The Kingdom Of Fife, Scotland

There are approximately 350,000 people and 10,000 businesses located in the Kingdom of Fife, Eastern Scotland. Scotland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Cued Mile Failte

One Hundred Thousand Welcomes

Welcome to the local online magazine and daily resource guide designed especially for residents living in the Kingdom of Fife. Within these pages, you'll discover a growing repository of informative articles about the Fife peninsula and covering a wide range of subjects that affect daily life in the region. Ours is a highly practical approach with a keen eye on the future.

Within these pages, readers will find ideas and suggestions to ease transition into a World of diminishing resources and great waste. In the paragraphs that follow this brief introduction, we explain how FifeServe can benefit the local community in many ways. We're sure you'll discover the unique nature of this new project and how you can contribute and benefit in return. Above all, this is a web site where we encourage radical thought and ideas and where others are freely invited to submit comment albeit subject to basic rules about decency and law.

The Historical Aberation

Practical Solutions

"Men's mighty mine-machines digging in the ground,
Stealing rare minerals where they can be found.
Concrete caves with iron doors, bury it again,
While a starving frightened world fills the sea with grain."

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to see how prophetic these musical lyrics, first written down over forty years ago, has become harsh reality in modern times. Uranium ore, for instance, has been extensively mined and processed to become core components of the nuclear power industry, yet one generation later, we're digging deep holes to house toxic radioactive waste in 'concrete caves with iron doors'. At the same time, and on a daily basis, we're shovelling many tons of waste into landfills and dumping grounds and contaminating large areas of land for centuries to come. We're doing this at a time when the fuel resources that power our modern lifestyle systems are diminishing at an astonishing rate.

In Fife, as elsewhere, nobody is immune from the increasing scarcity of oil and gas. North Sea production of oil and gas peaked in 2000 and has declined ever since meaning imports of these fuels has risen sharply and with dire effect on the value of British currency. The largest consumer of oil is the United States of America and they're in a similar situation. During the 1990s, US oil production was falling at a rate of around 7% while demand rose 3% and thus represented an unsustainable economic situation. In the post millenium period, the US has been compelled to seek oil imports on a greater scale than ever before and from an increasingly hostile and competitive market amd which prefers payment in Euros rather than US dollars.

The international value of pound sterling and the dollar has dwindled by significant degree against most other currencies since that time meaning that Americans on holiday in Fife get far less than they used to. Consequently, we see less American tourists than we used to these days and less foreign tourists than we'd like since the tourist industry is an important part of the Scottish economy. Many jobs are reliant on this and at a time when some European destinations for British holidaymakers may suddenly appear expensive as the value of the pound falls against the Euro. Both Britain and the US have record deficit levels in their economies at the present time with an increasing number of people struggling to make ends meet. For many British families, the amount of cash available for luxuries has diminished in the wake of a post-industrial era when many opportunities and jobs have been exported to foreign shores. The level of personal debt in Britain is at record levels with one in eight people working long hours merely to maintain the status quo and incapable of progressing from their plight on account of low wages and higher costs of living. We've entered an era where British people can work seven days a week yet cannot break the shackles of debt. The phrase, 'working poor' has entered into regular parlance.

On walking through the Kingdom Centre in Glenrothes, it seems like a different World. Here, in this cathedral to modern economics, one can witness great diversity of people while sipping a cup of coffee and eating modest fare costing more than thirty minutes labour after tax on minimum wage levels. On the one hand, there are young people doing jobs without taxation, with high-technology Bluetooth earpieces and flashing lights to show they're part of the future 'Borg' style community. They laugh and joke and seem happy in a society where even the minimum wage favours them against older workers doing the same job and crippled by an unfair taxation system. They ignore the elderly whose pension plans lie in ruin and typically remain dependant upon parental contribution for longer than used to be the case. These days, it seems only those working within government establishments have generous provision for retirement and paid for by those working longer hours to make ends meet. In recent times, I've encountered more beggars, typically young women with a child in tow, looking for money to allegedly buy milk and bread and remain unsure whether their plight is genuine or more likely to put cash in the hands of the local offsales merchant.

Even those serving in armed forces in the defence and service of this country has been relegated to lesser status than politicians! At this time of writing, we're debating whether valiant solidiers from Nepal have a right to live in the UK while permitting thousands of Eastern Europeans to come, work here and abuse the Welfare State to an extent whereby child support cheques are sent directly to foreign addresses.

Walking through the shopping centre illustrates how some things have come full circle and in the shape of a new glossy Brighthouse store where people can acquire household goods without a credit check and pay for them on a weekly basis. It's not a new idea and one that harks back to the 1930s when companies like Rentaset (later called Radio Rentals) offered similar deals on radiograms and wireless equipment. Even as late as the nineteen seventies, it made sense to rent high technology products on account of their inherent poor reliability yet somewhere along the line, these lessons were forgotten. Televisions used to break down several times a year and engineers were fully employed to service them so why is it now, many years later, that people shout loudly when satellite receivers, a remarkably complex piece of equipment, and has faithfully delivered reception from a transmitter some 23,500 miles out in space fails and protest about a service call charge of £65! In many cases, they've been happy to subscribe to many programme channels costing far more and on a regular monthly basis yet the notion of being charged for repair becomes abnoxious and worthy of protest. In their blinkered vision, stuff isn't supposed to break down and they make no provision for the day when it does. The old adage, you get what you pay for' returns to me as I regard the Brighthouse products and realise these are high quality products chosen to ensure lasting value, at least until the last payment has been made. By then, you'll have paid about a third more than purchase price and the poorer less well off are attracted to such shops. The presence of Lidl, Aldi and Brighthouse shops, coupled with charity retail outlets in the High Street, are typical indicators of a sad and broken economy.



coupled

it is actually worth!
.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the satellite television industry




In the 1980s, a number of stores offering similar deals opened in the US but quickly ran into bad press on account of their sometimes violent approach to those in arrears with payments.








blic toilets were closed and where a mother with young child in tow was desperately pleading with shoppers for spare cash allegedly for milk and bread!

We're living at a time when former industrial estates that used to employ thousands of people have been rezoned as trading estates with far fewer workers or else being torn down completely to make way for new housing. Taxation based on income is at the lowest level since it was introduced to cover the cost of the Boer War nearly a century ago. People with second jobs are penalised with higher rate taxation. Civil projects like the Bankhead Road Interchange in Southern Glenrothes remain unfinished while expensive custom built factories like the microchip factory near Dunfermline seems destined to be scrapped and the land made available for housing. The ADC building in Glenrothes was announced with great public fanfare by Henry McLeish and cost millions of tax payers money yet has only served as a temporary distribution centre for Amazon so far. Canon's announcement of creating a new European base represents another example of hollow promises and another 'white elephant' granted to the region.

A recent visit to the local Lidl store exhibited a number of products similar to that made by Thomas Salter in Glenrothes a few decades ago but now made in Italy. Today, the site of that factory has been torn down to create the Falcon Wood housing estate. Crystal's Arena in Glenrothes was a highly respected ice rink where many travelled to from afar yet somehow failed to make sufficient income. Similar comments can be applied to the golf driving range and Astro football ventures that neighboured this property - both of which are now zoned for new housing. The recent planning applications concerning closure of the Fife Sports Institute and Swimming Pool was rightly met with considerable public opposition and halted a ten million pound land grab deal from proceeding. One wonders what might have happened to the college facility next door if this had gone ahead.


At this time of writing, a large part of the Whitehills Industrial Estate is being considered for a new housing estate. and in the wake of planning applications seeking to eradicate the Fife Sports Institute and Swimming Pool in a ten million pound land grab deal so that more houses can be built on the site. New plans for the esplanade part of Kirkcaldy involve a marina for rich-set owning yachts while tearing down the old swimming pool. We're told there will be a newer and better facility serving both Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy but if current examples serve as a guide, it'll be based in Kirkcaldy and represent a pale shadow of what already exists.


It begs the question as to why smaller communities like Portree, Poolewe and Gareloch can have such facilities more successful than those in Fife? Why is it that many communities in Scotland seek what we already have?

In Glenrothes, the five storey flats in Glenrothes are being torn down yet consuming huge areas of land and in the belief that equal tennancy or ownership will somehow offset removal of these eyesores. The open space currently regarded as Tanshall Park may ultimately fall victim to this land grab in the haste to build new houses and without sufficient forethought about who may may be able to afford such properties. One home owner in a block of flats described it described it this way;-

"I bought my flat for twenty-four grand and I'm in my fifties. If compelled to sell then I might be able to rent for five years but what then? Since buying the flat, I've noticed the small cracks and have become aware of neighbours experiencing similar problems. I'm still paying a mortgage but cannot sell the property because of the publicity. In recent times, I've been approached by potential foreign landlords offering lucrative cash deals to sell out and cut my losses. Several neighbours of mine have accepted the deal and moved out. I can't afford to do that!"

Back in the year 1712, Thomas Newcomen, an ironmonger by trade, set about resolving problems of local mines being flooded. His solution involved usage of steam pumps using wood and coal as fuel rather than manpower or animals.

fe aea progressilvely former space is consumed by the desire to pull down flats yet somehow acheive the same living space on the ground. Tearing down five-storey flats in the Tanshall area of Glenrothes seems a good idea but if the
Only














woman, pulling a tartan coloured bag on wheels and struggling against the mild gradiant of the floor, gasping for breath, and clearly in difficulty. On seeing this, I finished up my coffee and offered kindly help. To the day I die, I shall never forget her facial expression and challenge, "Git away wi you! Am auright on my own!"

She relented a few steps later and halted to take deep breaths from an inhalor mechanism, "Am deeply sorry, lad, but I'm an octogenarian and I've nothing left worth stealing. It's just hard enough just getting through another day. I'm just waiting for God!" She smiled as she spoke the latter part.

"I have no plans to rob you," I assured her, "but it seemed to me that you were in some difficulty and a little help back to your car would ease things a little.



pulling





It's little wonder they drive newer and more modern cars than people in their forties and fifties.













the rapid fuel price hikes experienced by many Fife consumers during the early months of 2008 may simply be a bitter taste of worse yet to come.

Whether we like it or not, our modern existence is highly reliant upon complex molecular substances that took millions of years to create and cannot be recreated by artificial means. When supplies of coal, oil and natural gas are exhausted then it means exactly that; no more fossil fuels, but before that time we can naturally expect a high degree of competition to secure what remains and at rapidly escalating prices.

That's where we are now in current times!


Output from North Sea Reserves peaked around the millenium and has fallen back since that time. In the USA, output from wells within the national boundaries were falling at a rate of 7% during the nineties while demand rose 3%. Ten years later, both Britain and the USA are debtor nations in terms of oil and seeking to buy on the World Market at higher prices than existed before. The value of sterling and the US dollar has fallen as a consequence. OPEC currently prefers payment in Euros. In recent weeks, at the time of writing, the value of sterling has sunk below that of the Euro in several countries meaning dearer holidays to these destinations.








The poor value of the US dollar has persuaded many people to seek holiday destinations closer to home.

from holidays in Europe.

Reaching these remaining valuable reserves of oil is thus an important part of the global economy and typically involves pumping steam into deep strata in order to force the remaining oil out and thus involves cost - cost that must be inherently passed upon the eventual consumer and hence the kind of price hikes we are increasingly subjected to on a daily basis. Nobody is immune from these changes! Frankly, it doesn't matter now whether you're young or old, employed or unemployed, rich or poor, own a car or not. The effects concerning fuel and resource shortage is already tapping on your front door!




, and because the central issues of fossil fuel based economies in our modern World will have a profound effect upon our current existence and lifestyles far into the future. Central heating, highly recommended during times of plenty, and where rooms were heated whether used or not, is already part of the problem. Appliances with 'stand-by' functions such as televisions and audio units can consume up to 15% or more energy than devices fitted with a simple on/off switch. The British National Grid Electricity supply system has a typical loss rate of 25% meaning that for every pound expended, some 25p is lost in the distribution system.





Reliance upon home delivery services using the Internet is increasingly an alternative option to shopping but conceals many costs and which must be passed on to consumers.



Public transport is also subject to the vagaries of fuel cost, wages and depreciation. Shopping on the Internet does not offset costs associated with delivery or installation. Services of this kind rely on regular payent from the consumers.

The charges on heating and lighting the local library become a part of local governement expenditure and hence play a part in setting local rates. The same is true for all public buildings including hospitals and in the final analysis require payment from local residents via taxation and rates.
















Thus far, at the time of writing, the effects on our society has been accomodated and partially concealed by national and local governments of differing persauson





Amazingly, it wasn't always this way! For the vast bulk of human history, there was natural balance between population, consumption and waste.



but this changed from the seventeenth century when steam engines, powered by coal, heralded the start of an industrial revolution. Subsequent generations have seen technology and science apparently triumph over many obstacles yet much of this success is not sustainable. Coal, gas and oil lie at the heart of modern life yet all are becoming increasingly scarce and more expensive to attain.

In the United Kingdom, there are few coal mines remaining and competing with imports from abroad. The main use for coal is in power stations but even this is becoming rare on account of pollution. Natural Gas and Oil production from the North Sea peaked around the year 2000 and has been in decline since meaning import and purchase from an increasingly hostile World marketplace. The largest consumer of oil is the United States of America but even this formerly self-sufficient nation is now compelled to buy on the open market with a weakened value of its dollar currency. Back in the early nineties, US oil production was falling at a rate of 7% per annum while demand was rising at 3%. As oil prices rose, American families were forced to make drastic economies and gas-guzzling SUVs and other wasteful cars became devalued. The Ford Motor Company, for one, was completely caught out by this sudden change and were left with many cars on the forecourt that nobody wanted. This expains why one of the mighiest corporations in the World has recorded massive losses in recent years and has been compelled to sell off offshore interests like Jaguar and Land Rover. Ironically, the buyer was Tatta of India who also acquired the European Steel Giant Corus in April 2007 and which included the former British Steel Corporation. The deal is alleged to have saved 16,000 jobs in Britain but where have we heard that story before?

What about the microchip factory located near Dunfermline and which cost taxpayers a fortune to build? Today, there are plans afoot to tear it down and rezone the area for housing development. Not one piece of silicon circuitry has ever left the front door and the money wasted on this project will never be recovered. Do you rember the fanfare and gratitude afforded to Canon when it announced a new European headquarters based in Glenrothes? As part of the deal, the Bankhead Interchange was to be a lavish project with two bridges spanning the A92 dual carriageway in a similar way to the Halbeath Interchange near Dunfermline. Many jobs were promised but relatively few actually appeared and most were low wage. The Bankhead Interchange remains an unfinished project and we could cite others. Even years later, when ADC of Ohio, USA, made similar pledges, a newly built and expensive building appeared but the employment opportunities never came to Scotland. For a short time, it served as a distribution centre for Amazon but has never been used for the purpose for which it was designed.

Who is old enough to remember a time when Nelbarden swimwear was a globally renowned brand and when linoleum flooring was automatically associated with Nairn's of Kirkcaldy? Who remembers the high towers at Methil Docks which lifted rail trucks laden with locally produced coal before tipping it into the hold of a ship bound for foreign soil? Can you remember when the World regarded central regions of Scotland as an electronics mecca and referred to it as Silicon Glen? Were you born in the era when Scotland exported more computers in terms of value than whisky? Not only that, were you here when Scotland made motor cars, televisions, video recorders, steel, ships and much else besides?

Amazingly, it wasn't that long ago!

For the last fifty years, Fife has been losing out in the jobs and employment stakes with only breif moments of exception often fuelled by inward investment and mostly from the USA. It explains why many roads in Glenrothes still carry reference to a prosperous era and when there was a high degree of ill founded optimism about the future. Looking back over the years, and with the considerable benefit of experience and hindsight, we can look around in the present and see where the aberation began and where it is likely to take us in the future. It's not any form of magic, mysticism or wizardry but rather gleaned by attendance within the School of Hard Knocks and acquiring accumulated knowledge from the University of Life!

Exporting employment opportunities, skills and experience abroad has been the way forward allowed by successive governments while permitting record levels of import and economic deficit to accumulate. In response, they introduced a minimum wage while permitting uncontrollable levels of immigrant labour to help support these low levels yet failed to stem the inflationary pressures within the British economy. Today,we have more people working and less unemployed than before yet the taxation income tax revenue at the treasury is less than ever before and despite higher tax rates on second jobs. In the last budget announced in March 2008, the British government announced intention to abolish the 10% tax rate and in doing so, inflicted more taxation on the working poor, some of whom are already working more hours than is typically permitted in many countries of Europe. Partly self employed people are paying two rates of National Insurance! Does this sound like a buoyant economy or even a 'prudently managed' one?

Value of the pound sterling has dropped below that of the Euro in some countries and values concerning the US dollar are even worse. In the last year, we've seen a run on a major bank for the first time in 150 years and 100% mortagages have evaporated into the mists of time. Fuel pump digits now rotate faster on the price scale than those indicating quantity delivered into the tank. Even if you don't own a car then this has a negative effect on your wealth since everything needs to be delivered by road to shops and prices in the shops reflect these increases mostly on account of taxation. Those reliant on home deliveries will also face further charges and the cost of postage has already risen to 36p for a first class stamp! Public transport costs also face these fuel charge hikes and cannot avoid charging more for their services. In January 2008, many people were surprised see domestic fuel prices rise by phenomenal levels and yet, it was always on the cards that fuel price escalation of these levels was likely before 2010.

On a political front, some might successfully argue that invasion of Iraq owed more to oil shortage than any other reason and certainly, claims of weapon escalation to the levels of mass-destruction has never been found or proven. In the wake of this invasion, it is perhaps no accident that the neighbouring oil-producing Iran, whose anti-western stance is well known, agreed to supply China with oil for a minimum period of ten years. Iran has no refineries of its own and relies on neighbours to supply petroleum. By signing up with China, Iran bought a form of immunity from western influence or interferance.

The new oil pipeline from Iraq to the Black Sea is being funded by a consortium of companies headed by British Petroleum and crosses several unstable political regions. Upon completion, it can either link with other pipelines inside Europe or else supply tankers of lesser size to sail to multiple destinations. Tanker size will be limited on account of navigational limits existing between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and if equal supplies are needed then more of them will be needed and with attendant costs to be met in the form of higher prices.

Of course, we need to use less oil but the equation is more complex than simply using less petrol. Oil isn't just a fuel but a highly essential component used in the manufacture of over five thousand material products that do not occur naturally. Our entire modern World of plastics, high-technology and science is entirely reliant upon continued and uninterrupted supplies of oil. If supply is choked in some way then prices rise according to the natural rules of scarcity and demand. Costs are heightened and prices rise. Fire damage to a plant located near Pasadena, Texas, has been blamed for diesel shortages and higher prices in recent weeks. Taxation on the back of these fuel pump prices has not eased the situation.







expanding economy of China is also buying up one third of natural resources from Australia



propaganda and which relies on petroleum imports from external sources, agreed to supply China with oil for the next decade.



New pipelines being constructed from Iraq to the Black Sea is headed up by a consortium of companies headed by British Petroleum and whose route .

invasion was more about oil supplies than any other reason.


By equal measure, the confidant anti-American stance of Iran may owe much in its deal to supply China with oil for the next decade.

to supply oil for the next ten years

It's amazing to think how so many things, formerly deemed unacceptable, are slowly slipping back into modern society. Back in the early nineteen seventies, the oil crisis caused massive interest in ways of generating energy from renewable sources but as oil supplies were resumed, none of the inventions, like Salter's Duck, developed in Edinburgh, ever saw the light of day. They were, like windmills for generating electricity, simply uneconomic. Today, some 150 applications to build windfarms in Scotland are being blocked because local people don't want them near their homes and all are subject to detailed research before any of these projects proceed. The reports on these are due soon and it'll be interesting to listen to what environmental lobbyists say whatever the outcome.

The nineteen seventies was also a time when some bright sparks decided it would be a good idea to carve the County of Fife into several parts and associate these parts with 'city states'. Dundee would become the regional centre for the northern part while Edinburgh controlled the south. Incredibily, it seems this idea is back on the agenda and despite the vehement opposition experienced last time round. It's not enough that merging several organisations into the East of Scotland water board showed how Fifers could pay more for their water in support of these same cities who enjoyed low prices and poor investment prior to this merger. No, this time, it's about rates and how Fifers might pay more to alleviate escalating prices in the city! After all, said one man to me recently, the cities are providing many jobs to Fifers who commute to them on a daily basis so why shouldn't they share a part of the cost in local road repairs etc?

It's a good and fair question but easily countered by recognition of how Fifers have paid tolls on bridges for years after they were bought and paid for. Fifers are expected to use Park and Ride Schemes while the remainder of Lothian doesn't. House prices in some parts of Fife are not significantly cheaper than some in these cities and wage levels are typically lower.

Maybe the question being asked is incorrect in some way?

Perhaps, if there is some golden advantage in forming bigger regions, then maybe an expanded Fife Region covering the cities of Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee makes greater sense and call it Eastern Scotland. After all, it worked for the water boards and we might have the headquarters for this new region in Fife. While we're at it, let's include Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow, Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides and all land north of the border with England and call it Scotland!

What a concept, huh?