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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Our Community
I note that while there are at least 200 or so folk that read this newsletter in our community there are very few that post messages. As we're now nearing the time for our move to SFU I thought it was time to review whether we should keep the community going.
I know some of you also come in to play our arcade games but that in itself doesn't really provide anything to other members.
So.. I am considering archiving the messages and then closing the community and I would appreciate your thoughts on this.
When I create the archive I can add several pages to the ES site to hold them but as we have a good comments system on there I figured that would also be a place for those that want to keep in touch to use that system.
Mind that if you have a Google, Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo account you can use these to login to the comments system and if you don't have these it's very easy to create a Disqus account.
Anyway... please let me know what you think.
Guelph
I am going to try and get to the conference at the University of Guelph this Saturday so if are going I might be able to see you there.
Focused on the Scottish Borders this week and worked further with the Borders History Magazine so see below for what I found.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
Orkney and Shetland are best places to raise children
Orkney and Shetland have been named the best two places to raise children in Britain for the second year running, according to an annual survey.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...tland-37317246
Britain too lazy and fat
Britain is too lazy and too fat with businessmen preferring golf on a Friday afternoon to trying to boost the country's prosperity, Liam Fox has said.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37324491
SNP’s Programme for Government fails to show ambition
THIS WEEK the First Minister set out her Programme for Government, in effect setting the legislative and policy agenda for the next Parliamentary year.
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkpo...nkscotland.org
Scotland leads UK on climate change
Greenhouse gas emissions fell further in Scotland than the rest of the UK in 2014, according to the latest report from the Committee on Climate Change.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-37340555
Potential of bracken biofuel examined
A feasibility study is examining the potential of harvesting bracken and using it to make a bioethonol fuel.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...ntral-37342978
Even nearer to the crunch point for pensions
Of growing concern in recent weeks has been the further upward twist in pension fund deficits.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/pe...ions-1-4227417
Scotland's budget could face £1.6bn cut
Some public services in Scotland could be facing budget cuts of almost a fifth over the next four years, according to a study by economic forecasters.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...iness-37347990
Fraser of Allander Institute - Scotland’s Budget 2016
Read the report at: http://www.electricscotland.com/inde...udget-2016.pdf
Religious observance rules at Scottish schools to face judicial review
Secularist campaigners accuse Scottish ministers of acting unlawfully by refusing to grant pupils aged 16 and over an opt-out
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...udicial-review
Dyson - leaving EU will liberate UK economy
One of the UK's most successful business leaders has said that leaving the European Union will liberate the country's economy.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37352312
Dead End Kids
The children in Scotland's poorest schools may be trying to tell us something
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy78a.html
No substantive talks for 12 months
Speaking to the BBC, Herman Van Rompuy said negotiations were unlikely until a new German government was formed after next September's election.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37369917
UK approves nuclear plant deal
The government has approved a new £18bn nuclear power station in the UK after imposing significant new safeguards to protect national security.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37369786
Electric Canadian
The Canadian Maple Leaf Song Book
You can download this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...afsongbook.pdf
Special Report on the: Robinson Treaties and Treaty #4
Added this to our page about The Treaties of Canada with The Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories By Alexander Morris.
You can read these at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ties/index.htm
Electric Scotland
High Life Highland
Added some information and a video about this Scottish charity to the foot of our Highlands page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/highlands/
James Scott
Added this Mason-Astronomer and his amazing clocks to our Significant Scots section at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cott_james.htm
Alexander Smyth
A Veteran Border Journalist whom you can read about at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._alexander.htm
Clan of the Armstrongs
Taken from the Border History magazine and added to our Armstrong page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc.../armstron.html
Hill-Side and Border Sketches
With Legends of the Cheviots and the Lammermuir by W. H. Maxwell (1847). Added this to our Scottish Borders History page at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
Border Essays
By John Veitch (1896) (pdf). Added this book to our Borders page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
The Border History of England and Scotland
Deduced from the earliest times to the Union of the two Crowns by George Ridpath (1776) which I've added to our Borders History page at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
Political Economy
By Thomas Chalmers
I added a review of this book and added a link to it which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...caleconomy.htm
Cockpen and Carrington church
I got in some pictures of this church which you can see on our Gazetteer page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ol1page274.htm
Adam James
A borderer who became Mayor of Buffalo whom you can read about at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...adam_james.htm
John Ainslie
Geographer who we added to our Significant Scots section at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nslie_john.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
Burns in the heat of the South: rare books and modern technology By Craig Lamont
Craig Lamont is from Glasgow. He earned his MA and Master of Research degrees at the University of Strathclyde, moving to the University of Glasgow to work with Prof. Murray Pittock on his PhD, completed in November 2015. His PhD thesis, titled “Georgian Glasgow: the city remembered through literature, objects, and cultural memory theory,” was part of an AHRC-funded collaborative project between the University and Glasgow Life, which included a major exhibition How Glasgow Flourished: 1714-1837 at the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum. In the fall of 2016, Craig will be teaching in the department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.
This is a different type article for Robert Burns Lives!, one like I’ve never seen before and one which will open up new work by Lamont and others and hopefully some of our own readers. You will see how they go about their research by comparing one, two or three copies of previous original works. I have found the efforts in this brief article to be of great interest and will add another dimension to the study of Burns for us all. It is a treat to welcome Craig Lamont to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! and I look forward to his return in the future.
My thanks to Patrick Scott for the introduction paragraph above on Craig and for providing me with his article below. (FRS: 9.14.16)
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives243.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in the October 2016 section 2.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft/
Clan Leslie Society International
Got in their September 2016 newsletter which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...eint/index.htm
The Story
Recognise EU single market for what it is
There is a lot of nonsense talked about who the EU’s trading tariffs actually benefit, says Brian Monteith
There are few things worse for businesses than uncertainty. High taxes can be ameliorated and planned for, investments rerouted to less burdensome jurisdictions, and regulations accommodated and allowed for.
A Plan B can be ready and waiting for any standard deviation from the business norm – but not knowing what the norm will be due to the possibility of political upheaval is never good for an economy.
When our First Minister looks at how the Scottish economic indicators consistently look worse than those of the UK she must, if she is honest with herself, recognise that the constitutional uncertainty she is spreading can only be making an already difficult job harder for our businesses up and down the country.
It need not be like that. When David Cameron, George Osborne and Mark Carney warned of recessions, mass unemployment and huge economic dislocation if the public dared to vote to leave the European Union they set up a market reaction that was self-fulfilling.
Fortunately the quick exit of Cameron and Osborne and the steady hand of Theresa May saying that she will craft an orderly Brexit has calmed the nerves of markets and investors.
The worst outcome could have been the prospect of a second EU referendum and all the divisiveness that would mean without any certainty of a settled outcome. Instead, businesses can now see that Brexit offers new opportunities and are continuing to invest in the future; the fall in the pound has brought its own upsides and the equity markets have bounced back, while retail and manufacturing indicators have reported positive trends.
Although there remain many unknowns about leaving the EU our insurance policy of simply reverting to do business under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules helps to alleviate the uncertainty.
It is against this background that our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon shows a determination to sow uncertainty wherever she goes and whenever she speaks. Since the British public’s rejection of the EU she has been blowing hot and cold on the possibility of her demanding a second independence referendum to the extent she is piling uncertainty about Brexit, upon uncertainty about Scottish independence, upon uncertainty about her political risk taking.
Having said the Brexit vote must mean a second independence referendum is “highly likely” she has discovered on current polling she would not win and has since back-tracked to only allow for a draft Bill to set up the legislative process, without saying she will definitely call one. Now she is saying that if Scotland is taken outside the EU’s “single market” the referendum is more likely.
There is a great deal of nonsense talked about the so-called single market, mostly by politicians who have never made anything, never sold anything and never achieved anything in business. For instance there is no single market in financial services despite some 30 years of attempts to procure one.
In manufacturing, while there are no internal tariffs there are many other obstacles to trading provided by agencies of the 28 member governments that have ensured the EU has been the slowest growing economic region in the world for a generation.
Free trade should mean just that, free from tariffs – but the single market is the antithesis to world free trade. For the developing world the single market is little more than a post-colonial extortion racket. It is an exporter of poverty by making it difficult if not impossible for poorer nations to sell into it anything other than raw materials.
The single market does this by placing low tariffs on commodities and high tariffs on processed goods. Just ask yourself why diamonds and chocolate continue to be processed in Belgium and not from their poorer countries of origin.
Few progressive politicians that defend the single market realise that Germany – without growing a single bean – makes more profits from processing coffee than the whole of Africa does from exporting it. Likewise the rigging of the single market in sugar to the benefit of European farmers growing subsidised sugar beet comes at the expense of peasant farmers growing sugar cane. The degree to which ignorance surrounds the single market is demonstrated by the use of language by our politicians when they intentionally confuse “access” to the single market with being “inside” it.
Countries such as the US, Japan and China have “access” to the single market – all countries do – subject to the tariff wall, whereas those countries “inside” the single market must accept loss of sovereignty to the EU institutions, its courts and its undemocratic decision making. Bizarrely, governments pay for the privilege of being “inside” a sum greater than if their businesses paid the tariffs. Being inside means countries cannot make their own trading arrangements with, say, Australia, India or New Zealand which is why those three in particular are queuing up to strike deals with the UK post Brexit. As Professor Michael Keating pointed out last week in evidence to Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee, if the UK leaves the EU’s single market then for Scotland to become independent would require a hard border with England, putting at risk our UK trade worth four times as much as we have with the EU. With growing evidence that the future of Scottish and UK business is from growing trade with the rest of the world outside the EU’s single market a “Robust Brexit” relying on WTO rules and its predictable tariffs can give businesses more certainty than the games politicians play.
And I highly recommend you read Dyson: EU exit will 'liberate' UK economy
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Our Community
I note that while there are at least 200 or so folk that read this newsletter in our community there are very few that post messages. As we're now nearing the time for our move to SFU I thought it was time to review whether we should keep the community going.
I know some of you also come in to play our arcade games but that in itself doesn't really provide anything to other members.
So.. I am considering archiving the messages and then closing the community and I would appreciate your thoughts on this.
When I create the archive I can add several pages to the ES site to hold them but as we have a good comments system on there I figured that would also be a place for those that want to keep in touch to use that system.
Mind that if you have a Google, Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo account you can use these to login to the comments system and if you don't have these it's very easy to create a Disqus account.
Anyway... please let me know what you think.
Guelph
I am going to try and get to the conference at the University of Guelph this Saturday so if are going I might be able to see you there.
Focused on the Scottish Borders this week and worked further with the Borders History Magazine so see below for what I found.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
Orkney and Shetland are best places to raise children
Orkney and Shetland have been named the best two places to raise children in Britain for the second year running, according to an annual survey.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...tland-37317246
Britain too lazy and fat
Britain is too lazy and too fat with businessmen preferring golf on a Friday afternoon to trying to boost the country's prosperity, Liam Fox has said.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37324491
SNP’s Programme for Government fails to show ambition
THIS WEEK the First Minister set out her Programme for Government, in effect setting the legislative and policy agenda for the next Parliamentary year.
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkpo...nkscotland.org
Scotland leads UK on climate change
Greenhouse gas emissions fell further in Scotland than the rest of the UK in 2014, according to the latest report from the Committee on Climate Change.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-37340555
Potential of bracken biofuel examined
A feasibility study is examining the potential of harvesting bracken and using it to make a bioethonol fuel.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...ntral-37342978
Even nearer to the crunch point for pensions
Of growing concern in recent weeks has been the further upward twist in pension fund deficits.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/pe...ions-1-4227417
Scotland's budget could face £1.6bn cut
Some public services in Scotland could be facing budget cuts of almost a fifth over the next four years, according to a study by economic forecasters.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...iness-37347990
Fraser of Allander Institute - Scotland’s Budget 2016
Read the report at: http://www.electricscotland.com/inde...udget-2016.pdf
Religious observance rules at Scottish schools to face judicial review
Secularist campaigners accuse Scottish ministers of acting unlawfully by refusing to grant pupils aged 16 and over an opt-out
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...udicial-review
Dyson - leaving EU will liberate UK economy
One of the UK's most successful business leaders has said that leaving the European Union will liberate the country's economy.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37352312
Dead End Kids
The children in Scotland's poorest schools may be trying to tell us something
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy78a.html
No substantive talks for 12 months
Speaking to the BBC, Herman Van Rompuy said negotiations were unlikely until a new German government was formed after next September's election.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37369917
UK approves nuclear plant deal
The government has approved a new £18bn nuclear power station in the UK after imposing significant new safeguards to protect national security.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37369786
Electric Canadian
The Canadian Maple Leaf Song Book
You can download this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...afsongbook.pdf
Special Report on the: Robinson Treaties and Treaty #4
Added this to our page about The Treaties of Canada with The Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories By Alexander Morris.
You can read these at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ties/index.htm
Electric Scotland
High Life Highland
Added some information and a video about this Scottish charity to the foot of our Highlands page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/highlands/
James Scott
Added this Mason-Astronomer and his amazing clocks to our Significant Scots section at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cott_james.htm
Alexander Smyth
A Veteran Border Journalist whom you can read about at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._alexander.htm
Clan of the Armstrongs
Taken from the Border History magazine and added to our Armstrong page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc.../armstron.html
Hill-Side and Border Sketches
With Legends of the Cheviots and the Lammermuir by W. H. Maxwell (1847). Added this to our Scottish Borders History page at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
Border Essays
By John Veitch (1896) (pdf). Added this book to our Borders page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
The Border History of England and Scotland
Deduced from the earliest times to the Union of the two Crowns by George Ridpath (1776) which I've added to our Borders History page at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/borders/
Political Economy
By Thomas Chalmers
I added a review of this book and added a link to it which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...caleconomy.htm
Cockpen and Carrington church
I got in some pictures of this church which you can see on our Gazetteer page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ol1page274.htm
Adam James
A borderer who became Mayor of Buffalo whom you can read about at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...adam_james.htm
John Ainslie
Geographer who we added to our Significant Scots section at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nslie_john.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
Burns in the heat of the South: rare books and modern technology By Craig Lamont
Craig Lamont is from Glasgow. He earned his MA and Master of Research degrees at the University of Strathclyde, moving to the University of Glasgow to work with Prof. Murray Pittock on his PhD, completed in November 2015. His PhD thesis, titled “Georgian Glasgow: the city remembered through literature, objects, and cultural memory theory,” was part of an AHRC-funded collaborative project between the University and Glasgow Life, which included a major exhibition How Glasgow Flourished: 1714-1837 at the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum. In the fall of 2016, Craig will be teaching in the department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.
This is a different type article for Robert Burns Lives!, one like I’ve never seen before and one which will open up new work by Lamont and others and hopefully some of our own readers. You will see how they go about their research by comparing one, two or three copies of previous original works. I have found the efforts in this brief article to be of great interest and will add another dimension to the study of Burns for us all. It is a treat to welcome Craig Lamont to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! and I look forward to his return in the future.
My thanks to Patrick Scott for the introduction paragraph above on Craig and for providing me with his article below. (FRS: 9.14.16)
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives243.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in the October 2016 section 2.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft/
Clan Leslie Society International
Got in their September 2016 newsletter which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...eint/index.htm
The Story
Recognise EU single market for what it is
There is a lot of nonsense talked about who the EU’s trading tariffs actually benefit, says Brian Monteith
There are few things worse for businesses than uncertainty. High taxes can be ameliorated and planned for, investments rerouted to less burdensome jurisdictions, and regulations accommodated and allowed for.
A Plan B can be ready and waiting for any standard deviation from the business norm – but not knowing what the norm will be due to the possibility of political upheaval is never good for an economy.
When our First Minister looks at how the Scottish economic indicators consistently look worse than those of the UK she must, if she is honest with herself, recognise that the constitutional uncertainty she is spreading can only be making an already difficult job harder for our businesses up and down the country.
It need not be like that. When David Cameron, George Osborne and Mark Carney warned of recessions, mass unemployment and huge economic dislocation if the public dared to vote to leave the European Union they set up a market reaction that was self-fulfilling.
Fortunately the quick exit of Cameron and Osborne and the steady hand of Theresa May saying that she will craft an orderly Brexit has calmed the nerves of markets and investors.
The worst outcome could have been the prospect of a second EU referendum and all the divisiveness that would mean without any certainty of a settled outcome. Instead, businesses can now see that Brexit offers new opportunities and are continuing to invest in the future; the fall in the pound has brought its own upsides and the equity markets have bounced back, while retail and manufacturing indicators have reported positive trends.
Although there remain many unknowns about leaving the EU our insurance policy of simply reverting to do business under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules helps to alleviate the uncertainty.
It is against this background that our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon shows a determination to sow uncertainty wherever she goes and whenever she speaks. Since the British public’s rejection of the EU she has been blowing hot and cold on the possibility of her demanding a second independence referendum to the extent she is piling uncertainty about Brexit, upon uncertainty about Scottish independence, upon uncertainty about her political risk taking.
Having said the Brexit vote must mean a second independence referendum is “highly likely” she has discovered on current polling she would not win and has since back-tracked to only allow for a draft Bill to set up the legislative process, without saying she will definitely call one. Now she is saying that if Scotland is taken outside the EU’s “single market” the referendum is more likely.
There is a great deal of nonsense talked about the so-called single market, mostly by politicians who have never made anything, never sold anything and never achieved anything in business. For instance there is no single market in financial services despite some 30 years of attempts to procure one.
In manufacturing, while there are no internal tariffs there are many other obstacles to trading provided by agencies of the 28 member governments that have ensured the EU has been the slowest growing economic region in the world for a generation.
Free trade should mean just that, free from tariffs – but the single market is the antithesis to world free trade. For the developing world the single market is little more than a post-colonial extortion racket. It is an exporter of poverty by making it difficult if not impossible for poorer nations to sell into it anything other than raw materials.
The single market does this by placing low tariffs on commodities and high tariffs on processed goods. Just ask yourself why diamonds and chocolate continue to be processed in Belgium and not from their poorer countries of origin.
Few progressive politicians that defend the single market realise that Germany – without growing a single bean – makes more profits from processing coffee than the whole of Africa does from exporting it. Likewise the rigging of the single market in sugar to the benefit of European farmers growing subsidised sugar beet comes at the expense of peasant farmers growing sugar cane. The degree to which ignorance surrounds the single market is demonstrated by the use of language by our politicians when they intentionally confuse “access” to the single market with being “inside” it.
Countries such as the US, Japan and China have “access” to the single market – all countries do – subject to the tariff wall, whereas those countries “inside” the single market must accept loss of sovereignty to the EU institutions, its courts and its undemocratic decision making. Bizarrely, governments pay for the privilege of being “inside” a sum greater than if their businesses paid the tariffs. Being inside means countries cannot make their own trading arrangements with, say, Australia, India or New Zealand which is why those three in particular are queuing up to strike deals with the UK post Brexit. As Professor Michael Keating pointed out last week in evidence to Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee, if the UK leaves the EU’s single market then for Scotland to become independent would require a hard border with England, putting at risk our UK trade worth four times as much as we have with the EU. With growing evidence that the future of Scottish and UK business is from growing trade with the rest of the world outside the EU’s single market a “Robust Brexit” relying on WTO rules and its predictable tariffs can give businesses more certainty than the games politicians play.
And I highly recommend you read Dyson: EU exit will 'liberate' UK economy
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
Comment