Stooshie Issue 8 Published July 12 2014

JULY 12 issue no.8 ❘ £2.50

W NE NE ZI GA MA

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Bringing home the baton

Stooshie But this wasn’t the highlight of Fred’s week...

T h e b e st o f S c ott i s h m e d i a – n e w s

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Badly Plaid?

Team Scotland outfit fit-out furore

Bye bye Balado

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Out of Order Scotland in days

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Text Marching season turns violent

12-Jul-14

Recall: R29 – 18-Jul-14

T in the Park takes a bow at Kinross

Ships with everything A right royal Text naming ceremony www.thestooshie.co.uk

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Is the Commonwealth city prepared?

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Why Jock Stein feared a nuclear strike

Want to own your own island?

Now’s your chance...

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From Crail to Canada: the week’s top travel writing

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Editor’s Round-up: That was the week that was

Welcome to another packed issue of The Stooshie, the magazine that brings you the best of Scotland’s news from the last seven days. We’ve been camped in our office to monitor goingson across the country and we’ve ploughed through countless newspaper pages, websites and blogs in order to serve up the pick of the bunch.

Nothing seems to have sparked debate this week more than Team Scotland’s parade outfits for the Commonwealth Games.

Words fail us but thankfully Scotland’s media had its say on the fashion faux pas which has raised a few eyebrows.

In other news, Glasgow was thrust into the spotlight for other reasons, some positive, some negative, while the independence debate continues to churn out issues to fill more than its fair share of column inches. Elsewhere, Seven by Seven asks if Glasgow is ready for the 2014 Games, while the changeable weather we’ve been having must mean it’s time for festival season. And with Balado saying goodbye to the event after this year, bittersweet is probably an apt word to describe the mood.

We also look at Scots’ drinking habits, dissect Andy Murray’s Wimbledon exit and get excited about the future of Scottish football – among other things, of course. All in a week’s work!

Read, digest and enjoy!

SCOTTISH WORD OF THE WEEK

stotter verb ❘ stot r ❘ 1. To stagger.

Usage: “People will stotter over the fields...” (page 18) “This isn’t a case of people stotting home from the pub after a pint or two too many...” (page 25) (also noun: anything outstanding, good-looking)

WE REALLY LIKE...

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It’s been a busy old week for Fred...

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Glasgow’s £1 billion boost

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■ Irn-Bru’s stirring new poster campaign captures the nation’s mood...

Editor-in-chief: Richard Neville Editor: Steve Bargeton Deputy editor: Catriona MacInnes Art director: Aileen Wilkie Content manager: Rory Weller Editorial: Craig Smith, Stefan Morkis, Alastair Bennett Contributors: Brian Donaldson, Robert McNeil, Jonathan Trew, James Williamson, Graham Huband

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4 l news

MAIN EVENTS

Glasgow shines bright as Prestwick struggles on Massive investment revitalises Glasgow Airport transport link plan as Prestwick Airport continues to struggle ■ Glasgow is to receive around £1 billion investment from the UK and Scottish Governments.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced Scotland’s second city would receive £500 million from the City Deals scheme to pay for roads, bus services, employment programmes and an airport rail link.

This funding was immediately matched by the Scottish Government.

Under the agreement, Glasgow becomes the first Scottish town to sign a City Deal. The money will resurrect

plans for a rail link to Glasgow Airport from the city centre, which had been dropped by the Scottish Government.

But there was less good news for Prestwick Airport.

Efforts to turn around the taxpayer-owned business have already hit a snag.

Ryanair, the airport’s sole operator, has dropped nearly half its winter schedule from Prestwick and introduced new flights from Glasgow.

Ryanair says it remains committed to Prestwick.

EDITORIALS SAY

COMMENTATORS SAY

Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement of £500 million funding for Glasgow should not be mistaken for a pre-referendum bribe, The Scotsman said.

It said the announcement should “be considered on its merits” and that plans to revive the Glasgow Airport Rail Link will be “welcomed by many”.

The paper said the “one certain avenue out of the politics of cuts and constraints is economic growth” and that because of this the £1 billion worth of total funding should “not be obscured by political claim and counter-claim.”

On the other hand, Glasgowbased The Herald said the timing of Mr Cameron’s announcement was “nakedly political” and that the Prime Minister had “made no attempt to pretend it was anything else”.

Nevertheless, it recognised that this “does not make the money any less welcome” and said it has “transformative possibilities”.

It stated that cities across the UK “need an economic boost to compete with the evercreeping metropolis of London” but that smaller cities like Edinburgh and Dundee will be “wondering when their times will come”.

But overall The Herald concluded the City Deal “has the potential to make a major difference for the better” so long, that is, as councils spend the money wisely.

Just as the Yes campaign is beginning to look “tired and lacking in leadership” the UK government is able to “pull cash out of the hat,” said The Herald’s Alison Rowat.

Noting the apparent cynicism of the award so close to the referendum date she asked: “Who needs Christmas when you have a referendum on the go?”

However, writing in Scotland on Sunday Euan McColm said that while “the suggestion of cynical politicking might seem plausible, things are not quite so straight­forward” as discussions had been taking place for more than a year.

He was more interested in the Scottish Government’s immediate response to match funding, despite having previously scrapped plans for the airport rail link. Although approved by parliament, McColm said plans were dropped and speculated this was because they “did not suit the SNP’s agenda” rather than to do with cost.

He added that investment in and development of cities remains a “blind spot” for the SNP. The Scotsman’s Brian Monteith wondered why the Scottish Government had purchased Prestwick. It may have only cost £1, but loses nearly £1 million a month.

He wondered why taxpayers in Edinburgh and Glasgow should subsidise a less popular airport.

Out of Order – violence at Orange walk Twelve-year-old girl hit by bottle and 18 arrested as Orange Order marches through Glasgow Green ■ The Grand Lodge of Scotland has said a planned march in support of the United Kingdom will go ahead the week before the referendum despite violence at the County Grand Orange Order parade in Glasgow.

A 12-year-old girl was left covered in blood after being struck on the head with a bottle. Eighteen people were the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

arrested for public disorder offences on the march.

The Better Together campaign has distanced itself from the Orange Order, which has registered itself as a “permitted participant” in the referendum. Grand secretary Eddie Hyde denied the parades were provocative and the existence of sectarianism.

EDITORIALS SAY The Orange Order’s ambition to stage a pro-union rally the weekend before the vote on Scottish independence has not won many supporters.

Although the Sunday Herald admits the referendum debate has been fascinating, the paper said there have been definite “low points” but that the “ugly fringe” has mostly been limited to the internet.

But it said the violence that marred the Orange Order parade in Glasgow is “concerning”.

While it said the 18 arrests

MAIN EVENTS

Athletes’ gear unlikely to win many medals Designer of Team Scotland’s parade uniforms blind to criticism ■ Scotland’s Commonwealth Games athletes will open this year’s competition wearing a bizarre combination of light blue and fuchsia-flecked tartan.

The outfits provoked a strong response online and in newspapers, with many highly critical of the controversial colour scheme.

The parade uniforms, designed by textile designer Jilli Blackwood, will be worn during the opening ceremony.

The men’s uniform comprises a blue shirt while a wrap-around dress in the same material has been designed for the women.

Men will also wear a kilt with a turquoise, navy blue and fuchsia tartan.

Women will wear a tartan shawl and a white shoulder bag designed to remind people of the Saltire.

Despite widespread criticism, Ms Blackwood defended her designs and said “there would be no mistaking Team Scotland” during the opening ceremony later this month.

related to drinking and public disorder was “not in itself a particularly high number”, nobody wants to see it repeated in September when, it said, “the potential for disorder is manifest”.

And although the Sunday Herald makes it clear the Orange Order has every right to march “it should desist” because of concerns about public disorder and the image of Scotland it will present to the world.

The Daily Record noted that former Scottish secretary Jim Murphy had also called for the September march to be cancelled.

EDITORIALS SAY

COMMENTATORS SAY

There was general bemusement at the outfit’s design everywhere.

The Scottish Sun bemoaned the fact athletes would not be wearing the uniform while competing as “the garish colour scheme might have been enough to put off their opponents”. The paper concluded that whatever success Scotland has in the Games “don’t expect us to win a gold for fashion design”.

Likewise, the Scottish Daily Express said it was fortunate that athletes wearing the “rather gaudy” dress will “compete for medals in the arenas, not on the catwalk”.

Following the backlash, The Courier said it was “hard not to feel some sympathy” for the outfit’s designer and said that Ms Blackwood, when asked to come up with a bold outfit, had “done just that”.

It added the uniform had “served some purpose” in “uniting a nation” – although not in the way intended.

There was competition online and in print to see who could come up with the most outrageous, or accurate depending on your stance, description of the outfits.

In the Scottish Daily Mail John Greechan said the design was like “someone’s run an old tin of Export through a loom, then covered a swathe of electric blue fabric with wee dots” while Alex Massie in the same paper said the team looks like “extras from a low-budget, Irn-Bru sponsored 1980s sci-fi movie”.

Fashion expert Alan Moore wrote in the Scottish Sun that the story behind the design is more important than its aesthetic appeal.

In The Scotsman, Ruth Walker said the outfits “look like something Pan’s People might have worn, if they’d been dancing to Mull of Kintyre”. See Tweets p22.

COMMENTATORS SAY

Scottish Catholics towards a Yes vote in September.

But he said Yes Scotland also “has its extremists”.

Leask described a picket outside BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay headquarters over alleged bias in news reports as “an act of PR suicide” and said “Better Together could barely contain its glee” afterwards.

But The Observer’s Kevin McKenna said: “We shouldn’t be disdaining the Orangemen and what they are representing in this campaign, which is a dose of scrofulous reality.”

Ultimately, he said, it will not be the “chattering classes” that decide the vote.

The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend, at least when it comes to the independence debate, said The Herald’s chief reporter David Leask.

He claimed both the Yes campaign and Better Together now face the “same challenge: how to limit the damage inflicted by their own most zealous fringes”.

Leask said for Better Together this is whether the vocal support from the Orange Order and its planned pro-UK march will drive

news l 5 on the bright side ■ Staff at Edinburgh Zoo said they are “pretty sure” Tian Tian the panda is pregnant, said the Edinburgh Evening News, although they won't know for sure until she actually delivers.

Urine tests revealed she successfully conceived after artificial insemination in April, but officials said it was “too early” to confirm a pregnancy.

■ A chicken was plucked from safety on a busy road – ironically just yards away from a KFC. SSPCA officers said the bird, named Peggy, was lucky to survive her ordeal in Alloa.

■ Glasgow’s Science Centre tower will reopen on July 19, almost four years after it was closed. The 127m (416ft) rotating tower had been plagued by problems but was given a £1.8 million revamp.

■ A box of biscuits and a pair of trainers are among the more unusual items reported stolen from Holyrood over the years, reported The Scotsman’s Jane Bradley.

■ Scotland’s first satellite has been launched into orbit.

UKube-1, which is not much bigger than a shoebox was sent into space aboard a Russian rocket from a base in Kazakhstan.

■ Singer Robin Thicke was a high-profile victim when his hashtag #AskThicke attracted abuse recently, but you’d think Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael would know better?

Nope. STV’s Stephen Daisley revealed how #AskAC was hijacked by Twitter users like Hamish Gibson who, seeing the picture below, helpfully asked: “Why are you typing when your computer screen’s turned off?”

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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POLITICS

Under pressure? SNP accused of bullying businesses Channel 4 documentary claims attempts made to silence businesses and academics that question independence

indy BRIEFS 1. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said plans to cut corporation tax would lead to greater inequality in an independent Scotland.

2. Defence giant BAE Systems has said it could resume ship-building in Portsmouth after independence, casting doubt over the future of Rosyth.

3. A TNS Scotland poll commissioned by Sir Tom Hunter gave the No campaign an 18-point lead. However, 63% of people said they had given up listening to the debate while 73% said it is difficult to know who to believe.

■ Claims the SNP has been trying to silence businesses and academics who may have concerns about independence have been angrily denied by the party.

Former Scotch Whisky Association chief executive Gavin Hewitt told Channel 4’s Dispatches that firms were warned they could face “retribution” for speaking out against independence by the SNP’s Westminster leader, Angus Robertson (below), who denied the allegations.

The same programme heard how the UK government had exaggerated how much it would cost to set up an independent Scotland.

Dispatches also spoke to five other business leaders who claimed they had been pressured into silence by the Scottish Government.

The programme was broadcast just days after Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, said staff in some universities were scared to discuss the referendum.

4. Whisky distiller William Grant and Sons, makers of Glenfiddich, has donated a six-figure sum to Better Together, believed to be £100,000.

5. Health workers opposed to independence have formed a new group called NHS Together. A pro-independence group, NHS for Yes, was formed in May. the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

COMMENTATORS SAY Any attempts to prevent people or businesses from having their say on the referendum “does not reflect well on Scottish politics”, The Scotsman said.

Although the paper’s leader column noted many in the worlds of business and academia say they have not encountered any strong-arm tactics from either side, it said there is no doubt “many business leaders have felt pressured into remaining silent” even if they have valid concerns about how Scottish independence could impact their businesses.

Also writing in The Scotsman, Lesley Riddoch said these firms need to prove claims of intimidation otherwise it appears their concerns may simply be a ploy to guarantee funding.

“Are No campaigners almost guaranteed to have funding applications approved and

plans accepted – even dodgy ones – precisely because the Scottish Government must prove its even-handedness?” she asked.

Riddoch added Glasgow City Council has “effectively guaranteed” the Glasgow Airport Rail Link will now be built because its Labour-led administration is against independence.

She said the money would be better spent on a tram line built “by reliable Nordic transport firms” before concluding: “He who shouts loudest and has least intention of voting Yes on September 18 currently wins funding wrangles.”

The Daily Telegraph did not agree with that conspiracy theory, however. It said the Yes campaign has presented independence as being “painless, frictionless and cost-free”, but hates being reminded these claims are “nonsense”. The paper added there is “a growing sense that the nation of Alex Salmond’s dreams is not positive and outward-looking, but insular and small-minded”.

Back in The Scotsman, Glasgow University principal Anton Muscatelli said he had seen no evidence of intimidation.

“Better Together want nothing to do with the Orange Order.”

“The Scottish Government should take immediate steps to convert the independent investigation into child abuse into a joint UK wide inquiry.”

Jim Murphy,

Jack McConnell,

Former Scottish Secretary

Former First Minister

POLITICS

news l 7

Leaders booed at aircraft carrier launch

Bitter clash over pensions ■ An influential group of MPs has accused the Scottish Government of carrying out a “pensions con”.

The Scottish Affairs Committee claimed the Scottish Government has failed to properly cost their plans for both private and public pensions.

The SNP has said it wants to delay raising the pension age to 67 and had promised to offer a higher basic rate.

However, the Scottish Affairs Committee Report says these plans were “almost entirely uncosted”.

It called on the Scottish Government to publish full details of its plans before the referendum so voters know what they are casting their ballots for.

Committee chairman and Labour MP Ian Davidson (above) branded the SNP’s plans the “biggest mis-selling scandal in history”.

The SNP boycotts the Scottish Affairs Committee and MP Eilidh Whiteford accused unionist parties of “playing games” with people’s pensions.

She said both governments have guaranteed pensions will continue to be paid, whatever the result of the referendum in September.

said it was a “huge miscalculation” to believe the launch of the aircraft carrier would influence ■ First Minister Alex Salmond the referendum vote in and Prime Minister David September.

Cameron were both booed by He said: “People can be dockyard workers at the royal proud of the armed forces, launch of the biggest ever proud of the launch of an warship built in the United aircraft carrier, proud to build Kingdom. a ship, that doesn’t dictate Shipbuilders heckled both their politics.” men at the naming ceremony The Queen christened of the HMS Queen Elizabeth the warship with a bottle of in Rosyth.

Islay single malt and said Mr Cameron described the the carrier was “a source of £3.1 billion super-carrier as inspiration and pride for all “an investment in the future of us”. of British security”.

More than 4,000 people However, Mr Salmond watched the ceremony.

indy BRIEFS 1. UKIP is planning a major pro-union rally in Glasgow just days before the referendum vote in September.

2. Oxford Professor of European law Sionaidh Douglas-Scott has said it would be possible for Scotland to have “uninterrupted” membership of the EU even after a Yes vote.

Helicopter bullying claims

Indyref funding outlined

■ MPs are calling for an independent public inquiry into offshore helicopter safety after North Sea oil workers were told they should quit their jobs if they were concerned about safety.

The Commons Transport Committee heard North Sea Workers were told “to put on big boy pants” or resign by company officials.

Four men died when a helicopter ditched in the North Sea near Shetland last year, the fourth such accident in the last five years.

■ Over £2.4 million in donations have swelled the coffers of the Better Together campaign in the last six months, The Herald revealed.

The sum was said to be more than double the number of large donations proindependence groups received.

The biggest No campaign donation, £1 million, was made by author JK Rowling on June 10, according to Electoral Commission figures, while the same sum was donated to the Yes campaign by EuroMillions winners Chris and Colin Weir.

“We should get governments that we vote for – not governments we reject.”

“The only threat to Scotland’s place in Europe comes from Westminster’s UKIP agenda and David Cameron’s proposed in-out referendum.”

“It’s certainly the case that we would have to look at the issue of a border if you have different immigration policies.”

Nicola Sturgeon,

Humza Yousaf,

Ed Miliband,

Deputy First Minister

External Affairs Minister

Labour leader

3. SNP MSP Bruce Crawford has written to information commissioners in England and Scotland demanding the release of unpublished polling data on which the UK government spent £300,000 of taxpayers’ money.

4. Yes Scotland has condemned vandals who spray-painted “Vote Yes” on an Aberdeen statue of Queen Victoria.

5. Strathclyde University professor Dr Malcolm Macdonald said firms in Scotland’s space sector would benefit from grants from the European Space Agency after a Yes vote.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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SEVEN BY SEVEN

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Ready, steady – but is Glasgow good to go?

SEVEN QUESTIONS YOU REALLY WANT TO ASK 1. Does Glasgow stand ready for the 2014 Commonwealth Games?

Ready as it’ll ever be. Sure, as with any major public project, there have been teething problems. But, after all the niggles and inevitable spats, the city is all geared up for the opening ceremony at Celtic Park on July 23.

2. Teething problems? Do tell.

Well, this being the modern age and all, there was security for a start. As the Evening Times reported, 1,100 military personnel will join thousands of police officers and private security guards to form a “ring of steel” round venues, to protect them from potential terrorist attacks.

Not everyone is feeling all warm and fuzzy about this, though. Residents of Springfield Road, bordering the Athletes’ Village, complained they had been “barricaded in” by huge steel security gates, The Scotsman reported.

One disabled resident said: “We’ve been caged in like animals.”

3. Still, at least no one was evicted, right?

Wrong. Grandmother Margaret Jaconelli (55) and her husband Jack were evicted three years ago from their Ardenlea Street home on what became the site of the Athletes’ Village.

They’d lived in the flat for 35 years and Glasgow City Council had spent four years trying to agree compensation. Mrs Jaconelli, who lost a court battle against the compulsory purchase order, told BBC Scotland this year: “I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. I have nightmares and visions about it.”

Mrs Jaconelli, who received compensation of more than £80,000, now lives with her son.

4. It’s a major public event in Britain.

Did the traditional transport strike threat occur?

Certainly did. Staff on the Glasgow Subway were preparing to ballot for action, but called off the vote after agreeing a deal with

the games IN NUMBERS

£575m 17

Estimated total cost of event.

Number of private security firms involved.

6,500

Competitors and officials will take up residence this summer.

700

New homes will be converted from the Athletes’ Village

by December.

1,000

Number of parking spaces provided for bicycles.

500,000

Extra public transport journeys expected on busiest days.

71

Number of nations, territories, dependencies and island states competing.

Strathclyde Partnership Transport. They were unhappy about extra payments for increased work during the Games.

Engineers and drivers at First Glasgow have also been balloting for strike action after a long running pay dispute with the bus operator. As BBC News reported, Glasgow 2014 has been billed as a “public transport games”, with a huge upsurge in journeys expected.

5. Any other grief on the always troublesome transport front?

Yup. Velophiles are vexed at major cycle routes being closed and at bike parks being far from venues. Although, as The Scotsman reported, games organisers have urged spectators to pedal to events, cyclists say they’re discouraged from attending.

And The Herald reported would-be sailors were disappointed when the Waverley paddle streamer was forbidden from joining a Games flotilla on safety grounds.

6. Just a few teething problems, eh?

Anything else you’d care to mention?

Well, the Sunday Herald revealed that all the houses in the Athletes’ Village had to be fitted with extra smoke alarms after failing to meet safety standards.

And, of course, you have to factor in stalkers.

Scottish Police have been consulting with Scotland Yard’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre – not making that up – to protect VIPs and athletes from unwanted obsessive attention.

NHS Scotland is also involved, should psychiatric facilities be required. So, it’s all in hand and, apart from anyone fancying the 100m stalking event, we’re good to go.

7. What about the Royal Family’s buttocks?

Beg pardon? Oh, I see. All taken care of. As The Courier reported, Dundee firm Dovetail Enterprises has won the £23,000 contract to supply comfortable chairs for the Royals and other dignitaries. So it just remains for everyone to sit back and let the games begin.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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AROUND SCOTLAND

1 HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS Contractors grassed up

Can Lochaber community bare underpass graffiti?

Highland Council has admitted receiving an “unprecedented level” of complaints about the quality of its grass cutting.

The council said it had spoken to its contractor to ensure standards are raised and blamed warm weather for boosting lawn growth rates.

Residents of Lochaber are being asked their views on graffiti sprayed on an underpass under the Caledonian Canal.

A graffiti artist has sprayed the words “Beware of Bear” next to a drawing of a Winnie the Pooh-like creature (right).

Dubbed the “Canal Banksy”, nearby residents have been asked whether they think the drawing is “outrageous vandalistic desecration of a Scheduled Ancient Monument or delightful, gently humour, nicely executed”. There are hopes that the graffiti could be worth millions of pounds if it is a genuine “Banksy”.

2 GLASGOW & WEST Tearooms kept safe Glasgow’s Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Willow Tearoom has had its future secured after a new charitable trust took over the building.

The world famous building on Sauchiehall Street is in desperate need of renovation work.

The trust plans to restore both the building and the tearoom (below) to their former glory.

The building and interiors were designed and built in 1903 for Kate Cranston, who ran several tearooms in the city.

The new trust that will run the tearooms hope to generate enough funds to secure its future and then gift it to the city of Glasgow.

Tower block evacuation

A Motherwell tower block had to be evacuated after contractors discovered asbestos in the building.

North Lanarkshire Council said more than 100 residents of Anderson Tower were moved out as a precaution after Scottish Power workmen uncovered asbestos while replacing mains cables.

The residents were placed in temporary accommodation over night.

They were allowed to return to their homes after the asbestos was cleared away and air quality tests showed it was safe to return.

The council said it was the first time they had evacuated an entire tower block.

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Hydro burgers blamed Beefburgers sold at the SSE Hydro were responsible for an outbreak of E.coli O157 that struck 22 people in January.

A report from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s said 19 of the cases personally attended and ate burgers at the venue. The report added the burger sellers have since improved hygiene standards.

2 3

3 SOUTH SCOTLAND Landmine charity row

and the charity’s board and decided to suspend him as a The founder of a Dumfriesbased anti-landmine charity once result.

The charity receives £3.7 supported by Princess Diana has been suspended from his £220,000 million from the Department of International Development each a year post. year.

The Halo Trust said there had Prince Harry and Angelina Jolie been a “serious deterioration” in relations between Guy Williamson have also supported it. the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

Crayfish threaten Loch Ken Environmental experts met in New Galloway to discuss what can be done to repel an invasion of non-native crayfish in Loch Ken. There have been problems at the loch for several years and North American signal crayfish (right) have been blamed for destroying the once-thriving angling waters.

The event was organised by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

news l 11

AROUND SCOTLAND 4 NORTH EAST, ORKNEY & SHETLAND Crackdown after rampaging workers terrorise Lerwick A major construction company working on an £800 million gas plant in Shetland has sacked one worker and disciplined four others after they ran amok in Shetland.

Petrofac was forced to take action after hundreds of drunken off-duty workers rampaged in Lerwick.

Around 2,000 workers building the new gas plant had been given the day off to attend the funeral of a subcontractor.

Police received dozens of calls over the course of the day. In one alleged incident, a woman was thrown over a man’s shoulder as she walked home from work.

Petrofac has agreed to send security patrols around pubs after community leaders said young people are too scared to go out in Lerwick on weekends.

Police are investigating the theft of £60,000 worth of prawns from a Peterhead business.

The shellfish were taken from Dales Industrial Estate last weekend. A trailer used to transport the contraband crustaceans was found two days later in Bolton in Lancashire.

Police Scotland are looking to trace a white or silver coloured Volkswagen Golf which was seen with the trailer.

Bird man of Dundee

5 TAYSIDE & CENTRAL

4

Trawling for prawn thieves

A 78-year-old Dundee man has vowed to defy a council Bungle leaves hospital porters millions out of pocket request to stop feeding birds An administrative error has meant porters at Ninewells Hospital in in his garden.

Dundee (below) have been underpaid for years.

Tom Black received a letter The Unite union claims NHS Tayside owes around £6 million in from the council asking him back pay to porters who were mistakenly placed on a lower pay to stop feeding the birds grade than they should have been. after a neighbour complained The union says it hopes to to the local authority about reach an amicable solution noise, bird droppings and over the missing pay but has “general disturbance” being not ruled out industrial action caused by the birds. if NHS Tayside does not agree There is no law against to properly compensation the feeding birds but councils porters who have missed out. can take action if the practice It is estimated that around 150 is causing “environmental porters have been affected by the nuisance”. pay blunder.

Mr Black has said he will NHS Tayside has said the matter, continue to feed the birds which was first raised last month, and is even willing to “go to jail” for it. is currently under consideration.

6 EDINBURGH, FIFE & EAST 6

Abuse charges

Four men have appeared in court after claims of alleged physical and sexual abuse of boys at a Fife school run by a controversial Catholic group.

Michael Murphy, (74) of Dunfermline, William Don (60) of Leven, Edward Egan (76) of Altrincham, and Timothy Foxall, (63) of Hexham face 68 charges.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place at the former St Ninian’s school in Falkland, Fife, run by the Irish Christian brothers.

All four made no plea and were bailed.

Mortonhall boss decides to do “honourable thing” and resign

A senior official at the helm of the Edinburgh Council department involved in the Mortonhall baby ashes scandal has resigned.

Mark Turley, Edinburgh City Council’s director of services for communities, had been suspended on full pay but has now resigned his position.

His department governed Mortonhall Crematorium which was condemned for burying baby ashes in secret. Mr Turley said he did not believe he bore any personal responsibility for the scandal but would act in an “honourable” way by accepting overall responsibility for what went wrong.

His remit also included Liberton High School, where a 12-year-old girl died when a wall collapsed on her.

Ding, ding! New round of tram rows Tram drivers have been told they can no longer use their bells when passing through the west end of Edinburgh.

Residents complained the constant “ding, ding” sound was driving them to distraction. Trams run from 5.30am until midnight.

Now drivers have been told not to use their bells when passing through Torphichen Street and Palmerston Place unless absolutely necessary.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

12 l news

AROUND BRITAIN

1 NORTHERN IRELAND

2 NORTH ENGLAND

Positive murals call

‘Gay’ cake

Teesside loses liner

Cleveland Police shop self over racism

Murals in west Belfast that depict violence from the past should be replaced with more positive images, an SDLP councillor has claimed.

Tim Attwood has said murals should not glorify armed men and violence.

A Christian bakery owner who refused to make a cake supporting gay marriage defended his beliefs.

Daniel McArthur, general manager of Ashers Baking Company in Belfast, declined an order for a cake featuring Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie on top. The cake was also to depict the logo of campaign group Queerspace.

A company bidding to dismantle the Costa Concordia cruise liner in Billingham has said it lost out on the £100 million contract because of political pressure to complete decommissioning work in Italy.

Able UK was considered a frontrunner to dismantle the vessel, which sank in 2012 killing 32 people.

Cleveland Police has referred itself to the police watchdog over concerns about a review into claims of institutional racism.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission will now decide whether to launch a full investigation.

3 MIDLANDS & EAST “Trojan horse” school needed more time

1

Governors at a Birmingham school central to the “Trojan Horse” inquiry have said they were not given enough time to make improvements before a visit by Ofsted inspectors.

Golden Hillock School was one of 21 school inspected over an alleged plot by Muslims to take it over. Governors said the current governing body had only been formed in December.

2

4 WALES

Skinner loses seat

Offa’s Dyke demolition water off a duck’s back Two men who bulldozed part of Offa’s Dyke escaped prosecution because they did not know it is a 1,200-year-old ancient monument.

Police did not prosecute two travellers for damaging the structure in Chirk because they did not realise it was part of the earthwork.

Offa’s Dyke is believed to have been built as a defence against the Welsh.

Veteran Derbyshire MP Dennis Skinner has been voted off the Labour Party’s governing National Executive Committee by fellow MPs. Supporters of the 82-year-old, who has represented the Bolsover constituency in the House of Commons since 1970, described the move as “naive and immature”.

Mr Skinner has been replaced on the NEC by John Healey.

3 4

“Pop tax” will make 21,000 lose weight A 20% tax on sugary drinks could cut the number of obese people in Wales by 8,300 and those who are overweight by 13,300 Plaid Cymru has claimed.

A study for the party also found the tax would raise around £45 million per year but warns those on lower incomes would be hit hardest by the tax.

5 SOUTH WEST ENGLAND Cameron’s train cash Over £146 million is to be spent upgrading the South West rail network, including sleeper trains that operate between London and Devon and Cornwall.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the £146.6m investment is a “crucial part of a long-term economic plan to back business”. the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

5

6

6 LONDON & SOUTH EAST Bullet kills 26 years later

Animals killed Essex couple

A woman who was shot by police in 1985 in an incident that triggered the Brixton riots died in 2011 as a result of the wound.

Dorothy “Cherry” Groce was shot in the shoulder by police looking for her son. She was paralysed from the waist down before dying of kidney failure in 2011, an event Southwark Coroner’s Court was told could be traced to her shooting.

An Essex couple killed in Kenya were probably killed by animals.

Three men were found not guilty of the murder of Norman and Rita Joel, in Mombasa in May. The couple’s bodies were found 12 miles from their holiday home.

But an inquest in Chelmsford recorded an open verdict after hearing wounds on their necks were consistent with animal attack.

PEOPLE

news l 13

Baby joy for couple ■ A Kilmarnock couple were overjoyed at the arrival of their newborn daughter after 22 years of childlessness.

The Daily Record reported how Jane and Craig Mulrainey welcomed Poppy into the world. Jane (39) had previously miscarried five times due to polycystic ovary syndrome.

Mikaeel mum in court

Not so easily forgotten

■ The mother of Mikaeel Kular (3) appeared in court accused of his murder.

Rosdeep Adekoya (34) was accused of beating him over a four-day period, putting his body in a suitcase and burying it in woodland in Kirkcaldy.

■ Stories about ex-referee Dougie McDonald, who retired after a dubious call in a 2010 Celtic v Dundee United game, vanished from Google searches.

STV was informed its report into the incident would be removed under the “right to be forgotten” ruling, which gives people rights to remove information about themselves from internet search results.

Hopes and prayers continue for Cally Scots youngster fighting for life after swimming pool tragedy

Wullie was a menace playing tennis, but he kindly lent his bucket to someone who needed it more...

■ The family of a four-year-old Scottish girl who almost drowned on a family holiday have thanked supporters and well-wishers back home as their bedside vigil continues.

Cally Simpson, from Arbroath, has lain in a Spanish hospital since she was found at the bottom of a swimming pool in the holiday resort of Salou on June 24. She was on holiday with her dad Stephen and other family members when the accident happened, and her mum Kate Miller has travelled to Barcelona, where Cally was put in a coma by medics, to be at her daughter’s bedside.

The Evening Telegraph’s Alasdair Gill reported that Cally’s parents have been “living every parent’s nightmare” but that they had been heartened by the tot showing some positive signs – squeezing their hands and breathing for short periods without the need for a ventilator. Doctors said they planned to keep Cally in a coma for at least two weeks for fear of brain damage, The Courier added.

Trump on Turnberry...and the rest US billionaire on independence, First Minister Alex Salmond and, of course, his newly-acquired golf resort ■ Billionaire Donald Trump was back on Scottish soil and, you guessed it, he wasn’t short of an opinion or two.

Top of his talking points was his plans for the newly-renamed Trump Turnberry golf course, which the US tycoon plans to plough £100 million into over the coming months.

The Daily Record revealed how Trump saw himself as an “artist” as he plans to develop the “world’s greatest canvas” to indulge his talents.

STV added that Trump had given his name to the course not for his “ego” but to make it “more successful”.

But the coverage did not stop at golf. The Scotsman reported how Trump said he had “respect” for First Minister Alex Salmond and described a fall-out over windfarms as “a little argument”. “I like Salmond,” he professed.

The Courier also confirmed he did not have a position on independence, although he did say he had “heard bad things about it from smart people”.

The Scottish Daily Mail focused on his hair though, noting his “dyed-blonde mop remained on his head despite the wind, “putting paid to rumours he sports a toupee”.

Road to record ■ An Edinburgh cyclist is hoping a 7,000-mile trek across the US will put him in the record books.

Euan Hunter (23) pedalled through 48 states in 38 days, recording each with a “selfie”, for the Mary’s Meals charity.

Jihadi “willing to die” ■ The Aberdeen man who appeared in a video for terror group Isis said he is prepared to die for his beliefs. Abdul Rakib Amin told ITV he was going to “stay and fight” in Syria until the rule of Islam is established or his death.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

14 l news

BEST OF SCOTTISH COMMENT

Referendum warning to bosses

Barbie bringing home the bacon

Tony Hadden

Fiona McCade

The Press and Journal

The Scotsman

■ The prospect of Scotland becoming an independent country has inspired passionate and sometimes heated conversations the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

But, writing in The Press and Journal, employment law specialist Tony Hadden said business leaders “must take care” over the topic.

Hadden said that while the Employment Appeal Tribunal has “observed that while support of a political party might not be protected” under the Equality Act, belief in a particular doctrine or deeplyheld political philosophy could be.

Hadden said any heartfelt belief about Scotland’s role in the UK – whether it should remain part of it or not – “could be protected under the Equality Act”.

This means that if an employee believed they had been treated unfairly because their opinions on independence run counter to that of their employer then it “could amount to unlawful discrimination”.

And he said bosses must make sure employees with strongly held opinions do not try to force them on others.

■ Toymakers Mattel have launched a new “Entrepreneur” Barbie figure and The Scotsman’s Fiona McCade said that after holding down 139 previous jobs, it is high time the 55-year-old toy stands on her own two feet.

But McCade said the doll, clad in a “Sexy Newsreader” pink dress and carrying accessories like a tablet and briefcase, does not reflect the reality of running your own business.

Instead, she said a “selfemployed doll” should wear “a snuggly set of pyjamas” for all the time she will spend “shuffling around her abode, desperately trying to come up with creative ideas”.

She added that she would also need a “Tea Making Barbie” and “Personal Assistant Barbie” to help girls learn “nobody can build an empire alone”. McCade added there would also be room in the range for an “Ex-Husband Ken, who still has a financial stake in the company”.

But while she mocked the concept of an entrepreneur Barbie, McCade admitted it may serve a purpose if it teaches one small child to think: “If this bimbo can do it, why shouldn’t I?”

Power looks after itself

Ian Bell Sunday Herald

■ The exposure of disgraced high-profile figures such as Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith raises questions about how they were all able to get away with it for so long, said Ian Bell in the Sunday Herald.

Bell said there had been “a vast fabric of supremely arrogant criminality” and that Savile “never doubted” he would get away with his crimes.

But he wondered why people thought men like Savile and Smith were “too powerful” to be brought to justice.

Bell said this “makes as much sense” as claims the Home Office lost dossiers given to former Home

Secretary Leon Brittan (above) by the late MP Geoffrey Dickens about claims of abuse in Westminster.

Although Bell admits he has no way of knowing whether there is any truth to these allegations, he said everyone with an interest in the wellbeing of children “wants to know with a certain human urgency” why paedophiles like Savile were able to prey on victims for so long.

He added the police’s failure to properly investigate claims of abuse at the time makes it impossible to have any faith in their investigations into the so-called Dickens dossier.

And Bell said the belief the abusers had that they would never be caught or named “is more revealing of British society than any number of inquiries or reports”.

Bell concluded that it would be easy to find out who chose to destroy the missing dossier but that he does not expect an answer to be forthcoming any time soon.

“The powerful protect their own,” he said, “but above all they protect power itself”.

HAUD YER WHEESHT! ■ Former Scotland boss Jock Stein wanted to abandon a scouting trip before the 1982 World Cup because he thought there was going to be a nuclear war, reported The Sunday Times Scotland’s Marc Horne.

The paper told how veteran Scottish broadcaster Archie Macpherson revealed how Stein panicked when he heard the Falklands conflict had escalated with the sinking of the SS Belgrano.

And, as a result, apparently the Scotland boss demanded to return home as he was the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

convinced Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was about to launch a nuclear strike.

Macpherson was in his hotel room when he saw a TV report about the developments and soon had Stein banging on the door.

He explained: “Stein said, ‘Did you hear that news? C’mon, we’re getting the hell out of here. Maggie’s going to nuke them. She’ll nuke them. Get on the phone and get us on the first plane back.”

The paper said it “took a whole day of coaxing” to get Stein to change his mind.

16 l news Facing up to the UK’s greatest defeat

James Forsyth The Spectator

■ If Scotland does vote Yes in September, then it will leave behind a “diminished” country that “hobbles” rather than “bestrides the world stage” said James Forysth in The Spectator.

According to Forsyth, a Yes vote would be the UK’s “greatest ever defeat” as it would, in effect, be voting to “abolish itself”.

He added the departure of Scotland would see the rest of the UK becoming a “global laughing stock” and leaders like Vladimir Putin would have no respect for leaders unable to keep their own countries together. And while this problem would be most “acute” for David Cameron, Forsyth said his successors would also suffer the same problem.

BEST OF briTISH comment But he argued the “worst thing” about Scottish independence would be that the UK had been broken up “in a fit of absence of mind”.

He said: “Scotland is not a colony speaking a separate language; the Scottish people are not discriminated against within the Union.

“Rather, the momentum for independence is being produced by a general antipolitics mood and a folk dislike of the Conservative party in Scotland.”

He said this is a “weak basis” for ending “the most successful marriage of nations in human history” but that it is a result of a nation that has forgotten “how to talk about itself” and that the question of independence will not go away after a No vote unless the UK relearns how to “foster a sense of national identity”.

He concluded the UK would be viewed as “Little Britain” by other countries but the most damaging consequence of Scottish independence would be to the national psyche. He said Scotland leaving would be another “Suez moment” (below).

Doublethink or double standards?

Only independence can give Scotland her voice

Alex Massie

Alex Salmond

The Times

The Independent

■ Yes campaigners stress September’s referendum is not about First Minister Alex Salmond nor the SNP. But while they say independence will allow Scotland to become a country able to make its own “choices”, The Times’ Alex Massie was not convinced.

He said that the claims about independence are being put forward by Mr Salmond and the SNP while the Yes campaign itself is “largely an SNP enterprise”.

Massie said that rather than campaign on the argument that “we are Scottish – not British – and proud” the SNP has “for entirely understandable and forgivable reasons” based its campaign on “pragmatism” instead.

According to Massie this has turned the debate into “a kind of grubby auction” based on a “cost-benefit analysis”.

He said this approach means “the SNP need answers to every and any question”.

And he questioned the double standards of “senior Nationalists” who claim it is appropriate to end the Union because of a dislike of David Cameron while insisting similar feeling about Mr Salmond should be irrelevant.

■ Scotland faces a choice between whether to hand power back to Westminster or to “move forward in a new 21st-century partnership of equals”, First Minister Alex Salmond told readers of The Independent.

He said that voting for independence will “secure a seat at the top table internationally for Scotland protecting and promoting our vital national interests in Europe and beyond”.

The First Minister added the appointment of JeanClaude Juncker to the post of European Commission president had been a “fiasco” for Prime Minister David Cameron and demonstrates “how isolated the UK has become in Europe”.

Mr Salmond said Scotland “could be dragged” out of the EU unless it votes for independence in September.

He said Mr Cameron “is playing a game of European roulette with Scotland’s future” by holding a referendum on EU membership after the next General Election and that only independence can “restore Scotland’s ancient status as an independent European nation”.

HAUD YER WHEESHT! ■ A number of teams will no doubt catch the eye when the Commonwealth Games get underway in Glasgow.

But none, perhaps, more than the Austrlian swimming squad, reported The Scotsman’s Ilona Amos.

The paper revealed how Aussie fashionistas “slammed” their national team’s new swimming kit – made by Speedo – for drawing unnecessary attention to the “crotch” area. Wetsuit-style outfits to be worn by both men and women have been the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

singled out as particularly unbecoming and guiding the eye “to the wrong place”.

Brisbane stylist Di Cant reportedly described the new suits as “not quite flattering”, while Mark Ferguson, director of men’s tailoring firm Wil Valor, “especially disliked the garish print” which featured kangaroos and the map of Australia.

We’ll see where Scots fans’ eyes are drawn to, but Ruth Walker, editor at Scottish magazine Crave, described the dispute as “a stooshie over nothing”.

18 l news

everybody’s talking about...

T in the Park 2014 Festival goers flock to Kinross as organisers bid fond farewell to Balado site 1. It’s moving? Where? And why?

Yes, this weekend’s festivities will be the last time thousands of people will walk, dance, drive and stotter over the greeny/ browny fields at Balado Airfield – well for T in the Park anyway.

As The Scottish Sun documented, the decision was made by organisers DF Concerts after “substantial” concerns were raised by health and safety inspectors about an oil pipeline which runs underneath the site.

But, as The Courier revealed, the festival will find a new home in the grounds of Strathallan Castle next year.

2. But the festival’s been going for ages? Why now?

A valid point, and one not yet fully explained. Indeed, the party has been held there annually without problems since 1997, when the festival moved from Strathclyde Park.

The Scottish Sun’s initial story pointed the finger of blame at the Health and Safety Executive for the move, but HSE director Alistair McNab hit back – saying the decision had been taken by the organisers and not HSE. He did point out that although the likelihood of a major accident at the pipeline was “low”, if one was to occur it would be “catastrophic”.

Claim and counter-claim didn’t stop there though, as The Courier quoted the leader of Perth and Kinross Council as saying HSE had been threatening legal action if the festival was not moved.

The waters behind the decision were further muddied recently when the same paper reported that safety chiefs had to deny accusations of “double standards” after it emerged that Balado will be used as a transport hub for the Ryder Cup.

3. It’s definitely moving though? And Strathallan’s a lovely part of the world.

Spot on, on both counts. And to be fair to DF Concerts chief Geoff Ellis, he didn’t select a new venue lightly.

He told the BBC: “When it became clear we’d need to leave Balado to safeguard the future of the festival, we became very excited about the prospect of Strathallan becoming the new home for T in the Park.

“We thought it would be perfect, and it is. But we’ll make sure Balado gets the spectacular send-off it deserves.”

4. So I take it everyone’s on board with the new venue then?

Not exactly.

STV Dundee’s Catriona MacPhee reported how Perthshire MSP Gordon Banks believes organisers have “got off on the wrong foot” with local residents, suggesting the first time many

of them found out that Scotland’s largest music festival was to be staged “on their doorstep” was when they read it in the newspapers.

There have also been rows over traffic, road safety, police costs and a lack of consultation, while the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) confirmed the new site is classed as a flood risk area. Campaigners have also demanded upgrades to the A9 to support the influx of vehicles heading to the site.

The Daily Record’s Gareth Iwan Jones also reported that Stirling Council was left disappointed. It had instructed officers to examine the possibility of a move to their area and write to the festival organisers to that effect. A Facebook group to bring T to Stirling also gained more than 3,400 members, the paper said.

5. Suppose those going better make the most of this year then?

That is one thing that can be guaranteed.

Over 200 acts are performing across 10 stages this year, with headliners Biffy Clyro, Calvin Harris and Arctic Monkeys joined by massive acts such as Ed Sheeran, Paolo Nutini and Pharrell Williams.

All the festival goers need now is decent weather – although past experience tells us even that won’t put the hardy T in the Parkers off their stride.

T IN THE PARK IN NUMBERS

17,000

The number who attended the first T in Strathclyde Park in 1994 – when only 2,000 camped the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

85,000

The number of revellers expected this year – around 60,000 of whom will camp

news l 19

BOFFINS

Porridge’s part in ‘genocide’ Iberian Beaker People edged out hunter-gatherers ■ Metal-working Celts who ate a lot of porridge left a legacy of “prehistoric genocide” in the west of Scotland, according to research by geneticists.

The Herald reported that researchers on the Scotland’s DNA project discovered that a genetic marker traceable to early settlers known as the Beaker People was particularly prominent in the area around Glasgow.

The Beaker People brought Celtic culture from Iberia to Britain 2,500 years ago, including

Tiny hearts ■ Scientists at Abertay University have grown tiny human hearts in a bid to cure a disease that can cause sudden death.

Heart hypertrophy may be brought on by diseases such as diabetes or by overstrenuous exercise.

Using 1mm hearts made from stem cells, researchers apply chemicals to stimulate the conditions that cause them to be enlarged.

Medications can then be tried on them.

Abertay’s Professor Nikolai Zhelev said: “Although human hearts have been grown in labs before, this is the first time it has ever been possible to induce disease in them.”

skills in metalwork and agriculture that gave them an edge over the hunter-gatherer natives.

Men carrying the R1b-S145 marker grew cereal crops, and mashed dried oats and barley into a nutritious porridge that could be spoon-fed to babies.

This allowed them to be weaned earlier than those of the natives, who had to be breastfed longer, resulting in a lower birth rate.

The R1b strand prospered across Europe, while the huntergatherers’ G marker lineages have almost vanished.

Invasion of the monogamous guppies ■ Restricting guppies to monogamy does not impair their colonisation ability, researchers at St Andrews University have found.

As The Herald reported, releasing just one or two fish into the wild may be sufficient to trigger an aquatic invasion.

In the tropics, the success of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) in colonising was attributed to its ‘multiple mating’ strategy, with broods commonly containing offspring from five fathers.

Researchers wanted to test if making female guppies monogamous would impede their ability to establish viable populations.

However, mating history had no bearing on colonisation success, which was the same for the forcibly faithful as for the piscatorially polygamous.

Climate change could see Antartica’s 600,000-strong emperor penguin population fall by a fifth to ■ Seas between the islands of Skye and Mull are “highly important” for basking sharks, according to a report published

by Scottish Natural Heritage.

The report sets out findings from the first two years of a project which aims to reveal some of the mysteries surrounding the world’s second largest fish.

480

thousand by 2100, according to research

by American, British and Dutch scientists.

Changes to sea-ice cover are expected to affect the birds’ breeding and feeding.

Electronic ‘ears’ to detect rail landslides ■ A pioneering system that uses electronic ‘ears’ to detect landslides is being tested along the steep-sided Pass of Brander on the Glasgow-Oban railway line.

The Pass below Ben Cruachan is one of Scotland’s most landslide-prone lines. In 2010, a ScotRail train nearly plunged down a 50ft embankment when it derailed after hitting a boulder.

A Victorian warning system using 10 horizontal steel wires

failed to detect the boulder.

However, as Scotland on Sunday reported, researchers have developed a new “distributed acoustic sensing” system, in which disturbances send a laser pulse along an optic fibre to a signalling centre.

Network Rail Scotland, which is developing the system, said it was sensitive enough to distinguish between rockfalls and other noises such as deer and hailstones.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

20 l

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS Right to bear arms

best of the week

A question of taste across the pond ■ My, my, my. O what a lot of batherment and whillybaloo over the Great Chieftain o’ The Puddin’ Race.

It seems that it is not the worthy creature’s thairm, nor its hurdies, nor its pin, which constitute the trouble with the US government.

It is, rather, the lung bit.

How can the United States, not being haggisfed, manage to have survived for all these years on fare like ragout, olio, fricasee, and other “skinking ware”?

Come on, let us cut through all the whippertooties and “Gie her a haggis”.

■ As a retired cop I am amazed at Highland councillors and press alike complaining about armed policemen getting involved in day-to-day policing.

Having served in Glasgow city centre with only batons to defend ourselves, we were often sent to armed hold-ups in banks, without knowing whether we would be looking down the barrel of a sawn-off shotgun, revolver, meat cleaver or knife.

Like many of my colleagues, I can assure you that it is not a situation one would wish to experience. Leave the policing to those who know best.

PC Lewis Fulton, with whom I often patrolled, sadly lost his life having been stabbed in 1994. He had attended a disturbance in the Gorbals along with other policemen.

None were armed.

Chief Constable Sir Stephen House is totally correct to allow armed officers to be a back-up for routine policing, not only protecting the public but also his own officers.

Donald J Morrison, Buckie The Scotsman

Glass half full or half empty?

■ The present alcohol limit for driving in the entire UK is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The Scottish

Ian W Thomson, 38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie The Herald the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

Government proposes to reduce this to 50mg, and doctors say this move could prevent 900 injuries and 30 deaths a year.

I’m not aware of any statistics for deaths and/or injuries involving drivers in specified ranges below the existing limits. Can anyone provide evidence that drivers in the 50 to 80mg range are a problem?

My concern is that the lower level will criminalise drivers with alcohol in their bloodstream from the night before who would previously have been ‘legal’. In particular visitors from the other parts of the UK need to beware.

William Watt, Edinburgh Scottish Daily Mail

The danger of demonising ■ Some 20 or so years ago a campaign began under the banner headline Zero Tolerance. I believe it is still in existence.

At the time, as now, I thought the legend well-intentioned but, essentially, misleading in that it appeared to demonise all men all of the time as latent sexual predators.

A generation on, I am reminded of this approach by the current spate of court cases involving high-profile individuals and their odious predilections.

Only this morning, in my local swimming pool, I ventured to ask a wee boy if he was enjoying himself. The withering look from his nearby mother and the speed with which she whisked him away from me spoke volumes.

What a crying shame that the likes of Rolf Harris, Jimmy Savile, Max Clifford, Stuart Hall et al have so entered the nation’s disquieted consciousness that a perfectly innocent attempt to engage a toddler in some gentle banter is so over-laden with thoughts of a sinister kind.

G McCulloch, 47 Moffat Wynd, Saltcoats The Herald

Tax the sweet-toothed ■ The absurd decision to classify Tunnock’s Snowballs as cakes rather than confectionary, thereby avoiding VAT, provides our leaders with the opportunity to change the tax laws in order to promote healthy living.

Henceforth all cakes, biscuits and other comestibles packed with sugar should be subject to VAT, preferably at a higher rate (say 25%). Indeed, all “foods” that are deleterious to health should be taxed similarly.

Dr Graeme Riddoch, Rothiemay, Banffshire The Scotsman

that’s debatable ■ Anyone who was under any illusions about the depths to which the London propaganda machine would stoop in order to misguide the Scottish people into voting “no” at the referendum, should consider the new 15-page, expensive looking, glossy, A5 pamphlet, produced by HM Government, at great cost to the taxpayer, to inundate Scottish households with their Better Together misinformation.

I was utterly appalled when I received this one-sided booklet from a so-called democratic institution, depriving us of information essential to sound judgement.

Do they have no crisis of conscience? It is a false use and malicious abuse of public money, which the Scottish Government ought to challenge in a court of law.

■ I could not help laughing out loud at the reader’s letter expressing outrage over the Vote No leaflet.

How dare the UK Government use public money to produce it, especially as it was “expensive-looking”?

Obviously this was an inexcusable use of taxpayers’ funds – unlike the Holyrood publication, Scotland’s Future.

No doubt your correspondent would regard its 650 pages of dubious all-talking, all-dancing, all-singing Utopian assertions, some already challenged by relevant people, as being the very model of frugality with public funds – and of non-partisan information forbye, of course.

William Burns, 41/8 Pennywell Road The Courier

ADF Maclean, 6 Clive Street, Dundee The Courier Letters have been edited

l 21

THE WEE PAPERS

A taste of...

Braveheart recalled ■ A former pupil of Pirnmill Primary School has fondly recalled the part she played in Braveheart.

Twenty years ago, Mhairi Calvey (26) was cast as Murron MacClannough, the little girl who later became William Wallace’s darling in the movie. Too young for the original premiere, Mhairi attended the 20th anniversary screening.

Oatcakes follow chutney

SPORT Determined winners ■ Revenge was sweet for Brodick’s Hope Cup golfing team after they beat last year’s winners Lamlash in an exciting final featuring some firstclass shots.

Both Brodick pairs showed real determination, the Banner reported, with Matt Keir and Gordon Hendry winning by four holes, and Ewan McKinnon and Greg McCrae by three.

Lamlash v Lamlash ■ Lamlash ruled the primary schools football tournament with two of its teams facing each other in the final. At Arran High School, Lamlash A beat Lamlash B 3-2.

Lamlash coach John Copperwheat said: “It was a really great tournament with teams coming from all seven of the island’s primary schools.”

■ Paterson Arran has won a contract with Asda to produce a range of rough, black pepper and seeded oatcakes under the supermarket’s ‘Chosen

By You Scotland’ label.

The deal is worth £800,000 over the next year and follows a £50,000 deal for four varieties of the same company’s new chutney lines.

Welsh messages ■ A bottle containing messages from Welsh schoolchildren has been found on the beach near Machrie Bay Golf Course.

Muriel Searl and daughter Linzi from Kilmacolm spotted the bottle amidst rocks.

Sent from North Wales three weeks earlier, it contained eight letters from Barmouth pupils writing about their lives and families.

Seals get protection ■ Arran’s south coast seals are to get better protection under proposed new legislation. The haulout site from Bennan Head to Kildonan would be one of 194 in Scotland covered by a draft Order.

From September 30,

anyone harassing the animals could face six months’ imprisonment or a fine of £5,000.

Driver’s photo folly ■ A man behind the wheel of a truck carrying five tons of hot tar has been fined £750 for taking pictures of Arran’s scenery while driving.

Jason McCalley (39) from Dumfries, had never visited the island before and had been enchanted by Goatfell as he drove along the A841 road.

THE BIG STORY Thieves waded ashore to escape ■ A helicopter hunt was launched for two thieves who staged a Dunkirk-style landing from the Claonaig ferry, the Banner’s Jennifer Lyon reported.

The men were believed to have broken into several vans and sheds overnight and were hoping to get away with more than £14,000 worth of power tools in their car.

However, alert Caledonian MacBrayne skipper Gavin Crawford, who had received a message to watch for suspicious looking vehicles, spotted the men and asked them to stay put while other traffic disembarked.

At the last second, the men tried to drive off the ferry. The crew hoisted the ramp just in time to block them, whereupon the two jumped into the water and waded ashore before escaping into the Mull of Kintyre hills.

Businessman John Robertson said it had been a “shock” to find goods stolen on Arran. All the power tools were returned to their owners.

EVENING ALL Edinburgh Evening News

Evening Express

Evening Times

Greenock Telegraph

Evening Telegraph

■ The capital’s Sick Kids

■ Aberdeen police

■ Glaswegians have

■ A police sting operation

■ Dundee’s Overgate

hospital has had a stateof-the-art scanner installed following a £550,000 investment.

The vital piece of equipment detects lifethreatening conditions such as cancer and epilepsy and the scanner’s breakthrough technology provides more accurate diagnostic tests.

are to make break-ins a “local priority”, after new figures showed domestic housebreakings were up by 52%. Chief Superintendent Adrian Watson said many such crimes were committed by the drug-dependent.

In better news, annual figures also showed a 1% reduction in violent crimes.

been urged to take extra care when locking up their cars and homes after a two day crime spree saw 10 high value vehicles worth £152,000 stolen across the city.

Cars including a Range Rover Sport, an Audi Q7 and a Jaguar XF Sport were stolen.

resulted in two drugs dealers being jailed after they were caught with 7,000 pills.

Christopher Cummings, (26) and Joseph McLaughlan (32) got 13 months each for attempting to sell tablets they believed were diazepam (the pills were in fact the sedative etizolam).

shopping centre and nearby City Churches have been recreated in a virtual world.

Becky Clark (23) and Gavin McDonald (33) constructed part of the city centre inside online world-building game Minecraft. Becky explained: “It was just an off-the-bat idea.”

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VIEW POINTS: THE BEST OF THE REST

NEWS BLOGS Cameron short on details

By Luke Boddice ❘ The Garden Lobby Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Scotland was a qualified success, according to The Garden Lobby’s Luke Boddice. As well as attending the naming of the HMS Queen Elizabeth and announcing £500 million of funding for Glasgow, he also met business leaders and promised further powers for Scotland after the next general election if the country votes No. But while Mr Cameron may want a stronger Scotland within the UK, Boddice said there was no “specific detail” of how this would happen.

■ The Red Arrows fly over as The Queen

officially names Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth during a visit to Rosyth.

■ 202 Squadron Winch operator Flight Sergeant Mark Lean transporting the Glasgow 2014 Queen’s Baton to a RNLI lifeboat in Moray.

www.thegardenlobby.com

Balls’ tax plan makes it hard for Labour

By Jamie Maxwell ❘ The Staggers Shadow chancellor Ed Balls’ claim that a Labour government would retain a “competitive” rate of corporation tax has put its Scottish wing in a bind, said Jamie Maxwell on The New Statesman’s rolling blog.

He said SNP proposals to keep corporation tax three per cent below the UK level postindependence to attract investment has been criticised by Scottish Labour but now Ed Balls is singing from the same hymn sheet.

Maxwell said this shows why Scottish Labour needs more “autonomy” from London.

■ Independence supporters carved a 25 metre Yes into a hillside near Gardenstown in Banffshire.

www.newstatesman.com/staggers

Non-voters may turn out to be No voters

By John McDermott ❘ Off Message A high turnout is expected in September and, writing on The Financial Times’ Off Message blog, John McDermott said the key to victory will be those who did not turn out to vote in 2011. He said polling shows these voters are “marginally more likely” to vote No. He said non-voters tend to be “poorer, less educated and turned off by traditional politics”. If they were to convinced by the Yes campaign, he said, the results would already be apparent. www.blogs.ft.com

Appeal on voting rights likely

By Andrew Tickell ❘ Lallands Peat Worrier The Court of Session’s ruling that prisoners will not be allowed to vote in the referendum is unlikely to be the end of the matter, said Andrew Tickell. He said an appeal to the UK Supreme Court “looks inevitable”. www.lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co.uk the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

■ Isabelle Barnes plays on artist Jim Lambie’s Zobop work – part of an exhibition at The Fruitmarket in Edinburgh.

■ Knights on horseback took part in an annual medieval jousting tournament in a bid to be named champion at Linlithgow Palace.

NEWS TWEETS #Games @TeamScotland looking good #goscotland

@TeamScotland Seriously? The team are going OUT like that?!!

Vikki Bunce @VikkiBunce

Dougie Donnelly @dougiedonnelly

I can’t stop looking at this. It’s a colour which clashes with itself.

Hugo Rifkind @hugorifkind

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VIEW POINTS: THE BEST OF THE REST good week An easier read The world’s first historical novel, Waverley, by Sir Walter Scott, has been reproduced to mark its 200th anniversary.

The Herald revealed that 50,000 words have been cut out to make it a more manageable 85,000-word tome.

Knights of the Thistle The Queen bestowed the highest honour in Scotland upon Lord Smith of Kelvin and the Earl of Home.

The Order of the Thistle honours men and women who have held public office or who have made a significant contribution to public life.

■ Our word cloud amalgamates all the week’s top stories from the Scottish papers, with greatest prominence given to the most frequently used words.

GOSSIP OF THE WEEK

bad week

Big Yin back on stage

The character in question is a “famous actress who appears trying to dodge paparazzi”.

Clean out of a job An RSPB cleaner who objected to its plans for a Highland observatory has been sacked.

Linda Bower was axed after putting up signs in her garden protesting about the development in Forsinard, Sutherland.

Taking the biscuit Thieves who tried to take a truckload of shortbread failed in a hasty getaway.

The gang stole a lorry containing £20,000 worth of products from an industrial estate in Aberdeen, but only got 600 yards after filling the tank with cleaning fluid.

Burns ‘assisted’ with poems

Lohan lawsuit over Grand Theft Auto character Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan is suing the Scottishbased makers of video game Grand Theft Auto V, The Scotsman’s David Rosenthal revealed.

The 28-year-old filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games claiming they based a character, Lacey Jonas, on her without her permission.

Rabbie Burns may have had a “mystery sidekick” who edited his early work and aided his “meteoric rise to fame”.

The claims came from Glasgow University’s Nigel Leask in The Herald, who noted early prose had been signed with the initials WR.

All hail Calvin Harris Scots DJ and music producer Calvin Harris was named on Forbes’ Most Powerful Celebrities List.

The Dumfries-born star was ranked 21st according to Mixmag, “in the same league as pop stars Lady Gaga and Kanye West”.

Comedian Billy Connolly will be back on stage in venues around Scotland from September 29 to October 27.

The Big Yin will perform in Aberdeen, Perth, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow.

A little help with my friends Paolo Nutini said “vibes” while staying in a suite once occupied by John Lennon helped him write new songs.

The Scottish Sun said the star was inspired after his stay in the Amsterdam Hilton.

Nutini added: “Between the room and the other fruits Amsterdam has to offer, something was cooking up.”

Who leaked the scripts?

The BBC apologised to Doctor Who fans after scripts from the new series featuring Peter Capaldi were leaked online.

I’m definitely an Equal Opportunities employer but colour blind applicants should have been excluded from the Games uniform design contest.

Made in Scotland, from curtains.

The Commonwealth Games uniform exists only so that the blowing up flats idea wouldn’t seem like that a bad move.

That Commonwealth kit is the kit of an oppressed nation. It’s how they expect us to dress.

All this talk about the outfit – when you see @TeamScotland step out, your heart will swell with hope & pride for the athletes wearing it.

Andrew Nicoll @AndrewSNicoll

Helen Milburn @HelenMilburn

Stuart Braithwaite @plasmatron

Greg Hemphill @greghemphill69

Sarra Hoy @SarraHoy 12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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Stooshie of the week

aye or ay ❘ eye ❘ 1. means yes.

Usage: “Aye, who needs it?”

■ Just like your typical barman calling ‘Time!’ to signal the end of a night out, perhaps it’s ‘Time!’ we recognise the real problem Scotland has got – the small, far-from-silent minority ruining things for the largely sensible majority.

First Minister Alex Salmond recently got into a spot of bother for – if the knee-jerk headlines had you believe – calling Scotland a “nation of drunks”. That conjured up the image of Rab C Nesbitt, lying sparko in the nearest gutter at closing time. However, what Mr Salmond actually said was about promoting whisky on the basis of its quality, rather than its cheapness.

“My argument is that if you are promoting it as authentic and of great worth, you cannot promote it from a nation of drunks,” he said. “You’ll never be able to say it is healthy and life giving, but you can say it’s authentic and high quality.”

Indeed, Mr Salmond had also noted how people would go out to a pub for a drink in days gone by, whereas nowadays punters will drink in the house and go out ‘merry’ to save money while on the swally.

That’s not suggesting Scots are drunks, it is more a swipe at the supermarkets giving people a cheap way in.

The vast majority of Scots

know that excessive drinking can cause damage to health, communities, the economy and our way of life.

We know the government needs to work with the medical profession, the alcohol industry and others to tackle alcohol misuse, and we know we must acknowledge that our own behaviour sets an example for young people.

But if someone wants to let off some steam by having a few drinks, where’s the harm?

As long as that someone is drinking responsibility, then why the need for draconian calls like the one Police Scotland made last week?

Take T in the Park. Yes, there will be eejits who will drink to get drunk and won’t remember seeing most of the bands they probably paid several hundred quid to ‘enjoy’. That’s their prerogative and if they end up falling foul of the law or themselves, that’s their lookout.

But for every eejit, you can guarantee there will be many more music lovers who will enjoy the feel-good festival atmosphere without a drop of alcohol touching their lips.

The remainder…well, they’ll enjoy the weekend in whatever way they fancy, and if that includes some alcohol then that’s their right.

As long as it’s in moderation.

Can Scots enjoy themselves without a drink?

A proposal to ban the sale of spirits at the Wickerman Festival sparked public outrage but are Scots playing with fire when it comes to our relationship with alcohol?

AS ITHERS SEE US!

O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!

To a Louse ❘ Robert Burns celebrated Burns Night – The prospect that the United States could although that was false. lift its ban on haggis excited a Noting that some would number of American reporters, put “haggis right up there including Colby Itkowicz in with black pudding on the The Washington Post. list of the world’s grossest The paper noted that in 2010 foods”, she added that “even a rumour spread that the ban Americanized” haggis “isn’t on the delicacy would be lifted easy to find in Washington. just as Scottish Americans The Scottish Merchant in Old the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

Town, Alexandria, which sells Scottish merchandise, carries US-made haggis in a can.

But she added: “A clerk who answered the phone there on Monday said the store sells about 180 cans a year, and no one, to his recollection, has complained that it’s not the real deal.”

Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency carried an interview with former First Minister Henry McLeish, who said the Better Together campaign had “miscalculated the mood” of Scots.

“There is no vision being put forward,” the report quoted Mr McLeish as saying. “The no campaign seems content with selling the past, offering a series of threats and seems incapable of being both passionate Scots and practical unionists.”

Mr McLeish added that people felt a “union in decline was not the best idea for investing your future.”

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Stooshie of the week

naw

❘ naw ❘

1. means no or not.

Usage: “Naw, we cannae. Tak a drink!”

Ireland may be most associated with the potato famine of the 1840s, but New Zealand’s The Southland Times said Scotland suffered too.

But it said that “tempting tatties” – including the Scottish Borders dish rumbledethumps – are increasingly on the menu of many households.

“Crop diversity gradually put rumbledethumps, clapshot and stovies back on the table,” it continued. “And although the cauldrons and open fires are long gone, the old potato-based favourites are still popular today.”

Glasgow is “very much on track” for the Commonwealth Games, claimed Steve MacNaull in The Vancouver Sun. MacNaull, who described himself as a “neophyte track cyclist” said he “lycra-ed” up for a tour of the Chris Hoy Velodrome and was more than impressed with the facilities.

“But it’s not all about the 20th Commonwealth Games,” he said.

“Whether you visit before, during or after the Games, Glasgow wants to show off its revitalized cosmopolitan vibe after being labelled a rundown post-industrial city.”

■ Scots like a drink and, more often than not, we wear it as a badge of pride.

The only trouble is there’s no doubt we have come to believe taking it to extremes is acceptable.

Visit any village, town or city in Scotland on a Friday or Saturday night and there is a good chance you’ll see either someone completely blootered or the evidence of binge drinking, whether it is broken bottles on the street or the twin archaeological treasures of dropped takeaways and congealing puddles of vomit.

This isn’t a case of people stotting home from the pub after a pint or two too many: we are now at the stage where there is no social stigma attached to getting drunk and wholly incapable.

Chief constable Stephen House’s attempt to ban spirits from the Wickerman festival was, at first glance, seriously misjudged.

Wickerman attracts a smaller and far less rowdy crowd than attends the more raucous T in the Park and there have been few incidents of serious trouble at over the years, if any at all.

But amid the furore, nobody seemed willing to ask if Chief Constable House perhaps had a point.

Why is a possible restriction

on the sale of high-strength spirits so offensive?

Organisers were quick to anger, with one local councillor saying they did not want a “city-slicker sticking his neb in”.

This year, the Stewartry Licensing Board did not grant Mr House’s wish to limit alcohol sales at Wickerman but perhaps now he has planted a flag it may force a few of us to question our relationship with alcohol a little more closely.

Why do we demand a full bar and the ability to drink until we drop?

Is a music festival really diminished because punters must stick to beer or wine?

Perhaps more pertinently, why do we so closely associate having a good time with alcohol?

Most social events in Scotland revolve around alcohol.

Birthdays, weddings, funerals, even just nights out, or in, with friends: there’s rarely a social event that isn’t also an excuse for a bit of a swally.

As Scotland’s top cop, it’s no surprise Stephen House is a control freak.

But police see the effects of alcohol abuse first hand each and every day. Maybe it’s time we started listening because we are doing a terrible job of policing ourselves.

A Scottish Festival wowed the crowds in Itasca, Illnois, reported Marni Pyke in Arlington Heights’ Daily Herald newspaper.

Pyke quoted Englishman Philip Davies, “one of several brave souls displaying their legs in the Knobbly Knees contest”, who made his pitch to an appreciative crowd.

“This is what 12 years of marriage will do to you,” Davies explained, showing off his knees.

The paper added that as well as the Knobbly Knees contest, multiple bands participated in the Midwest Pipe Band Championship while athletes

took turns “throwing large objects from 22-pound hammers to cabers”. Visitors also had their pick of Scottish fare “from shortbreads to imported ales, meat pies and of course haggis”.

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REVIEW & Preview

STAGE

The Admirable Crichton PITLOCHRY FESTIVAL THEATRE Until October 15 ■ While it seems eminently plausible to justify continual renditions of Shakespeare into the 21st century on account of their universal themes and ongoing historical relevance, class-riddled dramas from the early 1900s can often seem to be locked in a time-warp having had its key chucked

The Comedy Of Errors BOTANIC GARDENS, GLASGOW Until July 12 ■ Any July outdoor pursuit in Scotland is prey to the vagaries of our climate: one minute attacked by a torrent of hailstones, the next terrorised by a flock of midges. Fair play, then, to both the creators of Bard In The Botanics and the audiences who come out to see a season of Shakespeare performed in such delightful surrounds.

Among this summer’s programme is The Comedy Of Errors, Will’s bawdy romp about the endless misunderstandings which arise from a serious case of mistaken identity.

Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman hailed the inventiveness of the project but felt it was all a little over-the-top: “This production’s assets simply disappear into a frenzy of overacting, with almost everyone on stage mugging, gurning, twitching, writhing and yelling as if everything mattered, except the meaning and rhythm of the words.”

Mark Brown in the Sunday Herald also felt its hairdryer treatment but was ultimately able to see the funny side: “To his credit, Gordon Barr, artistic director of Glasgow’s annual Bard In The Botanics festival, understands that the Elizabethans didn’t go to a comedy to simply smile wryly at the wit. Consequently, his outdoor staging of The Comedy Of Errors is as rough-and-ready a production as one is likely to see.”

Ophelia ORAN MOR, GLASGOW Run ended ■ As the title suggests, this play puts the curiously sidelined Ophelia front and centre of Shakespeare’s drama about the psychologically tormented Danish prince. In the original, Hamlet gets almost 1,500 lines, while Ophelia has less

EXHIBITIONS Ming: The Golden Empire NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND, EDINBURGH Until October 19 ■ Stretching across four centuries, the Ming dynasty marked a period of massive social and cultural upheaval in China and this exhibition makes its only UK stop at the National Museum of the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

Scotland. A collection of artefacts from the Nanjing Museum, it features key aspects of the dynasty, focussing on many of the cultural, technological and economic achievements of that period and using porcelain, paintings, jewellery, furniture and textiles to tell the story.

In The Scotsman, Susan

away. JM Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton might seem a perfect case in point, but this tale of the tables being turned when aristocrats and their servants embark on an ill-fated sailing expedition seems to have more longevity than most.

Neil Cooper in The Herald enjoyed both the acting and the production: “Dougal Lee gives a charismatic and statesmanlike performance as Crichton, with Helen Mallon capturing the full sense of Mary’s awakening as she moves from studied boredom to off-the-leash abandon and back. When the old order is restored without any emotional or political resolution, the play’s author – played by Alan Steele – stands appalled, both by its deeply unhappy ending, and by his impotent complicity in being either unable or unwilling to rewrite it.” than 200 but here, writer Alan McKendrick redresses that balance, turning her into a feisty, trainers-wearing teenager. Adura Onashile plays Ophelia as a free spirit whose internal demons are equally as rampant as Hamlet’s but who refuses to simply accept her place in a male-dominated world.

As noted by Mary Brennan in The Herald, the men do not come out of all this looking too great: “Laertes and Hamlet, both played with nicely differentiated oafishness

by Scott Reid, reveal the insensitivity of young dudes who believe they are superior.

Polonius (a business-suited Alison Peebles) is spot on as the bossy-boots jobsworth who fails to see his motherless daughter for who she really is.”

Mansfield discovered much to enjoy but wanted a bit more context: “Visitors to this exhibition – if they don’t mind working a little – will find plenty to learn and appreciate. But what is less clear is how this burgeoning, sophisticated society compares to Europe at the time, and how people there really lived.”

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REVIEW & Preview FILM

Tammy (15) Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Dan Aykroyd ■ Box-office gold she may be, but Melissa McCarthy appears to be in danger of continually rehashing the same role, judging by the reaction to this comedy-drama in which her eponymous character’s life falls apart, sending her off on a bawdy road trip with her dipso gran (Sarandon). It certainly

boasts an impressively starry cast but none of that seemed to pass any amount of muster with the knives-out critics.

For The Herald, Alison Rowat insisted that: “McCarthy is a comedy natural, but she needs to be tightly scripted.

Here, working from her own screenplay (co-written with director and husband Ben Falcone), she is given a license to ramble, and the riffing is simply not funny enough to carry a movie.”

Rob Carnevale in The List believed that the film was unsure of itself: “Perhaps the biggest problem with Tammy, though, is that it doesn’t really know what it wants to be: big, bawdy studio comedy or something more subtle and indie spirited. The result is an ill-conceived mess.”

Average rating 4/10

The 100 Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared (15)

Boyhood (15)

Starring: Robert Gustafsson, David Wiberg, Iwar Wiklander ■ Quite possibly boasting the longest film title of the year, this Swedish movie, based on a bestselling novel by Jonas Jonasson, was a big hit at the Glasgow Film Festival and was warmly punted by the critics. On the day be becomes a centenarian, Allan Karlsson (Gustafsson) decides he’s had enough of life in a nursing home and slips out.

Before he has time to ponder on whether he’s done the right thing, he finds himself with a suitcase of cash and a psychotic gangster on his tail. Amid this unexpected mayhem, Allan muses on his extraordinary life rubbing shoulders, Forrest Gump-like, with some of the 20th century’s major political figures.

Siobhan Synnot in Scotland on Sunday viewed the movie as a rare treat for this time of year when massive blockbusters or lo-fi indies rule the cinemas. “Coincidence and absurdity drive this latter-day Candide’s amusing, episodic misadventures and the satirical look back at international relations in the 20th century is lightly handled.” The List’s Paul Gallagher believed the film was an improvement on the book, claiming that “director Felix Herngren gets the balance of callously dark humour and playful, silly storytelling just right”.

Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke ■ Ambitiously shot on and off over the course of 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood follows the ups and downs (and physical transformation) of Mason (Coltrane) from the age of seven through to his late teens.

Average rating 7/10

Walker & Bromwich: Orcadia & Other Stories PIER ART CENTRE, STROMNESS Until August 23 ■ Part of the Generation project, Orkney is hosting a mini-retrospective of Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich (right). In The Scotsman, Moira Jeffrey hailed the

Sam Lewis in The Skinny positively raved: “The film is at once of a piece with Linklater’s other pictures – as temporal as the Before/After series, as philosophical as Waking Life – and also more universal than anything else he’s done.”

Siobhan Synnot in Scotland on Sunday saw right through it, though: “At nearly three hours it is far too long, especially in the final hour, with obvious exit points that Linklater ignores.

Once he arrives in his late teens, Mason is as awkward, narcissistic and droning as any other teen. That’s an authentic part of growing up, but it takes up most of the final hour and doesn’t add weight, merely drag.”

Average rating 8/10 pair: “Walker and Bromwich make art where visual absurdity, and at times public joyousness, articulate underlying ideas of the search for both individual freedom and collective transformation.”

Cathy Wilkes TRAMWAY, GLASGOW Until October 5

■ Phil Miller in The Sunday Herald was taken by this Belfast-born sculptor/ painter’s show, also part of Generation. He said: “Like her Possil work at the last Venice Biennale, Wilkes summons a sense of desolation and loss with tender gestures and expert spacing and placing. It is both bleak and brilliant.”

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REVIEW & preview

Worth catching…

THIS WEEK

Glasgow is under the microscope with a documentary series and one-off musical drama while we wonder why so many of Scotland’s creative types are saying Yes to independence

SCOTS on the box

TV: Glasgow Girls

BBC Three, Tuesday July 15, 10pm ■ Having already caused a right old, well, stooshie, on stages across Scotland, musical drama Glasgow Girls gets this speciallycommissioned programme.

Based on true events in 2005, it tells the story of a group of schoolgirls at Drumchapel High whose petition to save their friend from deportation inspired a movement which would eventually help change immigration practices in Scotland.

When 15-year-old Agnesa Murselaj, a Roma from Kosovo, was taken by immigration officers her friends refused to let her go without a fight. Here, Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot) plays Drumchapel High’s bilingual support teacher Euan Girvan and Still Game’s Greg Hemphill takes on the role of Jack McConnell.

I Belong To Glasgow BBC One, Fridays, 10.35pm ■ Glasgow is in the global spotlight more so than it has been since its status as 1990’s European City of Culture.

The critics are suggesting that I Belong To Glasgow (a series of four shows fronted by well-kent Glesga celebs) will hopefully come and go without too many non-Scots noticing.

The Sunday Herald’s Mark Smith believed the opener, presented by Karen Dunbar (above), trotted out the same-old stereotypes of booze, bingo and banter: “Dunbar said at one point that the city needs a 21st century reboot.

She is right; it is just that her programme did not provide it and rather propped up some of the familiar tropes.”

Meanwhile, Julie McDowall in The Herald wondered if things would ever change: “In Glasgow discourse, how many mentions do Parkhead and Ibrox get, compared to, for example, the Burrell Collection or Kelvingrove or Alasdair Gray? Do we only celebrate this city’s best achievements when they go on fire?”

RADIO: How Did Scotland’s Artists Turn Nationalist?

Vic Galloway GET IT ON

Radio 3, Sunday July 13, 6.45pm

BBC Scotland’s request show picked songs to help us all get in the mood for summer

■ As the referendum vote looms ever closer, it seems clear that Scotland’s creative community is landing firmly on the Yes side. Commentator Stuart Kelly speaks to the likes of author Denise Mina and playwright David Greig to ask why so many of Scotland’s artists appear to have swung so heavily in one direction.

RADIO: Don’t Make Me Laugh Radio 4, Thursday July 17, 11pm ■ There’s one thing above all else that comedians fear: the sound of a silent, nonlaughing audience. Yet this is exactly what they will crave on this new game show hosted by David Baddiel.

the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

The Lovin’ Spoonful

The Go-Go’s Vacation

Summer In The City

Fishbone

Ramones

Don Henley

Rockaway Beach

Calvin Harris Summer

Everyday Sunshine

The Kinks

Sunny Afternoon

Mungo Jerry

In The Summertime

Boys Of Summer

The Temptations It’s Summer

■ Get It On ❘ Weekdays at 6.10pm

Louise White morning call The following questions were asked on BBC Scotland’s weekday Morning Call programme ■ Can benefit sanctions ever work?

■ Should local parks be a council priority?

■ Is it fundamentally wrong to put women in prison?

■ Is it good news that the right to request flexible working has been extended?

■ Do we need a fresh approach to tackle depression?

■ Morning call ❘ Weekdays at 8.50am

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REVIEW & preview

The best of this week’s books

SCOTTISH BESTSELLERS

Melancholic tales of privileged Parisians drag themselves onto the Stooshie reading pile plus there are novels about a famous dress and university life, while Scottish poets make waves

HARD BACK 1. How To Train Your Dragon

RECOMMENDED

by Cressida Cowell

2. Written In My Own Heart’s Blood

Happy Are The Happy

by Yasmina Reza

by Diana Gabaldon

■ Best known for her stage plays Art and The God Of Carnage, French writer Yasmina Reza continues her satirical stabs at the privileged. Her new novel, Happy Are The Happy, takes its name from a Borges quote and starts out with a couple arguing about luxury cheese.

Across 20 chapters, different characters discuss a personal vignette which offers up a mainly melancholic perspective on life, from the woman who experiences mixed emotions on becoming a widow to the seemingly happily married couple struggling with their son’s mental illness.

Alan Bett in The Skinny noted that the subject matter was occasionally in need of some light relief: “Thankfully there is dark laughter to fish from this pool of melancholy, where fear, age and ill health loom large.”

3. Fighting Spirit

by Fernando Ricksen with Vincent De Vries

4. Kingdom

by Robyn Young

5. My Scotland, Our Britain

by Gordon Brown

6. The Sex Lives Of Siamese Twins

by Irvine Welsh

7. The Last Refuge

by Craig Robertson

8. Shredded

by Ian Fraser

The Museum Of Extraordinary Things

The Pink Suit

by Alice Hoffman

by Nicole Mary Kelby

■ Are there any more iconic mid-20th century outfits than the dresses worn by Jackie Kennedy? In this novel, Kelby imagines the back-story of an Irish girl who was one of the First Lady’s seamstresses.

The Sunday Herald’s Lesley McDowell enjoyed it up to a point. “The concept is highly marketable and appealing: the background to one of the most famous outfits of the 20th century. But the story behind it has nowhere to go from that beginning.”

■ Hoffman’s new fiction takes us back to early 20th century New York to tell the story of an impassioned love affair between two somewhat unlikely soul mates: a circus girl and an émigré Russian photographer. Thomas Quinn of The Big Issue in Scotland was moved to state: “The Museum of Extraordinary Things is a perfect summer read. An engrossing tale of young love against a backdrop of extraordinary times.”

LOOK OUT FOR...

■ Edinburgh-based author Kate Atkinson’s (pictured) Life After Life has followed up the Costa Award it won in January by scooping the adult prize in the Independent Booksellers Week awards. Her wartime novel fended off stiff competition including Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch.

■ Jackie Kay, Don Paterson and the late Edwin Morgan have had their work included in a top 50 list of love poems from the last halfcentury. Poetry specialists at the Southbank Centre chose Kay’s Her, Paterson’s My Love and Morgan’s Strawberries.

9. Asterix And The Picts Upstairs At The Party

by Linda Grant

■ In Grant’s new novel, an androgynous couple appear out of the blue on a 1970s university campus and whose influence on those around them has reverberations for decades to come. Kylie Grant in The List praised the author for being “excellent at portraying how small betrayals, not only between friends, lovers and family but also the betrayal of ideas from youth, can have far reaching consequences for the person you become.”

by Jean-Yves Ferri, Rene Goscinny, Albert Uderzo and Didier Conrad

10. The Munros

by Cameron McNeish

PAPER BACK 1. The Critic

by Peter May

2. Dead Men’s Bones

by James Oswald

3. Extraordinary People

by Peter May

4. Flesh Wounds

by Chris Brookmyre

5. There Was A Wee Lassie Who Swallowed A Midgie

by Rebecca Colby and Kate McLelland

6. Scotland’s Referendum

by David Torrance and Jamie Maxwell

7. Bertie’s Guide To Life And Mothers

by Alexander McCall Smith

8. Blossom

by Lesley Riddoch

9. How To Train Your Dragon

by DreamWorks

10. Katie In Scotland

by James Mayhew ■ Lists from Waterstones 12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

30 l CHEF’S CORNER

Chris Thomson The Pantry, Edinburgh

Supporting local suppliers and artisan producers is important, Chris told the Scottish Licensed Trade News. This ethos translates into dishes which are “rustic but refined”.

For Chris, the aim is to produce food which is seasonal and traceable. “A good chef cooks food he believes in,” is how he put it.

With this is mind, it is no surprise that Chris cited cooking Lathlockar lamb for a banquet as a career highlight. A rare breed of Hebridean sheep, the animals are slow reared in Fife

by Chris’ friend Rob Dewey.

Asked to name his favourite Scottish ingredient, Chris opted for offal as it is “cheap” and “versatile”.

tastiest FOOD & Drink Marco to give Glasgow a grilling ■ Celeb chefs don’t come much starrier than Marco Pierre White and he’s heading to Glasgow to open his first restaurant in the city.

The Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill will be housed on the ground floor of Hotel Indigo at 75 Waterloo from late August.

Having a ball with whisky ■ Following on from his former England teammate David Beckham launching Haig Club Scotch whisky earlier this year, retired footballer Michael Owen has signed a three-year deal to become the global brand ambassador for Spey Whisky.

Tree-mendous dining ■ The Birch Tree in the Highland village of Delny has been named Readers’ Restaurant of the Year for Scotland by the Waitrose Good Food Guide.

Owner and sole chef, Barry Hartshorne, opened the restaurant in a stable block of his parents’ riding school three years ago.

Burger Meats Bun goes coast to coast ■ A year after opening on West Regent Street in Glasgow, Burger Meats Bun has opened a second branch, on Edinburgh’s Forth Street.

Serving gourmet burgers, chicken wings and boozy

WINE OF THE WEEK 2013 LA GRILLE GAMAY ROSE FRANCE (WAITROSE) Showing the Gamay grape in its best light “A cherry-fresh beauty” is how Matthew Jukes described this rosé wine in the Scottish Daily Mail.

It is made with Gamay grapes from Saint Pourcain in the Loire Valley.

The Gamay grape is “rather unfairly tarnished” as it is also used to make “downmarket Beaujolais Nouveau”. Fortunately, the “cooler climate” of the Loire means that the grape, when treated carefully, can also make “superb” rosé such as this. the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

milkshakes, the business started when Manager Ben Dantzic and Head Chef James Forrester met while working at the Michelinstarred Peat Inn in Fife.

Ben was previously the Restaurant Manager at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles.

RECIPE of the week

Raven takes flight ■ Maclay Inns have just launched The Raven bar on Renfield Street in Glasgow.

With 11 TV screens dotted around the bar, sport plays a large part of the bar’s appeal. The drinks offer emphasises craft ales, many of which are Scottish. The kitchen has its own smoker which the chefs use to slow cook ribs and chicken.

Selling brioche to France ■ Edinburgh-based firm Genius has announced they are selling gluten-free brioche to more than 200 French supermarkets.

Brioche may be a French invention but, according to Genius Chief Executive Roz Cuschieri, France is one of the fastest growing markets for gluten-free products. In The Scotsman, she said: “We see a major opportunity to reach out to an increasing number of consumers considering a gluten-free or gluten-light diet as a positive lifestyle choice. We’re delighted to be leading the way as the first major company to offer gluten-free products in the mainstream bakery space in France.”

Homemade Butter Geoffrey Smeddle, The Peat Inn, near St Andrews.

With the school holidays in full swing, this simple recipe is great for involving children. “You can even make a game out of it by giving a prize to the shaker who turns their cream to butter first,” suggests Geoffrey.

Ingredients ■ 300ml double cream ■ Hebridean sea salt ■ Empty jam jar Method 1. Pour 300ml of room temperature double cream into a large jam jar and screw the lid on tightly.

2. Shake the jar vigorously.

Gradually, after around six minutes, the cream will go thick and sandy, like tahini. After around 10 minutes, you should hear a sloshing sound and see a yellow clump as the fat globules solidify in the jar – your butter is ready.

3. Pour the butter and the surrounding buttermilk that is in the jar through a colander set over a bowl.

4. Briefly rinse the butter in the colander under very cold water and twist in a tea towel to wring out the excess liquid. Don’t squeeze too hard or it will just crush and turn to mush.

5. Sprinkle on some Hebridean sea salt before setting in a bowl or rolling in a cylinder shape. Cover in cling film and chill.

Tip: You can keep the buttermilk for poaching fish or potatoes or for making pancakes.

THE BEST RESTAURANT REVIEWS

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Locanda de Gusti 102 Dalry Road, Edinburgh EH11 2DW www.locandadegusti.com ■ Richard Bath had an unhappy experience when he ate at Rosario Sartore’s Locanda de Gusti restaurant three years ago. The Scotland on Sunday critic enjoyed his meal much more when he revisited the restaurant at its new Dalry Road location.

The “bright, couthy, trattoria-style interior” had the “feel of a genuine Neapolitan restaurant” matched with a menu that was also very authentic.

A potato cake with Italian pork sausage was “excellent comfort food” while a starter of mixed seafood was generous and varied.

The meal wobbled a little with an under-seasoned spaghetti dish and “flaccid” gnocchetti. Fortunately, a main course of slow-cooked guinea fowl and a “huge seabass” which was “roasted to perfection” were “back on the money”.

Desserts did not quite “hit the spot”. A crème Catalan was judged a “slushy mess” and Richard’s cream-filled puff pastry “was just a little too hard for his taste”. However, in total, the critic enjoyed his meal and thought the restaurant had “recovered a bit of its swagger”. “Signor Sartore has rediscovered his mojo” reckoned Richard.

Score: 7/10 | Scotland on Sunday

NY American Grill

The Salmon Inn

Clouds & Soil

Glenmoriston Arms Hotel

Princes Square, 48 Buchanan Street, Glasgow G1 3JX www.nyamericangrill.co.uk

54 Bank Street, Galashiels TD1 1EP www.salmoninn.co.uk

4 Picardy Place, Edinburgh EH1 3JT www.cloudsandsoil.com

Invermoriston, Inverness-shire IV63 7YA www.glenmoristonarms.co.uk

A mix-up over his reservation meant that Dinertec’s review of the recently opened NY American Grill did not get off to the best start. However, the Evening Times’ reviewer liked the menu which promised a “culinary roadtrip from Boston to Miami”.

A starter of coconut shrimp was “hot enough” if “a tad overcooked”. The ‘Tec’s NY strip sirloin steak had to be sent back for “further cremation” but had a “lovely charcoal flavour” when it returned.

The bill seemed a “bit steep” and Dinertec concluded that “this joint might be a case of once bitten, twice shy”.

A “wee gem of a restaurant” is how the Daily Record’s Gary Ralston described this “bustling” Borders inn.

Local sourcing and an “eye-catching specials board” pleased Gary as did a starter of Camembert which “oozed” over satisfyingly crunchy grilled asparagus.

A main course salad of sticky chicken was “plentiful and superb”. Portions were generous and the bill was “reasonable”.

The only downside was that the last food order is taken at a “mean” 8pm; the sort of “stingy restrictions” which can “give Scottish hospitality a bad reputation”.

The Scotsman’s Gaby Soutar found the pulled pork samosas “surprisingly satisfying” but an “astringent fennel-seedy vinegar” meant that an artichoke salad left her feeling as though she had been “dropkicked by piccalilli”.

Good grilled seabass; tender, rosemary-baked, beef short ribs and an “earthy mushroom gravy” improved matters.

A small brownie was judged expensive at £5.95 while a white chocolate cheesecake was an “unsophisticated pleasure”.

“A decent meal in a pleasant hangout” was the slightly under whelmed verdict.

Tam Cowan had a “disappointing night” when he visited this Highlands hotel. Faced with a kitchen that closed at 8.30pm; a table which was “a bit grubby” and a “grim”, poorly-presented dish of pan-seared seabass and tiger prawns, the critic was not impressed. A wild mushroom salad which was “poor stuff and hideously overpriced at £5.95” did not help matters.

The one saving grace was a dish of haddock and chips which featured a “firm fillet of (almost) boneless fish in a light crispy batter”. The “excellent home cut chips” also raised a smile.

Score: n/a | Evening Times

Score: 24/30 | Daily Record

Score: 14/20 | The Scotsman

Score: 14/30 | The Scottish Sun 12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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PROPERTY

INSIDE OUT – our Pick of the Scottish Market

Island Of Gigalum, By The Isle Of Gigha, Tayinloan, off Kintyre Offers Over: £550,000 Rettie ❘ www.rettie.co.uk n Very rarely do people get the chance to own their very own tranquil idyll. But this spectacularly sited island with wonderful surrounding seascape and far-reaching scenic views to Gigha,

Kintyre, Jura, Islay and Northern Ireland is now on the market.

Gigalum House is a unique house with a central large octagonal living space, kitchen and three en-suite bedrooms. A jetty provides easy access to the Isle of Gigha and its attractions and to coastal fishing and the next door island of Cara. There may be potential for further development subject to planning consent.

BIG BUDGET

5C Redhall House Close, Edinbuirgh Offers Over: £985,000

Ginglet House, Stenton, East Lothian Offers Over: £875,000

Coulters ❘ www.coultersproperty.co.uk

Rettie ❘ www.rettie.co.uk

n A brand new detached house by Miller Homes offering family accommodation of nearly 4,000 sq ft. It also benefits from a detached study/office/double garage and a family room with bifold doors leading to a paved entertaining area and rear garden. the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

n A modern country home which features an indoor pool and benefits from stunning views and complete privacy. There is a stable block and a riding academy to the north east of the house catering for those with an equestrian interest.

PROPERTY

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FANTASTIC FIFE 12 Little Carron Gardens St Andrews

McEwan Fraser Legal

Offers over: £460,000 A charming property that also has a separate holiday cottage included in the sale.

Pagan Osborne ❘ www.paganosborne.com

❘ www.mcewanfraserlegal.co.uk

Summercraig Cottage Peat Inn

Quoin House Kilconquhar

Pagan Osborne ❘ www.paganosborne.com

Offers over: £435,000 ❘ www.paganosborne.com

A beautiful four-bedroom detached villa located within a sought after residential area of St Andrews.

1 Pennyacre Nursery Springfield

Pagan Osborne

This fivebedroom semi-detached property features a living room with contemporary stove.

Offers over: £445,000

Offers over: £275,000 This threebedroom detached villa is set within a small development of four properties.

CLIMBING THE LADDER

2/2 Chancelot Terrace, Edinburgh Offers Over: £250,000

Ayton East Lodge, Aberargie, Perthshire Offers Over: £235,000

Coulters ❘ www.coultersproperty.co.uk

Strutt and Parker ❘ www.struttandparker.com

n A fantastic example of a large, first-floor Edinburgh tenement flat which benefits from a large kitchen diner. It is located alongside the Chancelot cycle and running path, which forms part of the popular Edinburgh Network.

n A beautifully extended lodge cottage set in a private garden close to excellent communication links. Originally dating from around 1830, this C-listed property has been refurbished to create a spacious home which is full of character and flair.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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the best travel writing Tom Mangold The Mail On Sunday, Scotland

THE WORLD FROM SCOTLAND

Luxury train journey, Thailand

The most sobering part of the journey was a stop at Kanchanburi, the location ■ A journey on the Eastern for the film The Bridge On & Oriental Express was the The River Kwai. The Don highlight of an Asian trip for Rak War Cemetery with its Tom Mangold. Unfortunately, The writer had to do battle with “rows of 6,500 neatly cut and not one but three “GangstaCab” maintained headstones” was a “solemn moment on the tour”. drivers when he first arrived Tom was taken with the city in Bangkok to join the train. state of Singapore and viewing “Deeply unpleasant villains” the “stunning downtown was his verdict on the taxi skyline”, wondered if he had drivers he encountered. accidentally “blundered into Safely onboard the train, the the 22nd century”. challenging dimensions of his As well as the futuristic “mid-range, air conditioned architecture, the writer visited compartment” meant that Tom advised against trying to swing the “beautiful Botanical Gardens and the legendary a cat in his ensuite shower.

However, he enjoyed the views National Orchid Garden”. His parting line advised readers to of the “paddy fields and the jungle” as he rode the rails from make the same journey “before Bangkok to Singapore. everyone else catches on”.

TRAVEL SCOTLAND

TRAVEL EUROPE

TRAVEL THE WORLD

East Neuk, Fife

Cyprus

British Columbia

Euan Crumley Scottish Daily Mail

Rebecca Fletcher Scottish Daily Express

David Byrne Daily Record

■ While noting the “contoured splendour of the Old Course” and the “imposing spires of the ruined cathedral”, it was the Morton of Pitmilly Countryside Resort which really impressed the Scottish Daily Mail’s reporter. As well as “a spacious, superbly appointed” cottage, Euan and his family enjoyed the tennis courts, the pool and the adventure playground. The “picture postcard villages” of Anstruther and Crail also enchanted the writer.

■ It was the Byzantine frescoes and “beautiful mosaic floors” of Kato Papho Archaeological Park that thrilled Rebecca more than the beaches of Cyprus. She particularly enjoyed exploring the ancient houses of “Dionysos, the god of wine, and Theseus, who fought the Minotaur”. Scuba diving; watching the loggerhead turtles at Lara Bay; driving up Mount Olympus and eating seafood in “the picturesque fishing village of Latchi” were also recommended.

■ The “mountain-fresh forest of spruce and cedar” had a calming effect on David when he visited the Scandinave Spa in Whistler. Hiking, zipwiring and whitewater rafting are all popular summer activities around Whistler although David seemed to spend more time eating and drinking.

A five course taster menu at the Bearfoot Bistro got the thumbs up as did vodka tasting, off a ski, at -32C.

TRAVEL NEWS Going on holiday? Maybe ditch the bolt cutters

Clothes, reading material and sunglasses might seem the most obvious items to pack for a holiday.

However, according to the Edinburgh Evening News, security staff at Edinburgh Airport regularly confiscate

more unusual items. Water pistols and Christmas snow globes are among the more innocuous items seized.

More worryingly, passengers have tried to board with a meat cleaver, screwdriver and bolt cutters.

Over 25 tonnes of liquids are poured away each year as travellers fall foul of the ban prohibiting containers

the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

with more than 100ml of liquids.

The jet-set life for not a lot

Hiring a private jet is usually thought of as being the domain of rock stars, top sportsmen and wealthy businessmen. However, bmi regional will lease an aircraft for £300 per person per day. The only catch is that you need 49 other chums

to also stump up the same amount.

A 50-seater Embraer plane can be charted for £15,000 a day. Guests can choose their own schedule, UK departure airport and a short haul destination. The aircraft can fly and return to destinations such as Cannes or Iceland within the day.

THE BEST OF the great outdoors the garden experts Amazing Alliums for the garden and kitchen

Clematis for glamour ■ Large-flowered clematis can add a touch of glamour to your garden, wrote Agnes Stevenson in the Sunday Post.

They should be planted in a shady position, but train their tendrils towards a lighter spot as they like to have roots in the cool earth and flowers in the sun.

Clematis make striking partners to climbing roses.

■ Carol Klein of the Sunday Mail has a display of ornamental onions growing in her cottage garden.

The group of Allium schubertii are in a huge pot in an old copper boiler.

However, there is only one onion that you grow for its foliage, and that is wild garlic, with its combination of “deep green leaves” and “starry white flowers” making it an arresting sight. An added bonus is that it gives of a wonderful scent and its leaves have become popular in nouvelle cuisine.

Chives are another wild culinary Allium that can decorate your garden, and add some flavour to your cooking.

Protect your cabbages from caterpillar menace ■ The Daily Record advised that you should keep your eye on emerging cabbage leaves for the tell-tale holes that are a sign of cabbage white caterpillars.

To control them, and to stop the female butterflies laying their eggs, protect your cabbages with mesh covers, which should have been put in place earlier in the season.

Check there are no holes, as butterflies can get through the smallest gap.

OOT AND ABOOT! Isle of May boost

Glasgow gets on its bike

■ Scottish Natural Heritage have opened a new visitor centre on the Isle of May bird sanctuary.

The new centre replaces the 50-year-old centre that previously catered for the thousands of bird-watchers and nature enthusiasts who flock to the island in the Firth of Forth every year.

David Pickett, Isle of May reserve manager, said: “This innovative centre will greatly enhance the visitor’s experience.”

■ Glasgow’s new bike hires scheme achieved almost 1000 rentals in its first week.

The Herald reported that Glasgow City Council launched its £600,000 Mass Automated Cycle Hire scheme last month, with 400 bikes placed at 31 stations across the city.

People can rent out the bikes by the half hour or hour, and in the first week there had already been 983 hires and 1166

people registering with the scheme. On average, people were taking out the bikes for about 80 minutes.

The scheme is put together by NextBike, which runs similar initiatives in 80 locations round the world.

Council leader Gordon Matheson said: “The people of Glasgow have embraced the bike scheme.

“It’s the biggest scheme outside of London and I’m sure it will continue to grow.”

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NATURE’S BEST ■ Experts were left puzzled after a bat was found for the first time on the remote Scottish archipelago of St Kilda.

The rare Nathusius’ pipistrelle (pictured) was spotted by visitors.

The Courier reported that the bat was found on St Kilda’s main island of Hirta, resting on the wall of a stone-built store known as a cleit.

Nathusius’ pipistrelles a migratory and were first recorded in Shetland in the 1940s and have occasionally been found on North Sea oil platforms and in the Orkney and Shetland islands.

However, up until now the only mammals found on St Kilda, 41 miles west of the Uists, have been Soay sheep and St Kilda field mice.

The islands once had house mice, but they died out after the last humans left the islands in 1930.

Baffled National Trust experts said they did not know where the bat had come from.

St Kilda, which sits 112 miles into the Atlantic, is populated only by a handful of conservation workers and a dozen defence staff who monitor missiles fired from the test range in the Uists.

Weather Wettest – Isle of Skye 0.43in

Sunniest –

Islay 13.4 hours

Coldest – Cairngorm Mountains -0.6C (30.9F)

Warmest –

Leuchars 20.8C (69.4F)

Weather round-up:

Scotland is said to be on course for its second warmest year ever recorded, according to research by Friends of the Earth.

BBC Scotland revealed analysis by the environmental group which confirmed that four months of 2014 were more than 1C warmer than the 1981-2010 average, while spring has been the warmest since records began.

It added that June was reportedly the joint fourth warmest ever, while analysis of Met Office data also found that February was the fifth wettest ever recorded.

The warmest year in Scotland since records began was 2006, followed by 2003, 2007, 2004 and 2005.

Friends of the Earth Scotland said Scots should “heed the warnings the weather is giving us”, and called for more action to tackle climate change.

It added that a developing El Nino – a periodic warming of the Pacific which boosts global temperatures – could make 2014 the world’s warmest year ever.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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CONSUMER

Three of the best...sound systems

TRIED AND TESTED

Multi-unit surround sound systems take up too much room and are unsightly. Luckily, single unit sound plates and corner-filling sound bars can push TV sound to another level.

-sized

Handy

tRAVEL SETS

Rituals Travel Light Kit £20.00 uk.rituals.com

Super-practical, the minis in the Rituals Travel Light Kit (above) include 24-hour antiperspirant spray and shampoo for frizzy hair to combat the effects of humidity.

JBL Cinema SB100 £79.95

Bose Solo TV System £299.98

Sonos Playbar £599.00

Use this budget box to improve the audio to your PC or spare room telly. The delivery from this unit is pretty decent for a sub-£100 set and, although attempting to replicate a 360 degree sound from a single box is no mean feat, this one doesn’t do too badly at all. At this affordable price, it might be a useful introduction to superior sound for your guests.

Don’t be fooled by the demure looks of this black box – it may not be the supermodel in our line-up but it still delivers way more sound detail than your TV set will. Sitting under your set, this box simply plugs in and brings some of those subtle sound effects to life. It comes complete with a standard four-button remote so you can settle down for longer too.

If you set up this sleek-looking sound bar to your home’s main TV set, you’ll enjoy sumptuous sounds. Link up one of the many other “family” members in the Sonos range though, and you’ll soon be streaming music throughout your abode, able to access different tunes from your music services and allowing you to set a different mood in each room.

www.richersounds.com

www.thurgo.co.uk

www.johnlewis.com

L’Occitane Weekend in Provence Set £20.00 John Lewis

The kit includes mini Aroma Repairing Shampoo and Conditioner, Lavender Foaming Bath and Almond Shower Oil.

Murad Summer Sun Essentials £49.50 John Lewis

The stylish beach tote contains a 125ml Water Resistant Sunscreen SPF30, along with pocket-size Essential-C Sun Balm SPF35 and mini Essential-C Eye Cream SPF15.

DRIVE TIME

Citroen C4 Cactus Price from £17,500

BMW M4

Andrew Mackay ❘ The Herald

Price from £58,295 Matt Joy ❘ The Scotsman

The C4 Cactus is “as fresh as a newborn baby” and even the “roof rails that look like upturned skis are different, innovative and play a role in the Cactus voyage of exploration”.

The “avant-garde design” can be seen everywhere and there is plenty of “allround space” – “even six-footers will be most comfortable travelling in the rear”.

Drivers will experience “no prickly bits” with this Cactus and an innovative leasing system that lets customers choose a monthly flat-rate or a mileage-based cost will “take the sting out of ownership”. It’s a car that will generate “much interest” – a real “winner”.

The new coupe M4 will be the “most popular model by far” and the “biggest news” is a twin turbo-charged six-cylinder unit under the bonnet.

The M4 is a “terrific-looking thing from pretty much any angle” and the fact it gives nothing away to standard cars mean “there’s no excuse for leaving the loved ones behind in a haze of tyre smoke”.

Two types of people will want to own an M4: “enthusiasts” who “want a performance car that has motorsport links and can cut it on the track as well as on the road” and “badge snobs” – as the M badge “lets everyone know they’ve arrived”.

Range Rover Sport Price from £74,995 Jack McKeown ❘ The Courier The Range Rover Sport is the “shorter, flashier brother” to the “bigger and altogether more olde-worlde” Range Rover.

One’s a “country gent”, the other’s a “city slicker”, and the most obvious change in the Sport is its looks.

This is the “most radical and futuristic” Sport ever created and, although the older version handled well for such a tall and heavy car, this one is “much better” than its previous incarnation.

The Range Rover Sport is “big, powerful, handsome, luxurious and surprisingly fast and agile”. And although it’s “expensive to own and run”, it’s also one of the “best cars money can buy”.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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BUSINESS & FINANCE Hired, Fired & RETIRED ■ The Scotsman’s On The Move reported another leap in the “meteoric career” of Scottish solicitor Sara Jalicy.

The former Balfour & Manson staffer has taken charge of Anderson Strathern’s residential property business.

At 29, she is the firm’s youngest partner for more than a decade.

FirstGroup charm offensive as pressure mounts on CEO The Aberdeen-based global transport provider has been extolling its virtues ahead of an expected showdown with investors at its annual meeting this week ■ Under-fire FirstGroup opted for a twin-pronged approach of big guns and big numbers this week as it looked to make up ground ahead of its annual meeting.

The firm has found itself under intense pressure after rebel shareholder Tom Sandell’s public dressing down over the almost £2 million pay package of chief executive Tim O’Toole (above).

It has since emerged that three other investor advisory groups have voiced concerns about parts of First’s operations.

In response Mr O’Toole flew to Scotland to personally front up the launch of a Fraser of Allander produced report showing the firm’s Scotrail franchise was worth £1.2 billion to the Scottish tourism sector.

The Federation of Master Builders said the SME construction sector was starting to grow after just

15,000

homes were built north of the border in 2013.

The figure represented a 60-year low.

NEWSPAPERS SAY Scotsman business editor Terry Murden said Mr O’Toole had rejected Sandell’s criticism over his pay and other concerns about its strategy in the US and a lack of sectoral expertise on First’s board.

The Press and Journal also picked up on the controversy over Mr O’Toole’s remuneration, which it said had risen from £1.1m in 2012 to around £2m last year.

The paper said that in addition to the Sandell intervention, the Institutional Voting Information Service had issued an “amber top” warning flagging significant issues requiring investor consideration. Shareholder advisory consultancy PIRC had recommended voting FMB director Gordon Nelson said it had taken longer for recovery to embed in the building trade in Scotland than in the other home nations.

However, he said the recent introduction of a presumption in favour of development had the potential to “cement” growth.

Mr Nelson said the “more sensible approach” would finally allow contractors to get on and build the homes that Scotland “so desperately needs.”

the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

against the remuneration report and US-based ISS had expressed a view the company’s pay policies “were not without concern”.

The Herald’s Simon Bain said the FoA report underlined First’s continuing ambition to be at the top table of the UK rail market.

He said the report showed ScotRail pumped £1.55bn into the Scottish economy annually and supported 37,721 jobs.

Mr Bain said First was up against four rivals for the Scotrail renewal including a National Express bid spearheaded by Scotrail’s former boss Mary Grant.

The paper’s Herald View column said First was one of “Scotland’s surviving big beasts”.

It said the firm had the largest interest in rail of any UK operator and the jewel in that crown was the Scotrail franchise.

However, it said the north east operator would have to hope “highly regarded” Ms Grant’s track record of running the franchise did not ultimately prove NatEx’s “trump card”.

■ Aberdeen construction firm Stewart Milne Group has moved to appoint Lorraine Paterson as its new sales director for east central Scotland.

She was most recently involved with the firm behind the prestigious Quartermile development in Edinburgh.

■ Department of Transport executive Vickie Sheriff has joined Edinburgh headquartered drinks giant Diageo as the firm’s global communications director.

Ms Sheriff (below) will take responsibility for external comms and employee engagement and will report into corporate relations director Charlotte Lambkin.

BUSINESS & finance WEEK IN NUMBERS

209

The number of beds within a new build mental health and community hospital to be constructed by north east based Stewart Milne Timber Systems.

The £47 million contract for the Ayrshire facility follows a similar role for the company at Stobhill in Glasgow.

£340m

The size of the investment by French headquartered Total after it green lighted the delayed Edradour gas field off Shetland.

The scheme had been put on hold last year but the company finally sanctioned the development after negotiating improved contract terms.

Not so NISA? Savings concern ■ Savers have been warned of a “triple blow” from the government’s NISA scheme.

Just days after launching in a blaze of publicity, New Isas – which offer a tax free investment fund of £15,000, up from £11,800 – have come under the spotlight over high charges, poor performance and lack of product choice.

to 61,707 in May. Scotland on Sunday’s Jeff Salway said new affordability checks curbed lending.

■ A £1 billion share buy-up saw Edinburgh headquartered drinks giant Diageo finally wrest control of India’s United Spirits.

The Courier’s Graham Huband said the move, which CEO Ivan Menezes described as “significant”, came following an 18 month courtship of USL by Diageo.

The Times reported that Diageo was “drawing up plans” to push its Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka brands in the country.

The takeover talk prompted Tim Webb to recount a long anticipated move by the world’s largest beer maker Anheuser-Busch for SABMiller, its closest rival.

However, he said there was little credence given to a suggestion SAB could merge with Diageo to avoid being taken over.

The Times of India said Scotsman Angus McDowell founded USL in the 1800s.

COMMENTATORS SAY

£105,500

The amount raised by Motherwell beehive company Plan Bee in its latest crowdfunding round.

A total of 177 investors swarmed to take part in the fundraising.

Glasgow’s Kelvin Capital and the Scottish Investment Bank also put £35,000 each into the pot.

£12 billion

The size of RBS’s rights issue which preceded its collapse.

The Scotsman reported a date and duration for multi-billion legal actions against the lender was due to be determined by the High Court by October.

The claimants allege the bank misled investors ahead of the 2008 rights issue.

Research carried out by funds analyst FE Trustnet on behalf of the Sunday Times found 20 out of 23 funds sold by building societies and high street banks returned less than the FTSE AllShare index over five years.

Fairer Finance’s James Daley told Ali Hussain there was “very little” to recommend about some NISA schemes.

Raising a glass to India New mortgage rules are “turning the screw” on Scotland’s housing market even before an interest rate rise. Mortgage approvals fell by

£35 million 18%

The size of the latest black hole to be idenfitied in the UK construction arm of infrastructure giant Balfour Beatty.

The firm, which operates across Scotland and whose co-founder George Balfour learnt his trade in Dundee, has been hit by a series of problems in recent months which led to CEO Andrew McNaughton’s departure in May.

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Holding the baby ■ Troubled infant products and babywear retailer Mothercare has fended off a US suitor.

The firm, which also trades under the Early Learning Centre banner, rebuffed two separate takeover approaches from Destination Maternity.

Mothercare, which is closing stores in a bid to stem major UK losses, said the Philadelphia firm’s £266m bid did not reflect the brand’s inherent value or its recovery prospects.

The Scotsman City editor Martin Flanagan reported analyst Liberium’s view of the deal.

The group said Mothercare’s integration would be good for shareholders but would not be easy for DM to “digest”.

Writing in The Guardian, Nils Pratley voiced the question on many people’s lips.

“Destination who?” he asked, before querying the credibility of the firm’s approach for a UK high street stalwart.

Alistair Osborne warned in The Times that DM’s bid was built round a “highly convoluted corporate structure” and came saddled with a “diaper full of debt.”

He said if the “American toddler” could not be seen off then Mothercare was in real trouble.

talking heads “We pride ourselves on our unique culture. We’re not ashamed of being a sales company - we embrace it. We attract the best talent by creating a real sales environment where people can earn what they are worth.”

Dionne Niven (above), head of human resources with direct marketing firm Aquira, which is creating 220 new jobs in Glasgow.

“People’s desire to go on holiday or take a break has not diminished in the slightest, but they are perhaps having to be more conscious of cost.”

Travelodge chief executive Peter Grower on tourism prospects.

“We don’t take CDO’s (collateralised debt obligations). Only cash.

That’s why Birlinn is in business and RBS collapsed.”

Hugh Andrew, MD of Edinburgh independent publisher Birlinn tells The Bottom Line his secret for business success.

“We use our votes to shape better and longerterm behaviour in the companies we invest in.”

Euan Munro, CEO of Aviva Investors, writing in The Times says firms should act responsibly when investing. Aviva Investors’ objections have helped prevent drilling in Virunga National Park in the Congo.

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SPORT

Susie vows to keep breaking down Grand Prix gender barriers ■ Williams development driver Susie Wolff said she reckons women will drive in an F1 Grand Prix in the near future after making her own little bit of history.

The 31-year-old Scot became the first female to take part in a race weekend in 22 years when she drove in British Grand Prix practice at Silverstone – albeit it ended after just one timed lap due to an oil pressure problem.

But she told the BBC Sport’s Andrew Benson that she truly believes women are “close” to competing alongside the men – following in the footsteps of Italian Lella Lombardi, who was the last female to race in a Grand Prix in 1976.

“I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think it was possible,” she said.

“You have to fight hard to get into F1 and be ready when the chance comes but I believe it

will happen soon. I’m going to give it my absolute best shot and if it doesn’t happen I can look back and say I gave it everything I had.”

The weekend’s papers had a field day with Force India driver Sergio Perez’s comments after Wolff’s appearance, with the Mail on Sunday Scotland noting that the Mexican, when asked whether he’d like a female team-mate ahead of the race, replied: “No, they are better off in the kitchen.”

However, Perez quickly apologised and claimed he had been “really ashamed” and his words were distorted.

Wolff, on the other hand, took it in the spirit it was intended and told people to “give him a break” – adding that his comments were taken “completely out of context”.

She concluded: “Anyway, as my family will tell you, I drive better than I cook.”

Cavendish injury to see him miss Games

OTHER NEWS

■ Top cyclist Mark Cavendish will definitely miss the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after suffering a serious shoulder injury early in the Tour de France.

The Herald reported how the Manx rider’s Tour de France came to a “brutal end” after he crashed at the end of the first stage in his mother’s hometown as the Tour snaked its way through parts of England.

It later emerged that Cavendish had separated a shoulder and needed surgery to rectify the problem – effectively putting paid to his appearance in Glasgow later this month.

The Omega PharmaQuick-Step rider put things into perspective though.

“My friend Josh is a double amputee on his legs and missing his right arm,” Cavendish said. “He just sent me a message joking: ‘I’ve got a spare arm for you’.

“I’m in the left-handed club with him for a bit now, but things could be worse.”

A date to dread in your diary?

Many Scots watched in stunned silence as Germany thrashed World Cup hosts Brazil 7-1 in an unforgettable semi-final... and we could well be next!

Joachim Low’s team’s first competitive task after the World Cup finals will be a home European Championship qualifer against Scotland on September 7. However, the SFA don’t seem fazed, tweeting “#naeborra” after highlighting the upcoming match.

Ex-Bairn’s heroics all over the world’s back pages It’s not often that a former Falkirk goalkeeper hits the headlines across the globe, but Tim Krul did exactly that when his heroics helped the Netherlands into the World Cup’s last four.

Newcastle keeper Krul was substituted on to the field by Dutch boss Louis van Gaal just before the start of their penalty shoot-out against Costa Rica and the gamble worked as his saves put the Dutch through.

The 26-year-old earned criticism from many papers for “going too far with his intimidation tactics” as opposition players took their penalty kicks.

Aussie duo out of Glasgow Commonwealth backstroke champion Meagen Nay and Paralympic gold medallist Jacqui Freney withdrew from Australia’s swim team for Glasgow 2014 through injury.

HAUD YER WHEESHT! ■ Her face is recognisable the world over – and you only need to check your money or stamps to get a reminder here in Scotland.

But it seems that security will be so tight at this month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow that even Her Majesty The Queen will need the proper accreditation.

The Scottish Daily Mail’s Victoria Allen revealed how The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh both visited Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall to pick up their identification passes, which now means the monarch can “reassure

security guards that she really is who she claims to be in order to deliver her speech at the opening ceremony on July 23”.

The royal party were touring various venues ahead of Glasgow 2014 and, according to the paper, The Queen (pictured picking up her pass) joined around 15,000 volunteers who have already collected their accreditation.

Operations manager Ed Saayeng said: “For The Queen to take the time to come here and be presented with her accreditation – I’m not sure that’s been done before.”

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SPORT Golfers gear up for Open

What now, Andy?

Murray must look to the future after Wimbledon failure ■ Oh dear. Last week’s Stooshie documented how the Scottish media had been raving about Andy Murray’s performances as he progressed through to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, with phrases like “playing like a champion” and “determined not to give up his crown” among the gushing tributes paid as he cruised into the last eight.

Fast forward a week though, and media figures are probably still trying to dissect what went wrong as the Scot’s title defence ended in the meekest of fashions.

Murray – who has now dropped to 10th in the world – had been worthy of all the praise that came his way ahead of the last eight clash with Grigor Dimitrov, not dropping a set as he cruised into Wimbledon’s latter stages for the seventh consecutive year.

However, Murray was outplayed and outfought by the Bulgarian en route to a straight sets loss, and the nation was left to wonder how the 27-year-old’s fortunes could have changed so dramatically.

Some speculated something had upset Murray in the build

up, sparked by photographers reportedly hearing the Scot shout “five f***ing minutes before the match starts” near the end of the third set.

Dimitrov too said afterwards he thought there was something “not quite right” about the defending champion as they warmed up.

Murray though will hope it was only a bad day at the office. “The only way for me to get better or win these tournaments again is to make improvements because other guys are getting better,” he concluded.

will now have a “reduced ranking, no titles and certainly no statue at the All England Club”, Dickson described his current state as “the easiest place from which to rebuild”.

The Herald’s Stewart Fisher suggested that perhaps we should not have been surprised, describing Murray’s early tournament form as “rather illusory”.

The same paper’s Hugh MacDonald said Murray would regroup and added that while he “cannot know if there is another major at the end of the journey”, he certainly “knows the route”.

Others were similarly conciliatory. The Scotsman’s Stuart Bathgate noted how many had written Murray off when he lost his first few

Grand Slam finals but said they had been proved wrong.

“Similarly,” he added, “now that Murray has failed to retain his Wimbledon crown, some will be ready to write him off.

“They are wrong too.”

Bathgate acknowledged it will be “tough to kick on from here”, but said to presume he could not do it would be “ludicrously premature”.

The same paper’s leader column tipped him to come back stronger, labelling him a “bona fide hero”.

The Independent’s Paul Newman looked at Murray’s defeat in a wider context and said he now believed Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will be “pushed harder and harder” by the next generation coming through.

COMMENTATORS SAY ■ The Scottish Daily Mail’s Mike Dickson said the manner of Murray’s defeat “seemed unthinkable”, given the way he had played during the tournament, but suggested the public had perhaps “overestimated Murray’s chances based on the struggles of the past 12 months” – referring to his back surgery and change in coach.

But he went on to say the defeat “was actually a pattern of lame Grand Slam defeats” for the Scot, noting Murray had played well then “bombed without warning”.

“Losing is no disgrace, but there has been a concerning element of acceptance each time,” he surmised.

Despite noting that Murray

the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

■ Several of the world’s top golfers will be hoping a win in the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen will be the perfect preparation for The Open Championship, which starts on Thursday.

The Sunday Herald’s Alasdair Reid said “few golfers have ever divided opinions quite so sharply” than last year’s winner Phil Mickelson, and the paper said he will again be one to watch on the links course.

Scotland on Sunday’s John Huggan described this as one of golf’s “special weeks”, not just for all the big name golfers turning out but also the “rare prospect” of watching Scotland’s top-nine ranked golfers all in action.

Quick FIRE ■ Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters admitted it will take time to mend bridges with veteran British rider David Millar after leaving the Scot out of the team’s Tour de France squad.

Scottish Daily Mail

■ Scot Laura Muir can turn her attention to the prospect of a Hampden treble after breaking the Scottish 1,500m record at the Diamond League meeting in Paris. The 21-year-old finished sixth in her race but her time was good enough to beat the 1987 mark set by Yvonne Murray.

The Herald

SPORT

good week

QUOTES

Lynsey Sharp

“It’s not a man’s world any more.”

Just a few days after almost breaking the two-minute mark in the 800 metres, the Scot achieved the feat by smashing her personal best at the Diamond League in Lausanne. Although she finished fifth in her race, The Scotsman said a “blistering sprint” to finish in 1:59.67 was excellent preparation for the Commonwealth Games.

Ricky Burns

After his comeback defeat left the Scot’s world title hopes in tatters, the Daily Record’s Michael Gannon said Burns is now “on course” for an all-Scottish “super fight” with Scott Harrison.

Burns has been given another chance to prove himself with a move up to light-welterweight in Manchester on September 13 against an as yet unnamed opponent.

BAD week

Football fashion The new football season is fast approaching and clubs have been unveiling new strips.

Hibs will play in a shirt without white sleeves for the first time in around 80 years to honour the legacy of the Easter Road club’s Famous Five.

But The Scotsman revealed that fans took to internet sites to “vent their displeasure” at the new top (above), describing the creation as a “slap in the face” and a “training top with a Hibs badge chucked on it”.

St Mirren also launched a yellow and black away strip which some fans labelled “the worst strip in their history”.

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SUSIE WOLFF Scot hopes more women will get involved in F1 after driving in British Grand Prix practice

■ Team Scotland 10m and 50m rifle shooter Jennifer McIntosh tests out the range at Barry Buddon ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

Tributes paid to one of football’s greatest ■ Sir Alex Ferguson led tributes to Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano, who died after a heart attack at the age of 88.

Widely considered to be one of the greatest ever footballers, Di Stefano helped Real Madrid win five successive European Cups between 1956-60 and scored in each of the finals. He went on to coach

Real, and former Manchester United boss Ferguson went head-to-head with him in the 1983 Cup Winners’ Cup final when he was Aberdeen manager.

Ferguson was also one of the 127,000 fans in the stands when Real beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in the famous 1960 final at Hampden Park.

“He was always the focus of Real Madrid wherever they went,” he said of Di Stefano. “He had a fantastic life and I’m proud to have been associated with him in a small way.”

Former Scotland boss Craig Brown also described him as a “lifelong hero of most Scottish fans” because of the 1960 final in The Herald.

The Scottish connection didn’t just stop there though, as Celtic defeated Real 1-0 in Di Stefano’s testimonial.

“Unfortunately we’re not back to normal, no.”

Jonathan vaughters The Garmin boss has faced the wrath of cyclist David Millar

“If I can end my career at Derby I would be delighted.”

CRAIG BRYSON The Scotland midfielder signed a five-year deal with English Championship side Derby County

“Centre Court is special and I truly believe I can have some more great moments out there.”

■ The new Team Scotland clothing was launched ahead of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. See also page 5.

ANDY MURRAY The beaten champion is convinced he can win Wimbledon again 12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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SPORT

OFF

Bright future ahead of Scots babes?

■ It has been a long time since such a buzz was created by a homegrown Scottish footballer earning a big money move abroad, but could Ryan Gauld’s switch from Dundee United to Sporting Lisbon signal a new era for Scottish football?

The 18-year-old, dubbed the ‘mini Messi’ by many, sealed a dream £2.2 million move to the Portuguese giants and, according to the Daily Record, became the club’s highest paid youngster ever.

The paper reported that Gauld’s deal was worth £8,000 a week in his first year, while it

added the teenager could pick up several lucrative bonuses – including one of up to £100,000 if they qualify for the Champions League.

Those figures were slammed as “nonsense” by Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho, reported The Herald, but the mere mention of a £48 million release clause in Gauld’s contract had the media talking.

With Sky Sports even doing like-for-like Gauld v Messi features, Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara was gutted to lose Gauld but told the Evening Telegraph’s

Tom Duthie that seeing Gauld play first-team football for the Portguese giants will give United “a lot of satisfaction”.

“It’s not a development signing for them, they’ve taken him to use him now,” he said.

“I’m hopeful we’ll turn on the telly in the next couple of months and see him playing Champions League games.”

And with talk of United left-back Andrew Robertson potentially netting a highprofile move south of the border, it seems the future of the Scottish game looks bright.

COMMENTATORS SAY ■ “Incredible doesn’t cover it,” lauded Michael Gannon in the Daily Record.

“It’s brilliant for him and for Dundee United, who’ll get a tasty kickback if Sporting do decide to cash in, but it’s also tremendous for the entire country,” he continued.

“Maybe now we should stop beating ourselves up, kicking our game around like an empty tin can. This goes to show we CAN produce kids with world class potential.”

Gannon also noted that many players in the past have been dubbed the next big thing but have gone on to become “Jimmy Ordinary”, although he said this time something “feels different”.

“On you go, wee man, show the world what you can do,” he concluded. the stooshie ❘ www.thestooshie.co.uk

THE BALL

■ BBC Radio Scotland’s Stuart Cosgrove and Tam Cowan welcomed two guests to the studio.

■ Ex-Scotland goalkeeper Alan Rough talked about World Cup memories, including THAT free-kick from Brazil’s Zico in 1982, while Richard McBrearty, from the Hampden Museum, talked about the history of the game.

■ Team of the Week was the Condiments XI, in relation to HP Sauce being named Britain’s favourite taste sensation. It included Salt Bamba, Nigel Pepper, Jan Vinegar of Hesselink, John Teriyaki and Sir Chris Soy.

Dons focus on Dutch test In the same paper though, there was a word of caution from Scotland manager Gordon Strachan who said whoever called Gauld ‘mini Messi’ “wants to have a good look at themselves”.

“Who needs that kind of pressure?” he asked.

And he added: “We need to let him get on with it now and not build him up into something he is not. Let’s not make the same mistake Brazil has with Neymar.”

Having said that, BBC Scotland’s Richard Wilson said “being exceptional had become commonplace” for Gauld and suggested the move to a team like Sporting Lisbon “will not faze him”.

“An astute, composed young man with a wonderfully instinctive touch on the ball

and a perceptive passing ability, Gauld is not a typical product of Scottish football,” he observed.

The Scottish Daily Mail’s John Greechan said “all of Scotland should hope Gauld succeeds”, adding that his example should inspire youngsters to “aim higher”. He went on: “If only more of our young talents would possess the vision of Gauld, on and off the pitch, Scotland might one day hope to be more than just an England-lite.”

The Herald’s Michael Grant said the “headline grabbing” buyout clause had “put Gauld on a pedestal”, but said the “classy little sprite of a player” had talent.

He concluded: “Let’s do what Sporting have done and give the laddie a chance.”

■ With their spot in the Europa League second qualifying round all but booked after their 5-0 first leg win over Daugava Riga, Aberdeen are preparing for their next tie against Dutch side Gronigen.

The Dons ensured the job was done in front of the club’s home fans at Pittodrie and, to be honest, they will be glad to see the back of the Latvians.

The Scotsman described them as a “brutal Baltic state side” who had seven players booked and two red carded in the first leg alone. The Evening Express also revealed UEFA was to look at reports the first leg was fixed – although allegations were “not aimed at the Dons in any way”.

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SPORT

good week

QUOTES

Ross McCormack

“Just total lies.”

The Scotland international completed a shock £11 million move from Leeds to Fulham.

The Scottish Daily Mail reported that McCormack, the top scorer in last season’s Championship, signed a four-year deal.

BRUNO DE CARVALHO Lisbon chief slammed media reports about Ryan Gauld’s £100,000 bonus for Champions League qualification

“We will need to do something with their attitude.”

Ian Cathro

The Scottish coach, who helped teach now ex-Dundee United starlet Ryan Gauld everything he knows, was reportedly set to be unveiled as the new assistant manager at Spanish giants Valencia.

■ Rangers striker Kris Boyd didn’t take long to pick up where he left off, scoring on his second Rangers debut to earn the Ibrox side a 1-1 pre-season draw against Highland outfit Brora Rangers.

HEADLINES

Eric Black

FOOTBALL: Aberdeen won the race to sign former Dundee United and Blackburn striker David Goodwillie.

The player had been training with St Johnstone.

The former Motherwell and Coventry manager has been named as Wigan Athletic’s new first team coach.

Ex-Aberdeen and Scotland striker Black was assistant to Steve Bruce at Wigan between 2007 and 2009.

Gordon relishing role in green and white

BAD week Brian Stockbridge Well, it was a bad week for the ex-Rangers financial director’s image in the eyes of fans.

Stockbridge was reportedly given a golden handshake – £215,000 worth of shares – as part of an agreement with the board when he left the Ibrox club in January. Needless to say, the Union of Fans group was unimpressed.

RONNY Deila Celtic’s boss was not happy after a friendly draw with Rapid, but got a response when they beat Linz 5-2 a few days later

■ Former Scotland international goalkeeper Craig Gordon is hoping to make an impact after being unveiled as Celtic manager Ronny Deila’s first signing.

The 31-year-old has not played professionally for over two years due to a serious knee injury but told Sky Sports News: “It’s been tough, it’s been a long road back, but this is the exciting part now.

“My next challenge is to prove I can still cut it at this level.”

CYCLING: Edinburgh will renew its bid to host the Tour de France’s Grand Depart in 2018 or 2019, reported the Edinburgh Evening News.

Deputy council leader Steve Cardownie said the city would be “much more equipped” having seen the race in Leeds.

RUGBY: Edinburgh Rugby are to play two pre-season games in the Borders this summer.

Newcastle Falcons will visit Mansfield Park on August 28, adding to the game against Leicester Tigers at the Greenyards on August 22.

SHINTY: Kingussie will play Fort William and Glen Urquhart will meet Skye in the last four of the Camanachd Cup.

“That’s what he does and that’s why we brought him back.”

KENNY MCDOWELL Rangers’ assistant is in no doubt Kris Boyd will be an asset after scoring on his second debut

“The atmosphere is great and everyone is very positive.”

LIAM CRAIG The Hibs midfielder, who scored in a 4-0 friendly win over Vale of Leithen, wants to stay at Easter Road

Scott Brown The Celtic skipper is set to miss the start of the club’s Champions League qualifiers after suffering a hamstring injury in pre-season (right).

■ A dejected Scott Brown leaves the field on a stretcher after just two minutes of his side’s 1-1 friendly draw with Rapid Vienna in Austria.

12 July 2014 ❘ the stooshie

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COMMENT

FRED SAID Comedian, broadcaster and presenter

FRED MACAULAY

Fred’s not one to let the grass grow under his feet From baton relays to hobnobbing with the stars, it’s been a busy week for Fred

■ I have an image in my mind of summer months being spent in an Adirondack garden chair in the evening sun, sipping a cold beer, whilst admiring how straight I managed to get the stripes on my freshly mown lawn.

The reality is that I’ve been driven to distraction this year trying to start a 10 year old mower. I’ve endured countless muscle strains with my futile attempts to draw life into the aged motor, as the grass grows longer and thicker.

So, in a week which saw me interview Still Game stars Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, play to a full house in a theatre in Tring (somewhere outside London), reunite with the wonderful Andy Hamilton (writer/director of the brilliant Outnumbered) to record an episode of The Newsquiz, loop the loop in a Tiger Moth bi-plane and deliver the Queen’s baton to my old home

Clarifications and corrections The Stooshie is committed to journalism of the highest standards and we aim to produce our magazine with accuracy, honesty and fairness. Our journalists adhere to the DC Thomson company values of integrity, respect, commitment and creativity. We abide by the Editors’ Code of Practice which is enforced by the Press Complaints Commission. It is our policy to publish clarifications and corrections when necessary and as quickly as possible. You can contact us by email at: editor@thestooshie.co.uk or by writing to: The Readers’ Editor, The Stooshie, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL.

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town of Perth, the highlight was the purchase of the new lawnmower!

Unless I hear otherwise, the next few columns will be accompanied by photos of striped grass and chilled beer bottles. For now though, here’s Ford and Greg in tee shirts they’d bought on the way to our interview.

I don’t know if they do ‘heart’ Fred, but it raised a laugh and in TV terms that’s what counts.

And there are few who know how to do that better than those two.

Just as I asked the lads how they were treated by the public and Ford was telling me how, in general, it was goodnatured, a white van drove past, honked it’s horn and the driver railed out the window “Away you ya pair o’ b......s” (Expletives deleted). Could it be he knew that the tee shirt sentiment wasn’t real?

We’re up for the Commonwealth Games – just don’t mention the Olympics...

■ Soon our news will be dominated by the Commonwealth Games.

We’re only (x) days away from the opening ceremony.

Don’t ask me to be any more specific, I don’t know when you’ll be reading this. For some of you who have picked up this copy in a doctor’s surgery it’d be more appropriate for me to be writing about ‘the recent Commonwealth Games, just passed’.

Being on a ‘celebrity’ list, possibly D, I was invited to carry the baton. As with the Olympic torch, the baton relay has captured the public’s imagination and is an indication of the enthusiasm being generated around the country for the Games later this month.

It is the wee brother to the Olympics. Sydney was still basking in the glory of the Olympics when rival city Melbourne hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Or as the Sydney residents referred to them rather disingenuously I thought – “The School Sports”!

Information about the Code of Practice can be obtained from The Press Complaints Commission at Halton House, 20/23 High Holborn, London EC1N 2JD or email complaints@pcc.org.uk or call 0845 6002757 or 0207 8310022.

Published in Great Britain by D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, 185 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2HS. © D. C. Thomson & Co., Ltd, 2014. Distributed by Marketforce, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU. Tel: +44(0) 20 3148 3300 Fax: +44(0) 20 3148 8105 Website: www. marketforce.co.uk

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