The Edinburgh Reporter December 2021

4 NEWS
The ‘New Normal’
Our Letter from Scotland columnist looks back over the last year
By JOHN KNOX
WE HAVE COME a long way since Christmas
2020 and we now find ourselves in a new world
of vaccinations, cautious meetings, face masks
and worries about our future on the planet.
Looking back on December last year, I can
hardly believe I was there. Christmas was in
hiding. No concerts, no cinema, no parties, only
outdoor meetings with a few friends. My treat
on Christmas Day was to climb Arthur’s Seat.
We were entering our third Lockdown and
the second year of the pandemic. 73,500 people
had died of Covid across the UK, over 6,000 of
them in Scotland. (Now it’s over 125,000 and
nearly 10,000 in Scotland). Then came the
miracle of the vaccines and the military-style
inoculation programme.
The government’s furlough scheme kept
175,000 Scottish jobs alive (it had been nearly a
million the year before). Government debt rose
to 14 per cent of our national income, just short
of the 15 per cent at the end of the Second
World War.
The weather too was blowing between
extremes. We had snow and ice at New Year. In
February temperatures were down to minus
23°C in Braemar. Then we had our fourth
hottest summer since records began in 1844. In
Tyndrum the thermometer reached 27°C.
Abroad, forest fires were raging in California,
Australia and Greece. More of Africa was
turning into desert. Floods in Germany and the
Netherlands killed 180 people, many more in
India and Bangladesh. The scene was set for the
Westminster funding is the answer
I BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A
pressing need for investment in
Edinburgh to ensure that the city
can bounce back to better than
pre-Covid levels of prosperity.
The UK Government has recently
announced an extensive package
of funding for Edinburgh and the
South East of Scotland that includes
a variety of different sectors.
EDUCATION
£9.5 million will be going to
UN’s latest climate change conference, in
Glasgow, where yet again our leaders failed to
notice there was an emergency on.
We have been getting used to a new normal
in politics too. We are living with the damaging
consequences of Brexit and “Boris being Boris”
at Westminster. The SNP held onto power in
the Scottish elections in May, in large measure
because of Nicola Sturgeon’s steady handling of
the Covid crisis.
schools for state-of-the-art
systems that will monitor
temperature, CO2 levels, and
humidity among other metrics.
This will be used to teach children
how to deal with data and
statistics in real world contexts.
DATA
The UK Government is investing
over £270 million across the city to
promote Edinburgh as a Data
Powerhouse. Investing in 5 Data
Driven Innovation (DDI) hubs
across the City and the South East
will not only help a range of other
sectors, it will also bring good
quality jobs to the area.
LOCAL REGENERATION
Over £16 million will be
earmarked for the Granton Gas
Holder, which will aid the
waterfront renovation that is
taking place in the area. It is
hoped that the funding will help
And on the sporting field, we have a new
normal too. Scotland qualified for the football
World Cup for the first time in over 20 years.
Our men’s rugby team beat England, France and
Australia. Rangers FC are back on top of the
Premier League, but plucky little St Johnstone
from Perth snatched The Scottish Cup from
them in an extraordinary penalty shootout.
To sum up this uncertain year in just one
word, it has to be “timorous”.
to make it one of the most
sustainable new neighbourhoods
in Scotland by securing further
public and private sector
investment of around £1.2 billion.
This is just a small snapshot of
the suite of funding that is being
delivered to Edinburgh from the
UK Government. It will be a lifeline
to many areas and sectors and is
something to be celebrated and
encouraged.
Jeremy Balfour MSP
Leith’s clean
green energy
IF YOU ARE feeling disheartened by the
UK’s lack of commitment to net zero
targets, never fear. UK Minister of State for
Energy, Greg Hands MP, apparently has the
solution to the climate crisis with a cunning
plan to get the UK to net zero emissions. Yes,
it’s back to the future with nuclear power.
The UK Government has just announced
a £210 million contract for Rolls-Royce as
part of the Advanced Nuclear Fund they’re
throwing money at, just a few weeks after
they decided not to invest in the Carbon
Capture and Storage project at St Fergus
in Aberdeenshire.
The Tory government promised a North
East of Scotland carbon capture project
back in 2014, and St Fergus was the most
cost-effective and shovel ready of all the
bids but it lost out to projects in Teeside
and the Humber. I’m furious on behalf of
the oil workers that have helped the oil
industry contribute over £350 billion in
revenues and are now being passed over
for up to 15,000 jobs that would have come
Aberdeenshire’s way. The Scottish
Government created the Just Transition
Commission years ago and is investing
£500 million towards a Just Transition in
the North East and Moray, but the extra
boost from the UK Government would
have made a big difference in getting
Scotland and the rest of the UK to net zero.
I’m glad to say there are some great
clean green energy projects right here in
my constituency that give me hope for the
future though. I recently visited Nova
Innovation’s Leith factory where they
produce tidal energy turbines and are
creating excellent prospects for export.
These schemes will provide constant
reliable energy - and Nova has recently
developed a new turbine that slashes the
cost of tidal energy by a third - while
leaving no costly nuclear waste dumps for
us and future generations to deal with. It’s
heartening to see these kinds of projects
making big strides in Scotland, and we’ll
keep working towards our ambitious
climate change targets, despite the UK
Government’s lackadaisical approach.
Deidre Brock MP