Monthly Archives: August 2011

This Month’s Oxter Award

Posted on August 30, 2011 by davidsberry

It’s the traditional political Silly Season when major politicians and those that hound them are generally off on some sun-baked beach, August is a month we have to cast about to find a decent candidate deserving opprobrium. Yet, there in Hootsmon on … Continue reading →

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One He Made Earlier?

Posted on August 29, 2011 by davidsberry

So Cllr Burns blames the Lib-Dems and SNP for the trams debacle. Inevitable as such self-serving guff may be, I still smacked my forehead in disgust—perhaps too hard… …bzzztschhkkooee… …With hindsight, it seems fortunate that Cllr Andrew Burns fell on … Continue reading →

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All Roads Lead to Lisbon

Posted on August 27, 2011 by davidsberry

Since spending probably my best summer ever as a 23-year-old waiter in the Algarve, I have had a soft spot for Portugal, its people and especially its fading-grande-dame-but-still-a-babe capital, Lisbon. Down for just a week for my first visit in … Continue reading →

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Don’t Outlaw What Matters

Posted on August 22, 2011 by davidsberry

A leader in Scotland on Sunday, remarkable both in its six-line brevity and in its esoteric subject, caught the eye yesterday. Glasdelphia was agog with Pittmania and Tripoli was slipping from Ghaddafi’s feverish grip. But this leader was about a … Continue reading →

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Subtle as a Ram Raid

Posted on August 19, 2011 by davidsberry

The Hootsmon has its faults but today’s piece from David Maddox on government debt could not be more timely, coming, as it does, on the back of the worst day for the FTSE for three years. To say that investors … Continue reading →

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Nothing New Under the Sun

Posted on August 18, 2011 by davidsberry

Young whippersnappers with no memories of the sixties may think that ‘new’ politics—in which politicians live from spin and from answering any question but the one asked—derive from the Blair government and from hidden spin doctors like Alastair Campbell, forever … Continue reading →

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Fringe Gets its Feet Wet

Posted on August 15, 2011 by davidsberry

OK, this was the fourth Fringe by the Sea event but this was the first one to face obstacles beyond its control in the shape of some of the worst mid-summer weather in memory. The week prior, the UK Topper … Continue reading →

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Not Such a Zoo: Still a Jungle

Posted on August 14, 2011 by davidsberry

In the August 2nd blog Are We Nuts Overpaying Monkeys?, some harsh views were expressed about senior council officials in general, although care was taken not to explicitly refer to any council and certainly not to impugn any individual. Nonetheless, … Continue reading →

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Hall of Shame: Update I

Posted on August 13, 2011 by davidsberry

On July 19th, we published our consolidated Hall of Shame list of those councillors in Scotland we felt had brought real shame to their public calling by improper, ignoble or otherwise reprehensible actions—whether they had admitted it or whether this … Continue reading →

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Inglorious Twelfth

Posted on August 12, 2011 by davidsberry

Covering most of Scotland north of the Highland Line (other than East Aberdeenshire), heather moors cover 67% of our country. According to the Moorland Association: “grouse shooting is now the only significant income earner there which is not heavily subsidised … Continue reading →

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