Melancholic Year

Melancholic me

Down into the mists of 2012

2011 is fizzling out like a damp squib, reflecting the year that has been the most disappointing I can remember.  Climate change damage is all around us, the economy is in free fall and social and community activities are being wiped out. Our political and financial systems have suffered systematic failure and there is little evidence that those with the power either understand or have the courage to admit the necessity for radical change.  I wandered off into the clouds for a couple of hours this morning and reflected on the future possibilities for recovery and to search for some solace but just became wet and melancholic.

I was trying to remember other years when the world seemed so ill at ease - 1962 after the Cuban missile crisis, 1977 during the winter of discontent, and 1981 when Mrs Thatcher's dirty dancing with monetarism sired a modern grim reaper.  But these were just episodes of decline, this time the economic and fiscal collapse seems to presage the inevitable degeneration of society. We need to renew our models of corporate and democratic governance to embrace new technologies and the renascent ethical principles that have thankfully emerged on a global scale in recent months.

Fortunately, there is a new year ahead to address these issues. We must hope against the expectation that those with the levers of influence have the fortitude and instincts to know that the old orders of capitalism (the markets), centralised government (statism) and the economy police (the World Bank and IMF) have collectively failed and that we need to trust far more localised and empathetic ways of managing society if we are to achieve the global change that Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful movement captured so well almost forty years ago.

Painting the Forth Bridge

White didn't work

As never-ending as  a banker's bonus

A1 Pacific

One of the fondest memories of childhood was the annual picture book which almost always had images of the Forth Bridge, usually being painted rust red by a gang of men who seemed to have a worthy career for life.  The bridge was usually the backcloth for pictures of the mighty LNER pacific locomotives. It was also the inspiration for my bridges made from Meccano that carried a clockwork train. They usually collapsed like the Tay bridge as I never had enough pieces of Meccano.

Today we learnt that they have finished painting the Forth Bridge which must be an oxymoron if ever I heard one.  What are we to call things that go on forever?  Someone on the radio suggested the American expression 'whack-a-mole' which seemed incongruous although it might be an appropriate term for bankers' bonuses. I guess 'pension contributions' would be nearer the mark for the next generation. 

The Men That Don't Fit In

British Bulldog with friends

Reading today's papers, after watching the PM, David Cameron, make a bitter and lonely exit from the Euro summit reminded me of a very apt Robert Service poem. 

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
 A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
 And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
 And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
 And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
 They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
 And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
 What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
 Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
 With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
 Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
 Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
 In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
 He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
 And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha!  He is one of the Legion Lost;
 He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
 He's a man who won't fit in.

In the glare of the truth

And he did fail and fail and his prime is in the past. 

Solar Optimism

Cheaper than Slate

Scotland and sun are not obvious partners but my interest in sustainable energy and eternal optimism persuaded me to invest in solar panels.  What retirement savings I had left were losing 3% or 4% per annum in a savings account and with inflation remaining above 5% and no sign of the recession easing after the Chancellor's latest doomsday rant, I allowed the energy savings trust to convince us that solar panels would work.  I challenged every assumption much to the chagrin of the salesman before we arrived at an estimate of annual electricity generation far less than he would have calculated. Much to my surprise it would begin to give a rate of return within 6 years.  It did require the felling of half a dozen sycamore and lime trees in my neighbour's garden but I had wanted to do this for years and this was the excuse I needed.

November was the first full month of production and, with only 3 or 4 days when the sun made an appearance, we generated over 60kWh of electricity.  December is a different matter and so far we are still struggling to get more than a couple of kilowatt hours.  The panels were covered with snow for 2 or 3 days before the gales on Thursday and the snow has returned overnight.  However after the debacle in Brussels yesterday, I think even a ten year rate of return will still beat the savings rates in the UK by a sizeable margin.

Gales and Power

The river Forth with waves

Dozens of trees blocked paths

Hanging lichen on the fallen trees - no air pollution here

Mystery Lumberjacks

We have had the full set of winter weather in the last few days, and gale force winds were the latest trial.  They were the strongest since 1968 if we are to believe the Met Office. The Co-op was mobbed in the early morning, people stocking up before the imminent gales struck. I managed to get provisions and back home before the rising flood waters cut us off again, the second time this week. The winds began to howl and branches were flying across the garden. And this was long before the Minister, Keith Brown, told us to stay indoors and not to travel. Just after 3pm, the electricity failed, it was one of those moments you knew was going to make a difference. I had just finished a few emails so I was not unduly disturbed. We found candles, lit the wood burning stove, took the chairs through and assembled reading material.  This was total isolation: the road was closed by floods, no electricity, and it was too windy to step outside. The initial novelty soon wore off: reading a Kindle by candlelight is not romantic nor is cooking on a camping stove in the kitchen in winter. Give me a tent in the remote mountains, a cup-a-soup and savoury rice in the summer for using the camping stove.

It took over 27 hours before electricity was restored, but in the evening the floods subsided. The next morning I managed a long walk in the forest climbing over dozens of trees that had been brought down by the gales and fallen on the forest tracks.  We went out for an evening meal in a pub in the nearest settlement that had electricity and we were joined by a dozen or so engineers from Scottish and Southern Energy who had been working round the clock for the past 24 hours restoring power supplies.  They had that contented comradeship that events like this generate and when we returned home we had heat and light. It reminded us how dependent we are upon electricity and brought home the long lasting damage of the war in Iraq, where citizens are still restricted to a few hours a day. Scotland has capacity problems that will increase over the next few years.

Thankfully the Scottish Government had finally taken a decision to give the go ahead for the upgrading of the power lines between Beauly and Denny.  A proposal that had been made 8 years ago and which had been opposed by various campaigning groups supported by cowardly politicians at all levels.  I had attended a dozen or so community meetings in 2005/2006 when the rationale for the scheme had been set out and we managed to obtain various route amendments with the power companies.  Arguments against the new pylons (10 metres taller but only two to replace every three existing pylons) were very strident but lacked rigour and conveniently ignored the evidence that was presented.  I am no fan of pylons but I know most of the route quite well and there was a genuine desire by the power companies to adjust the route to minimise the impact upon sensitive landscapes. The route does not intrude on Scotland's grander landscapes.

• Did the existing power lines need to be upgraded? - Yes, because the existing power stations, both coal and nuclear, that serve much of Scotland are to close, and generation will increasingly be from wind and wave power in the north, the capacity of the existing grid is already at its limit.  
• Could the cables be put underground? No, because the cost increases twelvefold and this extra cost would have to be paid by increasing costs to the consumers. The cables are encased in concrete that create infrastructure corridors just as intrusive as motorways. Each time there is a major water crossing, there is a need to bring the cables above ground with ugly fields of transformers at either end.  
• Is it the best route to safeguard scenic landscapes? By and large, yes, significant changes were made to accommodate concerns raised by SNH, Councils and environment groups, and it largely uses the existing corridor of pylons  
• Is it safe? Well safer than using a vacuum cleaner apparently, and all owners of properties within 200 metres of the route have been guaranteed that they would be compensated at market value if they wished to move.  There were less than 100 properties in the 200-mile route.

So why has it taken so long to reach a decision?  Because politicians at national and local levels believed that the vocal minority opposing the scheme had to be appeased and they had to be seen to be supportive of these voters. It is an example of democratic inertia that damages the economy and pampers the Nimbys.  At least five years have been wasted and whilst due process or legitimate delays are cited as the reason, it is political cowardice and an aversion to taking disruptive decisions that is the reason. Representative democracy should be about leadership and facing difficult decisions, not courting whimsical popularity.