Category Archives: Commerce

Trumpistas Should Learn from Limeys

Posted on February 14, 2021 by davidsberry

With his conviction quashed, Donald Trump is riding high. He has survived two impeachment attempts, garnered over 70m votes and kept his narrative that his re-election was stolen alive among a huge proportion of those people. The once-proud Republican party … Continue reading →

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Coming Out of Our SHelll

Posted on February 10, 2021 by davidsberry

(Published in East Lothian Courier, February 11th, 2021 Until a year ago, Scottish seafood had grown into a £1bn business, with half exported to the EU. East Lothian harbours contributed to this, landing prawns, crab and lobster, much of it … Continue reading →

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Wind Farms or Windbags?

Posted on February 6, 2021 by davidsberry

The Scottish energy strategy published in December 2017 sets a 2030 target for the equivalent of 50% of the energy for Scotland’s heat, transport and electricity consumption to be supplied by renewable sources. By June of last year, Scotland had … Continue reading →

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Mephistopheles Amidst Minutiae

Posted on December 30, 2020 by davidsberry

Let’s gloss over it taking 99.7% of the 4 ½ years since the referendum to achieve what Liam Fox MP, International Trade Secretary called “The easiest deal in history”. Well, we all get over-enthusiastic sometimes. In the face of widespread … Continue reading →

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Euracy

Posted on December 22, 2020 by davidsberry

The present stushie with Europe over closed borders, banned travel and half of Kent covered with lories should not come as a surprise. Not only has the UK behaved brazenly against our neighbours’ interests in asserting “sovereignty” in the teeth … Continue reading →

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Deck the Malls

Posted on December 19, 2020 by davidsberry

(Published in East Lothian Courier, Dec. 17th 2020) For most of us, this year was pants. Few have escaped disruption to work, family and social life. National media loves reprting in simplified sound-bites, repeated ad nauseam. Such ‘big picture’ views … Continue reading →

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The Whopper That Got Away

Posted on November 30, 2020 by davidsberry

Fish in another man’s pond and you will catch crabs.” —Yiddish proverb St Andrew’s Day seems an appropriate time to consider the plight of thousands who once were the backbone of one of Scotland’s historic main industries—fishing. It is timely … Continue reading →

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Swamped

Posted on June 17, 2020 by davidsberry

There is a typically pithy American phrase about losing focus: “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember that the original plan was to drain the swamp.” Unfortunately, governments seem particularly prone to suffer such distractions, … Continue reading →

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The Past is a Foreign Country

Posted on June 13, 2020 by davidsberry

News in both the UK and the USA has recently highlighted demonstrations revolving around the Black Lives Matter campaign. The focus of this has been around for some time without any satisfactory resolution. The sentiment is strongest in the USA, … Continue reading →

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A Second Dunkirk

Posted on May 31, 2020 by davidsberry

“Wars are not won by evacuations”—Winston Churchill, June 4th 1940 In the daily wringing of political hands over Covid-19 and unending media coverage of “our worst crisis since World War 2: we seem to have lost much balance and perspective … Continue reading →

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