Deposit return scheme canned

[GulesMeansRed]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65836297

Common sense appears to have prevailed, and all parts of the UK will be introducing some sort of scheme at the same time in 2025. Green Lorna whatsit not impressed.

How much has this all cost us?

Apparently the major cost has been borne by business but of course ScotGov has paid for the admin/civil servants preparing the plan. Coca cola are thinking of suing I believe.
Daresay Lorna's 95K paypacket eases the sting just a touch

It was a good idea in principle, but badly implemented. The requirement for manufacturers to register products was insane. Why they didn't just copy the way Finland does it I don't know.

The radio phone in the other day had a string of industry people saying it was doomed from the start, that they were telling them all the problems and ministers didn’t listen. It’s beyond amateurish that Scot gov pressed ahead with this without having the market exemption in place, likened to building a pub when you’re not sure you’ll qualify for a license. Of course industry will sue, they’re 10s or even 100s of millions out of pocket because if this shambles.

I don’t know whether this was another deliberate attempt to manufacture conflict with Westminster or just industrial scale incompetence, but either way it’s the level we’ve come to expect from Scot gov. It’ll be us that pays through taxation though when industry sues.

Yes it's a good idea in principle, which is why the rest of the UK is considering a similar scheme. But rather than timing the Scottish scheme to start at the same time as England, Wales and N Ireland (because that would be sensible), the Greens pressured the Scot Gov into being first, without having the savvy to realise the implications for business.

This all comes back to few of the Greens having had proper jobs. Most have made a career in environmental and social "campaigning". And then you have Ross Greer, whose career is school, and being a Uni drop-out.

How the Greens are able to exact so much power I will never understand.

I don't think it's even a good idea in principle. People will still recycle very little when out and about, as it won't be worth the faff for 20p, and the faff you have to go to to recycle stuff consumed at home is ridiculous.

Part of my job has been to look at current and potential consumer behaviour in terms of recycling and the whole thing is full of flaws.

By 2025 there will hopefully be a new govmt in place so I'm hoping the whole thing is kicked into touch.

Ha. I'm reminded of the gender recognition fiasco - also driven by the Greens, and also a disaster in legislative/implementation terms whatever one thinks of the actual policy.

Feels like Scotland need to improve their policy and parliamentary game quite significantly. Would help if they had a second chamber to scrutinise boring yet essential details.

Yep, more badly thought out policies - just like all the anti-landlord stuff.

The Greens are utterly shambolic.

Robin McAlpine (pro-indy blogger) has a lot to say about the poor governance in Scotland, from the arse-covering civil service/politician cabal, to the secrecy of the Sturgeon era, to the lack of proper recording of ministerial meetings (sometimes with no notes taken at all) and the complete absence of consequences for mistakes. Lorna Slater should never have been given the power she was, but I still doubt she'll have to resign over such a monumental cockup. His latest post concerns how Scot gov is making the same mistakes over and over, leading to a string of major infrastructure failures (hospitals, schools, trams, you name it). He makes the point that it's so common here we've come to accept it as routine, but it isn't normal anywhere else - we're just really bad at it. It's hard to know where to start, but devolution needs a major overhawl. The civil service needs to be fully independent without vested interests, the ministerial team need to be more professional in how they conduct business (including properly minuted meetings so that the origin of every decision can be traced back), and we desperately need a second chamber to try and prevent so much bad law making it on to the books. The sheer volume of bad law and incompetence is absolutely staggering.

I met someone recently who is Scottish and moderately senior in his profession, who said that one of the problems is that Scotland is a small country so lots of people in power knew each other at university etc so it has become very cliquey without proper challenge.

I don't know if this is true, but given the issues a fairly small clique of Bullingdon twats have caused in England I think it's quite possible.

Michael Glackin mentioned in The Times that if Scotland were a local council in England it would have been placed in special measures by Westminster by now over the way it has been allowed to mismanage public money without being challenged .