Our Man in Holyrood: Though we are all doing what we can to help Ukraine MSP Fergus Ewing says 'we must all hope for a resolution of this dreadful war'
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The appalling actions of Putin’s forces in Ukraine rightly dominate the news and our thoughts.
I must applaud efforts of people here in Scotland and throughout the UK to help those refugees who have had to flee their homes, leaving most of their family behind.
Scotland has before taken in refugees.
Indeed, my mother Winnie, who is 92 now, recalls that in her class in primary school in Battlefield, Glasgow, there were some children of Jewish families who had to flee Nazi Germany in the thirties after the vile regime there began its long persecution.
Of course, many of these children made Scotland their lifelong home and contributed enormously to society life and the country.
It is heartening to see many of our children in schools wanting to help and doing so in various ways.
We must all hope for a resolution of this dreadful war – one which is being pursued by a despotic leader who has no regard for humanity and has engaged in what are being widely described by commentators present in Ukraine as war crimes.
The verdict of the newspaper headlines on the Chancellor’s budget was basically: “Is that it?”
A rise in National Insurance was joined by a raise at the level at which National Insurance is paid.
He giveth with one hand and taketh with the other!
The main driver of inflation, now at seven per cent, is energy prices.
These have risen before the Ukraine war, and risen for one pretty simple reason.
Over the past decade there has been insufficient investment to develop new oil and gas fields to replace depletion. Thus supply no longer matches demand.
Of course we are committed to net zero by 2045.
But to get there we will continue to need oil and gas to fuel our homes and businesses, and to deliver the means of storing carbon in depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
My fear is that, unless global supply rises to meet demand, high fuel prices will be here for some time to come.
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