Category Archives: Community

Hope I Retire Before I Get Old

Posted on February 9, 2024 by davidsberry

With apologies to The Who and their classic sixties song, the need to think deeply about—and perhaps even achieve—retirement early in life has a new urgency. As if the Cost-of-Living crisis were not enough, along comes a report from yet … Continue reading →

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Future Straits

Posted on February 3, 2024 by davidsberry

Anyone accessing Edinburgh will be aware of difficulties in accessing the place—especially the city centre—and of moving around any part of it. It is not just a matter of traffic congestion and a maze of restricted streets. The buses are … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Transport | Leave a comment

Robber Baroness I—Paula Vennells

Posted on January 30, 2024 by davidsberry

Hard-line feminists may interpret what follows as critical of women achievers. This is not the intent, but should they consider it detrimental to the cause, I apologise in advance. This writer bows to no-one in conviction that equality is a … Continue reading →

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Culpably Clueless

Posted on January 21, 2024 by davidsberry

Ever since the financial crash of 2008, many have been under the financial cosh, with councils in Scotland being among the worst affected. For over a decade, their ability to regulate their own finances was curtailed by the then-new SNP … Continue reading →

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SOS Puffin Update, 2023

Posted on January 7, 2024 by davidsberry

What follows is a précis of the newsletter sent out by the team at the Scottish Seabird Centre who monitor and protect the environment of local seabirds on unique offshore islands near North Berwick. It is reproduced here to widen … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Environment | 1 Comment

Another Tea Party?

Posted on December 17, 2023 by davidsberry

Today marks the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, when 30 men boarded three East India Company vessels in Boston Harbour. They broke open 342 chests of tea and, carefully avoiding causing any other damage, dumped about 90,000 pounds … Continue reading →

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Council of Despair

Posted on December 3, 2023 by davidsberry

Even during the heyday of empire a century ago, East Lothian was a sleepy country cousin of its dynamic Lothian sibling. Back then, despite the industrial might of Glasgow, Edinburgh buzzed with brewing, publishing and the law, West Lothian exploited … Continue reading →

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Mass Oysteria?

Posted on October 2, 2023 by davidsberry

Time was when the denizens of the Edinburgh Enlightenment dined on woodcock and pigeon, while the poor had to make do with the humble Scottish oyster. So plentiful were they along the foreshore of the Forth. Since medieval times, they … Continue reading →

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Boardroom Banditry

Posted on August 24, 2023 by davidsberry

The last few years have not been kind to Joe Punter. After two decades of growing prosperity in the aftermath of the Thatcherite 1988 stock market “Big Bang”, Harry Enfield’s “Loadsamoney” satire came uncomfortably close to reality. Then “Prudence” Brown, … Continue reading →

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A Dearth O’ Bield*

Posted on July 14, 2023 by davidsberry

The Scottish media latched on to another “bad news” story this week when they discovered that there were over a quarter million people on housing waiting lists, with barely a tenth of them being allocated affordable houses each year. Though … Continue reading →

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