I have tried to read “A Short History of Time” several times but have never made it past the first couple of chapters.
Stephen Hawking is very clear about the science but I just can’t get used to the idea that time can change depending on where you are. It’s another unsettling moment when the clocks go back an hour this weekend. Is it summer time or winter time?
The leaves are still on the trees. It’s lighter in the mornings but sunset comes sooner than you think. In the north of Scotland it’s an hour sooner than in the south of England. And every year there’s a public debate over whether we should ever leave the security of Greenwich Mean Time.
Sunset from my window as winter arrives
It’s been a week in which time has seemed to stand still. The news is about things which happened some time ago. Do you remember when Scotland tried to take a lead over the disposal of plastic bottles? The Deposit Return Scheme was supposed to begin in August 2023 but it was scuttled by the Westminster government who wanted Scotland to wait until an all-UK scheme was ready.
PHOTO ©2024 The Edinburgh Reporter
This week one of the firms involved, Biffa Waste Services, is taking The Scottish Government to court, wanting £166 million in compensation. They had bought £50 million worth of vehicles and machines for recycling millions of plastic bottles and tin cans and they expected to make over £115 million in profit over the first 10 years of the scheme. The Scottish Government says it wasn’t to blame for the collapse and the company knew the risk they were taking. The story may have a happy ending when the UK recycling scheme comes into effect in 2027. But in the meantime Biffa’s machines are lying idle and millions of plastic bottles and tin cans are littering our streets and countryside.
The Scottish Government is in another argument with the UK government, this time over who should pay the £24 million security costs for President Trump and Vice President Vance’s visits to Scotland in July and August. Last time Trump came, in 2018, the UK paid the costs. This time, the UK Government says the trips were private and is refusing to even split the costs. While the four-day visits involved a lot of golf, there was also a lot of public business done, with Keir Starmer and John Swinney spending time with Trump discussing trade and international affairs. Whoever wins the argument, tax-payers will be paying the bill, which raises the question: did we really need 7,000 police officers to guard two men playing golf? I’d say it was an over-reaction and a misjudgement of the risks involved.
Black Lives Matter Usher Hall Sheku Bayoh posters
And here’s another waste of public money. The Bayoh Inquiry has taken three years and £50 million of public money and still there is no conclusion. In fact there is no one leading it, after the chairman, Judge Lord Bracadale, resigned this week. The case involved the death of a black man, Sheku Bayoh, in Kirkcaldy in 2015 while he was being arrested by the police on suspicion of carrying a knife.
You would suppose that a quick investigation by the independent Police Investigation Review Commissioner would establish if the six police officers involved acted properly and were not racially motivated. But this has not satisfied the Bayoh family who mounted a high profile campaign to have a full public inquiry. During the course of the inquiry, Lord Bracadale met the family privately to reassure them of the inquiry’s independence, but this has brought a challenge from the police in the form of a Judicial Review. This in turn has resulted in Lord Bracadale deciding he had lost the confidence of both sides.
The Justice Minister, Angela Constance, will now have to find a new chairman, not an easy task. But more widely she will have to make the inquiry system quicker, less expensive and more robust against judical reviews when one of the parties wants to halt the inquiry in its tracks.
Just to add to the gloom of winter, we had a shocking report this week from the Scottish Health Survey of 5,000 adults and 2,000 children. It found that half of those questioned reported having a long-term health condition. Some 31 per cent suffered from obesity, 26 suffered from mental health problems, 18 per cent of adults had asthma, 8 per cent had diabetes and 7 per cent were still suffering from long-covid. Not much wonder the NHS is struggling.
But I wonder how much of the above is due to poverty and how much to our unhealthy lifestyle, both of which we can do something about.
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