dislike introducing vaguely political items, but in this case, there is no particular party reference or responsibility made, so I don’t mind in this case, as it highlights the numbers and realities concerned where remote communities are tarred with the same brush as their urban cousins.

Aberdeen council vs Glasgow council

While you’d really have to live in Glasgow for a while, and get to know some of the strange decisions and plans the city’s council come up with from time to time, to understand the less than complimentary comments that the residents it supposedly represents come up with, it’s beginning to look as if Aberdeen’s council is looking south for a model to follow.

Aberdeen council is closing various facilities and services in the name of economy, and claims that it does not have the resources to support them. I don’t live, so I can’t comment, only make note of the happening.

Rummaging through the news feeds this morning, I see that despite their lack of resources, they have enough time and money to pursue a a woman who has a de-scented skunk as a pet. With no scent glands, it can’t spray or smell, and there are no laws or restrictions on having one as a pet. There have been no reported problems, and Ichi can even be seen in the Rosemount area, out for a walk on the end of a lead. Pity I don’t frequent the spot any more, I used to enjoy a nice fried breakfast there, and that would have made a nice pic for the album.

Ichi goes for a walk courtesy of BBC video, on the esplanade at Aberdeen’s beach front.

Aberdeen City Council could rustle up the funds for a spokeswoman who said Hannah (the skunk’s owner) did not have permission to keep a skunk in her council flat but should get in touch. The spokeswoman said Hannah should contact them with details of Ichi being de-scented and how safe she was and they would look at the case.

(I carelessly missed out the link to the original BBC News item, from which the above spokeswoman’s statement was taken. Ichi’s owners have been in touch – see comments below – and have pointed out that contrary to the council’s implication, it was in fact informed about the pet, and their problems only arose after they had done this.)

Is there a pattern in Aberdeen City Council’s behaviour, and with the story about the skunk being taken together with the closure of Doonies Farm, does it have a hidden agenda to remove all forms of animal life from the area?

I reckon we’re just back to one of my pet (sorry) hates, and the council has just found itself another soft target, someone to pick on easily, that they can get some cheap publicity from, and point to as a case of their “being on the job” when someone breaks the rules.

Art writer insults Dysart residents

I make no secret of hiding my utter contempt for cliques, and any sort of group that seeks to establish some sort of superiority above those who do not see things the way it does.

Take, for example, the iStuffs. Members of this group see anything preceded with the letter ‘i’ as having some sort of magical excellence lacking in the same thing without the mystic prefix. They will pay many time the price for a glorified MP3 player, even though it won’t play MP3s and forces them to buy proprietary music tracks, and then there’s a certain mobile phone with the same prefix, devoid of any real innovation, surpassed by the technical abilities of the competition, locked into an expensive provider, and even with software that threatens to lock it and deny the user access if they try and circumvent restrictions placed on them.

As noted earlier, the residents of Dysart had a big white wooden box foisted upon them at a cost of some £18,000 in the name of ‘art’. Nobody asked them if they wanted it, and it was eventually ordered to be dismantled after meeting determined their protests were valid, there had been irregularities in the planning and installation, and there were unseen Health & Safety issues.

Now, a fully paid up member of the Art Clique has decided to brand the residents of Dysart as “phillistines” through the pages of an Aberdeen based magazine, Art Work.

In his magazine article, author John Di Folco wrote: “The doughty denizens of Dysart have certainly set themselves up as hot contenders for this year’s Philistines Oscar

“Fife Council bowed to the strident protests on the basis that ‘nobody was comfortable with the health and safety issues,’ which is a pity since a goodly number of public art works throughout the UK would fail to meet this requirement, but thankfully remain in situ.

“That it failed is ultimately due to a disturbing trend which accords strongly-held, forcefully expressed and often ill-informed opinions, a credence and credibility they simply do not deserve.”

There’s really only one philistine in evidence here, and he didn’t wake up to find this rubbish nailed under his front window one day. We can be pretty sure whatever view he does have will have been chosen for its artistic content, and he’d be first in the queue of complainants at the council’s door if his outlook was defaced in this way.

Three Lochs Trail reborn

In Victorian times, tourists (who could afford to) were able to leave the grime of Glasgow behind and travel by steamship around Loch Long, Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine, with overland connections between them being made by horse and cart. Come to think of it, things are much the same now, as so-called green and environmental taxes force up the cost of a “wee run”, and the hills and lochs return to being the playthings of the rich, but that’s another story.

Since then, the route has been lost as the steamers ceased to sail, and the piers that serviced them fell into disuse, and were left to rot and decay. Most are now little more than wooden stumps breaking the surface of the water, with only a few having been retained and modernised for used by modern pleasure craft.

The Maid of the Loch served on Loch Lomond from 1953 until 1981, when falling visitor numbers, and dreadful management, led to her withdrawal from service. Passing through the hands of various owners, she lay rusting and vandalised at Balloch until the Loch Lomond Steamship Company was established and took ownership of the ship in 1996, since when she has been slowly restored by volunteers, and is nearing completion in 2008, with work finally underway on her engines, possibly the last major task to be completed, bar approval to operate on the loch with passengers.

The steamer Sir Walter Scott, normally found on Loch Katrine, is currently currently completing major refurbishment works too, in readiness for return to service on the loch, modified to use biodiesel rather than coal. Never converted to conventional diesel, this steamer continued to use coal, as this would not pollute the waters of Loch Katrine in the event of an accident and fuel spill, as the loch supplies much of Glasgow’s water.

Mention has also been made of the paddle steamer Waverley becoming involved, as it operates on routes from Glasgow to some loch-side communities.

For the revived tour, tourists would depart from Glasgow and travel down the Clyde to Arrochar by steamship, then walk or cycle to Tarbet (1.5 miles), and take a ferry trip on Loch Lomond to Inversnaid. A further walk or cycle to meet the SS Sir Walter Scott to sail down Loch Katrine, with a special coach to take them to Callander or Stirling to catch a return train back home.

Plans are already underway to raise funding for pontoon jetties at Lochgoilhead and Arrochar, to replace the old and unsafe wooden piers. The Lochgoilhead jetty is estimated at £250,000 while the Arrochar structure is £500,000. Arrochar will be able to receive vessels up to 200 tonnes while the Lochgoilhead’s capacity will be 100 tonnes.

Work on the 65-mile long trail project is hoped to be completed in 2009.

Traders will fight for Paddy’s market

Traders from Glasgow’s Paddy’s Market look set to try and thwart Glasgow City council plan to commandeer their patch, and turn it into yet another manufactured tourist attraction, perhaps modelled after the dreadful Glasgow:Scotland with style enigma, which I find offensive every time I see it – and I live there!

Stallholders at the market, established there for some 200 years in one form or another, have proposed acquiring the lease for the area from Network Rail by setting up a no-for-profit trust to run the market, rather than having it taken over by the council, and having it sterilised under council plans to regenerate the area.

The traders say they would fence off the area, and check the background of those trading there, to help cut crime in the area, which the council describes as “a crime ridden midden”.

New food festival arrives on Bute

Described as “a celebration of fresh, seasonal and locally-sourced food showcasing the finest produce from Bute and the surrounding areas of Argyll, as well as showing the importance of eating food that is good, clean and fair – in line with the values of Slow Food“, eatBute08 will take place on the Isle of Bute, on Saturday, May 24, 2008.

The event takes place at Mount Stuart, the most stunning Victorian gothic house in Britain, and home of the Marquess of Bute, Johnny Bute. The house will host an invitation-only dinner on the Friday evening before the event, where local producers, suppliers and guests will be able to meet and discuss the event and its potential, after having had the opportunity to visit a number of local food businesses, such as Rothesay Creamery, Plan Farm, Green Tree Café, and Henshelwood’s Fine Foods.

Johnny Bute will open the public event on the Saturday morning at 11 am, where the main attraction will be a farmer’s market where visitors will be able to buy local produce from the island and surrounding areas. There will also be a number of family events, which will, of course, involve food if possible.

There will also be visits to the local schools, where the participants will be able to talk on subject relating to food production, and the benefits of sutainability.

We know where you are

The BBC usually manages to make a reasonably good effort when reporting, and descending to level where the word drivel is brought forth is generally a fairly rare occurrence, but they did manage to do it when reporting the events surrounding the rescue from Glen Etive, near Fort William, of a Danish tourist in his 60s, after he suffered acute abdominal pain.

The Beeb tells us that “A distress signal sent by a Danish tourist from a Scottish glen was picked up in Texas”, and that ” The man, who felt unwell, sent a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) text, which was picked up 4,000 miles away.”

Forgive me for being an engineering pedant, but both statements triggered the drivel alarm, and I had to go check the facts. Unfortunately, the Beeb omitted to give any details of the device involved, other than to describe it as “an emergency beacon the size of a TV remote control”, suggesting it was a PLB or Personal Locator Beacon. What they did get correct, hopefully, was the system used, known as GEOS which allows subscribers with suitable mobile phones, or satellite personal trackers, to subscribe to an emergency monitoring system. Using either the cellphone network (fine for populated areas), or a constellation of LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites for the personal trackers (which means they still work in places blessed with freedom from cellphone coverage), when an emergency alert button is pressed on them, these device send a message to the GEOS control centre using either the cellphone network, or through a data link to the LEO satellites. LEO satellites can be orbiting at a height of anywhere from 100-1,240 miles, but given we are considering small, hand held devices, the lower end seems more likely. Once triggered the device keeps sending, since the orbiting satellites can take up to 20 minutes to reach a suitable reception point.

So, that’s the first drivel alarm cancelled. Nothing was “picked up 4,000 miles away”. Our unfortunate visitor triggered a signal that either had to travel no further then the nearest cellphone mast, or to an overhead satellite, and it was managed 4,000 miles away.

I won’t dwell on the “sent a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) text” howler for too long, sufficient to say that the GPS system (currently) is owned and operatedby the United States Department of Defense, and (as far as civilians are concerned) only transmits positional data for reception by GPS or SatNav receivers. The DoD is most definitely not in the business of passing civilian text messages, and civilian GPS equipment does not, and never has, transmitted anything back to the system. I imagine anyone that tried would be considered to be engaged in GPS-spoofing, and probably find a large party of US Marines or Navy SEALs on their doorstep if they did.

Assuming it was a PLB, then what would have been sent was the data transmission mentioned above. Although they can be mated with GPS receivers to provide positional data to identify the location of the the person in distress, the system used with PLBs is able to operate in complete independence of GPS. Using sophisticated analysis of the communications signal linking the PLB to the LEO satellites, examination of the signal’s Doppler Shift allows the tracking station to identify the ground location by triangulation. At about 5 km this may not match the smaller error of around 5 m associated with GPS based system, but is still impressive given the method – apparently originally developed by the Russians.

The tourist was removed to Fort William, where he received hospital treatment.

Main thing is… everything worked.

Millionaire’s Row grows

While it was little more than a collection of woefully inadequate numbers which would need to be provided with considerably more background information before any meaningful conclusions could be drawn, this week’s story about the changing pattern and numbers of properties in the £1 million and £2 million ranges as researched by the Bank of Scotland does show that things are anything but stagnant at that end of the market.

Sales of £1 million properties made up 0.2% of all Scottish sales in 2007, which rose by 3%, but from a total of 144 sold in 2006, the number sold in 2007 rose to 343, and increase of 138%, or 2.4 times more than the previous year, if expressed sensibly.

Measured from 2003, the total here has increased by 7 times.

Looking at the £2 million plus range, the increase there was 30%.

Measured from 2003, these property sales have increased by 9 times.

The £1 million total for the whole of Great Britain was 8,257, up 36% on 2006.

In geographic terms, Edinburgh was second, after London, in terms of the number of £1 million properties sold. However, the pattern is changing, and while Edinburgh still accounts for the majority of of such property sales, its share is showing a decline, with clusters beginning to appear in places such as Glasgow, Perth, and Kinross.

We’ll never have, or see the information if it is available, but it would be interesting to see how these apparent increases fared if they were corrected for the effects of inflation and the general effects of increasing property prices, and how many of the properties were purchased by people who truly owned them through their own wealth, rather than by loans or mortgages, which are really only borrowing, until that last payment is made – of they can keep up the payments.

It’s always slightly amusing to watch English property programmes, and see homeowners sigh as they look at the soaring value of their properties, with many becoming unwitting property millionaires simply through lifetime ownership of the family home, but trapped in it as they do not have the income to support a move elsewhere, or realise that unless they move far, far away from their roots, there is no way for them to convert that increase in value into cash. If they sell and move anywhere nearby, all the other properties will have increased in price by a similar amount to their present abode.

As they say, you just can’t win.