Off Topic The Politics Thread

The absolute gall of this ****.

 

Rejoin.

 

The pensions of the rich in Brussels depend on it…..hoorah !!!

 

Get ‘em while they’re young..........Indoctrination at its finest

 

The propaganda should be enough to justify some good fun rioting and looting in St Orleans and Minneapolis, with a few murders thrown in. Descendants of, at the least, Irish and Italian workers might feel miffed too. You have to wonder what Disney's agenda is in teaching hate and attempting to create this kind of discord

 

Its part of the NWO…..make us all hate each other and keep the people fragmented.
Classic divide and conquer

 

The bare-faced cheek of these useless c*nts after celebrating their 3rd bankruptcy we get the bill...

 

Todays papers up here...

 

Sturgeon 'can't recall' when she knew husband loaned SNP £107,000
5 hrs ago

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By Tom Gordon@htscotpolPolitical Editor
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Sturgeon 'can't recall' when her husband loaned SNP £107,000 (Image: PA)



NICOLA Sturgeon has said she “can’t recall” when she first learned her husband had loaned the SNP a six-figure sum to help bail out its finances.

The First Minister repeatedly failed to say what she knew and when after being pressed on the matter at a Scottish Government press conference.

Opposition parties have called the loan “murky” and “beyond odd” in the past.

Ms Sturgeon today released her tax returned from 2015/16 to 2021/22 and urged other Holyrood leaders to do likewise in aid of “transparency”.



However she was less forthcoming when asked about the unusual loan.

A row over the loan blew up in December after it emerged Ms Sturgeon’s husband, the SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, had loaned the SNP £107,620 in June 2021.

The money was given to “assist with cashflow” after the Holyrood election campaign.

But despite being the SNP’s chief official for 20 years, Mr Murrell failed to declare it on time to the Electoral Commission.

All loans to political parties of more than £7,500 must be declared within 30 days of the quarter in which they are made, meaning by the end of July 2021 in this case.

The SNP did not report it for more than a year, in August 2022.

The party also cloaked Mr Murrell’s identity in its annual accounts for 2021, saying the interest-free loan had come from unnamed “executive management”.

It was attributed to Mr Murrell on an Electoral Commission database, but this was not widely reported until the pro-independence Wings Over Scotland website highlighed it in December.

Asked today when she first knew her husband had loaned the party she leads £107,000, Ms Sturgeon tried to dodge the question.

READ MORE: Sturgeon flees questions over husband's 'murky' £100,000 SNP loan

She said: “My husband is an individual and he will take decisions about what he does with resources that belong to him in line with that.”

Pressed on when she knew Mr Murrell had given the money to the party, she said: “I can’t recall exactly when I first knew that.

“But what he does with his resources is a matter [for him].”

Asked if the money was wholly her husband’s, or whether any of it belonged to her, she said: “The resources that he lent to the party were resources that belonged to him.”

Asked if the money belonged wholly to her husband and none to her, she said: “They were his resources. His resources.”

According to Electoral Commission records, Mr Murrell was repaid £47,620 of the loan in autumn 2021, but £60,000 of the original sum remains outstanding.

Ms Sturgeon was also extremely tight-lipped about the money in December, saying merely that her husband had “made a personal contribution as a supporter of the party”.

She repeatedly refused to say at the time if any of the money had come from her.

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said today: “I think most normal people would recall the circumstances very clearly, if their spouse happened to mention that they’d lent their employer a six-figure sum.

“It’s a very odd and murky-looking scenario, which probably explains why Nicola Sturgeon looked so uncomfortable when questioned about it.”

 

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Latimer Alder

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Dozens of giant turbines at Scots windfarms powered by diesel generators
Scottish Power admitted 71 of its windmills were hooked up to the fossil fuel supply after a fault developed with their power supply.

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NEWS
By
John Ferguson

• 04:30, 5 FEB 2023
• UPDATED08:18, 5 FEB 2023

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The Glen App windfarm in South Ayrshire (Image: Jamie Williamson)


Dozens of giant turbines on Scotland’s windfarms have been powered by diesel generators, the Sunday Mail can reveal. Scottish Power admitted 71 of its windmills were hooked up to the fossil fuel supply after a fault developed on the grid.

The firm said it was forced to act in order to keep the turbines warm during very cold weather in December. But a whistleblower has told the Sunday Mail the incident is among a number of environmental and health and safety failings.

The worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “The Scottish Government wants to make our country attractive to foreign investors as 40 per cent of the wind that blows across Europe blows across Scotland. However, that should not mean we put up with our waterways and nature being polluted with carbon from diesel generators and hydraulic oil.

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“People should be aware that, while their energy costs continue to rise, our windfarms are not operating as efficiently as they could be due to corporate greed.”

Labour’s South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said: “The SNP and Greens have proven time and time again they cannot be trusted on environmental issues. They laud Scotland’s potential for renewables, yet don’t appear to ensure those already in existence are properly run. This isn’t the first problem raised about this site and there is concern at a lack of openness when problems arise.

"Whatever the reasons, having to use diesel generators to de-ice faulty turbines is environmental madness. This level of dishonesty cuts to the very core of the SNP and Green Government where their rhetoric on net zero is very different from the reality."

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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with Ignacio Galan, CEO of Scottish Power

Sixty turbines at Arecleoch Wind farm and 11 at Glenn App near Cairnrayn in South Ayrshire were affacted and connected to six huge diesel generators. The windfarms are operated by Scottish Power Renewables, a subsidiary of Spanish-based Iberdrola, which operates 1183 onshore turbines which can produce enough electricity to power two million homes.

But the whistleblower revealed how they had to bring in generators after the issue was discovered.



The worker said: “During December 60 turbines at Arecleoch and 11 at Glenn App were de-energised due to a cabling fault originating at Mark Hill wind farm. In order to get these turbines re-energised diesel generators were running for upwards of six hours a day.”
He also claimed there had been other technical issues and environmental problems discovered. They include:

• Turbines left operating on half power for long periods due to faulty convertor modules.
• Others in “test mode” where they take rather than contribute electricity to the grid.
• Over 4000 litres of oil leaked from hydraulic units on turbines and sprayed over the countryside.
• Concerns about safety standards and transparency.

The whistleblower said: “Turbines are regularly offline due to faults where they are taking energy from the grid rather than producing it, and also left operating on half power for long periods due to parts which haven’t been replaced.

"Dirty hydraulic oil is also regularly being sprayed out across the Scottish countryside due to cracks in mechanisms. Safety standards have not improved since a worker was killed in 2017 at Kilgallioch wind farm.”

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Labour South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth called the diesel move "madness"

We revealed last year how the chairman of ScottishPower, Spaniard Ignacio Galan, earned over £11million in 2021. He took home the massive package as millions of customers face being plunged into poverty by rocketing fuel costs.

A spokesman for Scottish Power confirmed diesel generators were used for a “short period of time” due to an “external fault on the GB network” which left three windfarms unable to operate during extreme cold weather in December. The spokesman insisted that diesel was not being used to generate electricity through the blades.

He added: “For context, Scottish Power measures the availability of its 1183 onshore turbines and looks at the percentage of time each turbine is ready and available to produce green energy, in 2022 this reliability figure was 96 per cent.”

He insisted that convertor modules had been replaced on turbines at Arecleoch and Mark Hill following technical issues.

The spokesman added: “All turbines across the entire energy industry use a small amount of electricity for their systems. Every wind turbine includes safety and monitoring systems that automatically detect any faults, including hydraulic systems.

“Any issues are minimised and dealt with promptly by our maintenance teams to the highest standards of environmental protocols. The health, safety and welfare of employees, contractors and members of the public, and the protection of business assets and operational capability, are our top priorities.

“As one of the greenest electricity producers in the UK we only generate 100per cent renewable electricity, operating thousands of turbines and producing enough clean energy to power two million homes every year. Regular and ongoing inspection and maintenance of our power assets takes place every day across our fleet in line with industry standards, and we comply with all regulatory requirements if our wind farms are not available to produce electricity for the GB grid.”

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60 turbines failed at Arecleoch and needed diesel assistance

In relation to the collapse of a turbine at Kilgallioch windfarm, he added: “All relevant bodies were informed of the incident within the required timeframes.”

The £2million structure collapsed in 2017 during a storm. And it later emerged that Scottish Power had failed to alert the public to the incident for seven days.

Scottish Power was accused of “unfettered profiteering” after the energy giant raked in £924.6 million in profits during the first six months of 2022. The profits were announced as the cost of electricity and gas has soared plunging thousands of Scots into fuel poverty.

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At the time Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “How’s that for trickle-down economics? Billion of pounds are being handed over from Scottish Power to Iberdrola in Spain.

"Trickle down from Scotland to Spanish shareholders. Proof that government trickle down policies are doomed to fail.”

Galan, the CEO of ScottishPower’s parent company Iberdrola, once appeared before Spain’s High Court in relation to allegations that he spied on the chairman of Real Madrid. He gave testimony behind closed doors over whether Iberdrola hired police chief turned private detective Jose Manuel Villarejo.

 

What a cess-pit for scuzzbuckets this country has become.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64536926

 

It's always been like that, hasn't it? There were certainly a lot of suspect dealings in Blair's time.

But I agree, legislation intended to shine a light on shady ownership seems a abject failure.

 

Do you literally mean always, since Blair or the last 40 years?

Did Russians own all this property in Britain in the 60's?

 

There have been tax havens for most of the C20th if not longer. And companies from tax havens have owned properties in the UK. There were issues under Blair with Geoffrey Robinson, Hinduja, Ecclestone.

Foreign ownership in the UK has gone up since Blair, but most of that is down to increasing globalisation. Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, all experiencing continued economic growth, are all major sources of foreign property investments in the UK.

However, what does appear to be missing now is complete transparency, and in that, as I say, legislation seems to be toothless.

 

This is spot-on. Khan, like Sturgeon is a petty tinpot dictator...

 

Do the good guys in war use chemical weapons on the enemy ?
Asking for a friend