Don’t Mix Me Up

As a politician I get asked lots of questions.

This week it was a phone call from Fishing News asking me about something I had said – only it turns I hadn’t. So who said what when and why am I fizzing?

It is my misfortune that there is another politician with a very similar name, but very different politics. He chairs the European Parliament’s Fishing Committee. And he’s a Tory.

MEP Struan Stevenson – see where the confusion about names comes in? – said at a Tory rally that fishing skippers are cheats. He complained that they are taking their payout for decommissioning their fishing vessel and then buying another.

But this Tory insults our fishermen and doesn’t understand what’s happening.

The scheme to take fishing vessels out of our industry is also taking fishing licences out of the fleet. So even if a new vessel is bought or built it can’t really create more catching capacity.

So I think it would be right for this Tory to apologise to our fishermen. And maybe a change of his name would be useful too. I would certainly welcome it.

Stormy Weather

The Aggregates tax is not the most fascinating subject for most people. But that doesn’t mean that it is unimportant.

There is one wee wrinkle that everyone should take note of. This tax on rock products from our quarries is a pro-environment tax - maybe. And we all know that Scotland has not been doing too well on other environmentally friendly subjects. On re-cycling we are bottom of the class for example.

So where is the worry? It is dust.

You can guess that there is a bit of dust around if you are breaking rocks. But you may not have realised that it actually has a commercial value. Not much, but some.

Today it is possible to sell rock dust at about £1 per ton. It goes into pre-cast concrete and other such products.

The new aggregates tax to be £1.60 per ton. Therefore dust will become more than twice as expensive than now. Quarry owners are pretty certain that the market for dust at £2.60 per ton is non-existent.

So what? Well if the dust cannot be sold what will happen to it? It will lie about in ‘spoil heaps’ at quarries, an unloved waste product that no-one wants.

And dust does not lie around for long when there is a strong nor’east wind. It gets lifted up and blown away.

So this fine so-called pro-environment tax will actually harm our countryside as the dust gathers on fields, roads and houses.

Not only is this tax increasing costs and making it difficult to build the planned new breakwater that Peterhead Harbour needs to make it an all-weather port but it will actually harm the environment.

And with Labour’s First Minister’s new ‘do less, do better’ strategy it means that they will not look at the effects on Scotland of something that is a tax from Westminster. So we know who won’t stand up for Scotland.

Local Trade

I have written before in my column about how good our local products are. I enjoy beef from my local butcher. Dry cure bacon is a new favourite. And fish an absolute must.

But I am just back from a Fairtrade breakfast.

We get many invitations in the Parliament and I have to say that an appointment for 8am does not get every Parliamentarian reaching for his or her diary.

On this occasion it was different. There were four SNP members, one Green and one Labour MSP present to hear about how Fairtrade is helping one Costa Rican coffee farmer and his family.

We do not produce many coffee beans in the North East of Scotland. And I have noticed that local bananas are in short supply.

So we have to import. As George Bush famously commented about a year ago, most imports come from abroad. Well I think we can agree with that one Dubya!

Guillermo Vargas Leiton was the star of our breakfast. He told me that his family’s 5 hectare farm in Costa Rica produce enough coffee beans to make about 180,000 cups of coffee.

But the really interesting thing is that by using the Fairtrade way of selling Guillermo gets 126 cents a Kilo compared to about 50 cents if he sells to the big multi-nationals.

So what is the Fairtrade scheme? Basically it is a world-wide co-operative that connects the original farmers more directly to the market. And the products stand comparison with any. My breakfast was proof of that!

So when we buy Fairtrade products in our supermarkets or corner shop we help local farmers in their own country. We are actually buying local just as we do when we buy Buchan beef.

Goldeneye

I recently visited Shell at the St Fergus Gas Terminal for an update regarding the Goldeneye project, which will see the creation of jobs in Banff and Buchan in the early part of 2003. The new build at the Shell plant will need a wide range of staff.

Yes, sometimes people forget that St Fergus is not just about offshore work. There is a lot of work which is carried out onshore. There will be local roadshows and I welcome their commitment to employ local labour wherever possible. Although the majority of jobs won’t start until 2003, tendering has already began for the major contracts.

Meantime details on the project are on the web at www.goldeneye-venture.com.

As well as a discussion about Goldeneye, which incidentally is so called named after a beautiful duck, I was given the chance of a visit around the plant. Unfortunately it was on a very wet and dreary day!

The control room was a place to linger – indoors and looking a bit like the bridge from Star Trek. I dared not touch any anything for fear of a plant shut down. And run by just five members of staff.

I couldn’t help but notice the size of the plant and equipment on site. So does it get there? The answer gave a new twist on the general discontent about our roads. Shell use the Peterhead to Fraserburgh and Aberdeen to Peterhead roads to transport the necessary equipment.

And some of it can be very large. I was told of a load being 200 tonnes. Just try and imagine that size of load on a lorry going over the Inverugie bridge! Also, just like you and me, Shell do not want their lorries congesting the roads.

Yet another reminder that good roads matter in our area – and we don’t have them.

Rod Fishing

A consultation has just been announced into a possible ban on the sale of rod caught trout and salmon. Now let me say at once that I used to spend a lot of time with my father catching brown trout using a worm and hook. And very successful we were.

But is this the thin end of the wedge? Some people have been heard to suggest that rod and line fishing should be banned. I don’t agree. It is one of our most popular pastimes.

Now the argument appears to be based around the declining number of sporting fish – salmon and sea trout to you and me – that are being caught year on year. And owners of fishing rights are generally only allowing catch and return. Only occasionally are fish actually taken out.

On the other hand there are quite a few fish farms which offer anglers the opportunity to catch and take fish by rod. Is that to be banned too?

So you heard it here first. The Scottish government say they want your views on this. If you have any, give them to them now before it is too late.