Author Archives: davidsberry

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About davidsberry

Local ex-councillor, tour guide and database designer. Keen on wildlife, history, boats and music. Retired in 2017.

45: None So Blind

Posted on March 21, 2011 by davidsberry

Not content with vampire tapping into Scotland’s oil revenues since the mid 1970’s, a little-known grab by the UK government of 6,ooo square miles of Scotland’s North Sea in 1999 added insult to injury and ensured that several key oilfields would … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment | Tagged | Leave a comment

46: Full Moon Equinox

Posted on March 20, 2011 by davidsberry

Funny how things do seem to come together naturally—like the Labour conference and Magners Comedy Festival being together in Glasgow this weekend. It was a fabulous full moon tonight, right on the gateway to Spring. Clear sky, still sea and … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

47: Getting It Together

Posted on March 19, 2011 by davidsberry

Dealing with rubbish was the most popular blog for the last month (see below) so this week I visited ELC’s Kinwegar waste facility. Primarily this was to say ‘thanks’ to the eighty-odd members of the lorry crews for a winter … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The blog articles receiving the greatest number of hits since mid-February were: 57: Load of Rubbish 63: Stop Digging 60 Days to Go 62: Genteel Revolutionaries 71: Parliamo Politico III 64: Uplifting 58: Round One (ding!) 65: Dodgy Defence 67: … Continue reading →

Posted on March 19, 2011 by davidsberry | Leave a comment

48: Cause or Effect?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by davidsberry

An interesting set of statistics surfaced yesterday. Amidst a great deal of BBC and UK-level handwringing over worsening employment statistics, (England’s rising to 2.53m people out of work) Scotland bucked the trend, dropping 16,000 to 218,000 or 8.1%. And that … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Politics | Leave a comment
Posted on March 17, 2011 by davidsberry | 1 Comment

49: Parliamo Politico VI

Posted on March 17, 2011 by davidsberry

Let’s Talk Pencil-Pusher: Lesson VI—Scrutiny (Sixth of a series, translating bureaucrat-speak into what it means for folk in East Lothian on St Paddy’s Day) Our council operates what is called a ‘scrutiny’ or self-evaluation mechanism. This consists of a Customer … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

50 Days to Go

Posted on March 16, 2011 by davidsberry

At the halfway point to May’s election, ELC’s Education Committee has tabled a paper on destinations for its school leavers. It highlighted a 2% year-on-year improvement in positive destinations (F.E. colleges, universities, training and jobs), despite a huge 40% ‘bulge’ in … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Community, Education | Tagged | Leave a comment

51: Tornado…Tsunami…Tomorrow?

Posted on March 14, 2011 by davidsberry

It was pure coincidence but perhaps symbolic. The day I was invited to visit EDF’s Torness power station was when the 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan. Since we had no news of its impact, the only discussion at the time … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

52: Coast to Coast

Posted on March 14, 2011 by davidsberry

Going through to Glasgow for the SNP Conference let me sample another SNP Government achievement—the Airdire-Bathgate line. In theory opened in December, it’s only been running to timetable the last week or so—quarter-hourly to Bathgate, with half then running on through … Continue reading →

Posted in Transport | Tagged | 1 Comment