The Old World of British Boosterism and Banality
Two different moments at either end of the country speak of the banality of British politics.
Yesterday Keir Starmer made a bold statement of intent about AI, unveiling a wide-ranging action plan to boost the country’s role in developing and deploying artificial intelligence. The 50 recommendations from the report, written by the tech investor Matt Clifford, have been endorsed by Keir Starmer, who says the technology will drive “incredible change in our country”.
The plan seems reactive rather than responsive and has both the whiff of William Hague in his baseball cap and John Major promising ‘back to basics’ and an inquiry into traffic cones. Starmer referencing how they’ll use AI to solve potholes sounds like something from The Thick of It (season three). Without being anti-technology (though I’m deeply sceptical) the announcement sounded like a salve and had all the flavour of someone doing an announcement having spent half an hour with the Bluffers Guide to Artificial Intelligence. The issues around the impact on human creativity, and the massive issues around energy use seem to have been cast-aside and I think we barely have an inkling of the massive issues at play here.
We are told, for example that the action plan refers to the AI growth zones using “clean power” and the government announced on Monday that it would set up a new AI energy council to make that happen. The body will be co-chaired by the Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband. The council will seek to accelerate investment in renewable energy for datacentres as well as small nuclear reactors. Last year, Microsoft, Amazon and Google. who are big players in AI, all announced agreements to use nuclear energy.
In other words, AI means new nuclear, in case you missed that in the swirl of excitement.
The rush to embrace the new technology is driven by the (absolutely correct) feeling that this is a tidal wave of change already under-way. But such enthusiasm only comes from a deeper mindset that is this: technology and endless economic growth are absolute goods which should never be challenged.
That, IMHO, is a terrible mindset which has contributed to driving us to the dire predicament we find ourselves in. Still, we’re all using paper straws eh?
But for Starmer, and for the people still muttering an incantation of the folk-story of a Labour party that meant something, this has echoes of Harold Wilson’s (1963) ‘white heat of technology’ speech.
These technologies, and their impacts, just as the energy sources ‘required’ to power them will mean further centralisation of power and control and further disenfranchisement of people. The power will be further concentrated in corporations and state, just as it is sold to you as a liberatory tool. At the moment in which we need human creativity and spirit not more technologies over which we have very little control, we are being offered the exact opposite from politicians who seem out of their depth and offering little in the way of real-world solutions.
At the other end of the United Kingdom (sic) the announcement from Nicola Sturgeon was getting divorced from her husband Peter Murrell was met with a predictable outpouring of hatred, innuendo and misogyny. We’ve become accustomed to the culture of right-wing Unionism meeting in common hatred of Sturgeon with elements of the Scottish nationalist movement, and this was one moment where both could bask in their shared conspiracies.
The dog whistle politics can be found in the sewers of the tabloid press and the alt-nat blogosphere, once supposedly sworn enemies now truly united in smears and undisguised homophobia. There’s no doubt that the idea of a married couple running a political party was a remarkably stupid arrangement to have, but that said the dissonance between those same people who argue in one breath for privacy and respect for Alex Salmond on the one hand while in the next breath lay into Nicola Surgeon on the other, is astonishing.
Alot of this is trivia and personal animus, which cloaks the fact that few of these politicians and parties have little to distinguish them. Alba may be socially conservative, even deeply reactionary in parts, Labour may have abandoned its socialist principles long ago, and now even abandoned the last vestiges of its bland social democracy, but they still have – constitution aside – much in common with a bland centrism. Political parties in Britain operate within a very narrow bandwidth and that is why the public gets drawn into the sort of petty, ill-informed gossip nonsense of personal conspiracies. I remember a favourite when Nicola Sturgeon had upset people by championing books and reading, and the conspiracy went around that she was ‘pretending to read’ – such was this display of behaviour perceived to mark her out as one of the terrible ‘metropolitan elite’ by her blatant literacy.
Such is the dire level of political discourse that reading is itself thought a crime, and political issues are reduced to personal bile. The level of debate about the ethnicity of grooming gangs, or the Thistle safer drugs consumption facility in Glasgow is so utterly dire that it’s almost impossible to believe that we can make social progress in this country. The same goes for assisted dying or any of the big ethical questions we face which risk being immediately hijacked by the voices of wild populism, boosted by irresponsible and out-of-control media and thrown into the winds of the never-ending culture wars.
If we are not careful, (and we are not careful), the same will happen to the biggest issue that we face not just as a generation, but as a species, that of climate catastrophe. As you watch the world burn and you hide from the consequences and the data and the lived experience you have a whole new generation of politicians, in Reform UK and the Conservative Party, but also in pockets of reactionary nationalists here in Scotland, who mutter darkly about the ‘woke’ and the ‘threats of Net Zero’.
As Trump begins to ascend to the Presidency of the most powerful nation in the world, as the ongoing genocide in Palestine spools across our timelines, and as the omnicide continues all around us, ‘this is the time of Monsters’ and instead of real solutions we are given the allure of techno-fixes for potholes and the lurid gossip to keep us occupied. In the face of genuine peace and reconstruction we are faced with collusion and complicity by our own governments and corporations, and instead of waking-up to climate breakdown, we are instead faced with a media blackout and a turn to further populism and conspiracism.
Thanks, Mike. I honestly feel cut adrift in the face of all this awful nonsense.
Grateful for your holding a small light in face of the tsunami of bile.
X D
Indeed, what does ‘like-minded countries’ mean in a democratic context? Perhaps just code for ‘neoliberally-captured’.
AI means a lot of different things. If you take the generative AI that draws on machine learning to create new works, then that is art as mimesis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimesis
And what art is neoliberalism most interested in? That which modifies behaviour? Something that corporations and states will find common interests in. Long before this AI announcement, the USA made a play for world domination of copyright, which I think indicates their hegemonic continuity with past imperialism dreaming of unlimited conquests.
It is difficult to see how AI will be used to create useful dissent.
I didn’t know about the nuclear power announcements, that is worrying.
I skimmed the 50 points, but couldn’t find anything the addressed demands for ‘white box’ AI, where the working behind decisions would be made accessible to concerned humans.
Starmer said that the AI project “offers frontline staff the precious gift of time”, presumably to fix the potholes.
Like you @SleepingDog I too skimmed the 50 points. I wouldn’t pretend to understand them in detail, but get the general gist of a fair few. The main problem as far as I can see is the timetable: most of them are for delivery in Spring or Summer of this year, which for a prject of this grandiosity, I would have thought is pie in the sky stuff.
Not to worry – if the ”50 points” on AI are treated like the Starmer ”pledges ” or ”promises” or ”Change ” then we will hear no more about them after tea-time tomorrow !
@Mark Howitt, yes, the AI Opportunities Action Plan (apparently ordered by Charles Windsor) does seem a fantasyworld projection.
The International scientific report on the safety of advanced AI: interim report (17 May 2024):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-scientific-report-on-the-safety-of-advanced-ai/international-scientific-report-on-the-safety-of-advanced-ai-interim-report
seems to be a much more sober assessment, identifying many risks and uncertainties, looking at potential safeguards and exploits. Fraud and fakes are mentioned a lot (see Mimesis), as is “disinformation and manipulation of public opinion”. And by behavioural manipulation, we need to understand this includes introduced apathy, or distracted/avoidant/procrastinating behaviours. This report mentions ‘white-box’ in the context of audits, evaluations and other forms of testing, and that:
“companies are increasingly keeping state-of-the-art general-purpose AI systems private”
creating challenges for public interest actors.
In some ways this dystopian state-corporate vision of AI (artificial intelligence) is like the Royal Prerogative, another form of grandiose black-box decision-making whose workings we are commonly forbidden from accessing.
About the Royal Prerogative. Here’s a wild idea. I hope someone will correct it – I wouldn’t want to end up in the Tower of London over a simple error…
It occurs to me that the problems I mentioned earlier that we have been suffering for the last five years might possibly be connected with the Royal Prerogative. Charles is a self-confessed fan of the World Economic Forum and actually announced the ‘Great Reset’ in 2020. He told us the pandemic was an ‘opportunity’; and when we looked at Schwab’s manifesto it was pure totalitarianism: the WEF’s exclusive group of billionaire members would simply take over the whole planet -everything and everyone – to make the world a better place for themselves. Our approval was not sought.
Charles is a king, from a long line of kings, and like all kings he seems to see himself as divinely appointed. I don’t suppose for a moment that he sees himself as a quaint tourist attraction. He meets the Prime Minister regularly – and no doubt keeps in touch with his prime ministers in Canada, New Zealand, Australia etc. He is head of state of several countries. He meets other heads of state and he goes to Davos. Kings really don’t do democracy. We are all subjects, not citizens. I wonder if he has any views on the genocide in Palestine?
Now it so happens that the NC500 , whose customers are somehow above the law, was apparently Charles’s idea (the NC500 is a brand that exploits the public road network for private profit. It is owned by Anders Povslen, the Danish clothing billionaire who is now (I understand) Scotland’s richest man, beating even the Duke of Westminster. The motorhome explosion seems designed to capture any profits from tourism for the motorhome industry at locals’ expense – taxes and charges are being imposed on local tourism businesses that seem designed to destroy any competition.
And when the locals have been driven out of business there won’t be any ‘need’ for them anymore – the fully automated, ‘SMART’ IoT ‘new normal’ can be serviced by helicopter, drone, or motorhome borne, city based ‘operatives’. Depopulating 30% of Britain was (according to the Scottish Government) the idea of Klaus Schwab’s wife and daughter – it’s supposedly for ‘nature’ but it’s really just a land grab. Both the Scottish and UK governments are signed up to the agenda. The Highland Council and Scottish Government are de-funding the rural highlands and imposing charges and taxes on local tourist businesses to fund more free resources for the NC500’s customers (and cruise ships).
Meanwhile there is a gold rush going on for our wind power which aims to build unrestricted amounts of pylons, giant turbines, battery storage, etc etc all over the highlands because there are now too few of us left to object. We already produce 10 x as much electricity as we can use, but we still pay the highest electricity charges in the UK.
When the Community Council, the Highland Council, the Ombudsman, the Information Commissioner, MSPs, solicitors, the police, all remain silent or pass the buck, and even refuse point blank to answer questions, deal with concerns, or help in any way; when the police laugh and say I have no remedy at all for harassment and antisocial behaviour, but no-one will explain why, it seems reasonable to ask who or what they are all so afraid of. They are not all corrupt, but they all do seem to be under some sort of non-disclosure agreement.
It so happens that the Lord Lieutenant has recently been touring community councils here ‘to uphold the dignity’ of the monarchy. He tells them that he has their backs and if there’s anything they want from him they have only to ask. For example they might like invitations to Royal Garden Parties, or to put forward people for honours.
I am aware that all MPs and MSPs, lawyers and police swear allegiance to the king, rather than to the country; while in our elections we vote for parties rather than people. But then again I wouldn’t want to be called a conspiracy theorist. No doubt there’s a perfectly innocent explanation. Perhaps Charles really is irrelevant and someone else calls the shots.
@John Wood, well, there is an Anglo-British royal prerogative for torture and inflicting cruel and unusual punishments that goes back through King James VI and I (see Lucy Worsley Investigates the Gunpowder Plot) and predecessor Elizabeth I who had a personal torture chamber in her palace, despite torture being officially illegal (no problem when you have legal immunity, I suppose). When you’re head of the church, you can just decide to burn people alive for heresy, like Mary I did.
This royal prerogative for torture hasn’t gone away. I’m not a lawyer, but I believe British authorities have recently argued this falls under something like ‘Crown act of state’. And perhaps there are still some blacksites in the overseas territories. Best wishes for your evading rendition.
think the climate is already fuckt, December up here a write aff wie 4 storms in a row & first 2 weeks ae January like living in an ice cube, yet still the Eurofighter jets fly roun & roun in circles under the pretence they are defending us frae those pesky Russians when ony Russian wie ony sich inkling wid huv carried oot thir invasion during the customary Christmas fortnight off whereupon Royal Air Force personnel normality up here for a jolly annoying the peasants go back hame, shoot a few servants, badgers, ald ladies etcetera afore returning tae their usual duties ae scaring the Heilan peasantry half tae death & ensuring emigration & migration ae Heilan youngsters continues at pace
@mark, not to mention the extreme environmental poisoning RAF bases inflict:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/15/raf-bases-hotspots-of-forever-chemical-groundwater-pollution-mod-documents-show
This is indeed the time of monsters. I just wanted to add my personal experience. This is not abstract or theoretical, or ‘conspiracy theory’. It is real and happening right now outside my house as I write. Because while we are distracted, democacy and the rule of law have already died in Scotland. Shocked? You should be. Are these things recoverable? I don’t know.
People and planet now count for nothing -only the billionaire technocrats, their money and their power, matter at all. Scotland is completely in thrall to ‘neo-liberalism’, which is just a modern euphemism for corruption and the ‘ethics’ of organised crime. In the last two elections – the General election last year, and the local elections before that, I have found myself unable to vote for any candidate so have spoiled my ballot. There is no political party that will actually represent constituents before private profit. And unfortunately that betrayal extends to ombudsmen, the police, the courts, the press, civil servants, academics, the whole lot of them, a parcel of rogues. No wonder Trump can talk so freely about buying Greenland. Of course this isn’t just Scotland, in other countries (including England) it is more blatant. But Scotland is there too.
Now just maybe there is someone reading this who will help, who is willing to stand up and be counted. If so I look forward very much to hearing from you.
The space opposite my house here in the village of Poolewe in the Highlands might not seem to have much significance at all. It is just a few parking spaces, a public toilet (now closed) and a bus stop. There are no pavements, but it can get busy and congested especially in the summer, including by hordes of oversized motorhomes who are ‘entitled’ to do as they please with complete impunity. My complaints might seem trivial, like Clochemerle. But over 5 years residents have been subjected to such extraordinary treatment that it would be hard to believe if you hadn’t lived it.
Briefly, someone, somewhere (I have my suspicions) decreed that the centre of this village would be handed over to the drive-thru customers of the NC500 to do as they pleased, where and when they pleased, regardless of any consequences. I am told ‘it’s my choice to live here’ – with the implication that if I don’t like it I can get out. It is in line with the Highland Council’s stickers on our litter bins stating ‘for visitor use only’, which is clearly how certain people see the ‘Remote rural’ areas in NPF4. Every service here, from schools to care homes to road maintenance, is being run down and last year our public toilets were forcibly closed after the Scottish Government refused a petition to recognise rural public toilets as a basic requiement of public and environmental health. Clearly we are all now expected to drive around in campervans, or – as the Highland Council advises, ‘bag it and bin it’ as if we were dogs. I already did enough clearing up of human waste from the area in 2020. The Highland Council will not answer a FoI request regarding where our Council Tax goes, but it certainly doesn’t get spent on services here. I think it all disappears into vanity projects in Inverness – or the so-called Freeport, which is a disaster for the the rural highlands. Meanwhile all non-domestic premises pay ‘drainage’ charges which never actually drain our roads. Scottish Water – piped by us, owned by you, and the profits go to the same water companies that are filling England’s rivers and beaches with sewage and laughing all the way to the bank. But parts of the village centre flood every time it rains and the Council neither collects the revenue nor does anything to drain the area. Because the rural highlands simply do not matter. There are too few votes, and too many capitalists wanting to exploit the area for one reason or another. We are to become the Wild West, emptied of natives, where they will do as they please. That process will be hastened by the imposition of licensing charges and tourist taxes on our local B&Bs – the mainstay of our economy. Can’t have them competing with the motorhomes.
The police tell me that they are completely overstretched – and indeed when there was a burglary at Christmas the call was eventually answered from the east coast, 70 miles away. But this is not a good enough reason to have an agreement with th Highland Council that no signage, official or otherwise, is enforceable on the motorhomes; or that they will not be prosecuted even for exceeding some speed limits! They tell me the Scottish Outdoor Access Code is ‘advisory only’ and antisocial behaviour and harasment are ‘not police matters’. I have been laughed at and told I have no remedy at all – that motorhomes are effectively above the law.
For trying to ask questions and discuss issues, over the last five years, there has been persistent, deliberate harassment and provocation of my neighbours and me from all sides. It has included the seizure of my property under false pretences, and more recently defamation and vilification, but (so far at least) no solicitor in Scotland will act for me, or offer an explanation. I tried to recover my property through the small claims procedure at Inverness Sheriff Court but the Sheriff would not even take the case and returned my fee. I complained to the Judiciary who just told me the sheriff’s decision was final. Never any discussion or explanation. Perhaps someone, somewhere could tell me why.
Also, five years ago, an EV charger suddenly appeared opposite my house without warning or consultation. A public meeting was then held at which we were told that it was inevitable and there was no alternative. Consent was manufactured partly by making certain promises, for example the creation of a pavement or pedestrian route for the use of the schoolchildren accessing the school bus, the users of the parking spaces, the visitors to shop and cafe. The police and counctryside rangers would monitor the situation at busy, congested times. Some residents parking spaces were set out for those with nowhere else to park, plus a disabled space. But even where these started to be put into effect, everything was removed again. Every one of those promises has been broken. There is no monitoring at all. And now, despite credible concerns that the village grid could not support a charger at all, a second charger is being installed alongside the first. Without any consultation at all, while refusing to acknowledge objections or engage with concerns. We await the power cut.
Now, I am in principle a supporter of electric vehicles, although I am unimpressed by the way they have been built and marketed. However although the community council, highland councillor and MSP have all agreed that the particular location they have chosen is unsafe and inappropriate, and have even been offrered a much better alternative, they all just force it through anyway. Maree Todd MSP did write to the council asking them to explore alternatives, but the community council (who seem remarkably well-connected with friends in high places) actually minuted that they would ignore this. And she never followed it up.
It is the sheer nastiness of all this that concerns me. The outright blatant bullying and complete lack of any accountability is outrageous. We need elected politicians at all levels who will at least listen and engage with people, deal with them openly and honestly, be accountable to some extent and if necessary agree to differ.
So today they are installing two electric chargers opposite my front window, without any discussion at all. They have completely taken over the grass verge, which is the only safe pedestrian route. There has been no planning permission (required here in the NSA), no due diligence, and (apparently) no discussion with or wayleave from the landowner.
So when I am laughed at and told I have no remedy, it seems to me that at least your readers should be aware of what is going on. There is an ongoing wall of silence from the community and Highland Councils, councillors, Highland MSPs (any party), the Ombudsman, the police, the legal profession and even the sheriff. And for several weeks I have been waiting for a reply from my new MP also, elected on a platform of standing up for the highlands – but I won’t hold my breath.
When certain groups of people are set above the law to do as they please, even harass people, and the rest of us have ‘no remedy at all’ ; when an election is a matter of choosing between candidates who have no interest in representing voters but unquestioningly follow a party line, and when politicians like Kate Forbes actually celebrate the removal of planning or other controls on technocratic billionaires who are destroying us all, there is something very seriously wrong with this country.
No elected politician or ombudsman will comment at all: hey have all clearly been subject to some sort of non-disclosure agreement. That is not democracy.
The police are completely useless and the poor still have no lawyers.
Bella and other online fora are great places to chat about the crises we all face in theory, but I hope at least someone reading this will wake up to the fact that this is real life, and sooner or later it will affect everyone, because it is how fascism develops. It’s the banality and above all, fear that leads to the acceptance of genocide. Nobody wants to face up to this, but it happening right here, under your nose. The silence is surely because all our public servants are too afraid to say or do anything – and even when they do, they quickly backtrack. Or lash out. We urgently need to ask why that is. Who or what are they all so afraid of? It does seem extraordinary that it runs so deep.
It’s especially disappointing to see it in people who stood for election on the basis of standing up for Scotland’s people. The Scottish Government removes planning or other regulations, and silences dissent to benefit international ‘investors’ who are really just pirates. It simply has to stop.
This is why – as things stand – I cannot vote for any of the current parties again. Every one of them is bought and sold for corporate gold. We need a new party, one we can trust to represent us and our little bit of this planet, against the endless, mindless greed of the billionaires. And can articulate a clear vision for an independent Scotland that is not just more of the same.
Most of your complaints could apply to Edinburgh. It’s of no relevance to the subject matter.
Well, it seems highly relevant, informative & important to me, so I believe it is your trite wee dismissal that is the offending comment in this instance.
I once drove ’round the north coast, and encountering another vehicle was an unusual event. I think the most surreal bit was the Loch Eribol Seafoods snack trailer in a presumably forever empty carpark.
Things have changed!
I have sen this too John, from my own local authority.
They now treat us council-tax payers, residents, citizens with utter disdain from behind locked doors ( or even from their own home?) in remote offices, behind a call-centre telephone system.
Emails go unanswered and unacknowledged. Council officers refuse to give their name and office held. Communications come from a centralised service and are anonymously signed “The Customer Service Team”.
They are all frightened by, and unskilled in, face to face contact with the local people who pay their salaries. And they are supported by their management and our elected members to maintain this aloof distance and lack of accountability.
Your job as a citizen is to STFU while others treat your community as a play-park or income stream.
Anyone fancy a revolution?
the pen pushers huv hud it a’ thir ain wey fur far too lang, it is time tae disconnect them frae thir technological devices, hand each wan a spade & git the ald runrig system back oan the go
I do!
Couldn’t agree more. What a country.
Another most excellent article. Thank you!
“Still, we’re all using paper straws eh?” Great line!
I would add: “still, were all driving our EV SUVs (sorry, tanks)”.
I think the last Revolutionary Technology! was 3-D printing.
You missed the story about the ferries. The Glen Sannox did her first offical journey in the Firth of Clyde on the same day as Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement. To glory in these twin delights for the Unionist cause we had a specially extended Scottish News on BBC. I turned off before we got, what I expect would be, the full the full run through of Operation Branchform and every twist, turn and cock up relating to the ferry construction.
An oversight Dougie, yes the ferry media coverage is a wonder in itself.
A poor response to good news with no alternative.
Given the shambles created by celebrity style, jacked up, politics of recent years I welcome effective banality.
I actually want our county’s leaders to ring leaders rather than clowns.
“Effective Banality” has a ring to it. I endorse this new policy iniative!
@Editor, indeed, this is Keir Starmer just doing his job, after all:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann_in_Jerusalem#Theme
Be careful what you wish for. What’re the appropriate slogans for our era? Desperate times, banal measures? Global polycrisis: an opportunity for business as usual? Defcon Zzzzero? Skynet subscriptions for all? There’s no U(235) in AI?
Work Without the Worker: labour in the age of platform capitalism by Phil Jones (Verso, 2021) is a short book which attempts to explode some myths about the capabilities of AI while concentrating on the human workers who power much of it through ‘microwork’ and a ‘Mechanical Turk’/Humans-as-a-service model. Some tasks are psychologically hazardous and traumatic. Some near-real-time decisions “require a near Zeitgeist-level of knowledge surrounding contemporary events”. Such worker experience usually hidden.
In blind microwork, where the purpose of the activity is hidden, the slum-dwelling microworker could be teaching drones that fly overhead to recognise targets below. Startup company directors prefer to be seen by investors as running a technology company rather than a labour-based one, so hide their microworkers components.
Workers in AI-using industries have collectively acted against employers in the past, which is surely one motivation for sacking and replacing them, especially the unionised ones. Are we inevitably heading towards neofeudalism, or are there healthy ways to feed the machine, asks the author?
___
This reminds me of the (intentional) difficulties in holding anyone responsible when an ‘AI’ system makes a decision with perceived adverse consequences (just like other systems like royal prerogatives, elective dictatorships and corporate decision-making where it is purposefully difficult to hold individuals responsible even for killing people). I mean, if the corporate-captured state can now just assassinate dissidents by self-driving car or drone-dropped parcel, whose finger is on the button?
Thanks Mike. This is good! Puts into words the thoughts I’m struggling to articulate amidst the deliberate fog of countless distractions…
So, if the people of Scotland collectively owned a nationalised renewable-energy network (thanks to our wet and windy weather), we could sell electricity to the owners of these A.I. data centres and have a beneficial income stream that empowered our country and communities?
Since land is owned by the country, and therefore people, in which it exists, and no one is making new land, we (the people) could have a real lever of power over those corporations who need energy to run their businesses. An authentic basis for collective bargaining.
No Data Without Representation.
Agreed.
@Wul, that is the physiocrat-to-state-capitalist model, I suppose. But what good to the living planet does powering someone else’s AI farms do? Perhaps if we humans living in Scotland believed we belonged to and served the land, our perspectives might alter how we conceive of power generation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiocracy#Investment_capital
Although possibly most of our energy may come from the sea in future.
Perhaps the concept of land (or sea, or sky) ownership is the problem?
I’ll give you that. “Owning” land is a weird, unnatural concept that just doesn’t feel true.
But if someone has to “own” it, better those humans and animals who live upon/swim in it it than a remote legal entity.
@Wul, indeed, and that’s something related to the Greenland question too:
“Ownership, it’s not in our mentality.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/17/it-should-be-up-to-us-greenlanders-on-trump-denmark-and-their-land
Not sure that narwhals appreciate the difference there, though.
I think the main advantage of nationalising and selling this energy would be to demonstrate to the robber barons it does not belong to them by right. To me it would not really be about making money. We could stop building more unnecessary generation and grid infrastructure and set a price that might (I hope) drive them out of business altogether.
@John Wood, fair enough. I suppose with a renewable energy surplus an Independent Scotland could provide subsidised power (free in emergencies) to constitutionally-approved recipients; although whether this would meet EU rules at that stage, who knows (should we rejoin). I think undercutting fossil fuels and nuclear fission would, as you say, be a good thing. Why should the energy market only serve shareholder profit and militaristic concepts of ‘national security’?
It would seem that any country and population which does not fully control it’s own energy production is Donald Ducked.