Time to Storm Proof Our Future

Anyone who endured bad weather through the last few days knows community is everything. It’s bad enough being cold and wild outside but having no access to food and heat indoors is another matter.  It always amazes me, but shouldn’t, the kindness of so many who battle through wind, rain and snow to attend the needs of others. 

Scotland has its own weather system which changes by the hour.  For much of the Winter we are in dark skies.  The increase in energy costs has a greater effect on us yet we produce so much green energy.  We appear to be at the mercy of companies who have failed all our utilities infrastructures which impinges on us.  With so many without electricity in many parts of Scotland this week, it is the engineers who have had to battle replacing the sticking plasters, and the bosses sticking to the same old platitudes.  So why are we sitting at the mercy of these same faceless energy giants?  Where is the promised  investment in our basics like electricity?

Even in green energy we are being organised by companies sitting abroad.  It’s time for change.  Much as we need inward investment and new energy innovation we are not cash cows, as many feel now. We are a resourceful nation and we are more than able to provide shelter, food and safety for every resident in the country.  But the tentacles of Westminster are playing a cruel game as those who struggle to keep warm are generally those who have least capacity to pay.

We are not alone, those in Northumberland are suffering the same with the most common word used being “abandoned.”  We have our own Government, it’s time to say Scotland, and especially its resources, is not for sale.