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.