David Maddox: Who turned the lights on?

There is an international conference on climate change going on in the main chamber at Holyrood today chaired by Louise Batchelor (pictured right), a former BBC environment correspondent who was known at the Corporation as "the Tree Fairy" for her fondness of doing stories on saving trees from chainsaws.

But one speaker has noted that while people from around the world have been blethering on about saving energy to tackle the problems of climate change, he has been "blinded" by the vast array of lights on in the chamber even though "it is a sunny day."

A slightly embarrassed Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, who is also chairing the meeting, had to explain that the lights were needed for the live broadcast and podcast of the event.

"Otherwise we would all seem to be sitting in darkness," he added.

David Maddox: Who turned the lights out?

There was a members debate this evening to support the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour 2009, which aims to encourage millions of people worldwide and across Scotland to switch off their lights for an hour at 8.30 pm on Saturday 28 March 2009, as an act of awareness on climate change and the need to tackle it.

The debate this evening was led by one of the promising new Nationalist MSPs Shirley-Anne Somerville (pictured top right), who represents the Lothians, which has a certain irony to it. This is because, as contacts in both Labour and the Conservatives have pointed out, the SNP, in their view seem intent on turning the lights out permanently in Scotland.

The thrust of the (well worn) argument is that the SNP's obsession with renewable energy from wind, wave and sun and outright opposition to nuclear will leave Scotland without a stable base supply of power. Only time will tell who is right, but if the SNP are wrong then the results could literally send Scotland back to the dark ages.

But the fear of "the lights going out" is hardly a new one to throw at voters. Tony Blair and Labour suggested all sorts of cataclysmic outcomes if the SNP took power in Holyrood. However, after almost two years we are yet to see the four horsemen of the Apocalypse descend on the country.

No doubt Labour remembered well how the idea of turning the lights out managed to put off supporters in 1992 with the infamous front page of The Sun on election day (pictured bottom right), although in that case it was the last person to leave the country who was being asked to press the switch.

David Maddox: Who rules the waves?

It may be a coincidence that Holyrood has at last been given control of the seas around Scotland, but today's fight has been over its waves.
Iain Gray, Labour's leader in Holyrood, put out a press release at 1.06pm telling Alex Salmond that his £10 million Saltire Prize for the first company to successfully harness Scotland's wave power was "not enough." For those who need reminding this is the prize the First minister launched with great fanfare at the National Geographic Society when he was in America for Scotland Week.
Mr Gray - who was so keen to push his message that he had it sent out again at 1.43pm just to make sure journalists hadn't missed it - demanded that the Scottish Government also sets up a £40 million fund for Scotland's wave and power industry as asked for by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME). Apparently Labour in 2006/07 set up the Wave and Tidal Energy Scheme which gave out grants worth £13.9 million and this was then wound up by the Nationalists when they came to office.
Normally, the SNP respond quickly to such attacks, but their response this time took four hours with the lines accusing Mr Gray of "carping" and "making himself look ridiculous."
SNP MSP Rob Gibson is quoted as saying: "Under the 8 years of a Labour-led Executive - during which Iain Gray was a minister - nothing was done to incentivise Scotland's massive marine renewables potential.
"Labour barely scratched the surface. They were and are split from top to bottom on nuclear, and unable to embrace Scotland's clean, green energy potential."
Surprisingly, he forgot to mention Labour's support for nuclear power, but that will no doubt come up another day.