Category Archives: Community

38: New Home; New Hope

Posted on March 28, 2011 by davidsberry

Having been on a number of doorsteps, the ones that I find most discouraging are not the solid Labour or Tory supporters—firstly they are generally polite, secondly they now have a haunted look in their eye and thirdly there aren’t … Continue reading →

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41: Alea Jacta Est

Posted on March 25, 2011 by davidsberry

Having baled out of its stilted irrelevance at age 14—my earliest chance—my Latin is pretty ropey but I like the ambiguity of this phrase; normally translated as “the die is cast”—with its overtones of hot metal poured into solid moulds—than … Continue reading →

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An unexpected discovery amidst last Sunday’s blizzard of inserts in the papers was riches indeed: a reprint of Stanley Baxter’s classic Parliamo Glasgow with such essential phrases as ‘zarra‘ as in ‘zarra besyekindae?‘ or ‘goannae’ as in ‘goannaenodaethat?’. Which made … Continue reading →

Posted on March 24, 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 →

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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 →

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55: Top of the Hill

Posted on March 11, 2011 by davidsberry

No wonder East Lothian needs the affordable homes that the SNP are building—and fast. After 13 years of Labour’s “egalitarian” rule, the divide between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is greater than ever and nowhere more so than here. The Hootsmon … Continue reading →

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57: Load of Rubbish

Posted on March 9, 2011 by davidsberry

Most of the time people speak of “the Council” in pretty adversarial tones, seeing it as a constipated local version of ‘Yes Minister’. At its bureaucratic worst, the jobsworth form-fillers can make mild-mannered ordinary folk dream of vile tortures for … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Environment | Tagged | 3 Comments

63: Stop Digging

Posted on March 3, 2011 by davidsberry

Out of my depth this week, having been asked to help out with Standard Grade History at the local High School. For my sins, I had been researching mining in our county and produced 30 minutes of “death-by-PowerPoint” of which … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Education | 4 Comments

64: Uplifting

Posted on March 2, 2011 by davidsberry

Tuesday’s 4-hour-long ELC Planning Committee meeting approved—among others—unusual temporary use for the old Ben Sayers factory in North Berwick. As applications go, this was as unconventional as any and the committee spent an hour considering it. Even in a tourist … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

65: Dodgy Defence

Posted on March 1, 2011 by davidsberry

I’m not one to avoid learning from my opponents. But in Labour’s case, their policies can be so hard to track. After Labour had tub-thumped how vital modern apprenticeships were in tackling youth unemployment, they voted against a budget that provided … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Community, Education | Tagged | 2 Comments