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Electric Scotland News
My Canadian Experience
Completed the November 2025 entry at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_add27.htm
Also made a start of the December 2025 entry at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_add28.htm
It's getting harder to find accurate videos as so many are now being generated by AI systems. I'm doing the best I can to only connect to ones I believe are reliable. For December I've highlighted videos on beef issues between the USA and Canada with other global implications. Also it's hard getting decent information on the F35 and Griffen stories. It seems that Canadians was to go with the Griffen as it's a lower cost, would produce some 10,000 Canadian jobs and is better suited to the Arctic where most of Canadian interest lies. Also not sure how reliable the Rolls Royce story is for the new engine for the Griffen although it makes sense. Another story is the new atomic power station in Ontario where enriched uranium has to come from the USA. That said as Uranium sales to India are now increasing it's possible that it could be sourced from that country although there is no mention of this in the press.
So far I've got videos up for Canada posting a 2.6% GDP boom, pipeline progress, the Griffin with a Rolls Royce engine, Canada reaches deal to participate in E.U. defence procurement program amongst others such as...
The Arctic is Changing and Canada Needs THESE Submarines. This is an interesting video and puts in question the purchase of submarines from Germany or South Korea.
Also added a Patriotic music video "We are the North".
--------
Got this email in and thought I'd share it with you...
I am writing to share with you our newly published report, Fixing Broken Government, which offers a detailed assessment of how Scotland's
system of government is working and the consequences for the country’s economic and social wellbeing.
You can read the report here:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...Government.pdf
The report is based on extensive, non attributable interviews and conversations with senior public servants across Scotland’s public sector. What struck me most throughout these conversations was the remarkable consistency of the views expressed. Everyone knows we have a big problem. Things don’t get done. Across the board, people described a system dominated by short-term political considerations, excessive central control and a culture in which presentation too often takes precedence over delivery. Public sector reform is stalled, and a fiscal crisis is looming. The message was clear - the current system is broken and is not serving the economic or social interests of Scotland and its people.
The report explains how and why this has happened. Some of the issues are specific to the current SNP administration, and rooted in politics. But whoever ends up forming the next Scottish Government will need to get a grip to make devolved government work effectively, whether they want independence or not. This is increasingly urgent as the budget pressures on devolved government increase.
We set out a series of practical recommendations aimed at resetting and repairing Scotland’s machinery of government, looking towards the 2026 Holyrood election. These include a swift, pre-election review to prepare clear advice for any incoming administration, a reduction in the number of Ministers and special advisors in the next Scottish Government, devolution within Scotland to regional and local government to support economic development, resetting the relationships between ministers and public bodies, and between politicians and civil servants and strengthening financial accountability through a more effective Scottish Government Exchequer function.
None of these changes are impossible. Scotland has deep reservoirs of talent and commitment within its public service. What is needed now is clarity, leadership and a focus on doing fewer things, but doing them better.
I hope you find the report useful and thought-provoking. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss the findings further.
With best wishes,
Jim Gallagher
Chair, Our Scottish Future
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
Fraser of Allender takes another bite at the Budget
The apparently tireless Fraser of Allender team are still digesting chewy bits of the Budget. Here they offer their latest titbits of learning. That electric vehicle mileage charge. Is it fair? Will the rail fare freeze: bring passengers short-term savings without improving services? (Scottish Government abolition of peak fares could be a better deal?) What will higher alcohol duty deliver in an era of moderation, higher prices and young people drinking less? Authors João Sousa, Josh Hampson, Brodie Gillan
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2025/11/frase...at-the-budget/
The House Charlie Gray Built
From the Series the Ghosts of Strathclyde
Read more at:
https://annemarieward.substack.com/p...lie-gray-built
Why this Indigenous winter scene is not what it seems
Satirical artist Wendy Red Star is debunking myths and upending clichés about First Nation and Native people. As two exhibitions feature her work, she tells the BBC how she uses "humour as a bridge".
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/...-what-it-seems
Enough campaigning. Is the next Scottish government prepared to govern?
Fixing Broken Government, a latest report by Professor Jim Gallagher of Our Scottish Future will no doubt be dismissed by some as a partisan attack on the SNP Government. That would be a grave mistake. If the SNP hopes to govern Scotland after next May then this report will be essential reading. There are some senior SNP figures who will recognise the accuracy of the critique and concerns expressed, as they have done privately.
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2025/12/enoug...red-to-govern/
Conrad Black: Canada's critical economic and strategic interest in exploiting the Ring of Fire
Doug Ford is right and the companies active in this area are getting close to a mighty bonanza
Read more at:
https://archive.is/fS9Q9
Scottish investor gives Reform UK £100,000 donation
Alan McIntosh has given £100,000 to Reform UK, according to new figures from the Electoral Commission.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politi...nation-5429698
The decline and fall of the British Army
Our soldiers lack the ammunition, combat supplies and medical support to fight a war. This is a major article and well worth a read.
Read more at:
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/decem...-british-army/
Electric Canadian
Construction
Added volume 14 of this publication (1921)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/maga...nstruction.htm
Rod and Gun in Canada
The Outdoor Man's Magazine Volume 6.
You can read this volume at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/magazines/rodandgun.htm
The Island Beautiful
The Story of Fifty Years in North Formosa by Duncan MacLeod (1923) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...fuls00macl.pdf
The Northward Course of Empire
By Vilhjalmur Stefansson with an introduction by Dr. Edward William Nelson (1922) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...00stefuoft.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 30th day of November 2025 - Conversations
By The Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...-conversations
The Beaver Magazine
Added No. 4 Outfit 263 March 1933 (pdf)
You can read this issue at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...rMarch1933.pdf
Electric Scotland
Christian Witness
History of the First Presbyterian Church Gastonia, North Carolina 1882-2005 by Marion A. Ellis (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ness00elli.pdf
Fixing Broken Government
By Prof Jim Gallagher, December 2025 (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...Government.pdf
Good Words 1863
Edited by Norman MacLeod, D.D. (pdf)
You can read this volume at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...63maclrich.pdf
The Families Which Built White Cross, N.C.
And Antioch Baptist Church, 200th Anniversary (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...hbui00macc.pdf
Donald MacLeod of Glasgow
A Memoir and a Study by Sydney Smith, B.D. (1926) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/d...fg0000smit.pdf
Christ and Society
By Donald MacLeod, D.D., Minister of the Parish of the Park, Glasgow, one of Her Majesty's Chaplains (1892) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/C...nd_Society.pdf
A Nonogenarian's Reminiscences of Garelochside & Helensburgh
And The People who dwelt thereon and therein as set forth by Donald MacLeod (1883) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00maclgoog.pdf
Sir Charles Gray
Powerful and effective local government leader. A former railway signalman, he tackled social inequalities in Strathclyde, promoted the arts and improved roads and school buildings.
You can learn more about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ay-charles.htm
Robert Halliday Gunning
Found a short bio which I've added to his page at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ing-robert.htm
Story
A 355-year-old Royal Charter that survived the blitz auctioned for $13m in Canada
The 1670 Hudson's Bay Company Royal Charter, considered among one of Canada's founding documents, has been sold for C$18m ($13m; £9.6m) to two of the country's richest families.
The 355-year-old charter, which granted the Hudson's Bay Company wide-ranging powers over large swaths of what is now Canada, ended up at auction when the corporation filed for bankruptcy over the summer.
The offer by firms owned by the Weston family and David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Reuters, will keep the historically significant document in Canada.
And the charter - once housed in a rural manor in the UK in World War Two during the blitz - will be under shared custody of various Canadian museums and archives.
The bid also includes a C$5m donation to those custodian musuems for stewardship and public education around the document.
A court still needs to approve the final sale.
The Hudson's Bay Company said in a statement on Wednesday that "the Charter will be placed in the care of trusted institutions committed to, among other things, working in consultation with Indigenous communities so the Charter's complex history can be acknowledged, interpreted and shared with all Canadians".
The Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum will have joint possession of the document.
Granted by King Charles II in 1670, the charter vested power to the company, a key player in the powerful continental fur-trade that later became an iconic Canadian department store, to make laws and establish colonies in parts of now modern-day Canada.
Hudson's Bay Company "was able to use the language of this charter to operate as both a corporation and as a government," Cody Groat, assistant professor of history and indigenous studies at Western University, told the BBC.
There were early colonies where it could pass legislation and negotiate treaties with indigenous peoples, he said - "all kind of associated with this initial document, signed by King Charles II".
The charter also served as the legal foundation for the company to sell its North American territories to Canada in 1869, without the consent of the indigenous people living there, according to Mr Groat.
The document itself was initially kept at Windsor Castle then moved to the company's headquarters in London until 1940. During World War Two it was stowed at an estate in Hertfordshire for safekeeping before finally finding a home at the new Toronto headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the 1970s.
Many of the Hudson's Bay Company's archival records were donated to the province of Manitoba in the 1990s, but not the charter.
When the firm, facing massive debts and declining sales, filed for bankruptcy and liquidated all its department stores last summer, there was pressure to have the charter - a valuable corporate asset - somehow kept in the public domain.
"We saw this sustained push-back over time, and we started to see these wealthy families and corporations start making quite sizeable offers to purchase this and then donate it immediately to a public institution," said Dr Groat.
Eventually, DKRT Family Corp, under David Thomson, and Wittington Investments, Ltd, owned by the Weston family, emerged as the successful bidders in Wednesday's auction.
You can read the Charter at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...charterhbc.pdf
Also the...
Report from the Committee on the state of the Hudson's Bay Company 1749
The report embodies papers and evidence placed before the House of Commons (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran.../hbcreview.pdf
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
My Canadian Experience
Completed the November 2025 entry at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_add27.htm
Also made a start of the December 2025 entry at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_add28.htm
It's getting harder to find accurate videos as so many are now being generated by AI systems. I'm doing the best I can to only connect to ones I believe are reliable. For December I've highlighted videos on beef issues between the USA and Canada with other global implications. Also it's hard getting decent information on the F35 and Griffen stories. It seems that Canadians was to go with the Griffen as it's a lower cost, would produce some 10,000 Canadian jobs and is better suited to the Arctic where most of Canadian interest lies. Also not sure how reliable the Rolls Royce story is for the new engine for the Griffen although it makes sense. Another story is the new atomic power station in Ontario where enriched uranium has to come from the USA. That said as Uranium sales to India are now increasing it's possible that it could be sourced from that country although there is no mention of this in the press.
So far I've got videos up for Canada posting a 2.6% GDP boom, pipeline progress, the Griffin with a Rolls Royce engine, Canada reaches deal to participate in E.U. defence procurement program amongst others such as...
The Arctic is Changing and Canada Needs THESE Submarines. This is an interesting video and puts in question the purchase of submarines from Germany or South Korea.
Also added a Patriotic music video "We are the North".
--------
Got this email in and thought I'd share it with you...
I am writing to share with you our newly published report, Fixing Broken Government, which offers a detailed assessment of how Scotland's
system of government is working and the consequences for the country’s economic and social wellbeing.
You can read the report here:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...Government.pdf
The report is based on extensive, non attributable interviews and conversations with senior public servants across Scotland’s public sector. What struck me most throughout these conversations was the remarkable consistency of the views expressed. Everyone knows we have a big problem. Things don’t get done. Across the board, people described a system dominated by short-term political considerations, excessive central control and a culture in which presentation too often takes precedence over delivery. Public sector reform is stalled, and a fiscal crisis is looming. The message was clear - the current system is broken and is not serving the economic or social interests of Scotland and its people.
The report explains how and why this has happened. Some of the issues are specific to the current SNP administration, and rooted in politics. But whoever ends up forming the next Scottish Government will need to get a grip to make devolved government work effectively, whether they want independence or not. This is increasingly urgent as the budget pressures on devolved government increase.
We set out a series of practical recommendations aimed at resetting and repairing Scotland’s machinery of government, looking towards the 2026 Holyrood election. These include a swift, pre-election review to prepare clear advice for any incoming administration, a reduction in the number of Ministers and special advisors in the next Scottish Government, devolution within Scotland to regional and local government to support economic development, resetting the relationships between ministers and public bodies, and between politicians and civil servants and strengthening financial accountability through a more effective Scottish Government Exchequer function.
None of these changes are impossible. Scotland has deep reservoirs of talent and commitment within its public service. What is needed now is clarity, leadership and a focus on doing fewer things, but doing them better.
I hope you find the report useful and thought-provoking. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss the findings further.
With best wishes,
Jim Gallagher
Chair, Our Scottish Future
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
Fraser of Allender takes another bite at the Budget
The apparently tireless Fraser of Allender team are still digesting chewy bits of the Budget. Here they offer their latest titbits of learning. That electric vehicle mileage charge. Is it fair? Will the rail fare freeze: bring passengers short-term savings without improving services? (Scottish Government abolition of peak fares could be a better deal?) What will higher alcohol duty deliver in an era of moderation, higher prices and young people drinking less? Authors João Sousa, Josh Hampson, Brodie Gillan
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2025/11/frase...at-the-budget/
The House Charlie Gray Built
From the Series the Ghosts of Strathclyde
Read more at:
https://annemarieward.substack.com/p...lie-gray-built
Why this Indigenous winter scene is not what it seems
Satirical artist Wendy Red Star is debunking myths and upending clichés about First Nation and Native people. As two exhibitions feature her work, she tells the BBC how she uses "humour as a bridge".
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/...-what-it-seems
Enough campaigning. Is the next Scottish government prepared to govern?
Fixing Broken Government, a latest report by Professor Jim Gallagher of Our Scottish Future will no doubt be dismissed by some as a partisan attack on the SNP Government. That would be a grave mistake. If the SNP hopes to govern Scotland after next May then this report will be essential reading. There are some senior SNP figures who will recognise the accuracy of the critique and concerns expressed, as they have done privately.
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2025/12/enoug...red-to-govern/
Conrad Black: Canada's critical economic and strategic interest in exploiting the Ring of Fire
Doug Ford is right and the companies active in this area are getting close to a mighty bonanza
Read more at:
https://archive.is/fS9Q9
Scottish investor gives Reform UK £100,000 donation
Alan McIntosh has given £100,000 to Reform UK, according to new figures from the Electoral Commission.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politi...nation-5429698
The decline and fall of the British Army
Our soldiers lack the ammunition, combat supplies and medical support to fight a war. This is a major article and well worth a read.
Read more at:
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/decem...-british-army/
Electric Canadian
Construction
Added volume 14 of this publication (1921)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/maga...nstruction.htm
Rod and Gun in Canada
The Outdoor Man's Magazine Volume 6.
You can read this volume at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/magazines/rodandgun.htm
The Island Beautiful
The Story of Fifty Years in North Formosa by Duncan MacLeod (1923) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...fuls00macl.pdf
The Northward Course of Empire
By Vilhjalmur Stefansson with an introduction by Dr. Edward William Nelson (1922) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...00stefuoft.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 30th day of November 2025 - Conversations
By The Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...-conversations
The Beaver Magazine
Added No. 4 Outfit 263 March 1933 (pdf)
You can read this issue at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...rMarch1933.pdf
Electric Scotland
Christian Witness
History of the First Presbyterian Church Gastonia, North Carolina 1882-2005 by Marion A. Ellis (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ness00elli.pdf
Fixing Broken Government
By Prof Jim Gallagher, December 2025 (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...Government.pdf
Good Words 1863
Edited by Norman MacLeod, D.D. (pdf)
You can read this volume at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...63maclrich.pdf
The Families Which Built White Cross, N.C.
And Antioch Baptist Church, 200th Anniversary (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...hbui00macc.pdf
Donald MacLeod of Glasgow
A Memoir and a Study by Sydney Smith, B.D. (1926) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/d...fg0000smit.pdf
Christ and Society
By Donald MacLeod, D.D., Minister of the Parish of the Park, Glasgow, one of Her Majesty's Chaplains (1892) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/C...nd_Society.pdf
A Nonogenarian's Reminiscences of Garelochside & Helensburgh
And The People who dwelt thereon and therein as set forth by Donald MacLeod (1883) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00maclgoog.pdf
Sir Charles Gray
Powerful and effective local government leader. A former railway signalman, he tackled social inequalities in Strathclyde, promoted the arts and improved roads and school buildings.
You can learn more about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ay-charles.htm
Robert Halliday Gunning
Found a short bio which I've added to his page at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ing-robert.htm
Story
A 355-year-old Royal Charter that survived the blitz auctioned for $13m in Canada
The 1670 Hudson's Bay Company Royal Charter, considered among one of Canada's founding documents, has been sold for C$18m ($13m; £9.6m) to two of the country's richest families.
The 355-year-old charter, which granted the Hudson's Bay Company wide-ranging powers over large swaths of what is now Canada, ended up at auction when the corporation filed for bankruptcy over the summer.
The offer by firms owned by the Weston family and David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Reuters, will keep the historically significant document in Canada.
And the charter - once housed in a rural manor in the UK in World War Two during the blitz - will be under shared custody of various Canadian museums and archives.
The bid also includes a C$5m donation to those custodian musuems for stewardship and public education around the document.
A court still needs to approve the final sale.
The Hudson's Bay Company said in a statement on Wednesday that "the Charter will be placed in the care of trusted institutions committed to, among other things, working in consultation with Indigenous communities so the Charter's complex history can be acknowledged, interpreted and shared with all Canadians".
The Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum will have joint possession of the document.
Granted by King Charles II in 1670, the charter vested power to the company, a key player in the powerful continental fur-trade that later became an iconic Canadian department store, to make laws and establish colonies in parts of now modern-day Canada.
Hudson's Bay Company "was able to use the language of this charter to operate as both a corporation and as a government," Cody Groat, assistant professor of history and indigenous studies at Western University, told the BBC.
There were early colonies where it could pass legislation and negotiate treaties with indigenous peoples, he said - "all kind of associated with this initial document, signed by King Charles II".
The charter also served as the legal foundation for the company to sell its North American territories to Canada in 1869, without the consent of the indigenous people living there, according to Mr Groat.
The document itself was initially kept at Windsor Castle then moved to the company's headquarters in London until 1940. During World War Two it was stowed at an estate in Hertfordshire for safekeeping before finally finding a home at the new Toronto headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the 1970s.
Many of the Hudson's Bay Company's archival records were donated to the province of Manitoba in the 1990s, but not the charter.
When the firm, facing massive debts and declining sales, filed for bankruptcy and liquidated all its department stores last summer, there was pressure to have the charter - a valuable corporate asset - somehow kept in the public domain.
"We saw this sustained push-back over time, and we started to see these wealthy families and corporations start making quite sizeable offers to purchase this and then donate it immediately to a public institution," said Dr Groat.
Eventually, DKRT Family Corp, under David Thomson, and Wittington Investments, Ltd, owned by the Weston family, emerged as the successful bidders in Wednesday's auction.
You can read the Charter at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...charterhbc.pdf
Also the...
Report from the Committee on the state of the Hudson's Bay Company 1749
The report embodies papers and evidence placed before the House of Commons (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran.../hbcreview.pdf
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair