Sir, – Why are petrol prices still around £1.80 per litre when the price of oil is now below $100 a barrel?
In 2013 the oil price averaged about $120 a barrel and petrol averaged about £1.39 a litre.
A large part of the answer is the GBP/USD exchange rate. In 2013 the average exchange rate was £1 = $1.56. Today it is £1 = $1.21.
Putin and the pandemic are routinely blamed for the cost of living crisis, at least by the cabal in control of the UK Government and their cheerleaders in the press. However, the reality is that since the Brexit referendum the pound has tanked.
This has had a huge impact on the cost of imported goods and energy, fuelling inflation.
It has made our exports cheaper, so we should sell more. However, the bold brexiteers are intent on poking our biggest trading partner in the eye with a sharp stick over the Northern Ireland protocol.
Project Fear has turned out to be Project Reality and it is the people who will pay for it through cuts in the real value of their wages and pensions.
As a secondary point I would encourage all EE readers to boycott Shell and BP and Esso service stations. These are typically more than 10p per litre more expensive than supermarkets.
They produce the crude, refine it, and sell it. They have the most scope to moderate the end product price as they are just moving money from one pocket to another (usually based on which pocket will pay the least tax). These companies are Robin Hood in reverse and the public should boycott them and put them in the dustbin of history.
G Duncan, Stonehaven.
Blanket peat cannot act as ‘sponge’ to help prevent flooding
Sir, – I was interested to read Prof Davy McCracken’s piece (Farming, August 6) on Scottish soils research but was surprised by the lack of understanding of peat.
Catotelm peat is permanently saturated without any significant water flow through it; within it, capillary action is a greater force than gravitational drainage, which is why blanket peat forms in the first place.
The whole mass is supported by capillary action.
Hence, blanket peat cannot be seen as a “sponge” which stores water in wet periods and releases it in dry periods; the water within the catotelm is held in place.
Blanket peats are not good, therefore, for flood mitigation, the catotelm peat being in effect the same as rock in this respect.
On the subject of peat, another oft-repeated error is the claim (made in this instance by WWF) that “22% of Scotland is covered by blanket peat bog and this is 10% of the world’s total”.
And in another piece puffing their contribution to peatland restoration in the Flow Country: “The Flow Country holds 5% of the global peat resource.” A second’s thought is all that’s needed to realise that’s manifest rubbish.
The global peatland area is some 423 million hectares; Scotland’s is 1.9 million hectares or thereabouts. According to the James Hutton Institute, Scotland’s peat stores about 1.620 million tonnes of carbon.
Peat in the Congo Basin alone covers 145 million hectares and stores more than 30 billion tonnes of carbon (Dargie et al, 2017).
Unfortunately, both the above canards have been repeated so often without being called out that they are now accepted without question.
Rhoderick Noble, Castle Terrace, Ullapool.
Sunak has nous to be next PM
Sir, – With the Bank of England forecasting a recession and inflation at a 40-year high, this country will need a new prime minister who can think on their feet and that individual is Rishi Sunak.
When he took the role of chancellor he was thrown in at the deep end with the arrival of the pandemic, many an individual would have floundered.
Instead he rose to the challenge with the creation of the furlough scheme and other business support.
These schemes were devised in a matter of days, not weeks or months, and they saved many a livelihood and allowed our economy to recover faster than other countries’.
Having seen the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality sector he created “eat out to help out”. Had it not been for this scheme many hospitality businesses would have gone to the wall.
He then also agreed to cut VAT for these businesses knowing they had suffered more than most.
Away from the pandemic and having been one of those who voted to leave the EU, he has overseen the creation of “freeports” and you only need to look to Teesside to see the benefits of these and how they go towards this government’s levelling up agenda.
Mr Sunak has also been honest to say the government can’t fix every problem and while it might be so tempting to have tax cuts just now, this will only increase inflation and result in higher borrowing which in turn will increase government debt which is already at wartime levels.
Better to get inflation down and then cut taxes.
If anyone can improve the economic situation of this country it is Mr Sunak who more than proved himself as a chancellor and has the makings of an excellent prime minister.
Mhairi E Rennie, Finlayson Street, Fraserburgh.
Dons need quality to be best of rest
Sir, – Despite the influx of new players, Dons manager Jim Goodwin says more may be on the way as what is needed is “more quality.”
Unless he has the luck of the Irish, he will not get that for £100,000.
The word “quality” brought to mind that in 2016 the Reds did have in their ranks, albeit on loan, a teenager from Norwich City called James Maddison who displayed class beyond his years. Who can forget his wonder strike that brought last-minute victory over Rangers?
His tenure at Pittodrie was always going to be short and now his present club Leicester City have turned down a bid of £40 million from Newcastle.
If only Goodwin could unearth another such gem, even if only for a season’s loan and not from a fellow Scottish Premier club.
Has there ever been a period when teams at the top of the Scottish football pyramid have been so lacking in quality?
Within the last couple of weeks, Motherwell were beaten home and away by the Irish side Sligo Rovers in the Europa Conference League qualifiers.
Celtic, with the stronger squad, or Rangers – despite two of last season’s top performers moving to pastures new – will be this season’s champions.
We Dons supporters who suffered so much last season can only hope Goodwin can find his longed-for touch of quality to top the remaining list of also-rans and entry to Europe as opposed to Europe, the latter reserved for the “big boys” to further boost their bulging bank balance.
The widening gap between rich and poor in society has spilled over into the world of football. The game in Scotland is firmly in the grasp of the latter.
Ivan W Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
Deveney misses Sturgeon’s flaws
Sir, – Catherine Deveney says Liz Truss is wrong to call Nicola Sturgeon an attention seeker (The Press and Journal, August 5) and should respect the first minister.
However, a couple of weeks ago, Sturgeon fired the first salvo when asked who she would prefer as prime minister and the answer was an insulting: “They are both as bad as each other.”
I can only surmise this retort had escaped Catherine Deveney, as well as the numerous appearances of Ms Sturgeon having selfies at the COP26 climate event in Glasgow.
It appears the first minister’s centre stage presence at the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations with the UK’s great and good – whilst craving to break away from the Union – had also been missed by the writer.
Next it was The Open golf for more selfies, followed by an opportunistic self-invite to host the Eurovision song contest on behalf of the UK next year – again, at the exact same time she wants to split from the UK if her poorly-supported call to have a second independence vote is approved.
This is proof that Liz Truss had not used insane rhetoric, as Deveney claims, when she rightly concludes in my opinion the first minister does like to hog the limelight.
Or, more politely, be an attention seeker – which in itself is hardly a slur, but a fact.
Angus McNair, Clochan, Buckie.
Electric shocker
Sir, – Back in the mid seventies I remember reading in the P&J/EE about Scotland’s hydro system which was estimated to be paid for by the end of the century, with the wonderful news that electricity would be free, with only operating and maintenance costs.
I cannot understand why electricity is so expensive seeing that the above hydro system coupled with wind farm generation should be supplying all of our electricity needs.
If all of electricity produced is going to the National Grid, it means an awful lot of money is being made by a very few people while the majority suffer unfounded price rises.
I don’t see where “global” prices, which are what we hear about continually, come into play.
JN, Bridge of Don.
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