1/ “We have 110% of our energy needs already met by renewables.” “Scotland has the highest sources of renewable energies in Europe.” No surprise to discover that two newly elected Scottish Green MSPs fully believe in debunked myths about energy in Scotland.

John Swinney’s pledge on energy bills at this election is simply fraudulent. He knows that it won’t be properly scrutinised. And he doesn’t care that it’s undeliverable. But voters should care about a candidate for First Minister who doesn’t tell the truth.

1/ This line, that because a Chinese company has a minority stake in Hinkley Point C, the UK Labour government must be “anti-Scottish” to have blocked the Ming Yang wind turbine factory, on national security grounds, is very easily debunked.

Scotland’s energy wealth is being “siphoned off” by Westminster, says John Swinney. Populist bullshit of the highest order. #bbcdn

How to demonstrate that the SNP is not telling the truth about energy bills and Scotland’s “low-cost” renewables. A step-by-step guide.

This is really important. The SNP, and many supporters of independence, keep making the argument that Scotland's renewables would bring down the price of electricity in an independent Scotland, and imply that the current system is unfair to Scots. This analysis blows that argument out of the water.

How to interrogate SNP energy bills claim

How to demonstrate that the SNP is not telling the truth about energy bills and Scotland’s “low-cost” renewables. A step-by-step guide.

these-islands.co.uk

The SNP is making an eye-catching claim at this election: “Independence would cut energy bills in Scotland by more than a third.” These Islands has published a short, step-by-step guide, demonstrating how this claim simply cannot be true.

1/ Pressed for details on his energy rhetoric by @kieranandrews.bsky.social, John Swinney has nothing but glib soundbites. Does he know how to calculate the impact of the gas price on the price of electricity? It’s not difficult…

Gillian Martin said she’d get back to me on how the “third off electricity bills with independence” claim is consistent with the actual costs of Scottish offshore wind (see quoted post). When I chased this up, her officials fobbed me off. The answer is *not* in the SNP paper.

Sam Taylor@staylorish.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Listen to Gillian Martin’s response when asked to explain how the SNP’s “third off electricity bills with independence” claim is consistent with the actual costs of Scottish offshore wind. “That’s a dissertation question. I’ll need to get back to you on that.”

John Swinney blames “hyperinflation” for the SNP’s failure to keep its 2021 promise to freeze income tax rates and bands. John Swinney obviously doesn’t know what hyperinflation means.

Warren Mosler (who was in Edinburgh to talk MMT) says that Liz Truss could have got away with the mini-budget if only she had monetised the national debt.

1/ Pro-independence organisation submits an FOI request to Scot Gov about bonds plan. Civil servants offer to meet with them because the cost limit exemption is likely to apply. So… I asked for a meeting about the same subject, with the same civil servants… and was rebuffed. 🤔

Shona Robison explains why John Swinney’s big policy announcement today is a bad idea and an inappropriate way to spend public money.

1/ Inconvenient. The SNP piloted a very similar policy in 2019-2021 (the First Home Fund). The evaluation report concluded that it didn’t work: “marginal first-time buyers struggling to access home ownership do not form the majority of FHF buyers.”

John Swinney@johnswinney.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Too many young people are stuck in the rent trap and can't afford a home of their own. If re-elected, the SNP Government will help first-time buyers with up to £10,000 towards their deposit - unlocking home ownership for a new generation in Scotland.

Scot Gov yesterday snuck out a “written authority” for the purchase of Ardrossan Harbour. This is an exchange of letters in which a senior civil servant states that an action cannot be justified on value for money grounds, and a Scot Gov minister directs them to proceed anyway.

Bracingly accurate stuff, understood by hardly anyone in Scottish politics. (And by absolutely nobody in the SNP or Scottish Greens).

Typically wrongheaded analysis from Common Weal. It is because renewable resources are unlimited, and everyone has them, that they are *less* valuable to Scotland’s economy than oil and gas were.

The debunking:

The McCrone Mythology

A 1974 memo written by Scottish Office economist Gavin McCrone has acquired a mythical status for Scottish nationalists. But how much of the mythology is true?

these-islands.co.uk

Brilliant news. I was worried that @scotnational.bsky.social might abandon its annual McCrone Day/Week jamboree after the mythology was well and truly debunked. But I shouldn’t have doubted them. Facts be damned, they will plough on regardless.

Laura Webster@lauraewebster.bsky.social · 8mo ago

🚨Our Energy Series returns by popular demand next week. We investigate Scotland's cost-of-energy crisis - from the McCrone Report decades ago, to the firms making 💰💰💰 while rural Scots go cold, to Reform's threat to our clean energy future. www.thenational.scot/politics/233...

Challenged with real-world evidence of the true cost of Scottish renewables, Gillian Martin responds by witlessly reciting the “low-cost renewables” mantra. There is no evidence to support this claim, because it simply isn’t true.

Rare moment of genuine drama at FMQs as Anas Sarwar produces evidence which undermines John Swinney’s evasions on the QEUH scandal.

1/🚨The Scottish Government *paid* for the credit ratings obtained last year from Moody’s and S&P. But we are not allowed to know how much it paid, because “disclosure may affect the commercial interests of Moody's and S&P”.

🚨 This is scandalous. £7 million of public money to pay bankers and lawyers for a bond sale which is simply a nationalist publicity stunt. The Scottish Government could borrow at a lower interest rate from the UK Government, and avoid these fees altogether. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This. And it would do the pro-Indy lobby good if they were to make the effort to understand these issues properly and to stop misleading the public on the issue. ("Ewwww, Taylor, he's a yoooooon" is not a good reason for not trying to understand renewables.)

Sam Taylor@staylorish.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Glib assertions about Scotland having won the energy lottery twice over - first with oil and now with renewables - are not just false. They are actively harmful.

This is the sort of thing that can happen when any party spends too long in power: the boundary between party and government (never 100% sharp, I suspect) becomes far too blurred.

Sam Taylor@staylorish.bsky.social · 9mo ago

1/ Short 🧵 on how the civil service in Scotland has been corrupted by Scottish nationalism. Last August, Scot Gov published a news release alongside the GERS figures which was so misleading, the Director of @fraserofallander.org called it “egregious” and “out of order”.

Glib assertions about Scotland having won the energy lottery twice over - first with oil and now with renewables - are not just false. They are actively harmful.

1/ Short 🧵 on how the civil service in Scotland has been corrupted by Scottish nationalism. Last August, Scot Gov published a news release alongside the GERS figures which was so misleading, the Director of @fraserofallander.org called it “egregious” and “out of order”.

The SNP will activate the usual grievances here, but they need to explain this: someone has to pay for the additional grid necessary to make wind farms in Scotland viable. If the SNP want generators to pay less, who do they want to pay more?

Plans for huge wind farm paused over 'unfair' grid charges - BBC News

A developer warns that a development will not be built unless "unfair" transmission charges are overhauled.

bbc.com

The civil servants in the Constitutional Futures Division spent three years working on independence papers, and never made any attempt to estimate the impact of independence on energy bills in Scotland. The reason is obvious: they knew the answer would be inconvenient.

2/ For about the millionth time: renewables are a low return on capital business. The energy transition, and Scotland’s opportunity on that journey, cannot be understood without fully grasping the significance of this point.

Infinite and Everywhere

The journey to net zero means leaving behind the fossil fuel era, and moving towards a world which will power itself by capturing energy from super-abundant resources. This has profoundly important co...

these-islands.co.uk