Kenny MacAskill

THE idea that the newly announced energy price cap is some great munificence is absurd.

Ireland, with fewer advantages than Scotland, has achieved so much more over recent years: its economy’s far stronger than ours, its growth’s greater than that of the UK and poverty is less harsh for its people than for ours.

The big political issue at Westminster was the arrest of demonstrators at the coronation events in London. I literally headed for the hills with my dog as, whilst I respected the Queen, the time has now come for a republic. London resembled Ruritania with its flags and bunting. No expense seemed spared but, meanwhile, hunger and homelessness increase.

I WAS sorry to miss the John P Mackintosh lecture but commitments precluded it.

THERE’S a cost of energy crisis that’s not gone away and that’s now compounded by a cost of food crisis. A Parliamentary debate on the cost-of-living crisis allowed me to detail the shocking extent of food poverty in East Lothian.

THE weather is improving, and lengthening days mean that lights and heating can be turned down. But, for many, they have hardly been on – and for some not at all. The energy crisis remains.

SCOTLAND is energy rich but many of our folk are fuel poor, I’ve written on many an occasion. But it’s so huge and so vital that it’s necessary to keep saying so.

NEWS of another bank closing is a blow. This time it’s RBS in Tranent but it follows in a long list across every town and by all the major banks in East Lothian.

SPRING has arrived and the light nights and better weather are welcome, but the energy crisis still remains.

WHILST household budgets are tightening, that of the military is increasing – £2.4 billion in military aid to Ukraine already and the percentage of GDP to be spent on defence increasing.