Category Archives: Commerce

Oh, The Farmer and The Planner Should Be Friends ♫

This blog isn’t about to break out into Oklahoma-inspired song about how “one of ’em milks a cow with ease; the other steals his planning fees” but, as in the original musical, “that’s no reason why they can’t be friends”. … Continue reading

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Per Ardua Ad Asda

It may be flippant to paraphrase the RAF’s motto into a cynical equivalent for the Royal Navy but purchasing chickens now coming home to roost under Admiralty Arch are a product of a whole series of predecessors to the luckless … Continue reading

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Britain Is Broke

Making that statement does not fill me with great joy. There may be an entirely different social debate about wealth distribution that could equally have headlined “Britain is Broken” but this blog is about fiscal facts—that Brown’s smug ineptitude and … Continue reading

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Enough with Racket Science

Yesterday, my normally chatty barista went all quiet when one of my coffee buddies brought the chat around to independence by speculating on the White Paper due out this coming week. When prodded, she looked awkward, but blurted out “What … Continue reading

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Urban Sproil

The meeting of East Lothian Council ten days ago was so taken up with arguing over Fenton Barns plan-breaking housing and roasting the divisional Chief Super over the sheer incompetence of Police Scotland when it came to behaving like a … Continue reading

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If Britain is So ‘Great’…

…how come it rates only 30th in Education in the 2013 Legatum Profile of 140 countries? Top of the class is New Zealand that has 14.5 (vs UK’s 17.5) pupils per teacher, 3.1 (1.5) secondary and 1.5 (0.7) tertiary education … Continue reading

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Black Market Cab

Those of us keen to see Scotland become a normal country are often fast off the mark when it comes to resenting advantages the South-East of England takes to itself (and hangs grimly on to). So it is with pleasant … Continue reading

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From Millstone to Milestone

It seems that about 139% of the population of Scotland is delighted that an agreement has been reached over a future for both the INEOS refinery and petrochemical plant. And well everyone should be—as one of the largest and most … Continue reading

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Coffee-Coloured Punters

Being old enough to remember main cultural moves in Western society for the latter half of the 20th century, one element that keeps returning to me as various unionists meld the peoples of Britain into one prosperous happy family is … Continue reading

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A Geographic Concept

It seems Viking is doing a special on bulk-buy venom this week as ex-MP & Highland Free Press veteran Brian Wilson is using a vat-load in his busy  quill. His article in the Hootsmon today (Weds 11th) is well worth … Continue reading

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