UK Government must explain how it aims to cut energy bills, says minister
Such an initiative was expected to benefit Scots due to the high level of power generation in the country.
Instead, Mr Miliband promised a 'reformed system of national pricing', which he said was 'the best way to deliver an electricity system that is fairer, more affordable, and more secure, at less risk to vital investment in clean energy than other alternatives'.
Zonal pricing had been opposed by major energy firms – excluding Octopus Energy, whose boss was in favour of the move – which raised concerns about the impact on investment in renewable energy.
Responding to the announcement, Scotland's Energy Secretary, Gillian Martin, urged the UK Government to urgently lay out plans to cut bills, citing a Labour manifesto pledge from last year's general election.
'The UK Government promised to cut bills – instead, they have increased,' she said.
'They need to set out immediately how they will sort out the high energy bills faced by the people of Scotland – in an energy-rich country like Scotland, people should not be struggling to pay their bills.
'They promised that bills would fall by £300, but bills are higher than they were this time last year.
'The UK Government have set out what they will not do; they now need to set out what they will do to bring bills down.
'Given the significance of Scotland's renewables sector, the Scottish Government must be fully involved in decisions on reforming the national energy market in a way that brings down bills and delivers a level playing field for renewables in Scotland.'
But Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said the announcement was 'great news' for Scottish jobs.
'We have listened to Scottish industry and made a positive decision to reform our energy market, ensuring consumers feel the benefit of our clean energy mission,' he said.
'Bills are already falling in Scotland and we'll bring them down for good by getting off the rollercoaster of foreign gas, and winning the race to clean power.
'This decision will safeguard the investment required to win that race and secure thousands of good Scottish jobs for decades to come.
'This package of measures will create a predictable climate for Scottish industry and ensure the whole of Scotland benefits from our clean energy future.'
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Telegraph
41 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Labour's next hit to independent schools could be far more insidious
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The numbers are clearly unsustainable. But might Phillipson's conversion to sound public finances be motivated by another factor? EHCPs are an essential part of why the state pays, either in whole or in part, for some children to go to independent schools. Local authorities are obliged to provide schooling to children living within its boundaries. But what if it is unable to provide adequate education to a given child due to their specific needs? This may be due to the fact that the child would not be able to cope with larger class sizes, or it might be because their dyslexia is at such a level that the local school is not set up to deal with it. More often than not, the local authority will do all in its power to avoid paying up for the independent school which can provide an adequate education suitable for that child. In 2024, less than half of EHCPs were issued by local authorities within the 20-week time limit required by law, according to the Department for Education. Many parents have to appeal the initial decision to the national SEN tribunal to try and achieve a satisfactory outcome. But some parents do eventually succeed in getting their local authority to pay for private provision. This school year there were 7,200 children with an EHCP attending mainstream independent schools, with more than 20,000 at specialist independent schools. When the Government imposed VAT on school fees the only category that remained exempted were local authorities paying fees for children with an EHCP. If these plans no longer exist, how will it be decided whether a local authority is obliged to pay for private provision? And what mechanism of appeal will there be? Will local authorities continue to pay for the education of children with existing EHCPs? These are questions that may be worrying many parents this weekend. It is also of concern to the schools themselves. For the independent mainstream schools, local authority-funded places for children with an EHCP will only be a very modest proportion of their total intake. But for specialist schools it is a different story. At one school in London, which is a world leader for children with dyslexia, around 60pc of pupils have their school fees paid for by their local authority. Paying for independent schooling is undoubtedly a heavy burden, but it is not the fault of parents that a local authority is unable to provide an adequate education for their child within its own schools. A move from Phillipson could turn out to be akin to what Michael Gove did as education secretary, when he increased the required employer contributions for teachers' pensions. Historically, most independent schools have been part of the state's pay-as-you-go, unfunded Teachers' Pension Scheme. In 2012, the employer contribution to the pension scheme was 14.1pc; this year it has reached double that at 28.68pc. 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The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
You're evil if you're not a socialist after reading legendary trilogy
By the third volume it was being accused of Stalinism, though the author never became an official Communist 'as they won't let me in'. He never lived to see the full horrors of Stalinism nor the morphing of socialism into a movement obsessed with lavatories. In his day, wrongs to be righted were clearer, more elemental. The ruling peeps, the economic elite, were transparently bad. All the brainy bods were on the Left, marrying morality to intellect, seeking to tip the balance towards equality, to equilibrium, and not – as now – past it to perpetual disharmony. Today, with a ruling elite more left-wing than the workers, no one knows what socialism means beyond something to do with minority rights and yonder environment. Among the proletariat in the schemes it's about as popular as Viz magazine's Leo Tolstoy action figures. As economic theory, i.e. more then mere cultural complaint, it prevails only among boomers, like the present writer, too embarrassed to revisit the certainties of their youth and still insistent, when drunk, that it could work if it weren't for human nature, bad people, lazy people, greedy people. Ye ken: real life. But here we're talking fiction, as set out in three beautifully lyrical volumes. We're talking about a pivotal work of 20th century Scottish literature, one whose first volume has not unnaturally been dropped as a set text in the school curriculum. Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described it as 'one of the first books that had me utterly captivated by the lyricism of language and the power of place'. Its heroine, Chris Guthrie 'spoke to, and helped me make sense of, the girl I was'. That was back in the day when she knew what a girl was. On 13 February 1901, a boy was born into a farming family at Hillhead of Seggat, Auchterless, Aberdeenshire. From the age of seven, that boy, James Leslie Mitchell – Grassic Gibbon's real name – was raised in Arbuthnott, in the former county of Kincardineshire. Educated at the parish school and at Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, he departed the latter precipitately after arguing with a teacher. h Novel approach Outside school, he upset the Mearns folk with opinions deemed inappropriate to their way of life. He'd stick his head in a book than into the soil. In 1917, aged 16, he ran away to Aberdeen, became a cub reporter on a local paper, and tried to make the city a soviet in solidarity with the Russian Revolution. Moving to Glasgow, he got a job on Farmers Weekly, where presumably he kept his doubts about agricultural work hidden, while the city's slums and Red Clydeside movement only intensified his zeal. This got him sacked – for fiddling expenses to make donations to the British Socialist Party. Attempted suicide followed, so his family took him back in, hoping rural life might steady him. It did not. In 1919, more for food and lodgings than patriotic duty, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps, serving in Iran, India and Egypt before enlisting as a clerk in the Royal Air Force in 1923, leading to more time in the Middle East. In 1925, Mitchell returned to Arbuthnott to marry local girl Rebecca (Ray or Rhea) Middleton. The couple moved to cheap lodgings in London, where the going was tough until they moved to Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, several million miles from the Mearns. Here, James began writing full time, producing 4,000-odd words a day, including journalism and travel literature. His first book, Hanno: or the Future of Exploration, was published in 1928. Drawing heavily on diffusionism – aye – it investigated the origin of cultural traits, contending that the North-East was full of Picts. READ MORE Rab McNeil: Get your Boots on, we're going shopping for unicorn hair gel Rab McNeil: No wonder the whole Scottish nation loves Nicola (no, not that one) Scottish Icons: William McGonagall - The poet who right bad verses wrote still floats some folk's vessel or boat Scottish Icons: There is a lot of tripe talked about haggis – so here's the truth Going ape In 1932, he used the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon, from his maternal grandmother's name Lilias Grassick Gibbon, for the first time, when Sunset Song was published. It was the first, and best, in A Scots Quair, which made Gibbon's name. Written in earthy dialect, Sunset Song begins the story of Chris Guthrie, described by Paul Foot in never popular magazine Socialist Review as 'more remarkable than any female character in Jane Austen, George Eliot or even the Brontes'. Her common sense, good nature and level head steer her through life's enervating tragedies, with a narrative matching her progress to the Mearns farming year. The First World War ruins everything, a way of life, the actual lives of young men, even the soil-securing trees (cut down for the war effort). On top of that, the economy had already been moving from rural agriculture to urban manufacturing, from past to future. Not that the old way of life was perfect, in a community riddled with lust, feuds and gossip. Grassic Gibbon was, to put it mildly, ambivalent about agricultural and rural life. Chris shares that ambivalence, drawn towards education and away from the drudgery and narrow horizons of a farming community. She has first to escape the clutches of her father, an ill-tempered, bullying, pious, hypocritical fellow. Men, eh? She marries one, Ewan Tavendale, but the War sees him off too: shot as a deserter. Sunset Song has a political message, but one shot through with humour: ' … Ellison said he was a Bolshevik, one of those awful creatures, coarse tinks, that made such a spleiter in Russia. They'd shot their King-creature, the Tsar they called him, and they bedded all over the place, folk said, a man would go home and find his wife commandeered any bit night and Lenin and Trotsky lying with her.' Grey outlook A Scots Quair moves from village to town to city. Often seen as Sunset Song's poorer companions, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite contrast the Christian socialism of Robert Colquhoun (Chris's second husband) with the hardline Communism of her son. Chris, a grounded quine, focuses more on the eternal verities, where only the land endures, however much subject to change. 'Change … whose right hand was Death and whose left hand Life might be stayed by none of the dreams of men …' Life's trancience ever haunts her: "Their play was done and they were gone …' Life was cruelly transient for Lewis Grassic Gibbon. On 7 February 1935, he died in Welwyn Garden City after an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer. He was 33-years-old. His ashes were buried in the Mearns.
Scotsman
2 hours ago
- Scotsman
Why John Swinney needs to pander to Donald Trump just like Keir Starmer
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... How political leaders should deal with Donald Trump will be the subject of much head-scratching in the corridors of power worldwide. But it basically comes down to this: fake smiles and bonhomie, accompanied by bucket-loads of overly lavish praise. At least in public. Too much in private and he'll probably think you're weak. Better to operate on his level and try to cut some kind of deal. He might even see you as a kindred spirit. Perish the thought. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The US President's many character flaws are well known, and his refusal to accept the result of the 2020 US election, his incitement of the angry mob that attacked the US Capitol, and his refusal to rule out taking Greenland from Nato ally Denmark by force demonstrate an alarming attitude towards democracy. READ MORE: Why UK needs to pander to Trump but should not necessarily believe him There is much at stake for Scotland's businesses in his dealings with politicians like John Swinney (Picture: Joe Raedle) | Getty Images Trump's attitude changing over Ukraine? Furthermore, his imposition of swingeing new tariffs on most countries could also be viewed as economic warfare against the democratic world at a time when it is trying to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian despot Vladimir Putin's actual warfare. However Trump's attitude towards that conflict is hopefully changing to one more supportive of Kyiv, and the most important role of other Western leaders is to encourage him to do more to help defeat Putin and less to damage their economies. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad After Trump treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky disgracefully in the White House, John Swinney suggested his UK state visit should be cancelled. He may have had right on his side, but it was a diplomatic mistake. Keir Starmer is obviously no Trump fan but he has been doing everything he can to placate Trump for the simple reason that it is in the national interest. Swinney needs to swallow his pride and do much the same in the interests of Scottish businesses struggling to cope with Trump's tariffs. Given his mother was Scottish and he likes to call this country 'home', we might be able to get special treatment.
