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 I was quite proud, Starting with the monks of Newbattle around 1200AD and finishing with the demolition of the winding gear at Monktonhall a decade ago, I see this epic story as integral to cultural identity in the Western part of the county.

At the appointed hour, I am in the school hall and ready when eighty or so sixteen-year-olds of S4 pour in, lively as a barrel of monkeys. After they’ve been herded down to the front and brought to order, the ensuing silence is remarkable…

…and continues throughout the talk. There was no interruption, no misbehaviour. But nor was there anything out there resembling sentient life forms. It was as if all eighty just zoned out. It didn’t matter what I said about the dangers of medieval bottle mines or the perils of firedamp or the 207 men lost at Blantyre in 1877, I was not in contact. To be fair, even their parents are too young to remember pitheads at Tynemount, Limeylands, Fleets, Prestongrange or Preston Links. But I might as well have been talking Martian.

It is possible that I pitched my talk wrong but it was as good as I had in me. At the end, there was only one question: why had I researched this—did my family have mining connections? No, I said, I have a fishing background but I thought understanding others’ cultural history was cool. That seemed to stump them entirely. Rather than ask more questions, they chose punishment—sitting in silence until the end of the period.

For myself, I stopped digging the hole I was in, packed up the equipment and left quietly.

Limeylands Colliery near Ormiston, circa 1930

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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 town, there’s not much demand for a golf club factory these days. Any plans for redevelopment are years away, so a social enterprise called Uprising cut a deal with the owners and applied for an indoor activity hub for young people, with skate ramps, BMX, climbing wall, studios, soft play area, cafe and, generally, a place to hang.

The only houses nearby were horrified and united in raising a veritable flak of objections—most couched in safety terms but it was hard to hide the NIMBY. Those who bothered to find out discovered Uprising had already run in East Linton on a smaller scale. The locals there praised a popular magnet for young people with few other facilities.

Most unusual in planning, the letters of support swamped the letters of objection and at the meeting itself, Uprising made such a cogent case they secured unanimous approval. There is still a long journey of fundraising and fitting out to go and it is to be hoped that Heugh Road residents will be pleasantly surprised by their new neighbours. This will be a major facility for young people, an education of challenges and socialising unavailable to them at school that will be a draw from all over the county.

The result will not be the tomb-like silence of a derelict factory. But surely some noise from young people enjoying themselves is far better than having the metal-bashing din of a golf club die press ringing out across the road?

Former Ben Sayers Factory on Heugh Road, North Berwick

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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 25,000 of them. And, if this policy was so important, why did it merit no mention in either the MSP Annual Report or in personal letters he wrote to local voters last month?

Maybe it’s because party researchers have finally done some homework. Late last year, my opponent was banging on about how youth unemployment had grown,  even here in East Lothian. Given the recession and business contraction, is that surprising? But, among 18-24-year-olds, unemployment is running at 27.6% in Scotland and 31.0% in East Lothian, neither of which encourages the 1 in 3 of our young people who have no job.

Fair enough.

But…let’s wind back to before this recession, back to before there was either an SNP government in Edinburgh or an SNP administration in Haddington. In March 2007, after the ‘people’s party’ had been running everything for eight years, the numbers were 28.9% for Scotland and 33.8% in East Lothian. That’s worse than now. So the SNP is delivering more and better in troubled times than Labour ever managed during their years of fat?

No wonder Jack McConnell has a go at the Scottish Parliament or Jim Murphy derides small countries across Europe; it’s all part of a strategy: Forget the facts: if you just point and heckle loud enough, people might forget it was you that made this mess we’re all in in the first place.

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"It Wiznae Me! A Big Wunch of Bankers Did It and Ran Away"

Posted on February 28, 2011 by davidsberry | Leave a comment

66: Parliamo Politico IV

Posted on February 27, 2011 by davidsberry

Let’s Talk Pencil-Pusher: Lesson IV—Opinion Polling (Fourth of a series, translating bureaucrat-speak into what it means for folk in East Lothian)

The Sunday Herald is abuzz with another poll. “Labour is on course for a resounding victory in May’s Holyrood election as voters turn away from the Liberal Democrats and the SNP” it trumpeted. “Labour polled 41% on the constituency vote, up 8.8 percentage points on the 2007 election. The SNP got 32%, down 0.9 points, the Conservatives 15% (down 1.6), the LibDems 8% (down 8.2) and 4% plan to vote for other parties (up 1.9).”

Whoa…did they? Dig into the actual figures and you find voting intention figures in the original, unadjusted YouGov sample show an SNP lead of 13 points in the constituency vote – 41% for the SNP, compared to 28% for Labour, 18% for the Tories, and 6% the Lib Dems. On the list vote, the SNP are ahead by 8 points – 34% for the SNP, 26% for Labour, 19% for the Tories, and 6% for the Lib Dems. Huge difference; what happened?

Seems that YouGov always ‘normalises’ its results, based on a calibration that 16% of voters for Westminster must vote SNP, so their results are skewed to reflect that. Crazy? perhaps. Unbiased? The Green Party funded this one to coincide with their conference and it shows them forming a government with Labour…so maybe not.

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“The SNP under Alex Salmond has demonstrated that they can run a competent government and Alex Salmond makes a fine First Minister. I think Alex deserves a second term in office, and he is the best choice for Scotland during these difficult times.”

—Sir David Murray, multimillionaire owner of Rangers & avowed Unionist          (Scotland on Sunday, February 27th 2011)

Posted on February 27, 2011 by davidsberry | Leave a comment

67: Playing Hand Grenades

Posted on February 26, 2011 by davidsberry

This week saw a UK effort to rescue its citizens from a rapidly disintegrating Libya that more resembled a Keystone Cops action. No reflection on the crews of HMS Cumberland who dared lift 200 from Benghazi or C-130s flying deep into the desert, nor yet embassy staff and other unsung heros. But our finest hour, it wasn’t.

This was because the RN’s ability to project air power into such regions is effectively nil now that all STOL Harriers and their carriers have been scrapped. Together with the £4bn bonfire of Nimrod recce replacements and 10% cut in MoD budget, Britain’s ability to project power outside the Solent is reduced to the laughable.

But there is one exception: Trident. The present Tory minister agrees these subs are indispensable—agrees, that is, with his Labour predecessors who also called them indispensable. But why? Trident is designed to obliterate Russian cities. Russia is no longer a threat, let alone an enemy. Our nukes won’t stop Iran and Israel nuking each other. In world hotspots from Colombian drugs to Somali pirates to African dictators, Trident is even more useless. Deployment makes as much sense as equipping playground supervisors with hand grenades.

Even Britain’s leading military think tank, the Royal United Services Institute, sees no logic in spending £100bn to replace a weapons system “not fit for any conceivable military purpose”. Under International law, it is illegal to target civilians with weapons of mass destruction; Trident is good for nothing else. To have such an obscenity based on the Clyde while Scots soldiers scrimp through endless Afghan Wars and frigates devoid of air cover must pussyfoot into hotspots is both militarily stupid and as cogent an argument for Scotland’s independence as you could wish for.

Frigate HMS Cumberland in Benghazi — picture MoD/Getty Images

 

Nuclear submarine HMS Astute aground in the Minch, October 2010

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68: Harmonising with Joni

Posted on February 25, 2011 by davidsberry

Growing up in the fifties and sixties, like most kids of my era, I was swept up into playing rock ‘n’ roll as protest and exploration of life’s possibilities. While many followed the Beatles, Stones and others that pushed the limits of rock, my idol was Stevie Winwood.

Last night’s BBC4 documentary brought me up to date with his life but also reminded me why he had influenced me so. It was the soul in his voice, a blues of hard living and authenticity to which a seventeen-year-old from Brum had no right—but, nonetheless, possessed in spades. That ability to reach deep into others is what kindled my interest in politics.

But it took most of a lifetime of gleaning experience and exploring options to bring me to a point when I felt qualified to blend the listening with rephrasing and make good politics—much as Stevie had done three decades earlier. My own journey is mirrored in two versions of Clouds by Joni Mitchell. The earlier is graceful, idiosyncratic and ought to be definitive.

The later is slower, more thoughtful and pitched almost an octave lower. Above all, Joni now sings her beautiful lyrics as if, finally, she understands how deep, how meaningful the words she sang so lightly then actually are. I make no apology for still loving rock and politics, but—like Stevie then and Joni now— I have come to understand what the words really mean.

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69: Centenary School

Posted on February 25, 2011 by davidsberry

Off to Dirleton School last night to meet with two dozen parents, teachers and locals. This was not the normal enthusiastically attended School Parent Council (I attended one where two in three pupils had parents there) but a gathering called by high-energy Head Teacher Sarah to brainstorm the school’s 100th anniversary, due in 2012.

After setting the scene, Sarah broke us up into small groups to work on ideas for fundraising, for events and for other ideas how to celebrate the centenary of what has always been a great little school. They came pouring out—the good, the great and the fantastical ideas but with enthusiasm, good nature and the desire to help that is typical of our smaller settlements like Dirleton.

Initiatives like this are what cements the civic body together. Whether a centenary apple orchard gets planted or Uri Geller accepts an invitation to visit is not the point. There is no feeling like the one you derive  from being a part of something worthwhile that is bigger than yourself.

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70 Days to Decide

Posted on February 24, 2011 by davidsberry

Much has happened in the last ten days, not least the poll putting Labour and the SNP neck-and-neck to control Scotland’s Parliament after May 5th. But, for me, it’s the more mundane things that can slip by almost unnoticed that are often the most significant.

All parties protest love of what our US cousins call ‘motherhood and apple pie’. Nobody wants bad education or unsafe streets, so that makes it harder for voters to discern who will actually do some good and deserve their vote. Even though they voted against it, Labour claim to want the 50,000 apprentice places that the SNP put in their budget. How can they be sincere when they act like that? They ‘talk the talk‘ but can they ‘walk the walk‘?

Not according to today’s Hootsmon. In a piece based on a Save the Children study of childhood poverty, a table ranks council areas by percentage. Almost every council where Labour has dominated forever leads this shameful parade, starting with Glasgow, down through the Lanarkshires, Dundee, Clacks—all the Labour ‘heartlands’ are there.

It is one thing to claim special status. But to do so in the sixties, then to be in one-party control for the next 50 years, receiving hugely disproportionate shares of welfare, inward investment, social work, addiction treatment, euro funding, education support, vocational initiatives (not to mention massive third sector involvement)—and still wind up with one child in six in severe poverty is a record that should make the Labour party feel humbled.

Once, when the bosses were rapacious, the mines deadly and the hours worked inhuman, they may have spoken for ‘the working man‘. A hundred years on, they’ve lost their way and no longer deserve the trust that long-suffering, well intentioned supporters put in them.

Hootsmon, Feb 23rd 2011

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