scottish lib dem pre-manifesto

makes for an interesting read. interesting also that the main stories to come out this weekend's conference was their call for more community police and not about any of the crazy things they've suggested below.

pages 4 to 9 are pure fantasy. they want to get rid of nuclear energy and have scotland powered entirely by renewable energy by 2050.

in 2004 1,043 wind turbines produced a mere 0.4% of energy consumption; a few million more might replace nuclear energy! solar power in the uk is unlikely to be very successful, sunny weather in britain? hydro-electricity only contributes 2% of needs, the entire british coast covered in wave turbines would not replace nuclear.

the crazy buggers also want to switch to "local energy" and talk of de-centralised energy. have these people not heard of engineers?

It is a hoot when you realise that the creation of the national grid out of more
localised distribution networks before WWII reduced spare capacity from 85% to
15%, a capital saving which represented 75% of the cost of creating the national
grid. And generating costs were cut by 25%.

page 5 even insinuates that scotland exports green technology to denmark... erm no. that's a lie. but then the lib dems are good at lying. the truth dear liers is that denmark is leagues a head of scotland on this one.

there's something admirable about pages 10 - 15, even if a little mis-guided. there is lots of intent for improving the lives of young people. however, the lib dems have proved they are not capable of fulfilling these aims. they have been in power for two parliaments and still have failed to do anything they promise in this document. secondly, there is no point calling for more football and basketball leagues on page 11 when the lib dems are openly against competitive sports.

their plans for the economy seem blinkered by the volume of jobs renewable energy will provide and thus concentrate largely on research; read page 18. if i was one of the thousands of people working in the oil industry i would be worried by this document.

on page 26 they call for stricter controls on cars around schools... good job for me that i only pass four schools on the way to work. maybe the lib dems will build extra roads so i can avoid schools. if they don't and restrict me from taking this route i will be forced to travel further due to these de-tours; that means more carbon emissions and all that other stuff eco-mentalists claim is contributing to global warming.

the lib dems are wrong on this; some people have to drive and legislating to increase their journey is plain stupid.

page 30 calls for more tax. oh dear...