Alex Tram'U-turn'old

Just when the Nats and cybernats thought it was save to venture into Edinburgh without the threat of any more tram works because they're not cost effective, or there's no need for them as buses are better, or an electric train to Glasgow is a better way to spend the money etc. Or simply because Alex Salmond is always right even if every other party was against doing away with the investment. Cue the Jaws theme as today it appears that there is a change of heart and policy.

Maybe Alex Salmond is starting to take heed of Nicol Stephen's words this Spring that the Scottish National Party were weak on the environment, that coal or the road isn't king. However, even the Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson seems a little confused. He says today:

"We are not against trams as such, but the project that was before
us.

"The advice which Edinburgh City Council and Transport Initiatives
Edinburgh (TIE) have made to me, which I can see the logic of, is that when you
have invested in the infrastructure it is cheaper to make extensions."

While his spokeswomen is adamant that:

"The Scottish Government was against the trams project, but we respected the
will of the parliament to allow the scheme to continue."

Just what is going on? Even former SNP Member not Independent Margo MacDonald last year felt the SNP were well suited for Hogwarts house of Slytherin when she said:

"I think somewhere along the line the SNP have mastered the black arts. The
signs were there at the tail-end of the last parliament when, for cheap
political advantage, the trams project was dropped [by the SNP] and the
Edinburgh airport rail link was disparaged.

"At the same time, comment was made about how much needed to be spent
modernising infrastructure north of Perth. It is no coincidence."

Implying that the Nat's transport policy drifts where the votes are. As I pointed out just yesterday it is a art still practised by the First Minister of smarm, trying to please all of the people all of the time is not going to wash forever.

Update:

Thanks to this comment from Scottish Unionist I thought I'd better make it clear, rather than assume that every reader knows, that I have been a firm supporter of the tram networks in Edinburgh since the off as a clean, efficient and reliable alternative to road transportation whether car or bus. Looking forward to the current schemes merely being the first stepping stone to a network stretching to other parts of Edinburgh and beyond (there was initial talk of extending it out to West Lothian for example).

Green Whisky

No don't be alarmed they aren't adding dye to Scotland's favourite dram but Diageo are linking up with energy company Dalkia to create a bio-energy plant at Cameronbridge, Fife. Using two of the distilling industries bi-products the wash and steam used at the plant to create the largest non-utility company plants of its kind in the UK.

The net effect of using 90,000 tonnes of residue that would normally need transporting off site to would result in the project seeing a cut of 56,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, the equivalent of 44,000 family cars. Its good to see big industry not just thinking about how to go green but also working in combination with energy companies in how they can use waste products effectively to help combat climate change as best they can.

Although this particualar scheme set for Cameronbridge is on a large scale there are many smaller schemes that could be implemented by other producers and careful consideration should be taken by companies setting up or expanding and the Government in how to encourage and develop these alternative fuel sources and provisions.

Edinburgher Climbs to Different Bird's Nest in Beijing

Close to the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing some very different creatures were seen perched at a great height this morning. Four members of Students for a Free Tibet unfurled a banner reading 'One World One Dream Free Tibet' high up a 120ft lamppost not far away.

Iain Thom from Edinburgh called the BBC from his mobile while up the lamppost to say:

"I'm here today because I've been a long-term Tibet activist and I feel
like now is a really critical time for Tibet.

"The Beijing Games have been used by the Chinese government as a
propaganda tool to whitewash their human rights record in Tibet."

He along with Lucy Fairbrother from Cambridge, and Americans Phill Bartell from New Jersey and Tirian Mink from Portland, Oregon have since been arrested.

A spokesperson for the Olympic committee said the protest was an "illegal gathering" adding:

"We want to express our strong opposition to this. China has relevant laws
regarding protests and gatherings. We truly hope that foreigners coming to visit
China will respect the relevant laws of China."

Does this mean that should any foreigner in China stumble across any Tibetan's trying to protest against their treatment they will be allowed to persecute, beat or shoot at the protester's before they are taken away into solitary confinement? Or is that not what the spokesperson wanted us to remember about the relevant Chinese laws.

For the Want of an 'A'

Not often you get West Lothian Council news on the BBC website, even harder to find when they place it on the Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West page rather than Edinburgh, Fife and East. But in laying out the policy of health, education and safety for the next three years what an unfortunate typo in Jim Forrest's quote above:

'The agreement sets out the keys areas of shred health and
social care outcomes'

Oh for the assumedly missing 'a' from shared, or a few more minutes to check the content. For the last 18 hours West Lothian Council have according to the BBC been shredding health and social outcomes.

He Came, He Charmed, He Promised...Just When?

OK the First Minister and his cabinet headed to the Highland's capital Inverness and making promises to invest in the Inverness to Edinburgh rail line and dual the A9. Is it just me or is there one vital thing missing from these promises? Where is the time scale? Apart that is from the one of making the announcement while in the city that will benefit from the promise.

While it is all well and good stating the "importance of having better and safer transport connections for the north of Scotland" promising investment on a "continuing basis" is not setting a SMART objective. Yes he came out of the meeting promising to spell out the details in a couple of weeks but making a promise of things yet to be revealed is being somewhat of a familiar tune from Alex's lips.

Surely these platitudes are also part of the smarm offensive that Alex used when also calling Inverness the "most important city in Scotland". No offence to any resident of Inverness but I'm sure even they would realise that there are several stronger candidates to that that claim in all honesty. Indeed why should any city be more important than any other. Without Aberdeen for example where would Alex's oil revenue be, without Edinburgh where would he power be, as for Glasgow where would a great bulk of his population be. Surely Alex meant to say that Inverness was as important a part of Scotland as anywhere else. But then that wouldn't have built up an hysteria within the crowd to prevent them looking beyond what he was saying to realise it was all big on ideas and thin on detail.

Promise all you want but you're going to have to deliver on them all.

What's in a flag?

OK to the Olympics at Beijing will not be allowing any regional flag etc if it is not part of the recognised country that participants are presenting. There goes the colourful array you'd expect in the cycling road races as the Basque or French departmental flags are a tradition at the Tour de France. Should an American senator turn up at the game would he not be allowed to wear a pin of their States flag only the star and stripes. You see what is black and white in China is grey for the rest of us.


Let's look at just one of the sports I've taken part in shall we, in this case we'll take bowls, not an Olympic sport sadly but one that will illustrate my point.


In bowls I have won titles with the world North Irish in the title. Plus I've represented the Northern Irish Civil Service therefore this would be the flag:

But in the same year I've also won tournaments with the word Irish in them and reached the later stages of Irish indoor championships which I've I'd won through would have meant me representing under this flag:

As a Civil Servant I actually won a British title therefore this flag:

Bowls is also one of those sports where your nationality is decided by the affiliation of the club side that you play for rather than you own therefore I've also be eligible to play, if I'd been or ever will be selected under these flags as well.

Now I could have also represented two of those flags at the Olympics, which would have left me with a potential dilemma should I have gold medalled at say Beijing, where I'd have only been able to celebrate wrapped in my national flag. For as you can see I'm more diverse than the criteria for the 2008 games would allow me room to be me.

Of course the real issue is that China do not want to be reminded or for the world to be shown this flag:

or this one:

You see China wishes it was homogeneous but fortunately for us, sadly for Beijing, it isn't. Therefore this Olympics is being held under a set of restrictions that try to fit us into boxes just like the Citizens of the world's most populace country without consideration that we're not all the same.

We are individuals of this world as are the athletes and supporters heading to Beijing and the citizens of China. Each deserves to have their human rights recognised even if that means not being wholly part of the nation the IOC designates them as.

Saintees Versus Lions

Saturday saw the first game of the league and an away jaunt to the place where the Lions ended up last season, all the way up to Perth to take on St. Johnstone. At that game the Livi fans had the aim of keeping their manager in place which they did temporarily until the owner sold out to the new Italian Leone owners.

Meeting up before the game we went into the new Carling Italian Bar, the former Lions Den it has been transformed into an Italian bar from being a bit of durr Scottish pub, but while we were waiting we were getting news of all sorts of traffic problems on the Forth Road Bridge.


In the end we did set off to make the other pick ups and the M9 towards Sterling looked as jammed as we'd heard the bridge was so the normal crossing was taken and Mister Stephen and I entered McDiarmid Park just as the players were coming out unto the pitch.

The St. Johnstone back four drawfed our strikers but we did have pace. It was going to be fun to see how Signor Roberto's passing game was going to hold up against a tough Scottish opposition. The first half saw chances at both end put a couple of errors from Monsieur Pierre-Antoine in goal did give us travelling fans a few missing heart beats. We were just hoping that at some point our pace would tell with a cunning through ball along the ground beating the tall but slow St. Johnstone back guard. However, at half time the score was 0-0 and neither team was really looking to dominate the game if anything Livi were looking the more adventurous in how they were aiming to get to goal.

At the start of t he second half the Saints however came out like they were on a mission. Ten minutes into the half Peter MacDonald got on the end of a ball from a Gavin Swankie run to score for the home side. However, 4 minutes later young Mister Leigh was through and had beaten Liam Craig only to be brought down while the ref produced the inevitable red card. There was more heart in mouth moments for the Livi fans when a back header from Mister Chris found Monsieur Pierre-Antoine just outside his box and it appeared asleep, but he ran back just in time to stop the ball going into the net.

However, against 10 men St. Johnstone Livi seemed satisfied to pass the ball around without any real penetration into the Saintees final third and when in the final minute of normal time Chris Millar took on Mister Jason in the box, from where we were sitting it looked like Mister Jason won the ball but the ref pointed to the spot and Paul Sherrin fired home the resulting penalty for a 2-0 final score.