Crisis hits North Sea oil search

Two articles in the last couple of days highlight the impact the current recession is having on the Oil and Gas industry and how it will impact Aberdeen and the North-East of Scotland in particular. The first in the FT is here and the second in the Herald is here.

As usual at the root of the causes is the way this government has such a short-term view on how to tax the industry and the time it takes them then to react to changes. Labour has consistently managed to ensure that companies regard the North Sea as a risky place to invest because of the ever changing taxes and rules that they apply. This is detrimental to the long term investment decisions that the Oil and Gas companies must make to develop new and modified sources of Oil and Gas and drives them to invest in other areas of the world where the fiscal model is more geared to the long term.

A year ago I had this to say on what Gordon was doing to the Oil industry. It seems that what I was saying then has come to pass quicker than even I expected. I reiterate what I said then

This just goes to show that despite our "Jonah" trying to sell himself as a wonderful Leader and former Chancellor is nothing of the sort. He has dug the UK into a deep hole and now has nothing to extract us from it.

Now, in this difficult period, we see the huge impact that this has on the Industry and its future in the UK. Investments dry up quicker than in other areas as risk is lower. As a result of this the government itself loses, not only just now, when the tax revenues are at their most needed, but also in the future, when we will need to pay off the huge debts that Gordon Brown has burdened the country.

It is worth reflecting on the fact that the FT quotes the fact that about 1 in 8 of the 400,000 jobs in the the Oil and Gas Industry may well go in the next two years, the majority centred around the NE of Scotland. If this does come to pass this will be a disaster for the area which has little other sustainable industries to fall back on. Urgent action by the Government is required, unfortunately, having taken and spent the money in the good times, they have nothing now left to fall back on, which gives rise to a pretty bleak outlook for the future of the industry and the whole area.

FT.com / Companies / Oil & Gas - Crisis hits North Sea oil search

Aberdeen Schools - £120m scheme 'funded by Iceland'

The BBC are reporting that the current project to refurbish 10 Aberdeen schools is being funded by money from a collapsed Icelandic Bank.

The Icelandic government seized control of Landsbanki earlier this week. So far the council has not commented on the impact of the Landsbanki collapse on the project or the extent of the bank's involvement in the deal.

Aberdeen City Council signed a public private partnership agreement with a consortium in February. The deal involved the consortium designing, building, financing and operating the schools over 30 years. Under the project, two new secondaries and seven new primaries will be built, with another primary being refurbished.

Aberdeen council are of course so cash strapped they couldn't actually afford to have money invested in the banks unlike other councils in Scotland who may have lost substantial amounts of money.

What the impact of this is on the schools and on current schools, some of which are under construction, remains to be seen.

BBC NEWS Scotland North East/N Isles £120m scheme 'funded by Iceland'

Ministers lay blame for Aberdeen’s cash woes on Liberal Democrats

Happily these days we are no longer living in Aberdeen as the council struggles to deal with a budget that is causing closure and cuts in a number of services, I must say I would tend to agree with the SNP who have said

...blame for the financial troubles at Aberdeen City Council was placed on the former Liberal Democrat administration yesterday.

This prompted claims that the accusation by SNP ministers will split the current Liberal Democrat-SNP coalition leading the city.

Spending watchdog, the Accounts Commission, has called a public meeting to investigate the council’s “precarious” financial position. It follows an Audit Scotland report that criticised staff absence rates, and the failure to introduce planned savings.

The furore over the council’s £27million budget cuts flared up in the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

The SNP in Aberdeen have inherited a precarious position from the Lib Dem's and now have to tighten the strings to get back to a decent financial position. Tough decisions have had to be made which the Lib Dem's preferred to brush under the carpet.


Press & Journal - Home Page - Ministers lay blame for Aberdeen’s cash woes on Liberal Democrats

Liberal Politics -Jury told of 'corrupt councillor'

Apparently a man accused of murder in Aberdeen has alleged that an "unnamed" city councillor was corrupt. Now I wonder who that might be.

Perhaps these stories from a while ago might give a clue.

The story goes on - One of the defendants a Mr Carswell had said during the interview that he did not want to be taken to Aberdeen by police because he did not trust them. Mr Jackson, Carswell's lawyer continued:

"There was a lot of discussion - I am not sure if he is an Aberdeen councillor or not, I don't know who this man is."

Mr Jackson said Mr Carswell, in the interview, went into a lot of questions about whether he was involved in drugs.

"There is a long discussion about him (the unnamed councillor)and where he lives and who his girlfriend is and whether he is corrupt,"

said Mr Jackson and Det Insp Stewart agreed.

"There is discussion about his girlfriend, her name, the fact that he knows this man, the fact he is involved with prostitutes, involved with drugs, a whole discussion about this other man's involvement, I suppose. Quite serious allegations against this man."

Mr Jackson continued:

"He was perfectly willing to speak to you about this public figure in Aberdeen - I don't know him from Adam - but when you are talking to him about what you want to talk to him about he moves into 'No comment' mode at that stage?"

"Or stays completely silent,"

said Det Insp Stewart.

The story continues...

BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Jury told of 'corrupt councillor'

Stupid Thief stole police officer's bag

Some scroats are just not really up to their line of business, as so ably displayed by Fraser Cheyne . Apparently Fraser

A thief, who had just evaded jail, was later caught stealing a police worker's handbag in Aberdeen.Fraser Cheyne, 21, admitted stealing the bag just hours after being placed on probation for a previous theft. Cheyne took it from a Grampian Police employee on a Christmas night out with colleagues but was caught.

Time for a rethink of occupation, perhaps being a Labour Cabinet Minister might suit him, most of them have been promoted beyond their abilities.

BBC NEWS Scotland North East/N Isles Thief stole police officer's bag

Aberdeen Councillor Quits - Update 3

A further update on this story of an Aberdeen Lib Dem Councillor, Raymond Hutcheon, quitting after 20 Years.

According to the local rag, the P&J, a 17 year old girl, Kylie Hufton, appeared on petition at Aberdeen Sheriff Court charged with allegedly conspiring to abduct and assault Councillor Hutcheon.

I'll leave you to ponder on that one.

Both Raymond Hutcheon and Kate Dean, Lib Dem and local Council leader, declined to comment yesterday.

The P&J had some more information on Raymond:

Yesterday, the councillor's home in Corsehill Croft, which has around an acre of land and stands on one corner of a busy crossroads, remained deserted.

The garden was uncared for, littered with broken glass and bits of cable and plastic.

A rusty blue van, a caravan, a trailer and a Ford Escort with no numberplate sat in the back garden and an adjoining yard was a mess of car parts and junk. There was another old van in the yard, emblazoned with Raymond Hutcheon Ltd, which had a dirty mattress inside.

The house was in a dishevelled state. Paint was peeling from the front entrance and glass panes in the back porch were smashed. Dead plants, keys and medicine bottles were scattered on windowsills.

Neighbours were reluctant to criticise Mr Hutcheon but described him variously as "foolish", "naive" and "misled".

One neighbour said there were regular "comings and goings" at the councillor's house during the night and women would get out of cars and taxis would arrive.

Aberdeen Councillor quits - Part 2

I knew this was going to break into something bigger when I blogged on this earlier, it just had that feel to it. It now appears that Councillor Hutcheon was the subject of a possible abduction/assault plot with links to the earlier murder of Robert Mair.

At the moment the now ex-councillor is keeping quiet as to his reasons for resigning.

This is not the first time that Raymond Hutcheon, a councillor for the past twenty years, has been in trouble, five years ago he was warned by the police for Kerb Crawling and then a few months later he had to quit the Governorship of a Local school for children with behaviour problems after a relationship with a former prostititute and drug addict.

Quite how a man with this sort of background can have been a councillor and then on so many committees is quite beyond me. I imagine the Police were most interested in his being on the Police Board, and as for being on the Standards and Scrutiny committee... Words fail me.

The Herald has many details here

Video report here:

The Daily Record reported in 2005:

A KERB-CRAWLING councillor appointed to probe Scotland's sex industry claimed last night: 'I'm the ideal man for the job.'

Raymond Hutcheon, 48, escaped with a warning after being caught by police with a young woman in his van in 2002.

Months later, he was forced to resign from a school board after moving another girl - former vice girl and drug addict Nicola Stewart - into his Aberdeen home.

That relationship has now collapsed.

The Record can now reveal that Hutcheon has been appointed to a Holyrood team to form policy on how to control lap-dancing bars, sex shops and massage parlours.

Last night, the Liberal Democrat Aberdeen city councillor admitted he didn't tell Parliament bosses about his troubled past.

But he insisted it made him the ideal candidate to work alongside police chiefs, legal experts and leading academics.

Hutcheon confessed: 'I was a bit naive in thinking that this wouldn't drag everything back out again. If I had been spineless I would have said 'no' to going on this body and what happened in my private life would not have been revisited.

'Whether it changes the perspective of the others on this working group as to my suitability is down to them.

'All my skeletons are out of the cupboard, in living Technicolor.

'At certain times in the last couple of days I've really thought, 'I'm an idiot - I should have said no and just walked away from it'.'

In 2002, Hutcheon was spotted with a vice girl in his van a few hundred yards from Aberdeen University medical centre, where he works as an illustrator.

He was approached by two police officers but let off with a caution.

Hutcheon was then called to a meeting with the city council's legal director Crawford Langley, where he admitted the incident.

Yesterday, he claimed it was all a 'misunderstanding'.

And he added: 'The person I was speaking to was a drug addict who had to fund her addiction.'

Privately, Hutcheon has insisted he was trying to help the woman as she was the daughter of a constituent.

He claimed: 'If I had said more at the time I am quite sure it would never have been classed as kerb-crawling.'

Just months later, divorced Hutcheon moved a former drug-addicted prostitute into the home he shared with his 91-year-old mother and his two children.

The bizarre set-up shocked many of his colleagues. He was forced to resign from the board of governors at Aberdeen's Oakbank School for disturbed and difficult youngsters.

The revelations also didn't sit well with his position on the council's standards and scrutiny committee, which sets the code of conduct for council members.

Hutcheon yesterday admitted: 'It really was a very difficult time. We were an item. She was staying in my house at that time.

'Our friends were aware of what her problems had been. We were not trying to hide anything.

'My marriage broke up four or five years before that time.

'I was a single bloke in a relationship with a single female who had a dodgy background.

'She was someone who was living in my house with me. She wasn't someone I was keeping hidden away.'

Hutcheon said his priority had been to protect Nicola, who was trying to wean herself off drugs.

Last night, he confirmed the relationship was now over, claiming the publicity surrounding the affair 'certainly didn't help'.

Hutcheon said he hoped he would be still made welcome on the new working group, launched last week by the minister for finance and public service reform,Tom McCabe.

The group, including council and police chiefs, is chaired by Linda Costelloe Baker, the Scottish legal services ombudsman.

They will be given a whole year to come up with a report on massage parlours, sex shops, lap-dancing and pole-dancing bars.

One source said Councillor Hutcheon's experiences made him 'an inspired choice' for the 12--member working party.

And Hutcheon himself admitted: 'What I have is experience of the drugs problem. I have that insight. It's certainly knowledge and information that I think may be helpful.

'Whether I'm still on the committee come the first meeting on April 20, we'll have to wait and see.

Announcing the group, McCabe, said: 'The Executive is committed to ensuring that people working in the adult entertainment industry are protected and that controls on the industry are as robust and effective as possible.

'The working group will review the scope and impact of adult entertainment in Scotland and make recommendations to Ministers on the way forward.'

But leading Tory MSP Bill Aitken said: 'This must be very embarrassing for the Scottish Executive. Clearly they did not research Councillor Hutcheon's background.

'I doubt if his fellow working group members will be overly delighted at some of his comments.

'I daresay this guy's being upfront about his past but it leaves the adult entertainment working party looking a bit risible.'

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: 'Membership of the working group reflects a diverse range of interests.

'The differing backgrounds of members will help the group in its work to review the industry.'

BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Kidnap probe as councillor quits

Aberdeen Councillor resigns after search

BBC reports a Lib Dem councillor in Aberdeen has resigned after Police searched his house on Monday.

Apparently he tendered his resignation this morning.

The search was in connection with the death of Robert Mair.
Police were apparently looking for his car and dog after his body was discovered. These were found over the weekend.

Councillor Hutcheon served on a number of sub-committees including Drugs and Alcohol Task Group, Grampian Joint Police Board and Standards and Scrutiny.


BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Councillor resigns after search