Tag Archives: scotland

Pot of tea

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The SNP victory in the Scottish elections can be taken in several ways:

  • A kick in the teeth for Scottish Labour (one long in coming, an election overdue);
  • A slap in the face for the Lib Dems (a protest to the shenanigans of the Lib Dems in Westminster);
  • A door slammed on the face of the Tories (not enough to boot them out in the last few elections, but now a fence is being erected to keep them at bay);
  • Resulting in the SNP being welcomed in for a seat by the fire with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit (dare I say, an indication that conditions are becoming favorable for a true divorce from the Union).

With the Tories mucking up the whole country in their usual heavy-handed way, the Lib Dems lending a hand, and Labour mewing pitifully in the corner, the SNP have mopped up all the dissatisfied and disenfranchised votes.

Now, if only the SNP could do something about the new Home Office limits on the number of academic visas, I’d brew them a whole pot of tea.

Who needs another reason to drink whisky?

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We interrupt this lack of bloggage to bring you this piece of breaking news:

Speyside distilleries will now be burning whisky waste, aka draff*, to fuel their operations.

While the case for biofules is still in debate, with naysayers warning of famine being a result of farmers switching over to more profitable biofuel crops, it’s still a step in the right direction, methinks. Without continued experiments and innovation, how are we supposed to find an alternative to our dwindling resource of fossil fuels? Sure, all the alternative energy methods at present have their flaws, some social, others economic, and some even environmental. But all these paltry attempts to use solar, wind, tidal and agricultural sources to power our thirst for energy-sucking devices will one day pay off. Hopefully before we run out of pressurised fossils.

*And before anyone jumps in with the point about the allegedly waste draff already being used to feed livestock, I acknowledge that some research is needed into how much draff is actually used as feed at the moment and whether the draff going to the power plant is truly surplus to requirements.

Trumptown

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The Trumptown saga continues.

What bothers me the most about the whole affair is the speed with which the Scottish government involved itself. The “call in” happened just a bit too fast to be due process. Surely some pressure was placed on them.

Having been in the US for a couple of years now, I think I can safely accuse the Americans of the bad practice of wanting everything done yesterday. Everything has to happen as fast as possible. Delays are always the fault of someone else slowing the process down. If the job is not done at superhuman speed, then someone must be deliberately sabotaging the process so the competitors can get ahead. Corners can be cut willy nilly to get the job done fast. And that’s in academia – historically one of the slowest fields. Imagine the speed of things in the heady world of property development. The Trump team will probably be a prime example of doing whatever it takes to close the deal asap. That’s not a surprise.

What is surprising is that the Scottish government feels the need to circumvent the usual appeals process and deal with the rejected plan so soon. It is surprising that they feel the need to accommodate the Trump team to the extent of not following procedure. The council must have rejected the property plan for good reasons. While I’ve not had a chance to find out what those are yet, if I were the Scottish government, I’d look into that first and ignore outside lobbying until they’ve had some impartial advice. In particular, the hurrying by the Trump team should not be heeded; Donald Trump’s spokesperson was quoted as saying:

“These attacks are more than misguided; they are malicious, inaccurate and potentially destructive and they threaten to once again endanger a £1 billion project which has the overwhelming backing of the North-east of Scotland.”

A cynic would read between the lines and translate their statement as a threat: “If you keep interfering with our deal, we’re taking it off the table and screw you silly Scots for not wanting our easy money.”

I say: ignore them. We expect our politicians to make their decisions:

“steadily, sensibly, never too quickly, never too slowly”

Eilean A` Cheo

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Cuillin and river
Cuillin and river
Originally uploaded by framboise.

Skye truly is an island of mist. We woke to misty wetness every morning, but the weather usually cleared up by lunchtime to leave the most beautiful blue skies. Skye is now accessible by a toll-free bridge from the Kyle of Lochalsh, which takes some of the magic of the Western Isles away from it, and makes its roads the busiest of the islands we’ve been to. I’ve always loved the short ferry trips from the west of Scotland, and being able to take a half minute drive just isn’t the same.

The hard rock that makes up Skye makes it look quite alien, as there is hardly any vegetation on the higher hills and mountains. And you don’t have to get particularly high up to get the most impressive views. This shot was taken in Glen Brittle, by the base of an easily accessed waterfall, Eas Mors (see other photo). The peak in the back is of one of the Cuillins, but I can’t remember which one. We observed someone picking mussles in the bay at the end of Glen Brittle, but didn’t join in for fear of spoiling our appetites for dinner at the Three Chimneys that evening. If you’re a foodie, and sometimes despair of the quality of restaus in rural Scotland, it’d do you a lot of good to get out to Skye. There, they’re proud of their local produce, of which the shellfish is particularly good. For example, fishermen bring in fresh langoustines from Loch Bay, to be scoffed locally at the Lochbay Seafood Restaurant in Stein.

Skye is also chock full of craft shops and galleries. The harsh environment probably leads to a lot of time to sit, think and create during the winter months. We spent a fair amount of time in the Skye Silver shop, as well as the Raven Press, where we saw the most intricate woodblock prints and just HAD to get a wee souvenir print of Skye with minke whales by Neist Lighthouse. Our visit didn’t last long enough, but we were glad to get out when we did, for on our drive home, we saw the most ridiculous convoys of cars heading in (probably to take up every last BnB and hotel room on the island). Typical Easter weekend then…

Oh yeah, the mini banana loaves came in handy as carbo and sugar snacks to keep us going between massive breakfasts and dinners.

Eas Mors (Mors waterfall) the three chimneys View from Stein Trumpan church ruins
Eas Mors The Three Chimneys Loch Bay from Stein Clear blue skies

For more photos of Skye and Eilean Donan, see my Flickr set.

Culcutta Cup

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Aye, the game against the auld enemy seems a wee bit redundant now. But I’m still hoping Scotland does well enough to shut up those arrogant English TV commentators and fans.

19:20 edit: Partisan commentary yet again by the English. Scotland seem to be trying a lot harder, and deserve more tries than are on the scoreboard.

19:44 edit: England 43-22 Scotland. Oh well. They tried hard and didnae give up. Again, defence was appalling, but perhaps they can spend the summer working on that when the Lions are on tour.