Scotsman Letters: Scottish Green Party is a shadow of its former self

I was pleased to learn about Robin Harper, the erstwhile leader of the Scottish Green Party (SGP), making a strong stand against that party’s current absurdities. But I was astonished to read a counter from an unnamed Scottish Green Party spokesperson that early members would be delighted with the progress since made in influencing government policies.

Retired Green MSP Robin Harper has quit his old party in disillusionment at its direction (Picture Ian Rutherford)

Well, I was a founder member of the SGP and was for some time the Scottish rep on the UK Green Party Council. And I can safely say that most of the SGP’s current plans and practices would not have become policies: Scottish taxpayers would have been saved the £84 million fiasco of a clearly ill-thought-through glass recycling scheme, for example. Nor would any of our MSPs been permitted to stay in office long past their own sell-buy dates. A “two terms in office” rule was on the cards so that fresh talent would be given a chance.

Of course we expected that our new party would be infiltrated by the lunatic fringe and sundry carpetbaggers, but because we then had the rule that all party policies had first to be approved by Conference but then, as a safeguard, also by a majority of the membership, ungrounded ideas never stood a chance. For personal reasons I was inactive for a few years and when I returned it was to find that that additional layer of safeguard had been quietly shelved – with today’s chaos and shambles the result. I have long since resigned from the SGP, giving up my life membership in disgust.

Tim Flinn, Garvald, East Lothian

Heated debate

I note Patrick Harvie has come bumbling out to try and defend the comments of Lord Willie Haughey about heat pumps. Once again Harvie displays a blinkered total ignorance in his defence claims; Scandinavian homes are built to higher design and insulation standards to suit their colder climate compared to Scottish builds. Retrofitting heat pumps in Scandinavia is therefore far easier and cost effective compared to bonnie Scotland. Maybe Patrick Harvie should get one installed in his tenement, or better still, treat all the other tenement owners to one and see just how much expense and hassle is involved.

Additionally, Mr Harvie might provide independently verified calculations that show exactly how much the world’s climate issue will change for the good by implementing as a condition of sale the installation of a heat pump.

I’m all for us all improving our “housing carbon footprint” but not at the Scottish Greens’ ridiculous pace and cost to the Scottish people, which smacks of panic for several reasons, and none of them to do with targets but more politics. I agree that technology will advance but so will other forms of “heating” options so we should allow it and other technologies to evolve for a few years more before imposing the draconian and extremely costly retrofitting of alternative heat systems, and in particular heat pumps.

Mick Bwye, Dollar, Clackmannanshire

Cloudy crystal ball

Fifty years ago, who would have thought that in Britain today a government taken over by forces peddling a dubious climate theory that it would have rejected upon proper investigation, would now be closing the last of the coal-fired and nuclear power stations that produce electricity at half the cost of gas-fired power, and at a quarter of the cost of wind-power, and would then be encouraging and subsidising foreign companies to supply and erect even more windfarms.

Then, that government would ban petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles; ban fracking of the largest shale gas reserves in Europe; ban extraction of North Sea oil; ban fireplaces and gas-fired central-heating boilers to inflict the compulsory installation of heat pumps; cover agricultural land with solar panels; try to reduce the eating of Scottish beef; and be teaching boys and girls to doubt their own sex.

And who could have imagined that because of those impositions on our freedom and on our landscape, electric power in Britain – once among the world’s cheapest – would now be the world’s most expensive and unreliable, and previously happy children would be confused and in need of mental help.

I mean... who could possibly have thought all that would be happening?

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross

Exaggerated

As a democrat and selective voter – not “floating”, which implies being subject only to the waves with no control oneself – I have supported at different times each of the three main parties depending on which I judged was right for the country at the time, and always thought Henry McLeish was a politician of more common sense than most.

The Conservative Party's recent track record certainly makes it a difficult choice for the next election, but McLeish's wildly exaggerated, misleading and occasionally insulting Perspective article on 3 August has reversed my previous view of him.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

Realistic

How refreshing to read Henry McLeish’s cool, calm realistic and civilised article on the state of Britain and its economy. He has expressed the truth without party or sectional favour. He has, of course, taken to task the current government, which has now been in power for a relatively long period.

It does not make pleasant reading, but in truth I do believe we in Britain are hiding our head from present day realities in myths and memories of the past in a now completely different world when we should be standing on our own feet. In our increasingly “nationalistic” right-wing England, the futures ls beginning to look perilous.

H A N McKenzie, Edinburgh

Plunder pageant

Kenny MacAskill finally realises Scotland’s colonial status within the “union” (Perspective, 3 August). It was never a voluntary union. Scotland was coerced. The 1705 Alien Act passed by the English parliament was economic blackmail that threatened to cut off exports to England and confiscate English land owned by Scots unless they recognised the Hanoverian succession.

There was also the small matter of English troops at Scotland’s border and the English fleet in the Firth of Forth. The signatories to the Treaty of Union, signed in secret to avoid the people’s rage, were bribed and many fled for their lives to England.The treaty terms were heavily skewed in England’s favour. In 1706, Scotland had 20 per cent of the population of England and Wales but was allocated fewer than eight per cent of parliamentary seats. After the union, Scotland endured English military occupation for decades. The English Crown, the monarch and parliament, supplanted the Scottish Crown, despite the 1689 Claim of Right, a precondition of the treaty, guaranteeing the inviolability of the Scottish Crown.

Today, Scots are just eight per cent of the UK population. Between three and four million were forced into emigration, the largest depopulation in western Europe. Our languages have been removed, our culture denigrated and our history hidden. Our industrial base was destroyed, and our vast resources stolen by the larger “partner” in this union. Our land and seas have been polluted by nuclear weapons and waste and we were forced from the Single Market against our will. Our major institutions are headed by people from England, not native Scots. Freeports are now being imposed, tax havens for corporations to facilitate the plunder of Scotland. These were aided by the Scottish colonial administration and don’t have the consent or support of the People.

Scotland isn’t a victim of muscular unionism, but of colonialism.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh

Science lesson

Clark Cross asks how to identify natural CO2 from that produced by mankind (Letters, 31 July).

CO2 doesn't come with markers as to where it originated but one can tell how much of the CO2 in the atmosphere is anthropogenic.

A value of 280ppm (parts per million) is chosen as a representation of pre-industrial air as it is close to the average CO2 measure and dated with high time resolution between 1000 and 1800 in an ice core from Antarctica.

Since 1958 the atmospheric CO2 level has been monitored constantly on top of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. This shows that the CO2 level has risen steadily and now stands at 420ppm (this is measured at a height of 3200m away from industrial areas so the level may be higher at ground level in developed countries).

Consequently, we can state that all that increase is man-made and that mankind has produced half as much CO2 as was produced naturally.The last time global CO2 levels were consistently at or above 400ppm was around 4 million years ago during the Pliocene Era. The world was about 3C warmer and sea levels were higher than today.

That’s a “warning from history”.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh

Ferry funny

The public have been invited to supply a suitable name for the Calmac ship that was supposed to be completed six years ago.How about Johnny Come Lately?

Archbald A Lawrie, Kingskettle, Fife

Sea sarcasm

Interesting names have been put forward for the new ferry being built at the Ferguson Marine shipyard, one of those suggested being Claymore.

Given the delays, and cost overruns, perhaps Paymore would be more appropriate!

William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian

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