Scotland's rubbish is England's only reward

Telegraph

17-06-2025

What does the rest of the UK get in return for the 'Union dividend' – currently totalling £52 billion – the sum that Scotland receives from the UK taxpayers to help persuade it to remain part of Britain?
Around 100 truckloads of rubbish to be dumped at various landfill sites throughout the North of England seems a likely answer.
Despite the extra cash received by the SNP government being arguably a fair old 'bung' – the product of the four decades-old Barnett formula – the payback is shaping up to be many thousands of black bags, including commercial waste, to be sent to the likes of Cumbria and Northumberland because of SNP incompetence or arrogance.
They're to be heading south because the Scottish Government does not want its green and pleasant acres spoiled by any more rubbish being buried at landfill sites north of the border after December 31.
We are not talking here about just the odd black bag. One waste expert told BBC Scotland that it would require between 80 and 100 trucks running seven days per week to move up to 600,000 tons to English landfills.
The only real alternative to landfill is incineration, but SNP ministers have halted the building of any more incinerators because they can't afford them, even if they're receiving what's been described as a record £52 billion 'war chest' for use in the Scottish Parliament election campaign next May. I suspect the public will find that a hard one to swallow.
Energy minister Gillian Martin blamed inflation and higher material costs for the hold-up in building new incinerators, but she also cited 'outside factors' for the delay – usual SNP code to signal that the government in London is to blame.
And Ms Martin didn't apologise for the fact that the lack of incinerators might last another three years, saying that getting rid of landfill sites in Scotland 'far outweighs' any downsides that might arise from sending the rubbish over the border.
But as any fair-minded person might ask: who will pick up the bills? In financial terms it is Scottish business leaders who will have to pay for the trucking of their commercial waste to landfill sites in England. And in environmental terms, I can't imagine that the northern English will be overjoyed at receiving all of this Scottish muck.
The whole project is an example of nationalist insensitivity at best or arrogance at worst. Many Scots are too ready to see insults – real or imagined – in the words and actions of the English yet refuse to take care when it comes to their southern neighbours' feelings.
Speaking as a Scot I was pleased to see criticism of this stupid affair emanating from most parts of the political spectrum. The Lib Dems' Liam McArthur, who is the party's climate spokesman, accused the SNP of planning to make England 'their dumping ground for waste'.
The Tories' Douglas Lumsden said there should be 'red faces all round among SNP ministers at this news'.
I doubt if he'll get his wish, because of that other piece of embarrassing news – regarding the Scottish headteacher who banned pupils from bringing Union flags to school as they were deemed to be potentially offensive or sectarian.
The flags had been brought to school for a special end of term event and the head's action in effectively banning the United Kingdom's flag provoked a storm of criticism, after she had told pupils that their action had been 'contrary to the school's values of respect and kindness.'
The local council, East Renfrewshire, has issued an apology, but that hasn't prevented Jackson Carlaw, a local MSP and former Scottish Tory leader, from saying that to equate the Union flag with sectarianism was 'totally unacceptable and deeply offensive'.
There has been no response from the SNP on this issue but then anyone who knows anything about the party will know that a large proportion of its members and supporters hate the Union flag; indeed many call it 'the butcher's apron'.
Following his humiliating loss to Labour in the recent by-election, First Minister John Swinney has sought to keep his troops happy with yet another speech promising that he'd fight for independence.
However when it comes to flags, as well as black bags, it seems his party is determined to get nothing right.