SNP-Green net zero plans ‘could add £800 to energy bills’ – Yahoo news

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Anger over Glasgow’s filthy rat-infested streets and alleyways hidden from COP26 delegates – Daily Record

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These are the filthy, rat-infested side streets and alleyways that COP26 delegates won’t see when they come to Scotland next month.

Refuse collectors have said they can’t cope with cuts that have led to a rise in rancid conditions in Glasgow’s streets – just miles from where world leaders will thrash out a climate change deal.

GMB officials, who have now pleaded with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to intervene in the waste row, took our reporter to some of the worst-hit areas.

Union officials have said the city’s back streets have become Glasgow’s “secret shame”.

They warned staff were risking injury to get the streets tidied up in time for the eco conference.

In a lane near Allison Street, in Govanhill, in the heart of the First Minister’s constituency, we found rat traps, abandoned mattresses and litter. At nearby flats, overflowing bins spilled into common areas, making it a no-go area for residents.

In neighbouring Cessnock, in lanes that run parallel to the main clean thoroughfare, litter lay piled up in common areas.

Fly-tipping has increased after the council introduced a £35 special uplift charge this year.

For politics news, click here: https://www.scotlandmatters.co.uk/politics-matters/

Electric car chargers ‘to switch off at peak times to avoid blackouts’ – STV news

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Home charging points for electric vehicles will be shut off at peak times to combat fears they could cause blackouts.

The Government plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035, meaning the number of electric vehicles on the road is set to soar.

However, there are fears that millions of motorists plugging their cars in to recharge at home when they get home from work could put too much pressure on the grid.

The move would see home charge points turned off for up to nine hours a day, with randomised 30-minute shutdowns if demand is too high.

The Sunday Times reports that regulations submitted to the World Trade Organisation suggest home and workplace chargers would not operate between 8am and 11am, or 4pm to 10pm.

Public charge points, often found at the side of the road or at motorway service stations, would not be affected by these rules, allowing those charging on the move to top up at any time of day.

The strain on the National Grid has long been of concern as EV uptake has increased, with motorists encouraged to charge at off-peak times. Chargers and vehicles allow owners to schedule their charging, particularly useful for waiting until electricity is less expensive overnight.

Sales of electric vehicles have been slow to take hold, but there are signs that the switch is beginning to pick up pace. Although the pandemic has skewed last year’s numbers and the semiconductor shortage is limiting production this year, data shows electrified vehicles sales have increased significantly in the past year.

Electric car chargers ‘to switch off at peak times to avoid blackouts’

For more environmental news, click here: https://www.scotlandmatters.co.uk/environment-matters-2/

Thunberg: Scotland not a world leader on climate change – STV news

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Climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she does not believe Scotland is a world leader on climate change, as the Scottish Government claims.

The Swedish teenager said she has not yet decided whether she will travel to the global UN climate conference in Glasgow next month, but will do if it is “considered safe and democratic” – including ensuring participants from poorer countries are fully vaccinated and able to travel.

Questioned by BBC Scotland on whether Scotland is a world leader on climate change, she said: “No… I mean, there are some countries that do a bit more than certain others, but then if we look at it from a broader perspective then I think we can safely say there are no countries – at least in the global north – that are even doing close to what would be needed.”

Scotland’s climate change legislation includes a target to reach net zero by 2045, which the Scottish Government has said is “world-leading”.

The 18-year-old was also sceptical of the Scottish Government’s new powersharing deal with the Scottish Greens which will bring Green representatives into government for the first time in the UK.

Ms Thunberg told the broadcaster: “Of course there might be some politicians that are slightly less worse than others. That was very mean, but you get the point.

“It’s a hopeful sign that people want something that’s more ‘green’ – whatever ‘green’ means – but in order to solve this, we need to tackle this at a more systemic approach.”

Having returned to school after a year out leading young people in school strikes for climate change, Ms Thunberg said the conference falls in her school holidays, and if she does attend she plans to travel by train.

Thunberg: Scotland not a world leader on climate change

Letters to the press, 30/08/21: SNP’s hypocrisy over referendum, SNP will bankrupt Scotland, Mutual damage.

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Westminster must now confront the anti-democrats in the SNP/Green ‘alliance’ – CAPx

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Scotland’s new SNP-Green ‘alliance’ comes close to a coalition, which is a conventional way for a minority government to get its business through a parliament. However the SNP and the Greens have incompatible political goals on many fundamental issues, especially oil. The deal is not motivated by parliamentary considerations, but by the desire to force constitutional change on a country divided 50-50 on the issue. How might they be able to do this?

Essentially, by exploiting the peculiar voting system that Donald Dewar devised for the Scottish Parliament in 1998 in order, as he hoped, to keep Labour in power forever. But he was too clever by half. Now this system is being used to keep Nicola Sturgeon in power indefinitely by breaking up the United Kingdom. The system looks fair on the surface, but the devil is in the arithmetic.

About 220,000 people voted for the Greens in May’s Holyrood election, which represented 8% of the votes cast for ‘list’ seats, which are allotted on a proportional representation basis. In the constituencies, the Greens achieved a total vote of 35,000, in the whole country. That was 1.3% of the votes cast. Yet they are now to be in government so they can, as they hope, force the British government to bend to their and the SNP’s constitutional agenda.

Nicola Sturgeon has been complaining for years that Brexit was foisted on Scotland “against its will” because a majority of Scots voted for the UK to stay in the EU. But over a million votes were cast for “leave” in Scotland. Sturgeon says the Brexit result was an abuse of democracy as far as Scotland is concerned. Yet she is happy to use the derisory Green vote here to break up a nation of 65 million people.

Westminster must now confront the anti-democrats in the SNP/Green ‘alliance’

SNP-Green deal could be catastrophic for house prices – The Scotsman

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Maybe a Bruntsfield tenement flat, a Victorian semi in Trinity, a neat Borders or East Neuk bolthole, but with inefficient solid walls, draughty doors and windows. Some will have bright skylights above the stairwell through which your central heating can warm the world outside. And having followed the advice of successive TV chefs, it’s likely you’ll have a dual-fuel cooker with electric oven and gas hob.

As this column pointed out last week, the 2019 Scottish government house condition survey indicates Scotland has around 750,000 pre-1945 homes and, as the autumn draws near, their occupants will try not to dwell upon the winter fuel bills to come, while accepting that some warmth escaping through the walls is inevitable. It’s not necessarily a bad thing if it helps keep dampness at bay.

With housing responsible for a fifth of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions, upgrading the stock is at the heart of the new SNP-Green partnership deal unveiled last week, which outlines plans for mandatory requirements for all domestic upgrades and refurbishments to qualify for an energy performance certificate (EPC) C rating, the third-highest, from 2025.

Letters to the press, 27/08/21: Co-operation is not wanted, Where is all this money coming from?, RIP Greens

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Coalition of stasis – stephendaisley.com

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The partnership agreement between the Nationalists and the nationalists who call themselves Greens was inked last week but there was no vellum, no pomp — and no wonder. Sold as a great innovation in the operation of government in Scotland, it is in fact a tawdry treaty planned, drafted, agreed and signed for one purpose only: meeting the present political needs of the First Minister.

Nicola Sturgeon has never excelled as a minister but as a backroom plotter she is second to none. There is a delicious villainy to what she has done and as she detailed the scheme on Friday afternoon, her oblivious prey on either side of her, I am certain I detected a Machiavellian twinkle in her eye. Her snare could not have been more obvious if it had the word ‘trap’ beside it in flashing neon lights, and still they leapt right into it.

The Scottish Greens believe they have joined a government. They have actually just undergone a hostile takeover. Not a permanent one, for they will be dropped when they are no longer needed and all the baggage from their time in government will crash down on their heads swiftly thereafter. They might protest that they got red lines written into the agreement but there is not one of them that will have pained Sturgeon to concede. Who cares what Ross Greer thinks about private schools? Given how many on the SNP benches attended one, the party will be only too happy to let the Greens have that issue.