Despite Scotland’s booming wind sector, turbines are still routinely paid not to spin. The Ferret unpacks why this happens, what makes it so costly, and what it means for your bills.
There have been hundreds of applications for battery energy storage schemes (BESS) across Scotland. They are part of the Scottish Government’s drive to meet net zero targets but some communities oppose them including villagers in Kintyre.
A senior member of the far right group Patriotic Alternative who gave a speech at an anti-asylum seeker protest in Erskine had a picture of Adolf Hitler in his home, a court was told.
Sam Melia, 33, is on trial this week in England accused of running a far right network called Hundred-Handers from his home in Pudsey, Leeds. He is also accused of using racist stickers to stir up racial hatred.
Melia denies the charges.
Leeds crown court heard, as reported by The Guardian, that the charges Melia faces related to racist stickers he allegedly designed and produced between 2019 and 2021. He is accused of posting them in public places and encouraging thousands of online followers to imitate.
The stickers bore slogans such as “Reject white guilt”, “Nationalism is nurture”, “We will be a minority in our homeland by 2066” and “Diversity – designed to fail, built to replace”.
Sam Melia, of Patriotic Alternative, speaks at a demo against asylum seekers in Erskine on Sunday 5 February, 2023.
On Telegram, where Hundred-Handers had 3,500 followers, Melia used racist slurs about black, Asian and Jewish people, the court was told.
The court also heard police found a book by Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, on Melia’s bedside table and a poster of him in his living room. Police also found posters depicting the Third Reich – the name given to Germany under the Nazis – in his home.
The Hundred-Handers was named after giant creatures from Greek mythology with 100 arms. The group was active in the UK and a number of other parts of the world, the court heard.
The trial continues.
Featured photograph thanks to iStock and Philip Openshaw.Photograph of Sam Melia thanks to Angela Catlin.
Billy is a founder and co-editor of The Ferret. He's reported internationally and from Scotland, and focuses on far right extremism, human rights, animal welfare, and the arms trade. Oor Wullie fan.
Following a sharp rise in far right activity, we’ve spent the last three months attending protests, speaking to activists under threat, and tracking anti-asylum seeker demonstrations across Scotland.
