THE Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is delayed till October 2025. It’s all the Scottish Government’s fault, isn’t it? They don’t have “the bottle”, according to one daily red top trumpeting the pause for DRS. This story will be allowed to run and run, as small companies selling bottles and plastics etc will claim “foul” amid gnashing of teeth and sharpening of pens, harking back to the Dickensian quill.
Is this a fair analysis? Some may think so, others differ. How would we, the general public, make an objective analysis of what’s happened?
We can wait for a government, UK or Scottish, inquiry or we can read informative newspaper articles covering the timeline of the events, where the Deposit Return Scheme was brewed up then distilled and aged in casks awaiting bottling.
READ MORE: Firms may sue Scottish Government over deposit return scheme delay
This week the industry giants got their way, as they lobbied UK Government because the cost of the DRS was to be moved back onto the producer rather than the consumer through local taxation.
According to Gove and Jack, the UK DRS scheme will roll out without glass. Jack’s comment that the Scottish system was going to use the ground glass for road resurfacing was found to be a falsehood, in that 90% would be melted for reuse in glass manufacture.
I am sceptical, as the UK system is not even defined yet. A consultation has taken place and the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is analysing the feedback from businesses.
The Minister for Circular Economy in Scotland has proposed that Scotland could have been the basis for the future UK system, as a pilot for the UK, and knocking the “rough edges” off the process before being deployed UK-wide.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf faces parliament grilling as DRS shelved
Do you remember the poll tax? Imagine deploying any DRS in greater London with a population of close to nine million people, twice the size of Scotland. Remember the riots in England over the poll tax?
The UK Government will change in 2025, and when a new team arrives in Whitehall, all bets are off. Whilst the current UK Government states that glass is exempt, the next government could and probably should reconsider this decision.
Scotland represents less than 10% of the population of the UK, and any Union that cannot cope with this small group taking a different approach is less than useless.
Cross-Border transactions are something we Scots have had to deal with for many years – Scottish pound notes not being accepted in England is one.
Alister Jack will not be present after 2024 – it is his last act of getting his boot in to the Scottish Government.
Alistair Ballantyne
Angus
READ MORE: Lorna Slater’s approach to bringing in Deposit Return Scheme was naive
THE news that the DRS scheme is to be delayed is very disappointing; I was hoping the Scottish Government would have had the courage of its convictions and pressed ahead despite the involvement of perfidious Albion, and called their bluff. The question is what is next on their hit list?
To have this level of interference from the UK (English) government shows that independence is now vital if we are to have a decent way of life and not be beholden to commercial interests above the common people.
Craig Evans
via email
THE UK Tory government does not respect devolution nor Scotland’s long history, internationalist outlook and distinct social aspirations.
When all the propaganda fails to cover Britain’s decline, and the poorest in society are compelled to manage even more of the financial burden of that deterioration, the Tory fall-back position is to promote cooperation with other political parties to cover their own ideological intransigence and to encourage the media to point the finger of blame at those parties. This is the same political party that is so strongly driven by dogma that in practice it refuses to have any meaningful discussions with other political parties except as an absolute last resort.
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The Scottish DRS bill, supported by all the political parties with the inclusion of glass, was passed before the UK Internal Market Act (which effectively superseded the “framework” that encouraged dialogue with the devolved governments), so the onus should have been on the UK Government to help find a way to accommodate the bill rather than effectively overrule it, on behalf of England, with a last-minute change to exclude glass from the DRS (contrary to the Tories’ own manifesto commitment). Of course, with its refusal to accept “Scotland’s place in Europe” as a basis for discussion on Brexit, the writing was on the wall for devolution, never mind for an independence referendum in accordance with parliamentary democracy in Scotland.
Those who misguidedly thought that devolution could be a long-term governmental solution to meeting the ambitions of the people of the north must think again in the realisation that either they must support self-determination or accept that Scotland’s long history as an independent nation, which generations fought and died for, is to be irrevocably terminated and our children will be born into a broken Union where they will have little or no say in a destiny which may be determined at the whim of their southern masters or their loyal servants such as a “de facto governor” in the mould of Alister Jack.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
SO Sandesh Gulhane thinks Scotland is not an attractive place to live? It seems to me that somebody who has volunteered to stay in this country, act as physician to a football club, join a political party and seek election to the Scottish Parliament is, to say the least, confused. If Scotland is not an attractive place to live, why is he still here? Are his previous domiciles of London, Birmingham and Newcastle not calling out to him to return? I suspect not.
Les Hunter
Lanark
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