Isle of May: Paradise Found

Posted on June 15, 2011 by davidsberry

The legend of King Arthur dates from the days before the Brythons of Lothian were subsumed into what became Scotland. Arthur’s Seat links him to the area and there is a legend that the fabled Avalon was the Isle of May. Just back from guiding a trip there for the first time this season I, for one, am signed up to any such legend.

Leaving North Berwick harbour with 12 guests on a fast RIB is hardly mythological but, as you approach the stern cliffs that the island presents to the Southwest, the May looks unassailable, defying you to land. But after cruising north round Rona and the Mars Rocks, through rafts of puffins and guillimots hanging out on the water in clumps, as if part of some giant informal kaffeeklatsch and flotillas of grey seal heads bobbing up in curiosity, Kirkhaven landing still comes as a surprise, hidden as it is on the far side.

Arctic terns are ferocious as well as elegant; here they attack guests returning to the landing

Running the gauntlet of the terns nesting near the landing, a slow stroll along the island’s many paths reveals a rich diversity of views, history and wildlife, crammed onto an island barely a mile long. The 12th © monastery was off-limits, having been taken over by terns but Holyman’s Road to the Low Light passed endless clumps of puffins socialising, abundant rabbits and the odd black back gull lurking ready to seize any unprotected chick. At Three Tarn overlook, the western cliffs were thick with birds—puffins, razorbills, guillemots and the cries of kittiwakes around the Bishop below. Those birds closest to the path barely noticed people; one razorbill landed 2m away and began preening.

Gregarious puffins socialise along Holyman's Road, Isle of May

At the top of the island, history is all around, with the oldest lighthouse in Scotland (1636) capping one ridge and its resplendent castle-like Stevenson replacement of 1815
on the other. The views from here on a clear day like this encompass the entire Forth as far as the bridges and must have awed the generations of keepers who peched up Palpitation Brae to their shift from the less exposed living quarters down by Mill Door loch. Down there, eider ducklings were just peeking out from under their mothers and the whir of seabirds coming to drink was constant.

Isle of May Lighthouse, built by the Stevensons in the Napoleonic era when no magnificence was spared

Back at the small visitor centre, there was barely time to wolf down whatever packed lunches had been brought; two hours had disappeared like minutes. Because of its size and variety, I never tire of visiting the May but it is especially enjoyable with 12 people who have never been before and discovering it vicariously anew through the awe and delight, the amazed expressions of each new convert.
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Small = Beautiful or Uneconomic?

Posted on June 14, 2011 by davidsberry

Everyone, with the possible exception of Cabinet Secretary Russell (who is a hard man to flummox) was surprised today when Argyll & Bute binned its plans to close 11 rural schools, with the exception of 2 that had no pupils. But Mike had made a plea for a moratorium for a year on rural school closures and may be demonstrating a better understanding for what constitutes an education than some of his predecessors.

While it is largely A&B, Highland and Comhairle nan Siar who have large rural tracts with many isolated small schools who are in the firing line of publicity, in fact most councils outside cities face the issue in some form. The issue has been with us for some time, driven by rural depopulation in some areas, but it is the financial crisis and successive real cuts to council budgets that have brought it to a head. Having been asked for savings, councils understandably look at their biggest outlay as part of the exercise: in general, schools account for half of the £11bn council budget in Scotland.

Much of the opposition appears, at first sight, to come from parents. But dig deeper and more subtle and cogent reasons than parental self-interest soon emerge. Since Gigha’s community buyout in 2002, the school roll has grown from 6 to 15. This can be seen as a reflection of a dynamic community. But the community itself credits their school for being the bond that held them together while they rebuilt. Eigg’s story is similar, where their 8-pupil school was a backbone on which the community rebuilt itself. While finance is important, so is community cohesion and viability. Schools are vital to both

This is true when Comhairle nan Siar considers closing South Uist’s Stoneybridge or Highland has an eye on the primaries scattered across Caithness. Schools are like marram holding the machair together. Without them, people blow away, And this is as true in Teviotdale and Hutton as on the machair or in the Flow Country. Even more than post offices, more than the village shop, schools pump lifeblood into remote areas, make it possible for all generations to live in sustainable communities and not just leave the elderly to their memories in silence.

Clearly there are economic penalties for this. The smallest school in my own East Lothian (Humbie, 18 pupils), costs three times as much per pupil as the average. Should we close it and transfer everyone to Saltoun (54 pupils) 5 miles away? Or should we get creative, acknowledge its vital rôle in the village and find ways to make it less expensive without compromising the education? What about sharing a Head Teacher with Saltoun? Would parents extend their support into extracurricular activity? Could costs, materials, IT, transport, not be somehow subsidised?

So many good schools are made better by parental involvement that there is surely scope, rather than accepting the beancounter (= close ’em) approach, to have the community augment core teaching work with support that not only justifies the school remaining open but makes it foolish to consider closing such a resource, such a bonding force for good in the community. Mike’s intervention was about more than schools; he is one step beyond the African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” by seeing it takes a school to make a village in the first place.

Isle of Gigha school, Argyll—Built in 1897, refurbished 5 years ago

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Can Passion & Politics Mix?

Posted on June 13, 2011 by davidsberry

Sad anorak that I am, I spent much of Saturday catching up on my politics, including seeing the June 9th debate in the Scottish Parliament—a Labour motion on Caring for our Elderly. There was a variety of speeches from across the house, the tone of which was set by Nicola Sturgeon who spoke of a “broad consensus around the need to improve care for older people and to provide a system that works in all cases” that left me deeply bothered. I couldn’t work out why until I caught up with a couple of fellow regular bloggers, most especially Burdz Eye View, for whose pronouncements I have much time, even as I disagree with half of them.

Yesterday, she was claiming we need passion in our parliament and had good suggestions how to achieve that. What was, for me, missing in that June 9th debate was that passion, although, at first glance, you would not know it. Almost every speaker declared an interest in having worked as a carer or had an elderly relative in care. Jackie Baillie led off the debate, raising the recent Elsie Inglis care home scandal, shortcomings at Ninewells hospital and financial troubles as Southern Cross care homes—all valid issues.

But then the entire debate consisted of much wringing of hands in pious denunciation of such undesirable developments. With an estimated £4.5 bn p.a. spent on care for older people and projected increase of 84% in people aged over 75 in the next 20 years, we are approaching a financial brick wall, with the £1.3 bn annual cut in the budget simply acting as an accelerator. The debate expanded to denounce “tuck calls” or microwave meals or a number of expediencies used to service growing demand with dwindling resources. All speakers from all sides were quick to denounce short-cuts and shoddiness; but none had anything to say that could be confused with an option, let alone a solution.

Allowing for some maiden-speech stumbling, there was indeed passion on display. But it was the same passion shown in earlier parliaments, when gesture politics could be indulged in because money was available to be thrown at the problem. Between 1999 and 2011, council Adult Social Care budgets tripled, with NHS spending doubling from £5 bn to £11.4 bn. Those days are gone and won’t be back in time to rescue us.

Regular viewers of the Holyrood fish bowl would instantly recognise business as usual. Blaming Westminster scores political points but butters no parsnips; claiming carers’ work is worth £6 bn may be true but gets us no closer to funding it; being chary of profits being made from care is noble but somewhat after the event. There was no mention made of union activism or their likely hostility to any pay restraint, let alone cuts.

I did not watch for three hours but I did not need to. There may have been a political revolution at the ballot box this year but every contribution made here could have been lifted from any previous session of our Scottish Parliament: otherworldly, self-satisfied and devoid of even one pragmatic idea how our looming brick wall could be evaded.

Playing to the gallery is beguiling when convention has always done so; it carries no risk. But courage and a willingness to court unpopularity—neither much on display last week—is needed to stave off the otherwise inevitable: more abysmal shortcomings like Elsie Inglis, more fiscal wrecks like Southern Cross, more unions claiming pittance wages and, lest we lose sight of the point, deteriorating and unacceptable conditions for our elderly.

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Something Completely Different

Posted on June 10, 2011 by davidsberry

It’s a quirk that, when an actor, comedian or whoever from TV, film, etc becomes one of your favourites, you feel as if you know them, as if you could sit down over a coffee and put the world to rights as you would with any friend. Natural as this may feel, it’s little wonder when the focus of your adulation is not on the same wavelength and this is probably a shock, should you ever actually sit down over that coffee.

Such were my musings last night when I went to catch John Cleese’s one-man show’s brief stop in Scotland. I am a big fan of humour, especially the surreal sort. I recall losing milk teeth as I fell about the floor at the Goon Show, loved the dead-pan-but-hilarious-constant tragedy of Hancock, came of age huddled with flatmates around Monty Python and still rate the brief but brilliant Fawlty Towers as the best sitcom. Ever.

When I think about it, Cleese was my lodestar, the one who made me laugh, irrespective of initial emotional state. No matter that he worked with equally brilliant people like Feldman, the Two Ronnies or the other five Pythons, he was so lankily unmistakable that he didn’t even need to break into a silly walk to make me smile. Not having a family member to cheer me up when the world seemed bleak, he unknowingly filled that need.

So, I sat in J10 with some misgiving that he could not sustain that life-long level of entertainment. But he did not disappoint. With nothing more than an AV screen for support, he gave me 90+ minutes of laughs. Much was nostalgia with which I was familiar—the class sketch from the Frost Show or the fire drill from Fawlty Towers on the AV. But it was the mordantly funny way he told his early life story (“when the Germans bombed Weston, it showed they had a sense of humour: there was nothing in Weston worth as much as the bombs they dropped”) and his brilliant irreverence among friends, as when he he gave the eulogy at Graham Chapman’s funeral as a modification of the parrot sketch because he “knew that Graham would have wanted you to be outraged in his honour” that was new and fresh and different.

Beyond any nostalgia, that’s what made the evening for me: his anything-but-PC iconoclasm that probably reached its peak when he fluently lambasted his (current) ex-wife and her lawyer, with clear contempt for any slander laws applicable in either Scotland or California, over a $20m divorce settlement (“it cost me $350 every time she had to look for her memory pills”). As he has said himself “Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.”

In a world where an offhand remark can get anyone into media disfavour that deepens in proportion to their fame, where H&S rules and comedians are constrained to beyond the watershed because they can’t be funny without swearing, it was brilliant to witness someone still at the top of his comedic game not give a monkey’s for any of that and give 1,000+ people both barrels.

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Hey, Big Spender

Posted on June 8, 2011 by davidsberry

One of the ‘advantages’ of the union that is often touted by the likes of Eric “Rentaquote” Joyce and his ilk is that, as a part of Britain, Scotland “punches above its weight” in the world or that we derive superior defences against whatever terrorist nasties might be set on dropping the Squinty Bridge into the Clyde during rush-hour. This week’s Economist publishes a rather stark graphic that puts this nonsense into some kind of context.

2010 Military Spending in US$Bn (from The Economist)

The US’s $700bn dwarfs the next-biggest (China at $119bn) and makes Britain’s third place seem very much an also-ran at $65.6bn (rather less than this year’s government record interest payment of $76.27bn). That spend, however, does not even provide us with a carrier (we scrapped Ark Royal and Illustrious was seen sneaking down the Forth this month but in no state to help in Libya). The US Navy deploys 11 Carrier battle groups, plus a training group, around the globe, with a naval air wing of over 50 strike aircraft on each. In other words, the UK does not even register, let alone punch its weight.

British conventional ‘punch’ is weak. With no maritime air strength remaining, much of the UK defence spend (over $16bn) is absorbed by Trident. With most (10,000+) of our deployable troops committed in Afghanistan and an air force that struggles to contribute its share to NATO’s shellacking of Libya, there is little that any putative enemy has to fear from Britain. Looked at objectively, Britain’s defence strategy is fragmented and its current posture a deep embarrassment to service chiefs who know about these things.

Then consider Norway (defence budget of just $7bn—don’t even bother looking for it on the chart above). They just increased this budget by $63m to allow extra training and support for their F16 squadron enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya, plus their infantry battalion on peacekeeping duty in Palestine and the frigate on anti-pirate duty off Somalia. They have a modern, balanced defensive force. This is used generously as a component of international peacekeeping so that they are highly regarded throughout the Western, muslim or any other part of the world. No-one is threatening to bomb them.

So, you decide: who’s really punching above their weight?

By the way, Scotland’s contribution to Britain’s current defence budget, over which we have minimal control, is $5.4bn. Why not be another Norway for that kind of money?

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Circling the Gunboats

Posted on June 7, 2011 by davidsberry

One month on from the election in which the impossible happened—a party secured a majority at Holyrood—and the world has yet to come to an end, although it might have for some parties, if the way they are behaving is anything to go by. Whether on Scots Law/Supreme Court or ‘how-many-referenda?’ issues, fur is flying and much ill-temper is on display. Given that the SNP were given substantial mandate, is it any surprise that they hit the ground running? More surprising is how unprepared unionists seem to have been to deal with it.

While allowance must be made for them being gubbed or leaderless or both, none of the three unionist parties is doing itself much good. Labour continues its four-year hissy fit of denial (see earlier post) while ‘Politician of the Year’ Hugh Henry talks of ‘elected dictatorship’ in committee posts which his own party practiced when in power. Defeated as Labour now are in their very heartlands, they must also address Curtice’s ‘cracked and hollow shell’ that is their local orgaisation if they are to avoid another drubbing at local elections next May.

The arch-unionist Tories have had a better time of it, partly because their staunch hostility appears principled. What they appear not to have grasped is that pooh-poohing independence (as Annabelle did with her ‘little Scotlandism’ jibe this week) is the tactics of the nineties; they failed. Unless they seize initiative in the debate, positing cogent arguments how Scotland will benefit from union going forward, unionists will find themselves carping from the sidelines.

But the party in deepest yoghurt is the Lib-Dems. Newsnicht ran a very insightful piece last night about how they may have lost their Highland heartland through Tavish Scott steering them away from any truck with the SNP in 2007 and resolutely ignoring their own fairly radical federal principals. Even senior statesman David Steel seems non-plussed just how ramshackle his party’s statements have been; Michael Moore’s recent call for two referenda looks arrogant, deliberately provocative but as out of touch as discredited John Reid/Michael Forsyth bully-boy attempts to browbeat opponents.

What we need is a debate. Their is a virile, enthusiastic government now steering Scotland towards its future. There are informed and lucid commentators like Ian MacWhirter, Joan MacAlpine and Jim Mitchell articulating the Zeitgeist and throwing down the challenges to unionists to make their case. With few exceptions, such as the never-confused-with-a-sunny-day Alan Cochrane or the dry-but-cogent Peter Jones, these challenges are being ignored and a playground-like disjointed series of petulances and threats are the response. When Ian Davidson MP argues for carriers we don’t need and keeping the criminally useless Trident to ‘punch above our weight’ as shining factors to keep us in the union, he implies this offsets £1 trillion of debt, twice as many citizens who’ve never had a job than a decade ago and the bottomless lunacy of Afghanistan. This implies unionists can’t be bothered finding decent, let alone convincing, arguments.

But, then, how do you recover from unexpected defeat in colonial wars, even here in the last colony? You recover your pride by sending in gunboats to intimidate them.

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On Days Like These, Stay in Bed

Posted on June 4, 2011 by davidsberry

After the brilliant weather calm of the previous two days, I should have taken a hint from cloudier skies, ten-degree drop in temperature and blustering northeasterly, all sprung up overnight. After Saturday surgery, I wandered off down to the harbour in my I-say-it’s-summer shorts to find a huge crowd in anoraks milling about because the ELYC regatta booked for that day was rather stymied: not just by the weather but a spring ebb so low (0.9m) that yachts out in the West Bay were aground.

Since there was little going on there, I stopped by the Seabird Centre to find they’d mislaid their inflatable dinghy and so couldn’t get out to fetch the rib out in the bay. After twenty minutes fruitless search, I cadged skipper Calum a lift on one the the ELYC rescue boats that had launched and, while waiting to help him load passengers, alerted SSC trip dispatcher Gayle that they were going to have trouble running their Family Trip booked for noon as Seabird II was sitting in mud and would stay that way until well past 1pm. Not a happy bunny to hear that so I slid off to Galloway’s Pier to help Calum tie up.

Not only was it slippy with spray and weed but a building swell coming down the Fairway was being amplified in the shallow water. After several attempts with me in water to my knees (good job for the shorts) we got the rib moored. Almost at once, the painter snapped in a particularly brutal surge, persuading Calum to call the trip off (hard to load and swell likely to worsen by return—a call I fully endorsed). Gayle’s mood darkened more, so I decided it was a good time to be elsewhere.

So I checked out our new summer shuttle bus that started today. Why ELC awards any contract to the perennially incompetent First, I’ll never know. It showed up on time for the trip up to NB station but it was the usual big bus (we need a minibus) with a driver who knew nothing about the area (it’s intended for tourists) and nothing about the train schedule (they now run 6 mins later, so the bus should run later too). Sure enough, as the train was pulling in (and I got ready to point visitors to the bus), the bus left, bang on schedule with no-one on board. The driver said I’d been his first customer. No wonder.

So, tempted to drink as I was, I decided to spend the afternoon usefully printing sheets for the shuttle’s three main stops because nobody had provided any and hand timetables to give out at the Tourist Information, SSC, MoF, Tantallon because (yes—you guessed) nobody had provided any. As a reward, I called a friend to see if she wanted to catch Dunsinane at the Lyceum. She did but, as it was its last night, there were no tickets.

Only then did I realise it was one of those days and cracked open my first beer. Some days—and this was one of them—you should just stay in bed.

TTstation2011

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US Kids European Golf

Posted on June 3, 2011 by davidsberry

Hundreds of the world’s best junior golfers returned to East Lothian this week for the U.S. Kids Golf European Championship—a four-day competition that brought the next generation champions from all over the world to play Gullane 1 & 2, Luffness, Longniddry and Craigielaw. Not as well publicised as the British Open (due to descend on Muirfield in two years) this is major stuff—the European leg of the US Kids Championship that now takes up two separate weeks (Teens and Under 12s) at Pinehurst, North Carolina between July 27th and August 7th.

Competitors from almost 40 countries came this year. Among those traveling furthest to attend were Sakura Nagano from Japan, Carlos Philippe Winsett-Palanca from Manila in the Philippines and Wan Jia Han from China.  They were not entirely blessed by the weather: blustery west winds on the first two days making play difficult for those more used to the balmy serenity of places like Pinehurst. Former Dunhill Links champion and world top-100 player Stephen Gallacher was delighted to see them returning to his home course, adding that he hoped it would help unearth the next generation of golfing talent from across Scotland and the rest of the UK. He recently joined Gullane and is currently mentoring the club’s juniors during his off time from the European Tour.

Competitors were split into age categories and each green modified for each age group, allowing players to complete each course in the same number of strokes as the top pros on the PGA tour. Top finishers in each category competed for the Van Horn Cup over Gullane No1—a show piece event modelled on the Ryder Cup, where European competitors are pitted against their non European counterparts. The top five finishers in each age and gender group automatically receive an invitation to the U.S Kids Golf World Championships at Pinehurst. They may be young but they provided quality golf for the hundreds of spectators.

Thankfully, our weather had improved by Thursday and glorious sunshine beamed across the final stages, leaving a similarly glorious forecast for the Van Horn Cup today (Friday 3rd). Talking to a three-generation de Witt family who had come from South Africa they were delighted with their experience. Grandson Henrik was none too downhearted not to have made it to the finals because the three of them—all avid golfers—had used the spare day to make a pilgrimage to St Andrews. If their experience was anything to go by, this was a brilliant showcase for East Lothian to 500 young golfers and some 2,500 family and friends who accompanied them.

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Top Ten Hits This Year

Posted on June 1, 2011 by davidsberry
Blog Title Hits
57: Load of Rubbish 927
97: Letham—Commuters or Community? 725
63: Stop Digging 690
So Near… 622
71: Parliamo Politico III 604
60 Days to Go 579
62: Genteel Revolutionaries 531
35: Who Cares? 428
64: Uplifting 410
24: The Future’s So Bright… 374

(Numbers in the title refer to a countdown in days to polling day on May 5th)

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RNLI Station Map

Posted on June 1, 2011 by davidsberry

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