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.
Rampant Scotland Newsletter is also available by e-mail. Just send an e-mail to Scottie with "Subscribe Newsletter" as the subject line and a text version of these free Scottish snippets of news will arrive in your mailbox every weekend!
|
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.
Thomas Carr (1780-1860) was born in Scotland and emigrated to Upper Canada with his brother Andrew in 1819. They were among the first settlers in the Township of Otonabee in Upper Canada (now Ontario). District councillor, postmaster, road commissioner, and justice of the peace, Thomas Carr was always a man of prominence in Otonabee. Like many another worthy, he was buried on his own land. But, as the poem below suggests, he still thought of Scotland as "home." These verses were published in the Cobourg Star, December 27, 1831. My thanks to Rob Lockhart for sending them to me. My Hame I canna ca' this forest hame,
If I cou'd see the bonny broom
If I cou'd see the primrose bloom
If I cou'd see the rising sun
If I cou'd see the daisy spread
If I cou'd see the lane kirk yard
Then might I think this forest hame,
Meaning of unusual words:
|
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
In the early part of the week, strong winds of up to 75mph, rain and sleet swept across the country, resulting in snow-blocked roads on high ground in the Highlands and flooding in a number of parts of the country. Initially, southern and central Scotland were the worst affected, with over two inches of rain in nine hours on Tuesday. The river Tweed near Kelso rose by nine feet as a result of the incessant rain. As a consequence of the atrocious weather: -
Although the dispute is not yet settled, the fire brigade union have cancelled the 48-hour strikes due to begin on the morning of 29 October and on the weekend before Guy Fawkes Night (2/3 November). They say that talks with the government have been "positive" and that they want to give time for further negotiations to take place. The firemen have always claimed that they were reluctant to strike and put lives at risk - alternative cover would have had to be provided by untrained service personnel using out-dated equipment.
The Scottish white fishing industry was facing a battle for survival as a European Commission following a report from a powerful committee of marine scientists. They suggested that the only way that cod stocks in the North Sea, Irish Sea and in western Scottish coastal waters could recover would be to impose a total ban on fishing for all varieties, including haddock, plaice and whiting, perhaps lasting for many years. Such a move would decimate the fishing industry and force the closure of many fish processing plants. However, politicians have been quick to say that other solutions would have to be considered before any political decision was made. But measures such as decommissioning of ships, tightening of control and enforcement of catch quotas and increasing net sizes would still have a detrimental effect on the industry.
It's not just the hard-pressed Scottish tourist industry that is suffering from a reduction in the number of foreign visitors. The number of British holidaymakers going abroad has declined, in some cases dramatically. Holidays to the USA are down by almost 33% and Cyprus and Tunisia are down by around 19%. Spain is still the most popular destination but even here, numbers are down by over 7%.
Fans of the Harry Potter books about the escapades of the student of magic wizardry at Hogwarts School have been impatiently waiting for the fifth book in the series. Scottish-based author J K Rowling took a year-long holiday after the fourth book was published and after the first film of the series - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the USA) - was launched. The fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, should have been with the publishers 15 months ago but is now not going to be issued this year. The second film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is to be released on 15 November. It now looks as though she plans to write a total of eight books, instead of the seven previously promised. The information became public when the film company applied to the UK Patent Office to register more than 50 patents, including the titles of the remaining books. Sales of the first four books have topped 100 million and critics who have previewed the second film say that it is even better than the first.
A B-listed 19th century building in Edinburgh's Fountainbridge district is to be the centre-piece of a new £30 million office building offering 100,000 square feet of modern accommodation. Scotmid, the country's largest co-operative society (with 700 properties in Central Scotland and formerly known as St Cuthbert Co-Operative Society) is joining with developers Bett Properties to progress the plans. Scotmid are moving to a new HQ at Newbridge early in 2004, allowing work on their existing premises to commence.
An appeal by a charity to create a cancer care centre in Glasgow has reached £1 million - double the original target. The news was announced as the Maggie Centre opened its doors for the first time this week. It has been created in a former gatehouse on the edge of the grounds of the Western Infirmary. It will provide information and support for cancer sufferers and their families. The centre is also to benefit from the Rangers Football Club Charity Foundation, which raised £250,000 last season.
Author and broadcaster Sir Clement Freud was elected by students as rector of St Andrews University this week. He won 52.4% of the votes cast for the job of representing the students at the University Court for the next three years. Sir Clement is aged 78 - and he has promised the students a big birthday party when he reaches 80.
The Barras Market in Glasgow's East End is something of an institution. The open-air stalls and the covered areas still fulfill the original purpose of selling goods at low prices, often at auctions with fast-talking, wise-cracking salesmen. Tourists also turn up to see the spectacle which operates every weekend. But some of the traders at the Barras have also developed a reputation for providing goods which have been illegally copied. Even so, there was some surprise when police raided the market last Saturday and seized over 150,000 pirated copies of CDs, videos and DVDs - some of which are not yet currently available in the High Street shops. The value of the bootleg goods came to £3 million. Of course, nobody was arrested - stall holders disappeared as soon as the police were spotted by look-outs with mobile phones. The Federation Against Copyright Theft and local traders are now calling on the Barras to be closed down, pointing out that the pirated goods are defrauding companies and legitimate traders of millions of pounds each year. An application to have the Barras licence revoked is one of the options being considered.
French cognac distilleries are reported to be laying off workers as young drinkers turn to the new trendy drink - "le single malt". Iron-clad knights and ruined abbeys on adverts declaring "Vous entrez sur les terres du Clan Campbell" have been weaning the French from their traditional cognac (made from grapes) to the cool, sophisticated single malt (made from malted barley). Demand for whisky in France has increased by 300% over the last three years. Of course, whisky in France is often drunk mixed with Coke and other fizzy drinks.
The company producing Drambuie are proud of the liqueur's Isle of Skye heritage. But the management had to eat humble pie for excluding islanders from a "Drambuie on Ice" competition in which the prize is a top chef to cater for a dinner party in the winner's own home. But in the small print terms and conditions, those taking part had to be "mainland UK residents." But the Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland took umbrage at this and called for Drambuie to be removed from sale in the House of Commons until the company apologised to islanders and included them in the competition. Needless to say, the company hastily scrapped the restriction, claiming that it was an unfortunate mistake. They have promised that even if someone from the Fair Isles in northernmost Shetland won the prize, the chef would travel there to prepare the meal.
Bookmakers have shortened the odds from 5-1 to 4-1 on a white Christmas after punters started to lay bets of hundreds of pounds this week. In the last six years, the bookies have paid out four times. Officially, a flake of snow has to be recorded at specific sites during the 24 hours of 25 December. In Glasgow, the airport is the official site. Last year, although Aberdeen had a fall of snow, Glasgow was snow-free.
After a bright weekend (Aberdeen had over 14 hours of sunshine and Glasgow was not far behind), gales and rain swept in (see the news item at the start of this Newsletter). Maximum temperatures dipped to 6/7C (43/45F) for much of the week Although the sunshine returned to Aberdeen towards the end of the week, most other parts of the country had dull, showery weathers with only a few blinks of sunshine.
The psychic powers of entertainer and spoon-bender Uri Geller were blunted by the wet weather this week when he tried to pinpoint the exact location of the Battle of Falkirk. It took place in 1298 and William Wallace was defeated by the English army. Mr Geller had planned to fly over the area in a helicopter but that had to be cancelled because of the wet weather. Instead, he tramped around the sodden fields, accompanied by a local historian and a media circus. He admitted that his predictive powers had not told him about the bad weather (the weather forecasters had been warning everyone for days) but he did identify a playing field at Carmuirs where he said he had a "very strong feeling" that it could have been the site. It was one of the possible sites identified on a map provided by local historians. Geller promised to come back on a sunny day to pin-point the site.
When the 100-year-old Bower building at Glasgow University was destroyed by fire exactly a year ago, there was concern that the damage caused was so severe that the shell would have to be demolished. But the university has confirmed that work to restore the Bower Building "bigger and better than ever" at a cost of £7.5 million will start next year and should be complete by 2004. The building had been used for teaching the life sciences and the finish date will coincide with the 300th anniversary of the start of botany teaching at Glasgow University. After the fire, a glass transparency of Professor Frederick Opren Bower, after whom the building was named, was found undamaged in a wooden cabinet.
The number of visits to UK cinemas in the first half of 2002 shot up by nearly 25%, a rate of increase which even exceed the growth of 16.7% in the USA. The dismal weather in the first half of the year may have been a contributory factor in the UK, but the movie moguls will be hoping that it had more to do with such blockbusters as the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings block-busters - after all, the second episodes of both films are in the pipeline. Although a number of small cinemas have closed, the rise of the multiplex has resulted in more cinema screens in Scotland than at any time since the 1950s. In 1990, Edinburgh had only 12 screens - there are now more than 60.
The next Celtic Connections Festival, which is held every year in Glasgow, will feature stars such as Sinead O'Connor, Evelyn Glennie, Tam White, Donnie Munro and groups including Shooglenifty, the Dubliners and Croft No 5. The festival will run from 15 January to 2 February next year. Last year, attendances broke all previous records, reaching 94,000.
Held in conjunction with The Robert Burns World Federation, the cream of Scotland's junior musicians are performing the music and poetry of Robert Burns at beautiful Drum Castle near Banchory on Royal Deeside this weekend. The youngsters, aged from eight to 18, have won major competitions, including the Scottish Piping Championships and the Robert Burns International Championships. The concert takes place in the old drawing room at the castle, which provides great acoustics, as well as a beautiful classic grand piano. There will be piano recitals, fiddle music, Gaelic singing, verse speakers, and recitals from pianists, fiddlers, flautists, and a range of string and woodwind instrumentalists. The musical works are complemented by first class traditional Highland dancing. 
Although pumpkins are increasingly being sold in the shops in the run-up to Hallowe'en, turnips (swedes) are the traditional material for making lanterns in Scotland at this time of the year. In order to encourage the tradition, the Kirriemuir District Agricultural Asociation in Angus is offering free turnips for anyone who wants to enter a competition being run by the local Kirriemuir Museum. The Christian Festival on All Hallows (Saints) Day on 1 November was deliberately set to coincide with the last day of the year in the old Celtic calendar of 31 October. It was celebrated by the Druids as "Samhain" from "Sain" meaning summer and "fuin" meaning "ending" and was regarded as a "Feast of the Dead" when they would sometimes return as evil spirits. There were also ritual fires to ensure that the sun would return the following spring and there is still a lingering belief that children born on Hallowe'en have supernatural gifts. See 
Ian Rankin, the author of the series of books about the gritty Edinburgh detective Inspector John Rebus, received his OBE (Officer of the British Empire) award for services to literature from the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Eric Milligan. Normally, such awards are presented by the Queen or a senior member of the Royal Family. But the Lord Provost was acting in his role as representative of the Queen as "Lord Lieutenant" of the city. Rankin suggested that after the ceremony, the Lord Provost might pop down to the Oxford Bar with him - a location that plays a pivotal role in many of the books. 
Despite their surprise loss, Boroughmuir are still well out in front of the BT Scotland Rugby Division 1 with 35 points, followed by Melrose (that's their ground pictured here) and Glasgow Hawks on 26 points. Jed-Forest and Peebles share the foot of the table with 15 points.
The bid by Scotland and Ireland to host the Euro 2008 football championship received a boost this week when it was revealed that there had been "significant levels of interest" from private companies to build a national stadium in Dublin. The Irish government refused to finance the construction of such a stadium.