Scotsman letters
Zoned out
Last week UK Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband announced that he would not support the case for zonal pricing of electricity on the basis that “it would be unfair to zones such as the Midlands, Wales and the South of England”. As Scotland was clearly going to be a beneficiary of zonal pricing due to the fact that a huge chunk of the UK’s renewable energy is produced here, then Miliband’s decision could be considered to be based solely on southern interests. Although his decision drew criticism from Scottish MPs of various parties, there was none forthcoming from our Scottish Labour MPs. On that basis can we therefore assume that they are content for Scotland not to have the opportunity to be able to be in the position where it is seen as a more attractive proposition for industries than some parts of our southern neighbours?
Many of us in Scotland who have for decades witnessed Scottish jobs haemorrhaging to England find Scottish Labour’s position inexplicable. Compounding this, however, was the statement by the Under Secretary of State for Energy, Michael Shanks MP, on Radio Scotland (10 July) that the renewable energy generated by Scotlands wind farms isn’t really Scottish renewable energy because, “there isn’t Scottish wind or English wind, there’s GB wind”.
The fact that the turbines that capture the wind to generate the renewable energy and the equipment to then transport it southwards across much of our scenic countryside are located in Scotland seems to have been lost on Mr Shanks. His attitude (and that of the Labour Party as a whole) towards Scotland seems to be that we are here to produce renewable energy and put up with the costs without deriving any benefit. From the1980s onwards we witnessed Scotland’s North Sea oil wealth being drained. We now appear to be entering a similar scenario with regard to our renewable energy.
Jim Finlayson, Banchory, Aberdeenshire
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