Salmond's obsession with "electricity exports"

I see that His Immensity the Fat Minister delivered another Xmas message to his grateful nation in the pages of the Hootsmon on Sunday.

Once again, he wibbled on about renewables and electricity exports as the next Great Big Thing for the Scottish economy. It's clear from this, and other sources, that he regards the prospect of an "independent" Scotland becoming a "green energy exporter" as something very important, in many ways a replacement for dwindling oil.

What I am going to do is look at the realism of this quite slowly and carefully.

First, let's consider the present and historical position. Here's some official data:

Scotland is already a significant exporter of 'leccy. Over the 10 years to 2009, on average 18% (just under 9 TWh) of electricity generated in Scotland was exported, mostly to England but some to NI. In fact Scotland was also a net exporter over the previous 10 years, ever since electricity privatisation in 1990. (It was not an exporter prior to this. Go on, ask me why.)

Now this is clearly good business for the electricity generators in Scotland: Scottish Power (Spanish-owned), British Energy (French-owned), and Scottish & Southern (HQ in Perth, listed in London, most of their business in England & Wales). So it's good for you too if you are an employee and/or shareholder in these concerns. (I need to labour this point because they are a few Nats out there who seem to think that all these power exports happen for free. No idea why.)

Aside from that, what good is it for the rest of us?

I'd like to ask any passing enthusiasts for electricity exports - as Salmond seems to be - the following:

• How do you view the fact that Scotland has been a net exporter of electricity for the last 20 years? Do you see it as some sort of indicator of success?

• What benefit does Scotland in general get from the fact that private companies based here have been exporting electricity?
  

Salmond's "Blood and Bone" Nationalism - an apology

My last post reflected my utter shock and horror at Salmond's use of "Blood and Bone" language to describe Scottish Nationalism.

In my dismay, I thought that this reminded me of the "Blood and Soil" language used by the first Chancellor of the unified German Reich, Otto von Bismarck.

I now realise I am guilty of misquotation and misrepresentation.

Of Bismarck, that is.

The phrase of his I had been misremembering was "blood and iron". Turns out that it was actually "iron and blood", and was simply an 1862 forecast that German unification would require military action to overcome the opposition of its neighbours, not just political resolutions.

No, the "Blood and Soil" phrase got its 20th Century popularisation by Nazi ideologue SS-Oberfgrueppenfuehrer Richard Walther Darre, one of Hitler's cronies.

Now, do I resile from anything I said earlier? No, absolutely not.

“There is no country on earth that we have more family connections with than Northern Ireland,” said Salmond. “They are the blood of our blood, bone of our bone."

As I said earlier at Unionist Lite, this is a classic Nick Ridley moment. A politician relaxes in an interview and gives away a lot more than they really meant to: an insight into their subconscious thoughts.

So, Salmond really thinks that the relationship between "we" Scots and "they" Northern Irish is defined by "blood and bone". This is only possible, of course, if both "we" Scots and "they" Northen Irish are also defined as groups by "blood and bone".

Deep down in his psyche, he is an ethno-nationalist. He may have constructed a rationalist, civic-nationalist superstructure on top of that, but that is the way he thinks and feels in his core.

Yikes. Nasty.

[Edit:

I know he claims in his next sentence "I would have done the same for anyone."

First, too late: he's already let us see how he thinks. Second, I frankly don't believe him. There is absolutely no way he would have used the same language about any part of England. (Oh, I can see him offering to sell some water to one of their water companies, if it had hit trouble...)

I am also aware that he is paraphrasing a poem by Alexander Gray. This makes no difference: the original can indeed be seen as an expression of "civic nationalism", solidarity between all those working in a country, while Salmond's version has been changed in meaning and context to refer to the "family ties" between two "peoples".]

(Now I could go on about the other point - Salmond evidently thinking that it's right and proper for him to treat state-owned companies as playthings which he can tell to do whatever he likes. And the fact that Scottish Water habitually sits on "an emergency stock of 380,000 litres of bottled water, with 500,000 litres on stand-by from suppliers" - this isn't actually their water from their reservoirs, mind, it is bought from privately owned bottling companies. And people keep claiming that SW is tightly run and doesn't have any featherbedding which could be exposed by privatisation... Never mind, another time.)

The mask slips - SNP "civic nationalism" shown to be a lie

I Knew It. I Told You So.

The SNP posture and pretend to be "civic nationalists", blind to race and origin, and also to be business-friendly centrists.

All this shown to be a lie by the Fat Minister's recent explanation of his decision to donate bottled water to Northern Ireland - something which should have been good-hearted and charitable, but which is now shown to be driven by base, repellent motives and a desire for political grandstanding.

From his interview in the Weegie:

“There is no country on earth that we have more family connections with than Northern Ireland,” said Salmond. “They are the blood of our blood, bone of our bone. "

Right, so all of your crap about "civic nationalism" is just that, is it? You're only interested in helping people if they have the same "blood and bone" as "us".

Can I introduce you to Herr von Bismarck?


“These are things we can do because Scottish Water is a public company,” he added. “I can make the decision to send water anywhere and at any time to help our neighbours. A private company would ask: what are we contracted to do? A public company asks what the right thing to do is."

Translation: because Scottish Water is state-owned, I can interfere with its commercial decisions and make it do things which are uneconomic, against the interests of the taxpayers who own it but which allow me to make grandstanding political points. If it were privatised, I couldn't do that.

As I have known and said all along, Salmond is a lying, hypocritical, principle-free shyster who is dangerous to the nation and needs to be ejected from office as soon as possible.

I don't hate him and his lackeys; I merely despise them!

A few days ago I asked in the "Hootsmon" comments pages whether the Nats would have been so keen to send free bottled water to, say, Northumbrian Water plc.

I guess we now know the answer, don't we?