An ill wind blows as the surge of turbines stirs fears of silent danger to our health, Daily Express

TENS of thousands of Scots may be suffering from a hidden sickness epidemic caused by wind farms, campaigners have warned.

The Sunday Express can reveal that the Scottish Government has recently commissioned a study into the potential ill effects of turbines at 10 sites across the country.

More than 33,500 families live within two miles of these 10 wind farms – which represent just a fraction of the 2,300 turbines - already built north of the Border.

Hundreds of residents are now being asked to report back to Holyrood ministers about the visual impacts, and effects of noise and shadow flickers from nearby wind farms.

Campaigners fear that many people do not realise they are suffering from ailments brought on by infrasound – noise at such a low frequency that it cannot be heard but can be felt.

One such person is Andrew Vivers, an ex-Army captain who has suffered from headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, raised blood pressure and disturbed sleep since Ark Hill wind farm was built near his home in Glamis, Angus.

Mr Vivers, who served almost 10 years in the military, said the authorities had so far refused to accept the ill effects of infrasound despite it being a “known military interrogation aid and weapon”.

He said: “When white noise was disallowed they went on to infrasound. If it is directed at you, you can feel your brain or your body vibrating. With wind turbines, you don’t realise that is what’s happening to you.

“It is bonkers that infrasound low frequency noise monitoring is not included in any environmental assessments. It should be mandatory before and after turbine erection.”

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Further reading:

REVEALED: The 'hidden’ peril of wind turbines that catch fire

‘Out of control’ SNP litter Scotland’s landscape with wind farms

Scottish independence: FM stands firm on currency, The Scotsman, Updated

ALEX Salmond is standing his ground and refusing to name a Plan B for Scotland’s currency after independence, despite mounting criticism of his leadership and unprecedented pressure from his opponents.

Amid growing unrest among his own supporters and a slump in the polls, the First Minister is refusing to back down on his policy, which will be given a final seal of approval by his hand-picked group of economic advisers next week.

Last night there was no sign of the issue going away when leaders of the three opposition parties at Holyrood wrote to Salmond demanding that he sets out a Plan B, arguing that his proposal for a formal currency union with the rest of the UK is “impossible”.

Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have said an independent Scotland will not be entitled to insist on a formal currency union – sharing the pound and the Bank of England with the rest of the UK.

Salmond’s failure to deal with Alistair Darling’s criticisms of his currency plans during last week’s STV televised debate has led to discontent within the Yes movement and support for independence falling in the polls.

His display has also encouraged the No campaign to concentrate even more of its efforts on attacking his currency plans, sensing a fatal flaw.

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Further Reading here:

The Five Tests for a Currency Union

Bill Jamieson: Shedding debt is financial suicide

“An independent Scotland would keep the pound because it’s our currency and it would be in the interests of the rest of the UK to agree to currency sharing. But if the rest of the UK won’t agree, an independent Scotland would punish it by repudiating its pro rata share of UK debt.

For the avoidance of doubt, Scotland’s Finance Secretary John Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland last week that failure to agree a currency union would “absolve the Scots of a £120 billion share of UK debt, which translates into an annual cost of £5bn a year”.

There are other things into which this would “translate”, as Angus Armstrong of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research pointed out last week. If it is this easy to walk away from debt obligations, secessionist movements in Europe would jump at the precedent. How might Scotland’s EU application stand then?

Yes, it would remove a hefty burden from our shoulders. But an independent country that began life with debt repudiation would find it could not raise money in international markets without lenders demanding substantially higher interest rates. Scotland’s credit rating would be rock bottom.”

The Fiscal sustainability of an independent Scotland

Polly Toynbee: Scotland remains Europe's basket case for health inequality showing real marker for poverty

“Scottish politicians seem as unwilling as Westminster to tell voters they must pay Scandinavian taxes if they genuinely want a social democratic future…. Are the people of Scotland genuinely willing to tax themselves towards social democracy?”

Beyond the Scottish Independence Question, Looking at a Greater Devolution in The United Kingdom, A Perspective

The cars with a certain 'je ne sais quoi' take to the track at Le Mans - French track hosts 2,500 Citroens, the ultimate Gallic vehicle.

Thousands of French car enthusiasts gathered from around the world for an event to celebrate classic models produced by automobile manufacturer Citroen.

These pictures show more than 200 2CVs during a parade at 'Euro Citro 2014', on the circuit of Le Mans, western France, today.

In total, almost 2,500 Citroens took part in the event, dedicated to French carmaker Citroen's fans and car owners.

When it was first manufactured in 1948, the Citroen 2CV was launched to appeal to the large number of farmers in France. Nicknamed the 'Tin Snail', it has now become a classic, known for being easy to drive, cheap and simple to maintain.

Also on display are numerous Citroen DS, manufactured from 1955 to 1975 and often named as the most beautiful car of all time

When it was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October 1955, 743 orders were taken in the first 15 minutes of the show and order for the first day reached 12,000.

The event also featured a museum of exceptional models from the company's earliest days and an auction of Citroen cars.

Citroen was one of the first mass-production car companies outside America and was founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroen.

See more here:

We can have the best of both worlds for Scotland | Better Together

We can have the best of both worlds for Scotland | Better Together

In just 40 days we will know the result of the referendum which has put everything but the constitution on hold for the past three years in Scottish politics.

The choice we face on 18 September is not new. We are all experiencing surely the longest political campaign in British history. So what do the remaining 40 days hold?

The so-called game-changers for the Yes campaign: the White Paper; the European elections; the Bannockburn anniversary; the Commonwealth Games; this past week’s debate have come and gone, and yet the game remains largely unchanged.

Increasingly the nationalist narrative seems reduced to claims that their “grassroots movement” will be the key to success despite all objective evidence suggesting this largely consists of a hardy band of activists posing for differing “twitpics” wherever the location, whatever the special interest: Academics for Indy on a Tuesday; Farmers for Yes on a Wednesday; the Radical Independence Campaign on a Thursday. Most recently Sir George Mathewson: perhaps Former RBS Chairmen for Yes. Their “Labour for Independence” group still seems, on inspection, to consist primarily of “SNP Councillors pretending to be Labour for Independence”.

A glorious, flag-waving defence of our kingdom’s union: Whisper it - Britain would be nothing without Scotland... and Scotland will be nothing if conceited Salmond’s in charge Daily Mail

Imagine yourself at a very smart dinner party and the conversation gets round to the issue of Scottish independence. Suppose people whose intelligence and thoughtfulness you’ve long respected, such as Sir David Attenborough and historians Simon Schama and Professor Mary Beard, said they thought that it was in the best interests of Scotland to remain within the United Kingdom rather than going it alone in the world.

Then people who were at the top of their professions, such as the former chiefs of the Defence Staff, Marshal of the Air Force ‘Jock’ Stirrup, Lord Stirrup, and Field Marshal Charles Guthrie, Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, agreed with them, as did the former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Alan West.

At the other end of the table, some of the brainiest people in Europe, including Stephen Hawking and the former Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, wholeheartedly agree.

Wouldn’t you listen very carefully to what they have to say? Especially if historians of the calibre of Margaret MacMillan and Tom Holland, intellectuals of the experience of Melvyn Bragg and Joan Bakewell, actors of the quality of Sir Patrick Stewart and Dame Judi Dench also weighed in, saying exactly the same thing?

Wouldn’t these views be at least worth considering very profoundly? Not if you’re someone of the vanity and self-regard – or perhaps by now the sheer desperation – of Alex Salmond.

The Yes campaign has sneered at the opinions of some of the most profound thinkers and intellectuals of our day who have just written a joint letter opposing Scottish independence, simply because they were joined on the page by a number of TV celebrities, comedians and social gadflies who were asked to join the 200-strong list.

Read more here:

Further Reading

Beyond the Scottish Independence Question, Looking at a Greater Devolution in The United Kingdom, A Perspective

Alex Salmond threatens to default on share of debts

"Economists warned that a debt default would wreck the country’s reputation for fiscal responsibility."

Vicar of Baghdad: We need military action NOW Daily Mail

  President said the speed of the Islamic State advance was surprising, and there is no quick fix for the problem

  But was definitive that U.S. would not be dragged back into ground confrontations in the country

  U.S. military sources revealed that more strikes had been made against IS mortars and convoys

I have just returned from a secret visit to Qaraqosh – once the largest Christian town in Iraq, but no longer.

Today, Qaraqosh stands 90 per cent empty, desecrated by the gunmen of the fanatical Islamic State terror group now in control. The majority of the town’s 50,000 people have fled, fearing that, like other Christians in this region, they will be massacred.

The militants, in a further act of sacrilege, have established their administrative posts in the abandoned churches.

My visit, under the noses of the gunmen, was frightening – but that is nothing to the terror of the poor souls left behind.

Since I went to St George’s Anglican church in Baghdad in 2003 – the only Anglican church in the city – I have seen countless terrible things. Many of my congregation have been killed or mutilated in the years of violence.

But I have never witnessed anything on the scale, or which has affected me quite so dreadfully as on this visit to the north of Iraq.

In the nearby city of Irbil, I found many of those Christians who had fled. Some 30,000 refugees are packed into the Kurdish capital, forming a new Christian suburb.

I spoke to one woman who had survived the massacres in Qaraqosh. She had a bandaged left hand. When IS soldiers could not remove her gold wedding ring, they had simply hacked off her finger. She wept as she told me.

Comment

Please remember to prayer for Canon Andrew White and our fellow believers in Iraq,  Today in the west we can go to Church in relative safety,  but  our fellow believers in Iraq are being attacked and murdered by Islamic fundamentalists because they're Christians.

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Further Reading:

MAURICE GLASMAN: This is a battle for civilisation... the UK cannot remain neutral

  Islamic State fanatics seize towns and tell terrified Yazidi 'Become Muslims by noon today... or we kill all of you'

War victims flee back to Syria as refugee camp in Lebanon is burned to the ground by invading Islamic State fighters

Bombing in Iraq could last weeks, says Obama as U.S. launches air strikes... but he insists there will be no boots on the ground

'We have no plan B': Alex Salmond admits he has no back-up plan if an independent Scotland was not allowed to keep the pound. Daily Mail

  First Minister made admission in an open letter to voters in today's Sun

  'It implies settling for second best', he said, insisting Scots can keep pound

  But his plan is contested by all three main political parties in Westminster

  Ed Miliband reveals he will campaign against currency union in 2015 election

Alex Salmond has admitted there is no acceptable 'Plan B' if an independent Scotland is barred from using the British pound. The First Minister said dropping the pound 'implies settling for what's second best' - but still insisted there will be a deal on a currency union with the rest of the UK.

His admission came in an open letter to voters setting out why he has not yielded to calls to disclose a back-up plan, if his favoured option of sharing the pound and the Bank of England fails.

The letter, published in the Sun, declared: 'It is revealing that our opponents in the No camp like to talk about a "Plan B" on currency.

'It's revealing because it says it all about what they think of Scotland.

'Plan B implies settling for what's second best. And neither myself, my colleagues in the SNP, or the wider Yes campaign will ever settle for second best for Scotland.

Read more here:

Further Reading and Insight

Beyond the Scottish Independence Question, Looking at a Greater Devolution in The United Kingdom, A Perspective,