Category Archives: News

A Fixed Price Contract – 16 February 2023

  

Go into any search engine and ask what’s a fixed price contract and you’ll see a definition of a set sum for a task. Straight forward you might think but not in Scotland. Vessels 801 and 802 which still sit in Fergusons Yard in Port Glasgow are stated by the Scottish Government to have been a fixed price contract of £48.5 million per vessel…. Read more »

East Lothian Courier – 16 February 2023

  

There’s a correlation between being off the gas grid and fuel poverty. The situation’s worse in Scotland than the rest of the UK. Here, 19% are off grid, nearly 1 in 5 homes, and over half a million households. It’s 15% in the UK, the same in England and Wales. That’s despite Scotland having a colder climate. Even more absurd’… Read more »

JT Bain – 9 February 2023

  

Reading “The Notorious Syndicalist” by Jonathan Hyslop I was minded of Professor Tom Devine’s recent comments about the danger of judging our ancestors by current standards, referring to Burns and slavery. But what of James Thompson Bain, born in Dundee in 1860. As with many joining the army as an escape from poverty, lying about his age and enlisting when… Read more »

Trans Row – 9 February 2023

  

When asked what sex the prisoner Adam Graham, aka Isla Bryson, was, the First Minister refused to say, insisting that he or she was simply a rapist. It seems we’ve now got three sexes in Scottish prisons: male, female and rapists. There we have it, though I’ve never heard of that biological classification and there’s a clue in the crime, which… Read more »

East Lothian Courier – 9 February 2023

  

I recall when Dutch Elm struck. Trees that had been around as long as I could remember, and most often there long before I was born, requiring to be cut down. Leaving gaps in many areas whether avenues or other sites that have never really been replaced. How could they given the years of growth required for those majestic specimens?… Read more »

MACASKILL REVEALS NEW FIGURES SHOW HALF A MILLION SCOTS HOMES ARE OFF THE GAS GRID

  

WHILE AREAS MOST AFFECTED HAVE THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF FUEL POOR HOUSEHOLDS ALBA Depute Leader and fair energy prices campaigner Kenny MacAskill MP has obtained new figures from the UK Government which show that Scotland, with almost 1 in 5 domestic properties, has the highest number of households off the gas grid, of any of the home nations.  In addition the figures… Read more »

Self-Disconnections – 2 February 2023

  

The levels of self-disconnection from power across Scotland and Britain were exposed in Parliament last week, and they’re staggeringly high. In the third quarter of last year, the figures recorded 66,000 households in Scotland and 660,000 across Britain with smart meters had self-disconnected at least once. The technology’s able to record these incidents and they are not simply power cuts… Read more »

Ukraine – 2 February 2023

  

It’s many years now since I read a history of “the Winter War” when the Soviet Union invaded Finland just prior to World War 2. Initially, the Finns heroically repelled a Red Army, badly led through Stalin’s purges and underequipped for winter. But General Winter intervened and when the thaw came so did the Soviet attack on a scale that… Read more »

East Lothian Courier – 2 February 2023

  

It was a pleasure to attend the Burns Supper at Haddington Burns Club. As with so many other events Covid had brought them to a halt. But they’re important for the community, as well as for the members. The towns links to the Bard through his mother, brother and a sister also give it further status. So much of life… Read more »

Burns and Slavery – 26 January 2023

  

Bravo Sir Tom Devine not only is he Scotland’s foremost living historian, but he’s had the courage to speak out against the nonsense of equating our National Bard with slavery. The suggestion that the National Galleries of Scotland were planning to reference Burns with the heinous trade was rightly described as “historically illiterate” by the learned academic. The proposal which… Read more »