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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Well the word is that as the UK Parliament has passed the legislation to go ahead with Article 50 on Brexit it is now much more likely that IndyRef 2 will happen.
I am well aware that a lot of Scots want Independence but there are also a lot that don't. On a decision like this I'd like to see that for Scotland to go Independent then 50+% of Scots must vote for Independence.
However it is still my view that this is not the time for Scotland to pursue Independence but what I think doesn't really matter.
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.
Scottish Enrolled Nurses could solve the numbers crisis
by Jonathan Stanley
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkli...ead_full=13015
Fishermen fear a catch during negotiations over Brexit
The traditional industry has been in a steady decline for years, but after hopes coming out of the European Union would provide a more level playing field, many suspect we may sign up to yet more restrictions on what can be caught
Read more at:
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/fishe...exit_1_4875831
Majority of UK back Donald Trump visit
Almost half of Britons believe Donald Trump’s controversial state visit to the UK should go ahead, while just over a third think it should be cancelled
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politic...isit-1-4355786
Should Scotland have its own stock exchange again?
With plans afoot to launch the first exchange north of the Border in more than 40 years, Emma Newlands looks at both the history of the sector and its prospects.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/mar...gain-1-4358889
Scotland needs publicly funded bank, says thinktank
Report follows concerns about rising public debt from private financing of new roads, schools and hospitals in Scotland
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...weal-thinktank
Britain to outpace G7 for next three decades
Britain will grow faster than any other big developed economy including the US, Germany and Japan between now and 2050, according to PwC
Read more at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...three-decades/
People's News
News for 1st February 2017
Read more at:
http://www.people.ie/news/PN-161.pdf
Student-led think tank launches new report on Basic Income
The Buchanan Institute, Scotland’s only student-led think tank, has prepared a report that makes a case for universal basic income in the UK.
Read more at:
http://basicincome.org/news/2017/01/...-basic-income/
The Commonwealth offers a clear route to building a global Britain
By Ted Yarbrough
Read more at:
http://www.conservativehome.com/plat...l-britain.html
Holding indyref2 is a big risk for SNP
There comes a point when credibility is in question, and voters could react with contempt, says Bill Jamieson
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...-snp-1-4361735
SNP education policy: all talk and no action?
by Elizabeth Smith
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkli...ad_full=13018&
5 examples of world-class innovation happening in Scotland right now
Fintech, LiFi and AI are the new buzzwords of business innovation, and Scottish entrepreneurs are speaking that language.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/com...-now-1-4361335
Bon Accord juice set to make a comeback
Its orange trucks and weekly deliveries of brightly coloured fizzy juice were part of many a Scottish childhood.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/bon-acc...back-1-4361551
Orkney’s Skara Brae shortlisted as UK’s best heritage site
They are older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Egypt and yet they feel as if they were vacated only yesterday
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/orkney-...site-1-4361031
Electric Canadian
Chronicles of Canada
Added Volume 17: The Red Man in Canada: Tecumseh.
I might add that I've found text copies of these volumes so have added a link to them on the page. I also found a page where you can get audio copies so have placed a link to these as well.
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...cles/index.htm
D. C. Beard
Author of many books on bush craft for the Boy Scouts of America. I thought I'd bring you a few of them as having found them I enjoyed them and so hope you do as well.
Added another 2 books, "The Boy Pioneers: Sons of Daniel Boone" and "What to do and How to do it" which you can read
at :http://www.electriccanadian.com/pioneering/beard/
Electric Scotland
Around the ancient city of Forfar in Six circu1ar tours historical and descriptive
By David Merschel Edwards (1846)
With notes on the ancient superstitions, folk lore, eminent men and curious characteristics in various districts of Forfar and Kincardinshire.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ientforfar.pdf
David Stow
Founder of the Training System of Education in Scotland.
Although born in Paisley (where a plaque still marks his birthplace) at the age of 18 David Stow moved to Glasgow to work as a clerk in his brother-in-law’s firm. He joined the Tron Church, where his minister, Thomas Chalmers, instilled in him a passion for social responsibility. When Chalmers moved to the newly-created St John’s Parish to initiate the renowned social and economic experiment for the alleviation of poverty among the urban poor, Stow became an enthusiastic activist. At Chalmers’ request, he established a Sabbath School class in the Gallowgate and there, amongst the rags and squalor, he honed the teaching skills, philosophy, and attitudes to children which were to make him one of the most influential educators of his generation.
Stow soon realised that a few hours of schooling on a Sunday were insufficient to halt the appalling ignorance and poverty which were the hallmarks of the early years of the industrial revolution. He formed the Glasgow Infant School Society which, in 1828, opened a day-school in the Drygate with a radical ‘fun’ approach to learning.
Soon Stow was the driving force behind the Glasgow Education Society and when the need for trained teachers became urgent, Stow undertook to be not only the secretary, but the fundraiser, site-selector, building supervisor, liaison-officer and staff appointee – in effect organising whatever was necessary. On October 31st 1837 the first teacher-training college of its kind in Great Britain was ceremoniously opened in the New City Road. It was called ‘The Normal College’ after the French word ‘norma’ meaning a rule or system. Teachers trained in Stow’s ‘system’ were sent out to schools throughout the United Kingdom and the Colonies taking his approach across the world. Eventually, the Glasgow Normal College, and its sister, The Free Church Training College, merged to become Jordanhill College of Education – now the School of Education in Strathclyde University.
Although remaining a city merchant/manufacturer all his life, with a large cotton factory at Port Eglington, Stow devoted all his spare time to the philosophy and practice of teaching and teacher-education. The eleven editions of ‘The Training System’ illustrate a growing confidence in his educational ideas, developed from his own experience and in conjunction with David Caughie, one of Scotland’s greatest teachers. Their curriculum, methods, resources, and the value given to children are astonishingly ahead of their time. In particular, Stow is remembered for his use of peer pressure in secular and particularly moral teaching; and in his insistence that concept development should be rooted in the children’s experience and allied to a precise use of descriptive language. His contribution to the city of Glasgow and, indeed throughout Scotland, has been shamefully neglected in recent times and it has been left to others far afield to honour his contribution to education.
You can read about him and his system at http://www.electricscotland.com/educ...stow_david.htm
Seed Time and Harvest of Ragged Schools
By Thomas Guthrie, D. D. (1860) (pdf)
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/educ...gedschools.pdf
The Ragged School Union Magazine
Volume 1 (1849) (pdf)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/educ...choolsmag1.pdf
The Fifes in South Africa
Being a History of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in the South African War, 1900 - 1901 by 9176 I.Y.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...outhafrica.pdf
A question of culture? Evangelicalism and the failure of socialist revivalism in Airdrie
c. 1890- 1914. by Michael A. McCabe, M.A., M.Th., Ph.D., B.D.
You can read this account at: http://www.electricscotland.com/coun...rieculture.pdf
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw. Thomas F. McNally, Dean of Libraries, University of South Carolina on the musical collection of Jean Redpath
University of South Carolina’s Dean of Libraries, Thomas McNally, has become a favorite speaker at the Burns Club of Atlanta. He electrified the crowd attending this week’s monthly meeting with his remarks and led a discussion that lasted nearly 45 minutes. Most interestingly, he did not let a cold or virus keep him puny during the speech or the group discussion.
We will concern ourselves with the part of his speech that touched on the late Jean Redpath, the very talented singer of Scottish songs and particularly songs by Robert Burns. Susan and I met Jean through Professor Ross Roy, a mutual friend and a giant among friends of Burns. Before their deaths, Ross and Jean had been friends for many years, and I imagine he had a lot to do with the donation of her music library to the University of South Carolina. We were delighted to attend Jean’s concert at the university and enjoyed an evening of songs and chat and found the crowd leaving with smiles on their faces as thoughts of her songs and stories lingered in their minds.
Tom McNally is a talented speaker and one of his admirers said the good Dean of Libraries “knew how to make those attending a speech of his feel included which every speaker of Burns cannot do”. Tom will be invited back to the Burns Club of Atlanta because as another in attendance said, “He knows how to deliver”!
(FRS: 2.10.17)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives251.htm
The Forfar Directory and Year Book 1897
A most interesting publication with lots of wee stories and articles.
I might add I spent at least half a day reading through this book and following up on some of the articles and books mentioned in it. I have also found more copies and so I will be bringing you other issues over the next number of weeks.
In this issue I particularly enjoyed "Listen to the Little People" on page 93. For example...
A wealthy lady and her little daughter were listening to the morning music on the piazza, when the lady's-maid handed her a letter which she tore open and proceeded to read. The little daughter looked at her and exclaimed, "I'm sorry; I hoped that was from pa. Why doesn't he write?" "How do you know it isn't from pa?" the mother inquired. "Because you're reading a lot of it," the little girl replied. "If it was from pa it would just say, 'Dear ma, am sorry you aren't feeling well. Enclosed please find cheque. Your loving husband, Sam.'"
And another wee one from another page...
The Thoughtful Dog-Stealer.
A FRIEND of Landseer's asked him to paint his dog for him; but on the day fixed the animal was found to have been stolen. The artist promised to recover it, if possible, and went to a well-known dog-stealer, telling him to let him have it—no questions asked. The man said he could not possibly find it under a fortnight, and at the end of that time appeared with it "You see," he said, "I did steal the dawg; but I sold it to such a trump ov a hold lady for such han howdacious price, I thought I must let 'er 'ave the benefit of it for a fortnight!"
You can download this issue at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...forfar1897.pdf
The Story
I found this story printed in 1897 and thought you might find it fun to read...
For All Who Wish to Marry
SELECT the girl. Agree with the girl's father in politics and with her mother in religion. If you have a rival, keep an eye on him; if he is a widower, keep two eyes on him.
Do not assure the girl that you have no bad habits. It will be enough for you to say that you never heard yourself snore in your sleep. Do not put too much sweet stuff on paper. If you do, you will hear it read in after years, when your wife has some especial purpose in inflicting upon you the severest punishment known to a married man.
Go home at a reasonable hour in the evening. Do not wait till the girl has to throw her whole soul into a yawn that she cannot cover with both hands. A little thing like that may cause a coolness at the very beginning of the game.
If you sit down on some molasses-candy that little Willie has left on the chair while wearing your new summer trousers for the first time, smile sweetly, and remark that you do not mind sitting on molasses-candy at all, and that "boys will be boys." Reserve your true feelings for future reference.
If, on the occasion of your first call, the girl upon whom you have placed your affections looks like an iceberg, and acts like a quiet cold wave, take your leave early, and stay away.
Do not be too soft. Do not say, "These little hands shall never do a stroke of work while they are mine," and "You shall have nothing to do in our home but to sit all day long and chirp to the canaries" as if any sensible woman could be happy fooling away valuable time in that sort of style!
And a girl has a fine retentive memory for the soft things and silly promises of courtship, and occasionally, in after years, when she is washing the dinner-dishes or patching the worst end of your trousers, she will remind you of them in a cold sarcastic tone of voice.
And that's it for this week and I hope the above story sets the mood for the forthcoming Valantine's Day! <grin>
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Well the word is that as the UK Parliament has passed the legislation to go ahead with Article 50 on Brexit it is now much more likely that IndyRef 2 will happen.
I am well aware that a lot of Scots want Independence but there are also a lot that don't. On a decision like this I'd like to see that for Scotland to go Independent then 50+% of Scots must vote for Independence.
However it is still my view that this is not the time for Scotland to pursue Independence but what I think doesn't really matter.
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.
Scottish Enrolled Nurses could solve the numbers crisis
by Jonathan Stanley
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkli...ead_full=13015
Fishermen fear a catch during negotiations over Brexit
The traditional industry has been in a steady decline for years, but after hopes coming out of the European Union would provide a more level playing field, many suspect we may sign up to yet more restrictions on what can be caught
Read more at:
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/fishe...exit_1_4875831
Majority of UK back Donald Trump visit
Almost half of Britons believe Donald Trump’s controversial state visit to the UK should go ahead, while just over a third think it should be cancelled
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politic...isit-1-4355786
Should Scotland have its own stock exchange again?
With plans afoot to launch the first exchange north of the Border in more than 40 years, Emma Newlands looks at both the history of the sector and its prospects.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/mar...gain-1-4358889
Scotland needs publicly funded bank, says thinktank
Report follows concerns about rising public debt from private financing of new roads, schools and hospitals in Scotland
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...weal-thinktank
Britain to outpace G7 for next three decades
Britain will grow faster than any other big developed economy including the US, Germany and Japan between now and 2050, according to PwC
Read more at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...three-decades/
People's News
News for 1st February 2017
Read more at:
http://www.people.ie/news/PN-161.pdf
Student-led think tank launches new report on Basic Income
The Buchanan Institute, Scotland’s only student-led think tank, has prepared a report that makes a case for universal basic income in the UK.
Read more at:
http://basicincome.org/news/2017/01/...-basic-income/
The Commonwealth offers a clear route to building a global Britain
By Ted Yarbrough
Read more at:
http://www.conservativehome.com/plat...l-britain.html
Holding indyref2 is a big risk for SNP
There comes a point when credibility is in question, and voters could react with contempt, says Bill Jamieson
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...-snp-1-4361735
SNP education policy: all talk and no action?
by Elizabeth Smith
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkli...ad_full=13018&
5 examples of world-class innovation happening in Scotland right now
Fintech, LiFi and AI are the new buzzwords of business innovation, and Scottish entrepreneurs are speaking that language.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/com...-now-1-4361335
Bon Accord juice set to make a comeback
Its orange trucks and weekly deliveries of brightly coloured fizzy juice were part of many a Scottish childhood.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/bon-acc...back-1-4361551
Orkney’s Skara Brae shortlisted as UK’s best heritage site
They are older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Egypt and yet they feel as if they were vacated only yesterday
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/orkney-...site-1-4361031
Electric Canadian
Chronicles of Canada
Added Volume 17: The Red Man in Canada: Tecumseh.
I might add that I've found text copies of these volumes so have added a link to them on the page. I also found a page where you can get audio copies so have placed a link to these as well.
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...cles/index.htm
D. C. Beard
Author of many books on bush craft for the Boy Scouts of America. I thought I'd bring you a few of them as having found them I enjoyed them and so hope you do as well.
Added another 2 books, "The Boy Pioneers: Sons of Daniel Boone" and "What to do and How to do it" which you can read
at :http://www.electriccanadian.com/pioneering/beard/
Electric Scotland
Around the ancient city of Forfar in Six circu1ar tours historical and descriptive
By David Merschel Edwards (1846)
With notes on the ancient superstitions, folk lore, eminent men and curious characteristics in various districts of Forfar and Kincardinshire.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ientforfar.pdf
David Stow
Founder of the Training System of Education in Scotland.
Although born in Paisley (where a plaque still marks his birthplace) at the age of 18 David Stow moved to Glasgow to work as a clerk in his brother-in-law’s firm. He joined the Tron Church, where his minister, Thomas Chalmers, instilled in him a passion for social responsibility. When Chalmers moved to the newly-created St John’s Parish to initiate the renowned social and economic experiment for the alleviation of poverty among the urban poor, Stow became an enthusiastic activist. At Chalmers’ request, he established a Sabbath School class in the Gallowgate and there, amongst the rags and squalor, he honed the teaching skills, philosophy, and attitudes to children which were to make him one of the most influential educators of his generation.
Stow soon realised that a few hours of schooling on a Sunday were insufficient to halt the appalling ignorance and poverty which were the hallmarks of the early years of the industrial revolution. He formed the Glasgow Infant School Society which, in 1828, opened a day-school in the Drygate with a radical ‘fun’ approach to learning.
Soon Stow was the driving force behind the Glasgow Education Society and when the need for trained teachers became urgent, Stow undertook to be not only the secretary, but the fundraiser, site-selector, building supervisor, liaison-officer and staff appointee – in effect organising whatever was necessary. On October 31st 1837 the first teacher-training college of its kind in Great Britain was ceremoniously opened in the New City Road. It was called ‘The Normal College’ after the French word ‘norma’ meaning a rule or system. Teachers trained in Stow’s ‘system’ were sent out to schools throughout the United Kingdom and the Colonies taking his approach across the world. Eventually, the Glasgow Normal College, and its sister, The Free Church Training College, merged to become Jordanhill College of Education – now the School of Education in Strathclyde University.
Although remaining a city merchant/manufacturer all his life, with a large cotton factory at Port Eglington, Stow devoted all his spare time to the philosophy and practice of teaching and teacher-education. The eleven editions of ‘The Training System’ illustrate a growing confidence in his educational ideas, developed from his own experience and in conjunction with David Caughie, one of Scotland’s greatest teachers. Their curriculum, methods, resources, and the value given to children are astonishingly ahead of their time. In particular, Stow is remembered for his use of peer pressure in secular and particularly moral teaching; and in his insistence that concept development should be rooted in the children’s experience and allied to a precise use of descriptive language. His contribution to the city of Glasgow and, indeed throughout Scotland, has been shamefully neglected in recent times and it has been left to others far afield to honour his contribution to education.
You can read about him and his system at http://www.electricscotland.com/educ...stow_david.htm
Seed Time and Harvest of Ragged Schools
By Thomas Guthrie, D. D. (1860) (pdf)
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/educ...gedschools.pdf
The Ragged School Union Magazine
Volume 1 (1849) (pdf)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/educ...choolsmag1.pdf
The Fifes in South Africa
Being a History of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in the South African War, 1900 - 1901 by 9176 I.Y.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...outhafrica.pdf
A question of culture? Evangelicalism and the failure of socialist revivalism in Airdrie
c. 1890- 1914. by Michael A. McCabe, M.A., M.Th., Ph.D., B.D.
You can read this account at: http://www.electricscotland.com/coun...rieculture.pdf
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw. Thomas F. McNally, Dean of Libraries, University of South Carolina on the musical collection of Jean Redpath
University of South Carolina’s Dean of Libraries, Thomas McNally, has become a favorite speaker at the Burns Club of Atlanta. He electrified the crowd attending this week’s monthly meeting with his remarks and led a discussion that lasted nearly 45 minutes. Most interestingly, he did not let a cold or virus keep him puny during the speech or the group discussion.
We will concern ourselves with the part of his speech that touched on the late Jean Redpath, the very talented singer of Scottish songs and particularly songs by Robert Burns. Susan and I met Jean through Professor Ross Roy, a mutual friend and a giant among friends of Burns. Before their deaths, Ross and Jean had been friends for many years, and I imagine he had a lot to do with the donation of her music library to the University of South Carolina. We were delighted to attend Jean’s concert at the university and enjoyed an evening of songs and chat and found the crowd leaving with smiles on their faces as thoughts of her songs and stories lingered in their minds.
Tom McNally is a talented speaker and one of his admirers said the good Dean of Libraries “knew how to make those attending a speech of his feel included which every speaker of Burns cannot do”. Tom will be invited back to the Burns Club of Atlanta because as another in attendance said, “He knows how to deliver”!
(FRS: 2.10.17)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives251.htm
The Forfar Directory and Year Book 1897
A most interesting publication with lots of wee stories and articles.
I might add I spent at least half a day reading through this book and following up on some of the articles and books mentioned in it. I have also found more copies and so I will be bringing you other issues over the next number of weeks.
In this issue I particularly enjoyed "Listen to the Little People" on page 93. For example...
A wealthy lady and her little daughter were listening to the morning music on the piazza, when the lady's-maid handed her a letter which she tore open and proceeded to read. The little daughter looked at her and exclaimed, "I'm sorry; I hoped that was from pa. Why doesn't he write?" "How do you know it isn't from pa?" the mother inquired. "Because you're reading a lot of it," the little girl replied. "If it was from pa it would just say, 'Dear ma, am sorry you aren't feeling well. Enclosed please find cheque. Your loving husband, Sam.'"
And another wee one from another page...
The Thoughtful Dog-Stealer.
A FRIEND of Landseer's asked him to paint his dog for him; but on the day fixed the animal was found to have been stolen. The artist promised to recover it, if possible, and went to a well-known dog-stealer, telling him to let him have it—no questions asked. The man said he could not possibly find it under a fortnight, and at the end of that time appeared with it "You see," he said, "I did steal the dawg; but I sold it to such a trump ov a hold lady for such han howdacious price, I thought I must let 'er 'ave the benefit of it for a fortnight!"
You can download this issue at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...forfar1897.pdf
The Story
I found this story printed in 1897 and thought you might find it fun to read...
For All Who Wish to Marry
SELECT the girl. Agree with the girl's father in politics and with her mother in religion. If you have a rival, keep an eye on him; if he is a widower, keep two eyes on him.
Do not assure the girl that you have no bad habits. It will be enough for you to say that you never heard yourself snore in your sleep. Do not put too much sweet stuff on paper. If you do, you will hear it read in after years, when your wife has some especial purpose in inflicting upon you the severest punishment known to a married man.
Go home at a reasonable hour in the evening. Do not wait till the girl has to throw her whole soul into a yawn that she cannot cover with both hands. A little thing like that may cause a coolness at the very beginning of the game.
If you sit down on some molasses-candy that little Willie has left on the chair while wearing your new summer trousers for the first time, smile sweetly, and remark that you do not mind sitting on molasses-candy at all, and that "boys will be boys." Reserve your true feelings for future reference.
If, on the occasion of your first call, the girl upon whom you have placed your affections looks like an iceberg, and acts like a quiet cold wave, take your leave early, and stay away.
Do not be too soft. Do not say, "These little hands shall never do a stroke of work while they are mine," and "You shall have nothing to do in our home but to sit all day long and chirp to the canaries" as if any sensible woman could be happy fooling away valuable time in that sort of style!
And a girl has a fine retentive memory for the soft things and silly promises of courtship, and occasionally, in after years, when she is washing the dinner-dishes or patching the worst end of your trousers, she will remind you of them in a cold sarcastic tone of voice.
And that's it for this week and I hope the above story sets the mood for the forthcoming Valantine's Day! <grin>
Alastair