Scottish strawberries are tasting better than ever this year, according to fruit farmers in Angus and the North East. After 100 days of sunshine and a dry and mild March and April, berries of all sorts are bigger and tastier and earlier than usual.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Scotland if there wasn’t a downside to good news. So we have the whisky distilleries, like Glenfarclas on Speyside, worrying about their water supplies. The water authorities say reservoirs are 10 per cent lower than usual after the driest start to the year since 1964. People are being asked to the careful with their use of water, though there is no hose-pipe ban as yet. And then there is the danger of forest fires. Earlier in the week, there was a serious fire in Culbin Forest on the Moray coast.
It’s strange then that the issue setting the heather on fire this week is the UK Government’s “winter fuel payment”. At first the payment of £300 was going to be limited to the very poorest pensioners (around 3 million) – a big departure from the universal benefit going to all 13 million people receiving the state pension. But after a lot of grumbling inside the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer was forced to announce on Monday that more pensioners were going to be eligible for the payment, though details would only be announced in the Budget in the autumn.
In Scotland, The Scottish Government was so outraged by the scrapping of the universal benefit that it announced its own winter fuel payment of between £100 and £300 to all of our one million pensioners, due to be paid on St Andrew’s Day at the end of November. It seems that the targeting of benefits is not politically popular. Strangely, voters and opposition politicians don’t connect government expenditure with the taxation needed to fund it.
We had another example of this phenomenon with the publication on Wednesday of the Accounts Commission report on local government finance. It found a black hole of £650m in council budgets caused by a lack of funding from central government, combined with higher wage settlements and higher national insurance contributions. And this is despite councils putting up their local tax by 8 to 10 per cent. The Commission points out that people are going to get tired of paying more for poorer services. Which implies that either fewer services should be provided or the tax system should be made fairer. Again this sort of talk is not politically popular.
On Monday Sir Keir Starmer surprised everyone by announcing he’d negotiated a new deal with the European Union. The deal includes easier regulations for food and drink exports to Europe, freer movement for young people for work and study, simpler travel arrangements for tourists, and a new security pact.
But Scottish fishermen were quick to notice that part of the price for reaching these agreements is that EU fishing fleets will be allowed into British waters, as they are at present, for the next 12 years. There were cries of “betrayal”, “surrender”, and “horror show” from Scottish ministers and fishing associations. But British ministers shrugged their shoulders and said deals have to be made and they threw £260m in compensation to the fishing communities.
There was more rough justice handed out to residents around Loch Lomond this week. A plan to build a £43m tourist destination at Balloch has been approved by the Scottish government, despite widespread opposition from local people and the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority. Ministers say the plan for 100 lodges, two new hotels and a water park will provide jobs and a major boost to the local economy. The developer with the unlikely name of “Flamingo Land” will have to satisfy 49 planning conditions before construction can go ahead.
Finally, the world’s last remaining ocean-going paddle steamer, the Waverly, is celebrating 50 years since it was saved from the scrap-yard and restored to continue that great Clydeside tradition of a trip “doon the watter”. It’s now enjoying record bookings as it sets out on its summer series of cruises. I wonder how many days will be dry and sunny and will they serve strawberries on deck?
