Category Archives: Commerce

Phoenix: Rising Fast…but Then Ashes?

Posted on December 3, 2016 by

Jet-lagged and shocked by temperature differentials, this may not be cohesive. especially after a 3-month hiatus in writing this blog. A month in the capital of Arizona is a real experience of the American Dream writ large. At 4.3m people … Continue reading →

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Chiels That Winna Ding?

Posted on July 29, 2016 by

In the midst of a Twitter storm this week, I realised that the bulk of the 3,000+ responses to a chart I published were from unionists, almost all of whom appeared to insist that the only debate that could be … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Not Brexit; Engleave

Posted on July 18, 2016 by

Three weeks on and the reverberations of June 23rd continue to cloud any clarity of the political future for Britain. The now headless Brexiter movement has slid from media view and left a new government under Theresa May to sort … Continue reading →

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This Scuppered Isle

Posted on June 26, 2016 by

Three days on and the enormity of what happened on June 23rd still has not registered in all its implications either with me or the population at large. The jubilation shown by Brexiteers at counting stations appears to have evaporated … Continue reading →

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Toys Out the Pram; Bums Oot the Windae

Posted on June 24, 2016 by

I join over 15m voters in their varied disappointment on waking this morning to discover that Britain has voted to leave the EU. That’s about as sober a statement as I can manage right now. Because I am bealing, furious, … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Comments

Brexit is an empire-era trick. Only the radical case for Europe makes sense – in The Guardian

Posted on June 1, 2016 by

Originally posted on Yanis Varoufakis:
‘Sovereignty is dear to our hearts. We reject the notion that Britain must settle for diminished sovereignty as the price of global influence.’  Referendums can throw up some odd bedfellows. But there is nothing odd…

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And the First Shall Be Last

Posted on May 24, 2016 by

Lunchtime today something of a bombshell landed in East Lothian Council with First Edinburgh’s peremptory announcement that they were cutting one fifth of all their services as of August this year. More specifically, they are pulling out of East Lothian … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Transport | Tagged | 2 Comments

Open Letter to Nicola

Posted on May 18, 2016 by

I hope you’ll forgive the presumption but I have already tried writing in confidence to all four of your party’s members of Holyrood’s previous Local Government Committee and even to the Minister at the time (Marco Biagi). Unfortunately none saw … Continue reading →

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Trans-Arctic Convoys

Posted on April 2, 2016 by

Once upon a time, the British took the Phoenecian and Viking idea of building a maritime empire to its logical global conclusion. We spent the last two centuries congratulating ourselves on how clever we were to do so. Leave aside … Continue reading →

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Fleein’

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

Just back from a tour of sundry airports, it is hard not to be struck by the differences between airports in Britain and those countries who take air travel seriously, such as the USA. Scotland is particularly ill-served, having a … Continue reading →

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