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JULY/AUGUST 2001
SCOTTISH NEWS ROUND-UP
Million Pound Budget for Burns Supper
In a bid to make the celebration of the birth of Robert Burns on 25 January, 1759, as big a festival as St Patrick's Day around the world, the Scottish Executive has allocated a budget of a million pounds. Activities are planned which range from a Burns Supper in Edinburgh Castle attended by world leaders, to extended licensing hours (Burns would no doubt have approved of that one) and free admission to theatres and museums on the day. Allan Wilson, the arts minister comes from Ayrshire and he intends to discuss his plans when he attends the Robert Burns World Federation congress in Atlanta, Georgia, in July.
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Apathy the Winner as Voters Stay at Home
The percentage of people who voted in the General Election fell to the lowest level in over 80 years. Turnout in Scotland fell to 58 percent from over 70 percent in 1997. In the last General Election, 50 of Scotland's 72 constituencies had a turnout of over 70 percent but this time only Eastwood, a key marginal seat, had over that figure. A combination of expectation that Tony Blair's Labour Party would win another landslide induced both his supporters and opponents to stay away. Glasgow Shettleston, a safe Labour seat, had the dubious honour of recording the lowest turnout in Scotland with 38.8 percent.
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Election Brings Little Change
In the end, the make-up of the new Westminster Parliament was little changed from the last election in 1997. In Scotland, Labour again won 56 out of the 72 seats and the Liberal Democrats again won 10 seats. The only change in numbers was that the Conservatives won Galloway and Upper Nithsdale from the Scottish Nationalists. Labour's share of the vote did fall from 45.6 percent in 1997 to 43.9 percent this time but both Conservatives (down from 17.5 percent to 15.6 percent) and Scottish Nationalists (down from 21.9 percent to 20.1 percent). The main beneficiaries were the Liberal Democrats (up from 13 percent to 16.4 percent) and the Scottish Socialist Party who gained 3.1 percent from a zero base in 1997.
Embarrassment for Scottish Ministers
An unguarded conversation between First Minister Henry McLeish and Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell, which was inadvertently caught on tape as McLeish was wearing a radio microphone which had been switched on, caused embarrassment (and some amusement). They made disparaging remarks about their colleagues Brian Wilson (describing him as a "liability") and Northern Ireland Secretary of State John Reid (a "patronising bastard"). The exchange - broadcast widely on TV and printed in newspapers - took some of the gloss from the triumph of the Labour party in Scotland and in the UK.
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Conservative Leaders Resign
It was not just William Hague, the Conservative Party leader, who resigned in the wake of what he described as "disappointing" results in the General Election. After four years in opposition and under his leadership, the party gained just one seat and increased their share of the vote from 30.7 percent to only 31.8 percent in this election. In Scotland, Raymond Robertson, the chairman of the Conservatives in Scotland also resigned.
He had failed to regain the Eastwood constituency which in the past had been regarded as a safe Conservative seat. And although the party did manage to win one seat in Scotland it was by the narrowest of margins (74 votes) and was due in part to local issues. Another Conservative grandee, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former UK minister, also failed to regain the Edinburgh Pentlands seat which he lost in 1997.
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Logistics of Vote Counting
With less than 10 percent of the UK population, Scotland has over 30 percent of the land mass. So when it comes to collecting and counting the votes there is a major logistical exercise to ensure that the results are available as soon as possible - usually within hours of the polling stations closing.
Helicopters, ferries and aircraft are used to bring the ballot boxes to the counting stations. Even constituencies such as Argyll and Bute which are scattered across a huge area, including 34 islands, had the votes counted by lunchtime on the day after polling. But the result in Orkney and Shetland was delayed - a plane chartered to carry ballot boxes was diverted to take a woman to hospital in Aberdeen. Of course, there are no problems of "hanging chads" in the UK elections - all the votes are counted by hand.
Tourist Board Directors All Dismissed
All six senior staff at visitscotland, the former Scottish Tourist Board, have been forced out as part of an overhaul of management in the troubled organization. Recently, they had the embarrassment of having to withdraw an offer of employment to a new chief executive when it became clear that he would not give up his part-time post with an
air freight company. The six, whose combined salaries totalled u360,000 a year, are being replaced by three new directors, one of whom will not join the organization until September.
Long Road for a Shortcut
An ambulance taking a patient from Glasgow's Royal Infirmary to Dumfries should have arrived at its destination 90 minutes later. But it was nearly four hours before the patient reached his destination as the ambulance crew took a tour of Southern Scotland after taking a wrong turning. Instead of taking a slip road from the M8 to the M74 going south, they carried on - all the way to Edinburgh - even though it would have been quicker to retrace their route back to Glasgow. But they then headed south to the Scottish Borders and then across the scenic route to Dumfries - with the patient offering advice along the way.
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First Canadian Degree in Piping
The local College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts and the University of Prince Edward Island have joined forces to provide the first Bachelor of Arts degree in piping in Canada (and only the third such course in the world - the others are in Pittsburgh, Pa. and Glasgow, Scotland). The announcement was made by university president Wade MacLauchlan, decked out in the MacLauchlan tartan.
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500 Years Since Last Donald High Council
Five Clan Donald Chiefs and 70 members of the clans met recently at Glencoe to discuss the future development of the clan movement. Clan chiefs Lord MacDonald of MacDonald, MacDonald of Clanranald, McDonell of Glengarry, MacDonald of Sleat and Macdonnell of Antrim who make up the High Council of the clan, together with clan members, met for the first time in 500 years in that role. The High Council used to meet regularly but as the clan system declined, there was no call for the meeting. Clan members from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Holland and France attended. It is hoped that the meeting will become a biannual event.
Madonna's Kilt
Clearly that wedding in Scotland and her marriage to a Scot has had an effect on pop-star Madonna. The mega-star began her first world tour in eight years in Barcelona sporting a short kilt in Macintosh tartan with a slit on each side over long leather trousers. Madonna married film producer Guy Ritchie (Ritchie is a sept of the clan Macintosh) last December at Skibo Castle and their son, Rocco, was christened in Dornoch Cathedral on the day before the wedding.
200 Taxis Leave Glasgow
On June 21, there was a decided lack of taxis on the streets of Glasgow due to 200 taxis taking 600 sick children for an outing to the Ayrshire coast. This was the 56th year in which the taxi drivers volunteered to decorate their cabs with balloons, streamers and paint to give the kids an unforgettable day out. Many taxi drivers enter into the spirit of the occasion by dressing up to rival the display of their taxis. The kids were given a rousing send-off from the Glasgow Lord Provost and the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band and enjoyed a Radio Clyde roadshow and disco in Troon Town Hall. The kids also had a picnic, fancy dress ball and face painting.
Two Years To Replace Public Phone Box
While there may be many benefits in living on remote Hebridean islands, communications with the mainland can sometimes be a problem. This was brought home to the residents of Tiree when a car accident demolished a public payphone at Crossapol two years ago. It has taken British Telecom two years and shoals of letters from local residents to get the facility replaced. Last year the telephone box was replaced - but without a phone. Finally, a phone was delivered - but locals then found it was not connected. British Telecom has promised to get it operational shortly. They claim there are other payphones on the island but Crossapol residents say that theirs is the only one for many miles.
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Biggest Ever Lottery Win
When Derek Wilson, a 53-year-old engineer, returned home recently he found his wife in a state of shock and thought that there had been a death in the family. But instead he found that his wife's National Lottery ticket had made her the biggest non-syndicate winner in Scotland - ull million. The couple live in Thornton near Kirkcaldy in Fife and after the win Wilson went fishing with friends so that he could "clear his head" after the shock.
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Meadows in Bloom
One unexpected side effect of the foot-and-mouth outbreak has been that the slaughter of all those sheep and cattle has left the fields ungrazed by animals. So the wild flowers which would normally get eaten before they had a chance to flower are producing a blaze of colourful blooms.
Appalling
Prison Conditions
EDINBURGH - Conditions in Scottish jails have been condemned repeatedly by prisoners, human rights groups and church leaders.
The regime of locking up inmates without sanitation, forcing them to use a chamber pot in a shared cell, was described as "inhuman" by European inspectors as far back as 1990. Yet the Scottish executive still does not have a clear strategy in place which gives a timescale for installing toilets in every prison cell.
A government review is currently examining alternative proposals for the future, including the building of more private prisons, which studies have shown are up to 15 percent cheaper to build. Critics say the review is far too late.
In 1990, European inspectors delivered a damning report on the state of UK jails. As well as overcrowding, slopping out was highlighted as degrading to prisoners.
The Scottish Prison Service responded by informing the Council of Europe committee that it "should be possible to introduce internal sanitation in all prison cells by 1999."
At that time, only around 40 percent of prison cells had toilets -now the figure is 76 percent, but the target for ending slopping out has been put back until 2005. In England and Wales, a £59.9 million building program saw slopping out end in 1996.
There are five Scots prisons where inmates still slop out -Barlinnie, Edinburgh Saughton, Perth, Peterhead and Polmont young offenders' institution. A 1999 report into remand conditions by Scotland's chief inspector of prisons, Clive Fairweather, was entitled "Punishment First, Verdict Later?"
He wrote of Barlinnie, "It has been nothing short of a national disgrace that over the years so many remand prisoners have had to pass through and endure the squalid conditions in Scotland's largest prison."
Bank Chief Robbed
Sir George Mathewson, chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was recently drawing cash from one of the bank's through-the-wall automatic teller machines when two thieves approached from behind.
They noted the personal ID number which he keyed into the machine and as the card was being ejected from the machine, they tapped him on the shoulder and told him he had dropped a u5 note.
As he bent down to check, they leaned over and grabbed the card before running off. But the multimillionaire bank chief lost no money - he immediately notified his bank who put a stop on the card.