89: Ane Dreich Blaw

Posted on February 5, 2011 by davidsberry

For two days now, Scotland has been thrashed by an Atlantic storm, familiar to all those who have spent any time here. Some simply draw the curtains, make another pot of tea and dream of distant, sun-drenched holidays. That is understandable but their loss.

For me it is changing light, a wild glory of mood swings that gift both Scotland and its people their sinewy character, their dark humour, their embrace of life’s contradictions. It is why Los Angeles struggles to connect with the heart; why the Big Yin claims wellies as Scottish national dress; why, through our Breton bridgehead, even our Auld Alliance cousins have learned to celebrate life’s more perverse moods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18msKRflbzs

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90 Days to Decide

Posted on February 4, 2011 by davidsberry

Given the gravity of world events—emotive clashes in Tahrir Square; 5bn tonnes of CO2 exhaled by parched Amazon forests; double-devastation to half of Queensland, as well as the deepest world recession in a generation—it’s perhaps no wonder few know or care that Scottish elections are just three months off.

In fact, people blame their politicians for this recession as much as they blame foreign bankers. Their focus is on the pragmatic—the price of petrol or how tough making their mortgage has become. Few retain the broad view that considers root cause. As usual, our American cousins have a pithy phrase for this kind of thinking: “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember your original plan was to drain the swamp.”

Whoever forms our Government will spend over £30bn of public money—£5,000 for each one of us. We could drain this swamp we’ve fallen in by firing the Scottish economy into the stratosphere of Scandinavia (Norwegian GDP per capita is five times Scotland’s). Then all those fiscal alligators would have nowhere to live. But, before then, you—and 4m others—will need time to work out who can take us there. Start now. As Jeb Bartlett said (also pithily) in The West Wing:  “Decisions are taken by those who show up.”

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_West_Wing

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91: Time to Defect…

Posted on February 3, 2011 by davidsberry

…to the Federation of Small Businesses? A staunch member of the SNP for 35 years, I’ve never endorsed another’s manifesto. But I find the FSB’s booklet laced with a sense that would lead us out of this economic fankle faster than anything I have heard espoused by UK parties and can’t quibble with:

  • it is in both private and public sectors’ interests to return to growth quickly
  • Scotland’s business support agencies should collate and promote information about all sources of business finance (to bypass banks’ excessive demands)
  • link the amount Holyrood has to spend with Scotland’s economic performance (thus hard-wiring economics into the decision making process)
  • ScotRail should provide reliable 3G Mobile and Wi-fi on all key rail routes
  • by focussing on account-managed companies, Scottish Enterprise touches few of Scotland’s 297,000 businesses
  • to survive, town centres need to have more economically active people in a wider range of activities (more local jobs -> more money -> more local spend)

I disagree with parts (e.g. doing away with council-level decision-making), but all prospective MSPs should digest this booklet. Big banks got us into this mess but 99% of Scottish businesses employ under 250 people. It’s time politicians tuned in to them.

http://www.fsb.org.uk/scotland/election2011

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92: Omni-Bus

Posted on February 2, 2011 by davidsberry

At Hallhill in Dunbar last night a working group gathered to follow up a lively public meeting on Jan 28th that vented frustration with FirstBus. Chaired by Peter Armstrong of Spott, the group agreed a constitution for Rural East Lothian Bus Users (RELBUS) with the aim: “a well co-ordinated, accessible and affordable bus service that meets the needs of local people”.

Dunbar folk have a valid gripe about their buses. A month ago, FirstBus sprung the halving of their service to Edinburgh as a fait accompli, but the reduction in suburbs served, higher fares and cast-off, high-step (i.e. disabled-inaccessible) coaches used are rubbing profiteering salt into poor-service wounds. Given outrage about First’s services in Ormiston/Pencaitland and ‘predatory’ fares where they face little competition (£1.20 to cross Edinburgh but £3.70 to get to Haddington from East Linton), it’s time someone sat First down and explained customer service to them in words of one syllable.

RELBUS could be that someone, uniting rural communities in our county—i.e. the 80% where First dominates. Bus users East of Tranent and Prestonpans should consider joining up. There’s nothing like a vocal, united front among customers to get any company’s attention. E-mail Peter at chair@relbus.org.uk.

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93: Bellweather

Posted on February 1, 2011 by davidsberry

Two hundred years ago, during the Napoleonic Wars, people had little—no cars, electricity, social work, NHS, trains, TV, benefits…not even a police force. What trade there was went by sailing ship or canal barge.

But engineering was a lively part of Scotland’s Enlightenment: Edinburgh’s New Town and our own Gosford House were newly built. Then a spate of shipwrecks on Inchcape reef or ‘Bell Rock’ had Robert Stevenson engaged to build a lighthouse to tame this scourge of shipping.

Sixty men spent four years building interlocking masonry of Aberdeen granite on the reef, 19km from land and 4m underwater during springs. Five died doing it. Exactly two hundred years ago today Bell Rock lighthouse was first lit. Harry Simpson, chairman of Arbroath’s Year of the Light, is awestruck by their audacity: “Even in this day and age, I can’t see it being done; not like they did it.”

On clear nights, its flash still lights our horizon. Those lucky enough to sail ELYC’s midsummer Bell Rock Race witness the brawny engineering and elegant beauty of an enduring monument to what we Scots can achieve if our hearts believe we can triumph.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=lighthouse%20stevensons

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94: Brian Was Right

Posted on January 31, 2011 by davidsberry

"Yes, We Must All Learn to Think for Ourselves!"

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95: In His Own Write

Posted on January 30, 2011 by davidsberry

Interesting interview of my erstwhile opponent by Colin Donald in today’s Sunday Herald (http://www.heraldscotland.com:80/business/markets-economy/gray-s-blueprint-1.1082576), not least because of what he says about himself:

“…one of the reasons we had not done as well as we would have hoped in 2007 was that in our eight years in government (Labour) had become a bit managerial in terms of how we tried to deliver. We had allowed our relationships with wider Scotland to atrophy.”

His economic vision is expressed in reactive terms: “reversing alleged SNP failures on transport projects like the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, which (I) pledge to restore, along with the air Route Development Fund, reintroduction of transitional rates relief for business, scrapping the Scottish Futures Trust and taking its functions in house”.

He pledges to “unblock the pipeline of public-sector infrastructure projects whose turning off by the SNP, allegedly on ideological grounds, (I) blame for the loss of £2 billion of infrastructure spending and 40,000 construction jobs over the last three years.” As Colin Donald observes: “One cause of that “ideological” opposition—Labour’s use of PFI to keep massive public liabilities off the books while funnelling grotesque profits to favoured contractors—goes unremarked.”

In this closely observed piece, Colin Donald’s analysis seems measured and fair: “No doubt Iain Gray is a highly competent Scottish Labour politician, his integrity and steel acknowledged by friend and foe. The question is whether Scotland’s faltering economic performance requires bolder measures than he – on the surface, at least – appears to be offering.”

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96: All at Sea

Posted on January 29, 2011 by davidsberry

Two days ago, while UK Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey visited RAF Lossiemouth (under serious threat of closure now that RAF Marham has been deemed ‘too expensive’ to dispense with), a Tornado GR4 from the base flying an exercise over the Minch caught fire and crashed 6 miles NW of Rubha Reidh lighthouse (see 3rd pic in my Gallery).

The crew ejected in time and were soon plucked from the sea by the Stornoway Coastguard helicopter, with a Lossiemouth Sea King in support. Both crew are recovering in Raigmore Hospital. All concerned were delighted with the promptness of this textbook rescue.

Neatly ironic, then, that all elements involved are under equal threat: rescue helicopters are to be sold to the highest bidder and Stornoway Coastguard may also be closed (as Fife Ness and Leuchars might) ‘to save money’. Either air base that does not close will find an emaciated rescue system struggling to provide such service for their planes and pilots.

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97: Letham—Commuters or Community?

Posted on January 28, 2011 by davidsberry

It seems I have incurred the wrath of the local editor who finds it “difficult to know what to make of my incredible comments” on the proposed 750-house development at Letham, west of Haddington. An article on page 6 makes my reservations clear; adding up to 1,600 people to Haddington’s 8,851 residents is not the issue.

My issue is that the furthest part will be over 2km from the Town House and, given developer-dictated housing mixes seen across the county, these will be mostly two-vehicle family homes. Easy road access to the A1 at the Oak Tree and worsening congestion in (as well as distance to) the town will discourage use of the centre.

This repeats mistakes at Spott Road (Dunbar) and Windygoul (Tranent), where we built nice homes but not communities. East Lothian still boasts lively, resilient communities but the sheer scale of tract homes that developers love to build make them ever-harder to digest if planners ignore making town centres easily accessible. Section 4 (Vision) of ELC’s Development Framework for Letham fails to even mention that vital goal.

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98: Holocaust Day

Posted on January 27, 2011 by davidsberry

Attended a splendid exhibition on Anne Frank put on by North Berwick High School. Knowing a fair amount of the history involved, I thought myself prepared for the tragic story of this all-too-brief life, the fate of her family and the irony that she survived to within days of liberation by the Americans.

But I was not prepared for earnest young guides interpreting each panel for me with a knowledge that shamed what little I had known when in S2 myself. Deeply touched by Harry Bibling’s riveting first-hand account of life in Vienna’s Sixth District under the Nazis, the aphorism “those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it” ran through my mind until I realised my young guides had not only learned but had also taught me.

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