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"Drug deaths - steps to improve the situation ( shooting galleries) blocked by westminster for a decade. Now going ahead"
The law hasn't changed. They could have done it a decade ago. Not that I am convinced helping addicts to stay on drugs is the answer. There is a study to evaluate the effect of the Glasgow facility. Not reporting until 2029 so that is it kicked down the road a bit.
https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/hub/contract/1954762
https://www.copfs.gov.uk/about-copfs/news/prosecution-policy-on-glasgow-drug-consumption-facility/
The edicts from Westminster have changed. It was completely blocked for years
Dunno how good this source is but I have followed this for years as I have also worked in Drug rehab
The Commons Home Affairs Committee has recommended that safe consumption rooms, which the SNP government has long said should be used as a means of curbing Scotland’s persistently high drug-death figures, should be piloted with a view to informaing legislative changes.
Scotland has the highest drug-death rate in Europe, with recent figures showing that 1,051 people died due to drug misuse last year, but drugs policy is reserved to Westminster.
The Conservative government has consistently blocked SNP plans to introduce safe consumption rooms, which allow people to take drugs in a clean environment under supervision, saying they would be at odds with the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.
“Safe consumption facilities, where people who use drugs may do so in safe, secure surroundings, may also reduce harm and deaths, but the status of such facilities is uncertain because of the restrictive regime in place under the 1971 act,” the committee said in its report.
“We recommend that the government support a pilot facility in Glasgow and create a legislative pathway to enable more.”
The Scottish Government has been pressing for a so-called safe consumption facility to be set up, with efforts on this having so far been blocked by Westminster.
But the Home Affairs Committee has now published a report recommending a pilot in Glasgow is supported by Westminster and jointly funded by both governments.
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/safe-drug-consumption-rooms-should-be-piloted-in-the-uk-mps-say
My point stands. The UK govt has refused to change the law. The pilot went ahead on the basis of the Crown Office stating it was not in the public interest to charge drug users in a facility. The same thing could have been done any time in the last decade.
Which is a bit of a mystery. THe SNP being happy to push the devolved/UK boundary on other issues.
Easier to blame Westminster despite drug deaths being far lower in England where the same drug laws apply.
"However, despite what Gray sees as the Thistle’s evidence of early success, UK Home Office minister Dame Diana Johnson said the law will not be changed to make it easier for other facilities like it to be opened.
The Thistle facility was launched in Scotland following a decision by the Crown Office not to prosecute drug users, but there’s uncertainty over its long-term legal status."
The actual change is the select committee recommendations and a change in administration in westminster. It could not have been set up a decade ago when first mooted. Thats just a basic fact.
yes the law has not changed but its now recommended as a pilot by the westminster committee giving legal cover.
PCA - do you really think @Scotland independent would have been worse than the last 15 years of brexit, right wing governments, austerity and racist rhetoric from south of the border?
Dunno. That's a question of alternative history. Things might have been great in Indy Scotland, they might have been rubbish. Things wouldn't necessarily have played out the same at Westminster had the independence referendum succeeded. Cameron might have been binned and he probably wouldn't have called the Brexit referendum if he'd just lost the Scottish one. But this is all hypothetical now.
On the drug rooms:
1) I think safe injection spaces should be experimented with if drug treatment experts think they're worth a shot.
2) there has been a significantly higher level of deaths from alcohol and other drugs in Scotland compared to other UK nations. That difference is not explained by the absence of drug rooms (because they also don't exist elsewhere in the UK). And neither is a drug room in Glasgow gonna fix it all. So it's a big disingenuous to suggest that the problem is all Westminster's fault because of drug room delay.
3) this is just another episode of where the SNP has wasted time and money by ordering the government to pursue projects and schemes that are unconstitutional and unlawful. Drugs law, internal markets, foreign affairs, constitutional arrangements of the UK - none of these things are within the powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The SNP is entitled to its view that these things should be within the power of Holyrood, either within or without the UK, but that's not an excuse to pursue deadend projects that end up with them getting their arse handed to them in court time after time.
Would it not be quite reasonable for any party seeking independence to show the limitations of the devolution arrangement? At least to attempt to do so whilst also attempting to govern in a reasonable manner?
In my opinion it's always going to be a difficult task for the same organisation never mind any individual to attempt the two jobs of good government and leadership of an independence campaign.
3) this is just another episode of where the SNP has wasted time and money by ordering the government to pursue projects and schemes that are unconstitutional and unlawful
And on one they do have control, Hospital patients waiting longer than 2 years in Scotland is at 2000+ people. In England, with 10 times the population, the figure is less than 200 patients.
GP recruiting problems have not been adequately sorted, finding NHS dentists is near impossible. A very poor record. But they did try to give us the gender recognition bill, which was of interest to maybe 1% of the population, and even that ultimately failed, giving the Scottish Taxpayers another large legal bill.
Would it not be quite reasonable for any party seeking independence to show the limitations of the devolution arrangement?
The party can do it all it likes. It just can't unlawfully spend taxpayer money on ordering the civil service to produce endless white papers about what a wonderland an independent Scotland would be!
https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-new-scotland-independent-scotlands-place-world/
Still seems fair enough for a cabinet secretary to ask his/her department to produce a paper on things that are within that departments concern. It's a report for discussion. So I am not sure how it's unlawful. I think it's a normal part of government for departments to produce reports which often produce nothing more than a discussion. It seems to happen all over the democratic world.
Still seems fair enough for a cabinet secretary to ask his/her department to produce a paper on things that are within that departments concern.
It could be, if it were lawfully within the department's concern. But it's not. Constitutional matters are reserved under Part 1 of Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/schedule/5
It's not legislation though. Also the SNP are elected to promote the cause of independence, vthey should do so.
The Scottish Government's budget has to be approved by the Scottish Parliament by legislation. The Scottish Parliament can't pass legislation to approve expenditure on a matter outside its competence, and the Scottish Government can't spend money on matters unapproved by the Scottish Parliament.
In any case, the devolved/reserved powers split doesn't just apply to Parliament passing legislation - it also relates to the exercise of all functions by ministers. See s54 of the Scotland Act 1998.
The "Building A New Scotland" project was a particularly egregious example of SNP misconduct. It was highly partisan and produced nothing more than a bunch of dreamy white papers about a golden independent future that the Scottish Government had no power to implement and consequently went nowhere. It would have been fine for a party or a think tank to produce at their own expense but it was a total waste of taxpayer money.
And on one they do have control, Hospital patients waiting longer than 2 years in Scotland is at 2000+ people. In England, with 10 times the population, the figure is less than 200 patients.
This one has a simple answer. In England to reduce this headline figure they started giving priority to folk apprioaching the two year mark rather than on clinical need so someone with an minor condition who had been waiting almost 2 years was given priority over someone with a crippling and worsening condition who had been waiting less time. Result in England the headline figure was reduced but not in Scotland as they continued to give priority according to clinical need.
I would like to know what you think the scots government could do to further improve the NHS given that its half their fixed discretionary budget and when by most meaningful measures it outperforms England
The "Building A New Scotland" project was a particularly egregious example of SNP misconduct. It was highly partisan and produced nothing more than a bunch of dreamy white papers about a golden independent future that the Scottish Government had no power to implement and consequently went nowhere. It would have been fine for a party or a think tank to produce at their own expense but it was a total waste of taxpayer money.
OTOH the SNP had progress to independence in their manifesto for government and all of the Unionist parties made it clear that the SNP would be progressing their independence campaign - and yet the SNP were elected. That's basically democracy in action.
Now I'm confused ..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp890n51684o
But we were told in 2014 that the oil and gas was almost gone. 😉😂
Yep Schroedingers oil. It's an interesting substance in that there always seems to be less of it about when support for independence is higher in the polls. However it also bucks certain widely accepted economic rules in that when there's less of it available the retail price goes down..
Both Badenoch's "drill baby drill, net zero is woke" announcement today and the SNP's "we're going to surf a tsunami of oil and gas to luxury independence" line during indyref campaign are nonsense.
They're the same fantasy adopted by people very far from the actual industry.
Yep Schroedingers oil. It's an interesting substance in that there always seems to be less of it about when support for independence is higher in the polls. However it also bucks certain widely accepted economic rules in that when there's less of it available the retail price goes down..
Funny isn't it. Like the new field further out that we were told did not exist during the independence referendum but which then was granted licenses shortly after ( from memory)
Now I'm confused ..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp890n51684o
But we were told in 2014 that the oil and gas was almost gone. 😉😂
Its utter insanity, renewable energy is around 50% cheaper to produce than extraction fossil fuel gas into energy but profitability of such gas is three to four times more in a capitalist system, money and profit trumps everything else, see below for example of this - clip to play at exact quote
Somafunk - we have to have some alternative to wind for those pesky winter high pressure events. Solar will not do unless we massivly expand it, storage is almost impossible on the scale required, in Scotland we do not want nuclear and anyway lead times to build are too long and its not quick and easy to turn on and off. that leave fossil fuels
tidal flow is a large part of the answer IMO but its still unproven at scale and is best for baseload not the peaks
Somafunk - we have to have some alternative to wind for those pesky winter high pressure events. Solar will not do unless we massivly expand it, storage is almost impossible on the scale required, in Scotland we do not want nuclear and anyway lead times to build are too long and its not quick and easy to turn on and off. that leave fossil fuels
tidal flow is a large part of the answer IMO but its still unproven at scale and is best for baseload not the peaks
Solar would largely ameliorate the need for expansion of such fields if it was implemented on scale for every home with battery storage.
This'll never happen as long as we have dickheads in hoc to the fossil fuel energy companies
Not on the scale required. Winter high pressure event we would get very little wind, little solar and we still need energy for a couple of weeks day and night. We cannot store enough energy with current tech and batteries are highly polluting to make. Batteries can smooth fluctuations and even manage a day or two of low wing low solar but not the weeks required
yes more solar would be good and actually less consumption - but we still need a reserve of power generation for those events
I am as dark a green as I can be but am also a realist.
"Solar would largely ameliorate the need for expansion of such fields if it was implemented on scale for every home with battery storage."
I doubt it. UK demand around 30GW. December solar output around 0.3GW average and nothing for 16 hours a day.
There is no cost-effective storage for seasonal variation.
Google says.
" A standard system can see its output drop by as much as 83% in winter compared to summer months, with a 3.5 kW system potentially producing only about 52 kWh in a month, compared to 362 kWh in summer. "
So each house would need maybe 10 x 3.5kW systems plus enough Tesla batteries yo store a few days use for cloudy periods.
Gets to somewhere around £100k per house?
I think I would rather use wind and burn gas when the wind drops.
couple of weeks not a few days storage needed.
There’s plenty of scope for hydro, particularly micro generation - we have a local scheme on the island and returns a healthy profit. Current legislation is in favour of the big generators means that it’s very difficult to get funding for new schemes. Likewise, there’s been a few tidal power test schemes but nothing commercial - when you consider the tidal range and currents down the entire west coast, the potential must be massive but again, probably too many vested interests in preserving the status quo, lobbying by oil and gas producers to want to make a meaningful difference.
Hydro - yes micro hydro can be a useful supplement particularly for isolated communities - but its flow generation not reservoir and is again too small scale so again not much use in those winter high pressure events as it does not hold a reserve so cannot be "turned up". We have very limited scope for further large scale hydro. tidal is a good bet for sure and its disgraceful its had no real government funding
It would be a very odd decision to pursue tidal flow and oil/gas over nuclear. But perhaps that's not a Scottish politics question specifically...
Very sensible IMO
If tidal flow had had 1/10th of the investment over the last 25 years that nuclear has then we wouldn't be needing nuclear is my bet. New nuclear will take 25 years to get on line. Its not the answer
Anyway Scotland voted for a nuclear free future.
Edit - unfortunatly the scots government does not have the money for this really being on a fixed budget - however tidal flow now has its first commercial scale generator in Scotland which is the worlds largest IIRC. Its been in the sea 4 years - dunno how well it is performing
Both Badenoch's "drill baby drill, net zero is woke" announcement today and the SNP's "we're going to surf a tsunami of oil and gas to luxury independence" line during indyref campaign are nonsense.
They're the same fantasy adopted by people very far from the actual industry.
MeyGen seems to be a great project, and it's huge, think it's planned to the largest in the world. There are some issues with tidal power slowing it down though, so taskforce has been set up (think it's called MET) which is supposed to come up with a cohesive plan which i think is due at the end of the year. Whether it will deliver or not though? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also since this is the Scotland thread, I should mention that most of the previous funding in ar6 and ar7 (which wasn't a huge amount tbh) went to Scotland, some to Wales and none to England. 😉
Inm Murray the Scotland secretary sacked. Interesting character - know as a good local MP but also the architect of the Tory / Labour non aggression pact at the 2017 ( IIRC) election and also very much on the right of the party. NO clue as to why yet. He got the post when he was the only Scots Labour MP but now there is a choice. It will be interesting to see who gets the job ie what side of the party his replacement comes from.
I wonder if its in reaction to the massive fall in support for labour in Scotland since the election
the Tory / Labour non aggression pact at the 2017 ( IIRC) election
🤔
PCA - despite the denials I saw it on Murrays facebook page that there was a list of which constituencies this was in and how to vote tactically for the tories to keep the SNP out.. It was a tacit tactical voting / non aggression pact done with deniabi8lity but it was real and happened.
Douglas Alexander the new Scottish secretary. Hmmm. Hardly new blood. An other one mired deep in the expenses scandal and another right winger.
That Scotsman article above seems to rely on the notion that absence of written evidence is evidence of absence.
You're asking us to believe that Dugdale/Corbyn's Labour Party and Davidson/May's Tories managed to reach an agreement on an electoral pact in Scottish elections, communicate it to the candidates and doorknockers on the ground, do it, and keep it so secret that 8 years later no-one has ever spoken about it. The evidence for its existence is TJ having seen it on Facebook.
There's more evidence that the Abominable Snowman skippered a CalMac ferry...
"There's more evidence that the Abominable Snowman skippered a CalMac ferry."
After faking the moon landings.
The point surely was that as the SNP, after losing the indyref, were unable to accept the result and have spent the last decade droning on about indyref 2. Naturally many No voters will vote tactically to avoid getting an SNP MSP.
No conspiracy required.
Certainly not much evidence that Kezia Dugdale had much to do with it as Jim Murphy was leader of the Scottish Labour party at the time of the GE in 2015, also Ed Milliband was UK Labour leader and resigned because of the scale of their defeat. I can only offer my personal opinion and experience as someone who was an active campaigner for the SNP at the time with friends in various parties on both sides of the independence debate that the idea and practicalities of co-ordinated tactical voting to defeat the SNP was widely discussed online and in person. Even Jim Murphy might have had sufficient nous not to put any such discussion on record.
@irc Your mostly correct but support for independence and support for the SNP are not one and the same.
Certainly not much evidence that Kezia Dugdale had much to do with it as Jim Murphy was leader of the Scottish Labour party at the time of the GE in 2015, also Ed Milliband was UK Labour leader...
Maybe, but 2015 has nothing to do with the conspiracy theory that TJ is promoting about a secret Labour-Tory pact for the 2017 General Election. The SNP lost 21 seats.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Scotland
2017-2015That's entirely my fault for not reading properly .
I do remember widespread chat about organised tactical voting for the unionist parties in 2015 and even more so in 2017 though. nothing so organised and official as a pact but something extensively discussed in person and on social media.
Fair enough
Douglas Alexander the new Scottish secretary.
It does make you wonder why the Scottish, Welsh and NI secretaries are still in the cabinet when the functions exercised by them have mostly been devolved to the responsible governments anyway.
There's an argument, in Scotland at least that the Scottish Secretary position is being used to discredit the Scottish government and to undermine devolution.
There's an argument, in Scotland at least that the Scottish Secretary position is being used to discredit the Scottish government and to undermine devolution.
Especially when you consider that absolute **** Alister Jack, was the Secretary of State as well as mp for my area and utterly shit at it, he was made a Life Peer earlier this year for his services to keeping the leash on any chance of independence.