Category: General

Edinburgh tenements have stair lighting which used to be provided by the council but a few years ago they stopped doing replacements on it and now owners need to replace broken bulbs and lights themselves. Of course most landlords are self entitled people who couldn’t change a light bulb if it was their job (which it is) so chances are they won’t know how.

You need a 2 prong coughtrie screwdriver for the “security” screws (that’s security through obscurity).

https://www.thetoolboxscotland.co.uk/2-prong-stair-lighting-screwdriver-117667-p.asp

And Crompton Stair Replacement Tube

https://www.thetoolboxscotland.co.uk/crompton-stair-replacement-tube-113439-p.asp

The bulbs are: Edf8/35 Fusion 8W T5 300mm Miniature Fluorescent Tube 3500K

https://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/904483-8w-t5-miniature-fluorescent-tube-white

Then you send the bill split between all the owners.

Good luck.

We last heard from Fineholm and Geoffrey Mckay in a grumpy blog post from 2018 when I wrote about the incomplete unauthorised repair their had done to our communal tenement.   In the last 12 months we’ve had the exact same issue with the exact same problems.  I got an e-mail last year saying they were doing repairs and we’d be sent the bill.  No indication of what the repairs were or any attempt to follow the correct process of meeting with neighbours and discussing and having a vote to approve.  I asked for more details and eventually got some description but no indication they had been to look at the property or attempted to meet with anyone else.  When I went to look at the property there were still leaks in the roof and more work needing done.  Fortunately a contractor sent by Fineholm turned up at the same time so we could look together along with another owner and discuss.

I did run a vote of owners along with a full description and photos of the works needed and the works were approved and done once lockdown allowed.  In completing the task that Fineholm and Geoffrey Mckay chose not to do I didn’t hear anything from them.  Once the works were done and we’d had a chance to look and everyone had paid up except this owner I did get an e-mail from Geoffrey saying he hadn’t paid me because not everyone had paid him for his unilateral, incomplete, undocumented, unverified works done earlier.  When I said I’d take him to court in a week he left it another week and paid some of the money I was due but not all.

The culture here is self entitled people running a business who do not understand they are running a business and doing a job.  There is no enforcement and no regulation so they know they can get away with just ignoring their neighbours, not communicating, working illegally, not visiting the property and leaving people annoyed and out of pocket.

The solution is simple enough, if landlords (and I’m one of them now) can’t show they have visited their property and had a look around including attic and roof every six months and discussed it with their neighbours they shouldn’t be allowed on the Scottish Landlord Register and they should be blocked from running a business they are incapable of doing.  This goes for agents too, Fineholm shouldn’t be allowed to agent for rented property if they are not able to visit the property and discuss works.   It probably doesn’t need new legislation, just the council to use the powers they have.

Four years after the referendum and with only five months to go until Brexit takes effect we are finally starting to see what the UK government is proposing that to mean.

The UK gov wrote a post about it today with the petty line

“That is why we continue to look for a deal with, at its core, a free trade agreement similar to the one the EU already has with Canada – that is, an agreement based on existing precedents. We remain unclear why this is so difficult for the EU, but we will continue to negotiate with this in mind.”

So gone is the talk of a custom “red white and blue” Brexit and in is the talk of copying CETA.  This means vast new bureaucracy and taking away our freedoms, something the UK gov is openly paying money and boasting about.

CETA is the EU and Canada trade deal.  It has quotss on how much goods can be traded, tariffs on many of the goods and does sod all for services.  It’s more generous than basic WTO rules but it’s no single market.  It’s not what the political declaration says which as agreed by the UK gov along with the transition withdrawal agreement last year.

Our media (either from London or Scotland) doesn’t usually cover the EU side when politicians put out statements, but the EU one is here and of course it lists the problems which the UK one dismisses.

On two important subjects, transport and energy, we had intense and useful discussions. However, the UK continued to request single market-like benefits.

In addition, there is still no progress on two essential topics of our economic partnership.

• First, there must be robust guarantees for a level playing field – including on State aid and standards – to ensure open and fair competition among our businesses, also over time. This is a core interest for all 27 Member States – and in my view also for the UK.
• Second, we have to agree on a balanced, sustainable and long-term solution for fisheries, with the interests of all Member States concerned in mind, and not least the many men and women whose livelihoods depend on it on both sides.

So it’s a lie to say they want the same as CETA, they want single market style access despite having left the single market.

None of this was ever mentioned during the EU referendum by the leave campaigns who just lied when is was suggested there would be massive bureaucratic lorry parks costing billions.

The only change is that the UK gov says they won’t impose any import taxes for the first six months.  This going against WTO agreements but they are slow to pick up so will allowed to be waved for six months.  Presumably the EU will impose taxes on imports of course, putting UK business at a massive disadvantage.  But at least we shouldn’t be short of food or medicine or other stuff we need to import for six months, it’ll just cost more.

Join Yes for EU to help the campaign to support an independent Scotland rejoining the EU to be a normal international country without bureaucracy.

What the hell is the point in shutting down your society and economy due to a virus if you then just open it back up again without improving or solving the situation.

This virus can be eradicated from a territory.  Small countries like Isle of Man and Faeroes have done it fine.  Scotland is not a small country and only irresponsible people like Jack McConnell would base Scotland’s whole PR campaign on claiming it was.  McConnell now wants schools to go back to functioning normally but without saying what needs to be done to get there.

Scotland is an average sized country comparable to New Zealand, Australia and Ireland.  New Zealand have as good as eradicated the disease, Australia made good progress and Ireland have done better than us by any metric.  Even much larger populated countries like Vietnam and South Korea have done well and any outbreak there is localised and headline news and can be controlled.

England had the disastrous policy of herd immunity in March which Scotland effectively followed.  The two countries then changed tactics and locked down at the same time.  We don’t know many of the figures for England because the government there just lies but based on UK figures they have made no progress in the three months of lock down.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/

The 7-day moving average of deaths in the UK on March 23 at lock down was 42.  It peaked at 940 and is now 130.  New cases 739 at lockdown, now 1205 a day.  Crisis has been averted, but England is not even back to where it was at the start of lock down, nothing has been improved.

Scotland has a much better story:

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/658feae0ab1d432f9fdb53aa082e4130

145 daily cases at lockdown, now down to 14 daily new cases.  That’s progress.

Ireland is better still:

https://geohive.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/29dc1fec79164c179d18d8e53df82e96

219 new cases in R of Ireland when UK went into lockdown on March 23 now down to single figures.

We know what is needed to eradicate the virus.  The First Minister is now using the word.  We need to stay at home, test test test and trace and isolate and only allow very limited number of people from outside Scotland into the country.  There’s deadlines here.  We want the schools to go back in August and the UK gov will end job support schemes in October.

Scotland now needs to make a policy of eradication.  Close the border with England.  Yes it’s not nice, yes it’s not easy to contemplate.  But it is needed with England being so reckless and giving up attempts to control the virus. The Scottish parliament has powers of health and powers to impose road blocks.  Make flights from abroad really quarantined, keep people in local hotels so they can not leave. There should not be protests with gatherings, this needs strong centrally led government control.  We have seen New Zealand and others do it, we have seen them make mistakes, we know what needs to be done.  Scotland needs to do it and do it now.

I’ve launched the new Yes for EU website.  We are a campaign group set up to promote independence for Scotland and re-entry into the EU.  Come along and join us.