Get real, folks

Calton is in favour of reducing housing benefit for under-occupancy, for the reasons he outlined in an earlier post, and it is interesting that no-one seems to be mentioning examples of young single people in two bedroom flats in the recent media coverage of the 'bedroom tax'. He does, however, think that there needs to be exceptions for those with disabilities. He also thinks that social housing tenants should not be penalised if their local authority or housing association cannot provide them with a smaller home. As long as they are on the waiting list for a smaller house they should continue to get full housing benefit. Surely that would not be too difficult to administer? What is clear is that, for far too long, people on housing benefit have had carte blanche to stay in whatever size of house they like, in whatever area, all paid for by the state and the piggy bank is now empty. Welcome to the real world folks - Calton would love to have a bigger eyrie (with super-fast broadband) but, at Edinburgh prices, his funds won't stretch to it. Why should you be any different?

Scotland's shame

It's not just India which has a problem with rape. A quick look at the BBC Scotland news headlines tonight reveals that a woman has been raped in Livingston while walking her dog, a 14-year old girl was raped and left so traumatised that it took her over a year to report it and a man has been jailed for raping a 15-year old girl. Such headlines are, sadly, not unusual these days. Perhaps the fact that the Rosslyn rapist was freed after only 6 years and 8 months of a 10-year jail term has something to do with it. Doubtless the residents of Bonnyrigg are happy that he is back behind bars after breaching the terms of his release. If Calton had had anything to do with it, he would never have been back on the streets so soon in the first place. His victim was left so battered that a passer-by thought she had been in a car crash and yet he only got 10 years? What sort of justice is that? Such lenient jail terms for such violent crime is Scotland's shame.

Calton said it first

Calton has been saying for quite some time now that, if an independent Scotland is to truly have control over its economic policy, it needs to have its own currency. Now, leading economist Professor John Kay has said much the same thing. He thinks that it would be right to try and retain the pound but the cost might be restrictions on our fiscal freedom. John Swinney has welcomed the Professor's contribution to the debate which leads Calton to wonder if he actually listened to/read it. So, for the benefit of Signalman Swinney, here it is in plain language - we won't be the ones pulling the fiscal levers if we keep the pound. It would therefore seem wise to have an alternative option if Sterling proves too tricky. It's called the Groat. (Anyone who expected Calton to say the Euro has (a) not been reading this blog and (b) deserves their eyes pecked out.)

One big no-no

The number of people employed in Scotland has just gone down, we have a huge youth unemployment issue, we have a lack of affordable homes and we are about to see a large number of people trying to downsize to avoid a housing benefit cut due to under-occupancy but the SNP is getting ready to welcome a potentially huge influx of Romanians and Bulgarians with open arms and they don't seem to have any contingency plans to cope if, as seems very likely, the numbers exceed even the most liberal estimate. If any further evidence was needed to prove that our Government is stark, staring mad, this is it. OK, so we can probably house them in all the larger council houses vacated by Scots who can't pay for them any more, but what about schools, medical practices, dentists etc, etc, etc? And what about all the Scots who find they can't get a job because they are all taken by Eastern Europeans? What are they supposed to do? This is not just a few skilled immigrants, which we need, or some temporary unskilled immigrants doing menial agricultural work which we don't want to do. We could be talking millions of people in the space of a few months and we have absolutely no control over it while we remain part of the EU. One very good reason to vote NO to independence and NO to the EU.

The Scottish Tories get it

Labour won back control of Fife Council last year on a manifesto which, among other things, included a moratorium on all planning applications for land-based wind turbines pending a consultation. When they tried to fulfil their manifesto pledge, the Scottish Government blocked it. Yet more evidence, as far as Calton is concerned, that the SNP are not interested in the democratic will of the people. He therefore welcomes the new energy policy review paper produced by the Scottish Conservatives which majors on shifting control over energy policy away from central government and back to local communities. Their proposal to cut the current £350 million a year onshore wind farm subsidy is also welcome because it is manifestly unfair to expect people to subsidise this inefficient method of power generation from their pockets, particularly in a time of rising prices and fuel poverty. Nice to see that at least one of the major political parties has their head screwed on right and has seen through the windfarm scam.

PS. If you want to see a nice picture of Scotland's mountains sans windfarms, see @CaltonHillEagle on twitter.

Scotland's mountains - beautiful

There's probably lots that Calton could be commenting on but instead, he's taking advantage of this period of settled weather to visit his beloved mountains before Alex Salmond covers them in windfarms. Normal service will be resumed in a day or two. In the meantime, Calton may find the time for an occasional tweet. (And if someone can find a better name for 140 character posts by a mature Sea Eagle he will be very grateful because 'tweet' just doesn't sound right somehow.....)

It wisnae the SNP - honest!

It could be said that there are excuses, damned excuses and the SNP's excuses. Sometimes Calton thinks that maybe we should all vote for independence, if only to deprive the SNP of excuses, since their usual strategy is to blame Westminster for everything. The latest example is the reduction in spending on infrastructure under the new NPD (non-profit distributing) programme, which is all the fault of budget cuts by the coalition government down south. (Calton also notes that, in true Orwellian fashion, spending has been 'reprofiled' rather than cut.) It looks like the SNP hoped to get away with this reprofiling exercise unnoticed, however that plan was scuppered by Tory MSP Gavin Brown, ably assisted by Labour's Richard Baker, who surely deserves to win quote of the week with this contribution to the debate: "We were told this new scheme [NPD] would be transformational from the old PFI/PPP schemes. Well, in some ways it has, because at least under the old scheme projects were being delivered." Ouch. Unfortunately, the SNP had enough of a majority to defeat Brown's motion expressing disappointment in the results of the NPD scheme so far. Double ouch.

Less hot air and more action!

When, oh when, are our Governments going to do something about rising energy bills? Calton highlighted the issue 3 months ago and we don't seem to be any further forward, with new warnings today from the Chief of Ofgem about price rises. Domestic energy bills are crippling many families and forcing them into debt. Yes, steps are being taken to insulate homes and make them more energy-efficient but we also need to keep prices down, and the lights on, by sensible planning for the future, which probably includes new nuclear. Westminster seems at least to understand that, unlike Alex Salmond. Unfortunately, both Governments have sat on their hands for far too long, given that you can't build a power station in a day. Time for less hot air and more action guys!

Quality, not quantity

If you pay peanuts you get monkeys and if you pay pennies you get horsemeat. A bit obvious really. In the old days, if people couldn't afford meat they ate vegetables or pulses and were a lot healthier as a result. Now, people expect to get a quality ready-cooked meat meal for a quid and want to eat meat every day. It's no use blaming the supermarkets - if people didn't buy it, they wouldn't stock it. They are only catering to our demand for cheap food and our expectation that meat should be a staple rather than a luxury. Similary, councils and NHS Trusts are going for the lowest price when it comes to catering and so, lo and behold, we now have horsemeat in school dinners. Calton is only surprised that they have found so little of it. If this current scandal causes us, as a nation, to re-examine our addiction to cheap, junk food, so much the better. Quality, not quantity, is what's needed.

A double-edged sword

Given that Pope Benedict XVI is an enthusiastic promoter of the 'new evangelism', by which the Roman Catholic Church aims to bring straying sheep back into its fold, and, given that one of the fattest of those sheep is the Church of England, the fact that David Cameron recently gave the Pope a copy of the Authorised (King James) Version of the Bible is particularly apposite, as Archbishop Cranmer has already noted. Calton agrees with His Grace that Cameron probably didn't realise the significance of the gift but someone, somewhere obviously wanted to send a 'hands off our church' message to His Holiness (who seems to be described as 'that man of sin' if Calton reads the introduction to his copy of the AV aright). What is clear, is that the translators of the AV considered it of first importance that the people of Great Britain should have a translation of God's Holy Truth in their own language and they looked to King James VI & I to support and protect them in this endeavour. Now, Cameron is hell-bent on introducing legislation which will cause those who believe in all of God's Holy Truth, as expressed in the Bible, to be discriminated against and criminalised. He seems to have forgotten one of the other descriptions of God's Word - 'sharper than any double-edged sword'.