The Rampant Scotland Newsletter - your weekly insight into what has been happening in Scotland, snipped from the Scottish media, for Scots in Scotland and abroad, bringing you news, events plus a Scottish magazine section. Printed with 100% recycled electrons.
Previous editions of this Newsletter are available in the Archive and the Index to the other pages of the Rampant Scotland site is available here.
The Scottish Snippets Newsletter in its original format began in April 1997 and continued in an unbroken series for 591 issues. Although no longer produced in that format there is now a regular update on the new and updated pages on the Rampant Scotland site and also "Scottie's Diary" on an intermittent basis, To receive this, kust send an e-mail to Scottie with "Subscribe Newsletter" in the subject line.
|
Historical Affairs - Topical Items from Scotland's Past
|
|
|
The "Magazine" section includes songs/poems of Scotland, Scottish humour and brief descriptions of Scottish Culture items added recently to the Rampant Scotland Website - with a link to the page where you can find the full feature, if you find the subject of interest to you.
The royal coat of arms in Scotland has the Latin motto "Nemo me impune lacessit". The English translation of this is "Nobody interferes with me with impunity" and this is often defiantly expressed in broad Scots as "Wha daur meddle wi' me?" which is the title of this anonymous poem. But on this occasion it is being aggressively repeated by a member of the Elliot family, one of the Border families who not only fought their neighbours but were part of the first line of defence against marauding English invaders - and could sometimes defy the Scottish monarch as well! Wha Daur Meddle Wi' Me? Ma castle is aye ma ain,
Fierce Bothwell I vanquished clean,
Whar Keelder meets wi' the Tyne,
The Cumberland reivers ken
Ma kinsmen are true, an' brawlie,
Meaning of unusual words:
|
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
The Royal Bank of Scotland pleased the stock market and shareholders (and the tax man) by posting a record operating profit of £7.15 billion (over US$13 billion at current exchange rates), the largest-ever of any UK bank and 11% up on last year. Unions, small business organisations and the media immediately launched an attack on "excessive profits" but the bank's chief executive, Fred Goodwin, pointed out that 13% of the profit is retained to increase reserves and provide capital and 31% goes to the Treasury in taxation. Staff will also get a 10% profit-sharing bonus. Goodwin suggested that if more companies were as efficient as the Royal Bank and matched its profitability, pension funds would be in a much healthier state. The corporate banking and financial markets produced the largest share of the bank's profits. The Royal Bank has expanded rapidly in recent years, following its take-over of London-based National Westminster Bank and there has been solid expansion of Citizens Financial, its banking insurance and credit card arm in the eastern seaboard of the US. The bank's head office (pictured here) is still very much in Edinburgh, unlike so many large Scottish companies that have drifted south. Following the announcement of the increased profits, the bank's shares rose significantly - and so did the overall stock market.
While around 80% of the expenditure by local authorities is provided from overall central taxation, the remainder is paid for by local residents via a tax which is levied on property - with those in more expensive houses paying more than those in lower-valued homes. But that can lead to anomalies with a widow in an expensive house paying a large amount while a large family with many bread-winners but living in a cheaper property pay far less. The recent increases in locally raised tax has led to an outcry by those who feel that they are being dealt with unfairly. Of course, everybody feels that they are paying too much tax but a system based on "ability to pay" sounds better to many. Pressure to revise the system is not just rising in Scotland - local council taxes rose by 13% this year in England and Wales. That was even faster than in Scotland where increases averaged around 5%. There is speculation that consideration is being given to raising local council finance by a mixture of property and earnings-based taxation. Of course, any change will mean winners and losers - support for change could dwindle if too many people think they will finish paying more tax.
Scottish & Newcastle have announced that they are to close their brewery at Fountainbridge which has been producing beer for over 100 years. Previously regarded as a Scottish Company, making McEwan's Export and McEwan's Lager, this is their last production plant in Scotland, although the beer will continue to be made in Scotland. The company has arranged for the Caledonian Brewery, only a mile away from Fountainbridge, to take over production. But the closure of the brewery will result in 170 redundancies. The company claims that the facility has been running at 50% capacity at times. It produces around 190 million litres of its various brands each year. The Scottish & Newcastle head office is still in Edinburgh and the company denies it has any plans to move this away.
The latest figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium, representing the major shops in the country, suggest that Scottish shoppers are still spending at a faster rate than in the rest of the UK. Like-for-like sales in Scotland in the last month grew by 5.2% compared to just 3.8% in the rest of the UK. This was, however, down on December, when Scottish sales rose by 6% on a similar basis. In January 2003, the increase on a like-for-like basis was just 3.4%. But with consumer debt at record levels and interest rates likely to rise, it is thought that such high levels of growth in retail sales cannot continue for long. 
Although universities in England and Wales will not be introducing "top-up" fees until 2006, the prospect has swollen the number of applicants to Scottish universities from south of the border and Europe by 4,000 (15%). Normally applications from outside Scotland do not vary by more than about 3%. It appears that applicants believe that they will save money in the final years of study as the new charges could cost over £3,000 a year, compared to a total of just over £2,000 for an entire degree course in Scotland. The increase in non-Scottish applicants has led to fears that, as universities select students on merit, some Scottish students who might otherwise have been accepted, will be squeezed out. One factor which students have to take into account, however, is that an honours degree takes three years of study at English universities and four years in Scotland.
Edwin Morgan, who has already been appointed poet laureate of Glasgow and is one of Scotland's greatest living writers, was recognised this week by Jack McConnell, the First Minister, as the "official poet of Scotland". But Morgan is never averse to speaking his mind and he was immediately at odds with his official title of "Scots Makar" (an old Scots word from the 15th century for a maker of poetry). He said the term was old-fashioned and out-dated and he much preferred to be known as the national poet of Scotland. Morgan, who is now aged 83, received the honour from the First Minister at a nursing home in Bearsden, near Glasgow, where he has been living for the past four months. Unlike the UK poet laureate, who is required to write poems for national occasions, there are no formal requirements for the post. But Morgan says that if something remarkable happens, he will try to write a poem about it. 
A ruling by the European Commission in Brussels means that airlines are now banned from receiving subsidies from publicly-owned airports. This has raised a question-mark over the future of three services using Inverness airport as the hub is state-owned and receives finance from central government. The airport subsides the charges to easyJet which runs a service to London (Gatwick) airport and Bmi and Snowflake which are due to launch services to London (Heathrow) and Stockholm next month. 80% of the inbound passengers from London are travelling for leisure and give a significant boost to the local tourism industry. The Scottish Executive route development fund supports 17 air links to Scotland but all the other airports involved are privately owned and so do contravene European rules. However, Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, who run Inverness airport, say they are confident that the ruling will not affect them as the discounts are open to all airlines. The subsidy is 75% in the first year, 50% in year two and 25% in year three and clearly assists airlines in the early years when they are trying to build up passenger numbers.
A bar in Queen Street Station (that's the station shown here) is to become the first in Scotland since 1987 which will ban smoking on the premises. There has been recent controversy over no-smoking areas in pubs and restaurants with advocates pointing to the dangers of passive smoking by staff in particular. Smoking is not allowed on train services - which results in smokers lighting up as they wait for trains or immediately after their train arrive at the platform. So the ban in the Hogshead bar in the station is a surprising move. The manager of pub says that it will be a "challenge" to make it a success. The Pizza Hut restaurant chain introduced a ban on smoking in their restaurants three months ago.
Presumably Santa has enough reindeer in Lapland for his Christmas deliveries, so a batch of 19 of these animals arrived in Scotland this week from the chilly north of Sweden. They took five days to travel from beyond the Arctic Circle to the slightly warmer climate of a farm owned by the Reindeer Company Ltd at Tomintoul in Moray. The company manages a herd of 140 reindeer and the latest arrivals will boost the gene pool of their herd. 
An ardent supporter of Aberdeen Football (Soccer) Club scored a winner when he proposed to his girlfriend on one knee on the hallowed turf at the Pittodrie ground last Saturday - St Valentine's Day. He popped the question at half-time - with a microphone transmitting his question and the startled "yes" to the 15,000 crowd attending the match against Glasgow Rangers. The roar from both the Aberdeen and Rangers supporters sounded as if he had scored a winning goal. Aberdeen were in fact ahead at that stage - but the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
Temperatures dipped to 5C (41F) in Glasgow on Monday but recovered slightly to 9/10F (48/50F) in the middle of the week, only to fall back again on Friday. The crisp temperatures were being caused by clear skies which at least provided some welcome sunshine. In particular, Glasgow and Edinburgh in the central belt, had good long spells of sunshine. The outlook for the next few days is for continued chilly but bright weather.
The Flying Scotsman steam locomotive was the first to reach 100mph (in 1934) and has been used for excursions since it was restored five years ago. It had been intended to create a locomotive visitor centre near Waverley Station but planning delays have meant that the company owning the 81-year-old locomotive has built up debts of £1.5 million. They have now been forced to put it up for sale. Although a bid was launched this week to raise funds by a public appeal, backed by a grant application to the Heritage Lottery Fund, there are concerns that a number of high offers could be received from overseas. The steam locomotive spent a number of years in North America before being repatriated back to the UK. It is painted in its original London & North Eastern Railway colours.
Excavations of the remains of the Antonine Wall at Mumrills Fort near Falkirk have shown that the Romans dug ditches along the foot of the wall which were filled with stakes which may have ben tipped with sharp objects such as glass. Similar fortifications, known as "lilia" because they reminded the Romans of lilies, were shown on Trajan's column in Rome and were described by Julius Caesar in his "Gallic Wars". The 38-mile long Antonine wall was built by the Romans around 141AD across central Scotland from the river Clyde in the west to the river Forth in the east to keep out the "barbarians" from the north. Some of the larger forts along the wall had bathhouses, similar to the one which can be seen at Bearsden, near Glasgow (pictured here). The Antonine Wall was made from a stone base with a turf wall, 15 feet wide at the base and 10 feet high. The Romans only manned the defensive position for around 20 years and then pulled back again to the stone-built Hadrian's wall which runs across the north of England.
A message left in a bottle at the mouth of an African river in May 1859 by the missionary/explorer David Livingstone is to be sold at auction in April. The note requests urgent provisions from any passing ships and describes's Livingstone's trip up the Zambezi and Shire rivers and his discovery of Lake Shirwa, in what is now Mozambique. The message was kept in the family of a ship's surgeon until 1957 - when it was bought by the great-grandson of Charles Darwin. The note is being sold along with another document signed by Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley, the American journalist who was sent to Africa to find the explorer and famously said in the middle of the African jungle "Mr Livingstone, I presume?"
The Beltane Fire Festival, which ran on the night of 30 April for 15 years on Calton Hill in Edinburgh to herald the arrival of spring, was cancelled last year because the cost of a public entertainment licence, insisted upon by Edinburgh City Council plus meeting health and safety requirements became too expensive for organisers of the free event. 15,000 people had attended the festival in 2002 but there had been complaints that it had caused too much noise and went on too long. Now agreement has been reached between the organisers and the Council which will see numbers limited to 12,000 with controlled access. Revellers will be charged between £2 and £4 to cover the costs which will include stewards to ensure crowd safety and cleaning up Calton Hill by 9am on 1 May. The colourful and noisy Beltane Fire Festival takes the form of a procession snaking round the hill between points entitled fire, air, earth and water.
Glasgow's Pavilion Theatre marks its 100th anniversary at the end of this month. This much-loved "theatre of the people" opened on 29 February 1904 and has seen all the famous Scottish performers treading the boards there, including Billy Connolly, Tommy Morgan, Lex McLean, Rikki Fulton, Jack Milroy, Jimmy Logan, Barbara Dickson, the Krankies and many others. Productions such as "Paras Over the Barras" and "Mrs Brown" have allowed the theatre to keep packing in the audiences. There was a bad spell in the late 1970s when it went into decline but after Iain Gordon took over as manager, it never looked back. It has staged mainly comedy shows and of course an annual pantomime, all of which appeal to the local Glaswegian sense of humour.
Celtic remain well ahead at the top of the Scottish Premier League with 70 points from 24 games, followed by Rangers (60 points from 25 games) and Hearts (43 points from 24 games). Dunfermline lie in 4th position (37 points from 25 games). At the foot of the SPL, Partick Thistle are still languishing with 12 points, with Aberdeen (23 points) and Kilmarnock (24 points) some way above.
Sports commentators thought that Scotland's only hope against the current rugby world champions would be if England were too complacent. The pessimists wondered of the score might be more akin to England's national game - cricket. In the end, maybe playing "Highland Cathedral" as the teams came onto the pitch and a soloist leading the crowd in "Flower of Scotland" may have unsettled the visitors because although they won convincingly, their play was not as flowing as it can be. Scotland even managed to score a try (by Danielli) - their first against England for four years and they were first on the scoreboard with three points from a penalty. But England were in the lead by 20-6 by half-time, a scoreline which perhaps flattered them on the run of play. 
With the Scottish national football (soccer) team at such a low ebb, the prospect of being able to field top-class foreign players who live and play here may have some appeal. Clubs such as Rangers and Celtic have, at least in the recent past, been able to attract football stars who would qualify under new rules being considered by the international football authorities. This would allow foreign players with four years service in Scotland, no previous international caps for their own countries and who obtain a British passport, to be available for selection. Currently, to qualify for a national side, players must be born in Scotland or have a grandparent or parent who was born here. Some small countries such as Belgium, Estonia, Latvia or Slovakia seem more enthusiastic about the new idea. But traditionalists are horrified - the concept of someone who is English playing for Scotland (probably because he is not good enough to be selected for the English national team) is anathema to many. That may change if the proposal is adopted by other countries and Scotland becomes regularly defeated by smaller nations (although we are already used to that!). "Scottish" teams such as Rangers and Celtic would not be able to consider competing in Europe without a substantial number of foreign players - but playing for the Scotland national team is understandably regarded by many as something special.
The Ice Factor in the village of Kinlochleven, between the world-famous Ben Nevis and Glencoe mountain ranges, houses the biggest indoor ice climbing facility in the world, an articulated rock climbing wall and a competition-standard bouldering hall, making it the perfect place to practise, train and learn every conceivable mountaineering skill. It is housed in a former aluminium smelter and is Lochaber's newest visitor attraction. But the number of people using the facility has surpassed the facility's highest hopes and the success is being attributed in part to the mild weather which is encouraging climbers to use the 15 metre-high indoor ice wall made of compressed snow. This month the centre welcomed its 10,000th visitor, coinciding with the launch of the week-long Fort William Mountain Film Festival, 30 minutes drive from Kinlochleven.