Scott's Site

Scott’s Blog UPDATE…June 2020

It’s over 2 years since I last wrote something on my Blog. I was an outpatient in the Edinburgh Western General Hospital during 2019. I was interviewed by a number of neurological specialist, pressed and prodded, scanned in a range of ultra-modern scary looking equipment and finally explained what my problem was:

Thanks to Mr Andreas K Demetriades, my neurosurgeon and his expert team of specialists, I was finally diagnosed with “normal wear and tear” afer a long and active sporting lifestyle. This was the layman’s simple diagnosis for complicated neck, back, lumbar and pelvis. The more accurate term for my back problem is “Diffuse idiopathic skeletel hyperostosis – (DISH). More about this later.

Writing for me is not only therapeutic but HELPS to keep the “head office” wheels oiled and functioning. Aso as my general mobility becomes more problematic, my old Apple Mac will become my best friend. Here’s a few new pages for this Blog:

TITLE: One Man’s Walk to Freedom, General introduction from Finland to Scotland. (Serengeti Mapping Project, Middle East Harbours & Docks, the USSR, Finland and Scotland).

POLITICS: National Coal Board, Loch Awe Power Station, BICC 400KV Power Lines.

VIEWPOINT HOUSING: Sheltered Housing, VTRG, SNP Edinburgh City Branch.

SCOTLAND’S FUTURE: Independence Referendum 2014, Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon.

CORONAVIRUS: Origin, Scottish Infection, Lockdown, Infections and Deaths.

Scottish Business Journalist of the year; Michael Glackin’s
revealing feature in the Sunday Times BUSINESS, on March 25 2018 reported:

“Last year’s newly elected Scottish Tory MPs with seats in fishing communities angrily accuse the government of “economic madness” and are threatening to vote against the BREXIT deal, following Theresa May’s decision to impose another two years of European Union fishing quotas on Scotland’s fishermen. The most recent figures reveal the quantity of fish landed by Scottish registered vessels has a value of about £560m. The number of fishermen employed on Scottish vessels is fewer than 5,000. About 8,000 people are employed on land, processing the catch. Combined that accounts for just 0.5% of our workforce. Retail accounts for 9%, manufacturing 7%, construction 6% and financial services 5%. Bertie Armstrong, the exceptionally canny boss of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation stated: “Exiting the CFP common fisheries policy will double the current value of the sector in Scotland to £1bn and increase the number of jobs”.

A recent report, published by the New Economics Foundation (NEF)last year, revealed that about half the fish consumed in Europe has to be sourced outside the EU. The Portuguese eat the most fish, averaging 53.8kg per person over a year. In the UK we tuck into just 20.8kg per person. We’re 16th in the table of consumers, eating less than the UK average of 22.5kg. Fishermen were shortchanged when the UK entered the Common Market in 1973; it’s extremely doubtful our exit will improve things. And there are few economic reasons why it should!!!”.

Nevertheless there are may communities around the Scottish coast that depend on fishing for their livelihoods. During the past year politicians made many promises regarding the Scottish fishing industry in the EU. To renege or ignore these could be very serious for the newly elected Scottish MPs at the next Westminster General Election…….

There has been an unexpected and surprise flurry of Conservative Party political activity today, Thursday 29 March 2018, by Theresa May, the UK’s Prime Minister. In a single day, she has visited England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The brief televised reports and photoshoots of her whirlwind “around Britain” day trip captured brief interludes with children, businesses, hospitals and other Brexit supporters.-

The Times & Sunday Times reported today Friday 30 March on PM May’s around the UK jaunt as follows:
– Sturgeon angles for wiggle room over EU conundrum
– NHS will gain cash in Brexit, vows May
– Consumer spending slows as wages struggle to keep up with inflation
– May refuses to put Irish border visit in her diary
– We’ll control our waters after Brexit, May assures fishermen
– Theresa May refuses to say that Brexit will be worth it
– Thornberry’s blah blah blah Brexit comment “encourages” Conservatives

My decision, on 30 June 2017 to terminate all my voluntary, charitable activities was a wise one. After spending an enjoyable, successful and rewarding  40 years in Finland and the past 12 years at home in Edinburgh, Scotland, I was beginning to feel my age (76). There is an old Finnish saying, which came to mind, “when you’re over the top Life speeds up”.

As well as having a son and daughter in Finland with 5 remarkable grandchildren, I also have a son and additional 3 very special and gifted grandchildren here in Edinburgh. It was time to concentrate on my next of kin and leave Scots to take care of themselves.

I had no sooner decided to retire from all voluntary work, when my Edinburgh GP, who has taken care of me during the past 20 years arranged for a series of tests at the Western General Hospital. As a lifelong active sportsman (boxing, swimming, rugby, hockey, mountaineering and cross-country skiing), I fear that my spine may have been seriously damaged during these contact sports. To cut a long story short, during the past 6 months I have had 2 x MRI scans of my lower back and cervical discs as well as 2 x hip joint X-rays. I’m expecting results of these tests at the beginning of March 2018…..

FINLAND’S SHIP BUILDER

I returned home to Scotland, on 6th December 2005, after spending a successful and enjoyable 40 years studying, working and living  in Finland. I should mention here that during that time, I travelled all over the Nordic region, holidayed in Lapland and northern Norway. My business projects took me to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.When I returned home, the mobile phone industry had taken off. One of the most popular mobile phone brands then was NOKIA. When I asked users where their mobile was from, they almost always replied Japan!!! This has been a Finnish characteristic for a very long time: low key international advertising and marketing. Thankfully times have changed during the past 10 years and Finland is now a major global player.

THE TIMES (Scotland) Saturday November 19 2016  by Robin Pagnamenta: reported: “Captain of industry steers engine maker through stormy transition”

This full page Business feature on Wartsila the Finnish industrial concern, which produces a third of the world’s marine engines. The group’s chief executive Jaako Eskola is steering Wartsila and its engines away from the troubled container ship and supertanker market to power the growth of the global cruise industry. Wartsila, a 182 year old company started out as a sawmill operation in Finland’s eastern remote and forested Karelia region, close to the Russian border. It later transformed itself into a steel mill, before diversifying into a dizzying range of activities, from locks to glass and porcelain. It did not move into its current main business, building ships and marine engines until the 1930s. Out on the high seas, the global shipping business is in the grip of a severe downturn. This year only 388 new commercial ships will be ordered globally, compared with 4,086 in 2013. Jaako Eskola, 57, a native of Helsinki, believes that the future remains bright for one of the Nordic countries biggest engineering concerns. With 18.000 employees, Wartsila has operations in more than 200 locations, in around  70 countries, including the United Kingdom. Last year the company’s net sales  bucked a global shipping downturn to hit EUR 5 billion.

Jaako Eskola remarked that most of the business today is in the leisure sector because these are the ships that are being built. Over 50% of sales this year are going to be cruise ships and ferries. Five or six years ago it was 4%. There is huge pent-up demand for cruise ships in Asia. The Chinese have discovered that they like cruise ships. They like gaming  and they can eat Chinese food onboard…………

SRM/Edin/23.11.2016

Scott’s blog is a private, personal “Wild Rovers” diary intended for his extended family, friends, Scottish diaspora and any/all interested readers. It is not promoted or sponsored by any political, public, private corporate body or individual. Scott is the sole and exclusive administrator of this site. All new followers, they are thankfully increasing are most welcome to enjoy the varied and hopefully interesting content. Please leave a comment if you are inclined to do so, it would be appreciated.
Season’s Greetings…….”A Wild Rover”

YES CAMPAIGN AMBASSADOR’S DIARY
By Scott RJ Moffat – (SNP Honorary Life Member)

Scotland’s First Minister MSP Alex Salmond’s post referendum resignation shocked me and stunned the political world with these words: ‘My time as leader is nearly over but for Scotland the dream shall never die’. I had to think hard; had Alex resigned before me or me before him? A close friend and YES Campaign colleague, when asked who should resign from the YES Campaign replied; – ‘you were first’. Unlike the First Minister, I made the decision to end my long, active and winning SNP election campaigns on the 18 September, at 10.00pm, when the polls closed and after returning our polling station YES A Boards to the SNP’s St Andrew Rooms. I’m convinced that my Edinburgh New Town neighbours, family, friends, and SNP Branch members, if not shocked, will find my decision almost as unbelievable as the First Ministers.

WHERE WE WERE, WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE GOING
I am grateful to the ‘SundayHerald 21 September 2014’ (AFTER THE REFERENDUM: THE FALL-OUT) for a full, open and transparent account of the immediate events after the referendum. Some of these journalists reports are shocking and shameful but most are full of praise and support for the amazing YES campaign. I recommend that you like me read this referendum edition of the only (UK) broadsheet that supported the Scottish YES campaign for independence.

It would take far too long and too many trees for me to report all the features and articles in this recent edition of the Sunday Herald newspaper, so with your forbearance, I will précis a selection of them, in some cases quoting only the headlines and providing short summaries. I’m sure you will accept and appreciate this. Hopefully you will read the unabridged accounts direct from the newspaper.

‘Caught in Cameron’s trap’ Tory political ploy threatens Brown’s Devo timetable. Salmond: ‘Scots were tricked into voting No’. Doubts over timetable promise for “new powers’ as Cameron insists on English votes for English laws
– The real result of the referendum? The death of the UK state
– Eleven arrests after loyalist No supporters’ descend on George Square
– The night our readers became our reporters. Not only did our readers help co-ordinate the coverage of Friday’s disorder, they also revealed the loyalist extremists orchestrating the violence online
– They’re shouting at us, calling us scum. It’s awful to come here and feel threatened
– Gay councillor targeted by hardline loyalists in square
– Police investigation into fire at Herald office
– ‘Time has come to see displays for what they are and the damage they do’
– I’ve never been involved like that before. I’ll never forget this. I don’t want to give up now
– Dear young Scotland, thank you for daring to believe….
– In some shape or form we will continue
– We’ll dust ourselves down…and hold those in power to account
– Women for Indy won’t be disappearing to drink tea and eat cereal…The masses have stirred and the women have risen
– A decision felt round the world. Scotland’s historic referendum has been put under the microscope by countries across the globe
– The view from Europe: ‘Promises of further powers must be fulfilled’
– “It is difficult to deny Scotland now walks a little taller in the world’
– What we have seen is a momentum we simply cannot lose. We must retain the political engagement
– The close vote is not a bold reaffirmation of the Union
– THE DEBATE IN SCOTLAND Looking to improve future of Scotland for everyone
– Vote for Yes would have done away with food banks
– Let’s get back to BUSINESS…What’s next for business

EDITORIAL  We dared to dream …we still do….

“THE GROWTH OF THE YES MOVEMENT”
by Paul Hutcheon (SundayHerald/21.09.2014)

Gordon Brown and I don’t have much in common!!! As “one-man sullen referendum campaigners”, we both shared a common goal – to win the referendum for our respective campaigns; he for NO and me for YES. Brown entered the battle during the first week of September, I had been pounding the streets of the Capital for almost two and a half years. During this time, I had heard many rumours about the YES Campaign’s problems. Here are a few surprising and not insignificant inside revelations from the SundayHerald’s Paul Hutcheon:

– “The official launch of the Yes campaign in May 2012, was a bit of a joke. Staged at an Edinburgh cinema, the glitzy event consisted of independence-supporting celebrities and the usual politicians making rambling speeches and preaching to the converted.
– Within weeks, former BBC journalist Blair Jenkins was the body’s chief executive, surrounded by a number of well-paid directors and creative types. The cross-party Yes Scotland was never a happy ship – a management review would later clear out many of the high earners.
– By November 2013 – the publication date of the SNP Government’s independence White Paper – the wider Yes movement had grown beyond all recognition. It was on its way to creating 300 local community groups, 50 sectorial organisations and dozens of other spin-offs that would flood the country with pro- independence activity.
– Tens of thousands of people across the country were now involved; from self-generated local Yes groups to National Collective and the left-wing Radical Independence Campaign (RIC), from individuals manning Yes cafes, to new recruits running drop in centres.
– Yes staffers knew the grass-roots campaign was working when they learned of large community debates they had not organised, run by local groups they did not know existed.
– Yes Scotland was now almost redundant – it had become a “central services” resource for groups, providing literature, merchandise and email updates. By May 30 this year, the formal starting point of the referendum campaign, Yes was the biggest grass-roots political movement Scotland had seen. One insider said that with around three months to go, up to 30,000 contacts were being made every week with emails reaching around 60,000 Yes activists. It was a strategy that would help to produce an incredible 85% turnout on the day.
– As summer approached Better Together was winning in the airwaves, but Yes was miles ahead on the ground. Senior Yes sources said the group was badly run from its inception and suffered from personality clashes and weak leadership. Yes Scotland was also impeded in the early days by a central database staffers believed was not fit for purpose. It took Yes over a year to move to a different information-storing application. This new programme was also unsuitable, sources say, as there was no search facility for the names of the 300,000 or so individuals, whose details had been entered onto the system.
– A more fundamental problem was the tension in Yes Scotland between the SNP, which wanted to control the group and the Greens, whose activists were committed to the bottom-up grass-roots model. Although the Nationalists supported the “bypass the press” strategy, some senior SNP figures could not fully let go of Yes Scotland and viewed the referendum as a traditional election that required a command and control response. As directors left Yes Scotland one-by-one, the SNP gradually usurped Yes Scotland and made the key decisions in the formal independence campaign.
– By late 2013, there were two key parts of Yes: SNP headquarters run by party chief executive Peter Murrell: and the patchwork quilt of local groups and activists that made up the grassroots movement.
– Yes Scotland by contrast had little power and commanded even less respect. Campaign sources speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yes Scotland chief executive Blair Jenkins was good in front of the cameras but never a manager.
– The Sunday Herald has learned of occasions when Yes staff walked out of meetings Jenkins chaired due to a perceived lack of leadership.
– Staffers also began to question what the ex-journalist’s role was at Yes, given that Murrell was the key decision maker. As directors fell like skittles, more unimpressive people joined the organisation. As of August this year, the No campaign still had a comfortable lead in the polls.
– With a month to go, twice as many voter contacts were being made than in the spring. Yes activists were making between 70,000 and 100,000 contacts a week.

With the clock ticking the Yes campaign entered its best period of the campaign. At this point, SNP headquarters – code for Murrell and businessman Mark Shaw was effectively running the show. Jenkins was in the words of one senior insider, an “absence not a presence”. Everyone knew Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Tories supported greater autonomy but divisions had prevented a timetable being lodged.
The shock poll prompted Gordon Brown – who had sullenly campaigned on his own, one step removed from Better Together – to propose unilaterally a road map for new powers. Despite Cameron defeating Brown in 2010, the “Great Clunking Fist” was back in charge and his proposals were rubber-stamped.
The No campaign also wheeled out the heavy economic artillery: supermarkets and mobile-phone operators claimed prices would go up; banks threatened to move their registered headquarters; and energy firms prophesied doom.
It was a brutal attack on what the polls said was the Yes campaign’s key weakness: the economy. More voters believed they would be better off under the Union than in an independent Scotland.
In the final week, the polls either had the campaign neck and neck, or showed a narrow No lead. As polling day neared the Yes army prepared for one final surge. According to some estimates nearly three million leaflets were delivered in the last few days by 35,000 activists. As voters made their way to the booths, senior SNP sources were confident. Three senior insiders told the Sunday Herald that Yes would win by at least 53%. In the end an incredible 85% of registered voters participated in the ballot but Yes fell short. Despite the 55 – 45 defeat the Yes campaign scared the world’s most successful political union to the extent that President Barack Obama, the Queen and the Pope were all forced to make interventions on behalf of the Union.

YES lost last week, but the movement it spawned has changed politics in the UK forever”.
Scott RJ Moffat
Yes Campaign Ambassador

A Wild Rover

“ The real guardians of progress are not the politicians
at Westminster, or even at Holyrood but the energised activism
of tens of thousands of people, who I predict will refuse
meekly to go back into the political shadow”
ALEX SALMOND, FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 19

The Scottish National Party 2006 – 2014
I returned home to Scotland, from Finland on 6 December 2005 (Finnish Independence Day). I had spent a rewarding, successful and memorable 40 years in a country fast becoming an economic and cultural leader in the Nordic Union and European Union. Urho Kalevi Kekkonen, the former president of the Republic is often quoted as saying:
“Our only natural resource is our forests, let’s take care of our green gold” He might have added and the skills of our highly educated, motivated and industrious people.

On returning to Scotland and thanks to my son Arran, I moved into a modern comfortable flat in Edinburgh’s prosperous residential area: Morningside. After working and travelling, worldwide, with my own consultancy: Scott Moffat Consulting International, and several major Finnish enterprises (Maa ja Vesi Oy, Vesi_Pekka Oy, OMP Oy, HAKA Oy, Ylikiiminki District Council and Joensuu Regional Development Company), I quickly realised and even quicker accepted that I was not ready for retirement. I needed a new challenge to occupy my hyperactive personality. I joined the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 1991, when my son Arran and I moved to Scotland, after the tragic death of Marjatta my Finnish wife. In 2006 I had no hesitancy, maybe I should have had, in contacting the Merchiston & Morningside Branch. I was immediately signed up as a potential activist and member of Edinburgh South SNP, the local Constituency association. Being new to Scottish and indeed United Kingdom politics, I had much to learn about managing monthly meetings and campaigning for European, Westminster, Holyrood and Edinburgh City Council elections. Thanks to the help, advice and support of the SNP Branch convener Denis Robertson and Constituency convener Andy Rosie and the wider “political family”, I took to my new role like a duck to water. It’s fair to say with no exaggeration, that I learned most of my new political skills, while in Edinburgh South SNP. I lived in Morningside Drive from 2006 – 2010 enjoying the areas outdoor walks on Arthur’s Seat, the Pentlands, Braid Hills, Colington Glen and the Water of Leith walkway.
My sheltered housing landlord: Viewpoint Housing Association Ltd, the largest in the Lothians and Fife, accepted my nomination and appointment as a Tenants Representative. This provided an opportunity to serve many retired, elderly Viewpoint residents, from a wide range of social and economic backgrounds. I must confess, that many of them like me, had lived interesting lives abroad, managing their own businesses; a few could not tell me what they did (John LeCarre’s novels spring to mind!!!). It was easy for me, with my Finnish/Russian connections, a radio aerial wired flat to tease my retired neighbours and lead them up the garden path, with my stories of regular business visits to St Petersburg and Moscow. My special relationship with the British Embassy in Helsinki and London Banks helped to advance my status.

When Viewpoint offered me a larger flat in Edinburgh’s New Town, I accepted without hesitation. It’s on the top floor of a New Town terrace, built in 1835, overlooking Telford’s majestic Dean Bridge over the Water of Leith and exclusive private Dean Gardens. I relocated from Morningside to the New Town in early March 2010. Since the Westminster General Election was scheduled for May, I remained a member of the SNP Merchiston & Morningside Branch and actively campaigned for Sandy Houston, our Edinburgh South candidate. The spring and early summer flew past. Unfortunately we were well beaten by Labour’s rising star Alistair Darling. I learned a great deal from my first political campaign: selection process, party hustings, leafletting, canvassing, street stalls. Most importantly meeting the general public, chatting to them and persuading them to support the Scottish National Party’s policy and mandate was a favourite activity and speciality of mine.
After losing the Westminster election, the disappointment in the Edinburgh South Constituency was understandable and recriminations were flying around. Also the Boundary Commission was planning a reorganisation of local authority boundaries. Since the Merchison & Morningside SNP Branch was about to be wound up, it was a convenient time for me to diplomatically and quietly move to a new Branch. I applied for and was accepted as a new member of the Edinburgh City Centre SNP Constituency Branch.
I remember my first Edinburgh Branch meeting in November 2010, as if it was only yesterday. I had to make a brief presentation to the Branch convener Dennis Dixon and the recently nominated Holyrood candidate Marco Biagi. I sat for 15 minutes, while they had an argie bargie about the fast approaching Holyrood election in 2011. They both totally ignored me and carried on, as if I was not in the room. I thought maybe I should excuse myself, telling them my offer to join their Branch was a mistake, and return to the new Edinburgh South SNP Branch. I was just about to stand up, when Marco Biagi said to Dennis Dixon, the Branch/CA convener:….. “I can’t work with you and don’t want you anywhere in my campaign”….