Blah, blah, blah

Greta Thunberg addresses Youth Climate activists

When utterances from the UK government to counter the evidence of their mismanagement and failures are perfidiously issued and reported by the BBC, press and other media; the fourth estate is failing us. They have assumed that we, the public, are either gullible or have already factored in that truth from Boris Johnson's government is an alien concept. We have seen this time and again as the government have attempted to defer blame for the mistakes in dealing with the Covid pandemic. The supposed Brexit bonanza has become a torrid avalanche of broken promises and lost trade. Now we have the PM's revelation that we are 'world leading' in terms of tackling climate change. It is more absolute piffle from our great bumbling prime minister. 

"In the UK we’ve already cut our carbon emissions in half and we have all but eliminated coal from our energy mix", according to the PM. In reality, the government have made decision after decision that has undermined progress towards carbon reduction. It is all a ploy to generate false kudos (kudos is given by others not self-acclaimed) for the UK in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, the event that should and could be an opportunity for world leaders to show that they justify their credentials as leaders. It was rightly dismissed as more blah, blah, blah by a Swedish teenager who has had the temerity to challenge the double talk of the Goliaths of governments and global businesses alike with a studied disdain.

The omens are not good; world leaders are performing like puppets of the coal, oil and gas industries, who are using familiar tactics to undermine the scientific evidence of climate change. Aviation and shipping, two of the most damaging producers of carbon are given a free rein to expand with minimal taxation on their use of fossil fuels. Farming continues to use technologies and methods that are hostile to biodiversity, the building and construction industries are still focused more on profit than becoming net zero in carbon. 

In Britain, shoddy new housing with poor insulation, outmoded heating systems and minimal standards is an indecent assault on too many households. Households who are paying over the top prices for renting or buying properties that support a long tail of business middlemen from construction companies, landowners, landlords, estate agents and surveyors. They are all lined up to benefit from the inflationary spiral stoked by market shortages of property and low-interest rates.

It might sound cynical, but the carbon footprint of COP26, with 25,000 participants flying into Glasgow is probably only exceeded as a carbon footage event this year by the competition between global business tycoons (Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Geoff Bezos) as they race each other into space. The way things are going it will be the last frontier.

Once again it was Greta Thunberg who spelt out the imperative of COP26 and admonished the party-goers. “This is not some expensive, politically correct, green act of bunny hugging,” she said. Quite right.

In 2010 the UK had the chance to make an impact and Cameron's coalition government was initially very supportive but Chancellor Osborne reduced the support for many green projects and the May and Johnson governments have drawn back even more despite all the empty slogans suggesting otherwise. The list is endless but here are some examples.

• Chancellor George Osborne never implemented the scheduled 1p fuel duty rise that had been introduced as a Green tax by the Brown government. Nor have his successors as Chancellor including Rishi Sunak. 
• The feed-in tariff rate for solar panels has fallen from 41.3p p/kWh in 2010 to 3.41p/kWh in 2020. 
• The Johnson government has scrapped the Green Homes grant scheme of £1.5bn for insulation just 6 months after its launch in 2020.
• There have been no attempts to tackle carbon emissions from the aviation and shipping industries despite transport having the largest proportion of carbon emissions 27%, of which aviation and shipping are estimated to generate 3% each and largely escaping taxation to date.
• And of course, the UK government seems keen to allow a new coal mine at Whitehaven in Cumbria and a new oilfield at Cambo off Shetland.
• The Heathrow expansion is another massive castigation on the UK claims to be leading the world on climate change.

 COP26 was going to be a hard gig in any circumstances, and but for the wise decisions to promote solar and wind energy following the Climate Change Act 2008, the UK would be languishing even further behind its intention to reach zero carbon.

Broken Britain

According to numerous sources, the UK has become the laughing stock of the world as we have struggled to fight Covid, pretended that Brexit hasn't led to the collapse of many businesses and created shortages of food, materials and labour and at the same time forsaken our role in world affairs as witnessed by the cuts to International Development.

In the past two weeks, we have been hit by a fourfold increase in gas prices. Yet we have the lowest stored gas capacity of any European country, 9 terawatt-hours or 2% of annual demand, compared to 26 -37% in the four largest European countries. The UK adopted a "just-in-time" approach that has made us more susceptible to shortages and price escalation. The government and its regulators have also encouraged switching to 60 new energy companies. These companies still need to secure future supply at prices within the government's capping limits. Yet another government own goal with households and businesses left to fund the gap 

This week the crisis is at petrol filling stations as shortage of HGV drivers led to delayed deliveries. This was then made worse by the government saying there was no need to panic but most members of the public have previous experience that advice from Grant Shapps, the laid-back Minister of Transport, cannot be trusted, so they charged out to fill up. 

Meanwhile, the supermarkets, who have performed superbly through Covid, are now offering empty shelves of many products. A couple of weeks ago it was the lack of carbon dioxide owing to increased energy costs that meant a shortage of CO2 for the packaging of meat and fruit. Now we are faced with other products not arriving because of driver shortages. When the supermarkets and haulage industry tell us that Christmas is under threat, it sounds possible given all the other problems accumulating. All talk of resilience and strategy by the government seems to be no more than a quick extract from their playbook of excuses. This government knows not the cost of resilience nor the value of strategic planning.

Meanwhile, inflation levels are spiralling upwards. Building materials such as timber, glass, and steelwork have increased by 20-30%, the cost of eating out has risen by 10-20%, and rail fares are set to increase again as well as a drastic cut in the number of services. Add these inflationary factors to energy, vehicle (car prices have risen by 15.2% in a year), food, clothes and household appliances and we are in the midst of the most damaging bout of inflation since the late 1980s when Mrs Thatcher let things rip. Yet the word that no one in government or the opposition party will utter about these events is Brexit.

All of these events precede the COVID-19 consequences that are about to kick in. October marks the end of the furlough scheme for 1.6 million workers and the Universal Credit uplift of £20 for 6 million people. It is unlikely that the government can shift the opprobrium for the effect of the loss of these income streams to anyone but themselves, although they will try.

Olaf Scholz, the probable new Chancellor of Germany, explained our crisis to Channel 4 News better than any government minister has managed. In slightly hesitant but perfectly cogent English, he explained that many European countries including Germany and France as well as the UK have demographic profiles that mean there is a shortage of workers and an increasingly elderly population. The free movement of labour in the EU was designed to tackle this. Countries in the EU were also suffering a shortage of HGV drivers, care workers and agricultural workers but free movement allowed some cover from elsewhere in the EU. 

He added that those workers who had left the UK as a result of Brexit would be unlikely to return for short-term jobs (the UK government has offered only 3 months for HGV drivers or poultry farm workers) when there are other issues to be sorted out such as visas, housing, tax and other possible constraints. He said that the EU would try to help but the UK had known about these issues during Brexit negotiations and it was invidious of UK ministers to constantly blame the EU. 

Mairead McGuinness, an Irish EU Commissioner, explained the crisis in similar terms and spoke eloquently about the importance of protecting the people of Northern Ireland from the trade agreement arising from Brexit. There is increasing evidence that the EU appears more concerned about the impact of Brexit and other UK decisions on the people of the UK than the Westminster Government. 

Yes Minister was ahead of its time when it lampooned the incompetence of the UK government when faced with adversity. Still, there is little humour when the current state of the UK is beyond even the most vivid imagination of comedic scriptwriters. 

Dunfermline

 

Dunfermline town hall from the graveyard

Autumnal days are here and I decided it was time to consider replacing an 8-year-old car and test drive an electric car.  The shortage of cars for test drives in the central belt also meant we had to travel to Dunfermline. I was impressed by the acceleration, the quietness and the comfort of the car but with a six-month waiting list and a price 62% higher than my last new car, the decision was made for me. I do far fewer miles nowadays and my present car is good for 55mpg and another couple of years, why add to the number of vehicles on the road.

The trip gave us an opportunity to visit this former seat of the Scottish monarchs. Dunfermline had been one of the 4 original Royal Burghs, and also the home town of Aileen's parents. They had married in the Abbey so we started with a visit there. The Abbey was open with social distancing and the Historic Environment Scotland staff were very knowledgeable and helpful. An excellent exhibition of Scottish stained glass led us into the impressive Romanesque nave which leads into the rebuilt Parish church where Robert the Bruce was re-interred below the pulpit. The remains of the Palace are part of the town's walls to the south and west and provide a slightly forbidding gravitas to the town. 

Looking across the graveyard the town is dominated by the town hall, a gothic-inspired structure that is now used as a registry for weddings and for meetings of the area committee for Dunfermline by Fife Council. Aileen wondered whether her grandfather had been based here as the County Engineer between the wars. The modern Carnegie library and museum are also adjacent to the abbey and parish church and are a fine testament to this locally born global philanthropist. This part of the town exudes history in its fine stone buildings. What a contrast with the High Street, now decimated of independent shops and fitted out in the sad frontages of downmarket retail franchises, bookies, charity shops and gap sites. North of High Street, the clutter of ugly retail centres surrounded by car parks has dethroned this once fine Royal Burgh.

Dunfermline's location, superb heritage buildings and excellent parks should make it a desirable place to live. It is only 36 minutes over the Forth Rail Bridge to the centre of Edinburgh, one of the best rail journeys in Britain. The retrofitting of once vibrant towns like Dunfermline to accommodate the car and the frenzy of car-based retailing and business centres have ripped the heart out of these places. Perhaps these things will change as the long term effects of life after Covid begin to encourage more locally based lifestyles with far more people working from home and spending less time on needless travelling. It will hopefully provide a stimulus to the places that have endured the fallout from Scotland's Edinburgh centric investments of the past twenty years.  It will require a less centralist Scottish Government and the re-emergence of municipal endeavour and pride to facilitate this transformation.  The electric car may help but active travel initiatives and real community leadership will be just as important.

Town Hall

Abbot House in Maygate

Nave of the Abbey

Some of the stained glass exhibition

The refectory of the palace

They think it's all over

The sheer vainglorious contempt for the European Union by the UK government is typified in the above charts. Although UK citizens can travel abroad if tested, many European countries are red-listed despite having far lower Covid rates than the UK. The second chart shows that many UK regions, mainly in Scotland, have amongst the highest Covid rates in Europe. UK citizens who travel to countries they are allowed to visit are subject to testing and quarantine on return if not vaccinated. It all seems part of the abuse of data that has been a feature of the last 18 months when the UK government has attempted every trick to disguise the fact that it is back to having the highest number and proportion of Covid cases in Europe as was the position before the vaccines came to the rescue. 

If the vaccines are such a success, it is surprising that UK regions are back at the top of the list of countries with Covid. Israel is the country with the best vaccination rates and the highest ratio of Covid cases. It is not that vaccines are not working, all the evidence shows the significant benefits of vaccines in reducing infections and the severity of cases. Is it that the government's relaxation of lockdown, encouragement to get out and support hospitality businesses, the opening up of mass events and because they think it's all over that have led to the surges? It may also be due to the unexplained slowing down of vaccinations. This is particularly apparent amongst the younger age groups who appear to be suffering the most from the recent upsurge in cases. We are almost back at the levels of January and February 2021 and in Scotland the hospitals are at breaking point again.

I have some concerns about the figures published by the Scottish Government about vaccination rates. Public Health Scotland has published information on vaccination rates that show that vaccination rates are 100% for all the over-60 cohorts and 90% and over for the 40-49, 50-54 and 55-59-year-olds. Is this statistically possible? Given that there are significant numbers of frail elderly or people with medical conditions that make vaccination unlikely or not recommended, I think not. Anecdotally, I know of relatives and friends who have been called to be vaccinated by their local GP, who presumably ordered vaccines for them, but who then took the opportunity to get one earlier by attending one of the pop-up vaccination centres. There is previous evidence of health data being incorrect as a result of double-counting, for example, the population on GP lists in Health Board areas often exceeds the total population because people are registered with their original GP as well as a new GP when they move to a new community. As yet no NHS spokesperson or journalist has explained how 100% of some cohorts of the population have been vaccinated

No one wants the current curtailment of freedoms to be tightened. However, the escalating rate of COVID-19, the constantly changing rules, and the visions of crowd scenes at major events are simply exacerbating the doubts of a large proportion of the population. They are stoically avoiding going out to public places and certainly not using trains and boats and planes or for that matter restaurants, sports facilities or workplaces. The chances of getting to see a GP, dentist, or hospital appointment are limited. We live in a different world and until there is a sense that Covid spreading is under control, many people will resist the urge to exercise their fake freedom.

The abrogation of the UK government's responsibility is palpable. According to Nadra Ahmed of the National Care Association 10-15% of carers are unvaccinated. Allowing UK citizens to travel abroad, despite having higher rates of infection than almost all European countries and a contact tracing system that remains seriously flawed is mere Brexit arrogance. The UK government is gung ho for free markets, prepared to heap the blame for spreading on other countries and unwilling to release some of the 540 million doses of vaccine to countries that are suffering the most as a result of a shortage of vaccines. This approach has been recommended by such luminaries as Professor Andrew Pollard and more recently by Professor Sarah Gilbert who were both instrumental in creating the Astra Zeneca vaccine and always saw it as a non-profit resource for global usage.  

At a time when the UK is supposed to be defining a new role for itself on the world stage, it is tragic that we are not using the soft power of vaccines, international aid and climate change as weapons for the global good. Instead, the government are signing up to strategic nuclear submarine pacts, getting ever tougher on immigrants and asylum seekers, allowing the fire sale of UK companies to hedge funds, and routinely abusing or blaming the EU. This is wrapped up in a Union Jack as a half-baked foreign policy. Add a foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who believes that free markets will sort out the mess and routinely is rude to her peers from other countries and we truly are becoming a pariah nation.

Beinn Dronaig

Bidein a' Choire Sheasgaich and Lurg Mhor from Beinn Dronaig

Wednesday, 1 September 202

Ascent:       1201 metres (605 metres cycling)
Distance:    34 kilometres   (25 kilometres cycling)
Time:          6 hours 12 minutes  (3hrs 18mins cycling)

Beinn Dronaig     797m 3 hrs 36 mins  (1hr 55mins cycling)

After a restless night in the Airbnb in Lochcarron, I set out for the short journey to Attadale. The day was absolutely perfect with just a slight breeze, more noticeable when cycling. I was the first visitor of the day and was cycling up the track past the Attadale Gardens before 9am. On the track to some cottages, I met the gamekeeper who asked if I was going up Beinn Dronaig, and if so, could I use the route up just before Loch Calavie as he would be stalking the other part of the hill tomorrow. It was a civil request and although I had intended this route anyway I had intended to descend westwards along the summit ridge, this would not be possible.

The climb up the rough gravel track was steeper than I remembered. I had once walked this route when climbing Bidein a' Choire Sheasgaich and Lurg Mhor with Mark during a crazy September weekend of Munro bashing and knew that it was a 3-hour walk at least to reach the start of the climb to the Munros. I spent the next half hour crossing the river, I had taken the wrong track and then pushed the bike up the steep hill. There is then a section of a kilometre or so that can be pedalled before the track ramps up again and climbs to a col at 350 metres. The long descent from here to the bridge over the Black Water allowed me to save some time despite quite a few stops for photos. I reached the track to Loch Calavie in less than two hours. It was time to dump the bike and walk up the rough path to the high point towards Loch Calavie. I began the steep climb up the lush, lumpy grassy slopes of Beinn Dronaig but not before filling my water bottle from the sparkling burn.

It was a relentless ascent, twisting between the rock bands, following some burns and eventually arriving on the glorious summit bejewelled with small lochans and providing scintillating views to the Torridons and over to the mesmeric peak of Bidein a' Choire Sheasgaich and Lurg Mhor, two of the most inaccessible Munros. I took half an hour on the summit, it was one of those days when I felt that the effort expended in getting to the summit had earned me some respite and what a spectacular setting. 

I had to decide the route down and chose to take a more direct line further to the east than the way I had climbed the hill, it would save me circling my way through the outcrops. The route worked well although I did have to scramble down a gulley between some rock outcrops at one stage. I was back on the track in 45 minutes and from there it was an easy walk back to the bike. There was a sense that I had done the difficult part of the day although there would be a 2-kilometre climb on the bike in the searing heat to reach the summit of the track to Attadale.

The cycling was easy going to the bridge over the Black Water and after an initial climb up a rough path back to the track, there was another section that could be cycled with ease. Thereafter, it was a long half-hour pushing the bike to the 350-metre col. I could have cycled some of it but the loose stony surface and the incline made it easier to keep walking. The brakes on my bike are not the best and, as I started the descent, I realised that they were not going to stop me on the steeper switchback sections of the descent. Thereafter some long sections of steady descent made for faster progress and I managed to average 22kph on the last 3 kilometres back to the car. It was 4pm and the temperature was 25°C as I began the long drive home. The traffic was light and I was in Fort William well before 6 pm. A chance to buy some beers for when I arrived home. Glencoe was again at its most magnificent in the evening light and I envied the microlight pilot who was skimming over Rannoch Moor.

It had been a full-on but successful two days, the weather had been almost perfect, and the cycling had been hard particularly for Beinn Dronaig. The climbs on both Aonach Buidhe and Beinn Dronaig required determination with no paths, lush summer vegetation, and steep slopes. In the circumstances, I had made better times than expected. I have only two Corbetts to complete the challenge I set myself on retiral: a round of the Munros and Corbetts to keep me fit and out of trouble. 

I have kept Beinn Dearg in the Torridons for the final Corbett. It had been included in Irvine Butterfield's marvellous book, the High Mountains of Britain and Ireland covering all the hills of 3000 feet. It was at the time classified as a Munro before the surveyors re-estimated its height to 2999 feet, although the OS still have it as a 914-metre summit. The pictures and description of Beinn Dearg were one of the reasons that I started to climb the Munros in 1989 and its completion would be a fine epitaph for 32 years of walking the Scottish Hills. Then I can relax a little; climb old favourites, support friends who want company for tricky walks, walk the lower level passes and maybe finish another round of Wainwright's in the Lake District - so much easier and not requiring long days and overnight camps. Yet it is the very remoteness of the Scottish Mountains combined with the weather that makes them such a perpetual challenge and reward, the agony and ecstasy are so finely paired.

The track up to Beinn Dronaig from Lochcarron

Lochcarron from the track

Lochcarron and Applecross Hills from the top of the track

Bidein a' Choire Sheasgaich and Lurg Mhor from track

Black Water Bridge

From Blackwater Bridge

By Beinn Dronaig Lodge and Bothy

The track back to Attadale

Sheasgaich and Lurg Mhor

High level pools

Torridons from Beinn Dronaig

Beinn Dronaig Lodge and Bothy