Trump's Hole?

Rubislaw Quarry in Aberdeen, Europe’s largest man-made hole, is on the market for £30,000. Perhaps the Donald will buy it and turn it into 'the world's greatest water feature'

BT Scotland, Not So Green As They Could Be

The Scotsman is running a top 50 Scottish Green Giants list and today the top ten will be announced in Edinburgh. On the list already announced at No.13 is Brendan Dick, The director of BT in Scotland has led the company's climate-change programme, and has been an ambassador for Prince Charles on corporate responsibility for the past year. The Prince said Mr Dick was a "natural leader" who inspires others.

Well 'tis a pity that BT Scotland seem unable to provide the level of broadband services in many remote parts of Scotland that are necessary. Here in the Lammermuirs the exchanges are so old that some people are still unable to get broadband and those of us who are get a half meg line. Broadband for all, at decent speeds, would allow many small businesses to relocate to the rural parts of Britain and reduce commuting by allowing more people to work at home. Our local Community Council has even offered them money to upgrade the Longformacus exchange, but no joy. Sometimes it's better to look at what's happening in your own back yard that worrying about corporate climate change programmes.

Why Bother with Gaelic Roadsigns?

According to the Scotsman this morning a delegation from Bord na Gaidhlig, the national Gaelic agency, will today try to find a way forward with senior councillors from Caithness who oppose the introduction of bilingual road signs in the area. The councillors have consistently argued against Gaelic-English signs, despite their being part of Highland Council's Gaelic Action Plan.

All this occurs as Caithness prepares to host the Royal National Mod, Gaelic's premier arts and music event, next year. Arthur Cormack, Bord na Gaidhlig's chairman, who will head the delegation for the meeting in Inverness, said: "We are keen to meet the councillors to hear what they have to say. We have not had any direct contact with people who are apparently complaining, and we want to hear the issues first hand." Did he say this in Gaelic and then has someone translated it?

Two thoughts. With around 50,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland what is the point of road signs in both languages? If there was an independent Scotland how long before all signs across Scotland would go the same way? We already have a sign on the A1 saying 'Welcome to Scotland' in both languages. Given that the visitors to Scotland are almost to a man and woman unable to read Gaelic why is there a sign welcoming them in that language?

A Saltire in 2009

The Saltire is Scotland's national flag which is the oldest flag in Europe and the Commonwealth, and it has its origins in a battle fought in East Lothian in the Dark Ages. Its believed that the battle took place in 832AD. An army of Picts under the High King of Alba, and aided by a contingent of Scots had been on a raid into Lothian and were being pursued by a larger force of Angles and Saxons under one Athelstan. The Scots were caught and stood to face their pursuers in the area of Markle, near East Linton, north of the modern village of Athelstaneford. Fearing the outcome of the encounter, the Scots' King led prayers for deliverance, and was rewarded by seeing a cloud formation of a white saltire (the diagonal cross on which St Andrew had been martyred) against a blue sky. The king vowed that if, with the saint's help, he gained the victory, then Andrew would thereafter be the patron saint of Scotland. The Scots did win, and the Saltire became the flag of Scotland.

This photograph was taken at 8.15 pm this evening looking towards East Lothian, near Athelstanesford. History does repeat itself. . .

Big Wheel Turning?

Here we go again. One company’s money making venture is an anathema to vast numbers of other people and I think those who are worried have every right to be. It seems that ‘one of the nation's leading visitor destinations’ – don’t you just hate that term – is planning a giant 112ft wheel to be up and running by the summer. The Lomond Eye is expected to attract thousands of tourists courtesy of a unique perspective on the Loch Lomond landscape. The company behind the idea is Loch Lomond Shores, which believes the structure – equal in height to the Edinburgh Wheel on Princes Street at Christmas – represents a major tourist draw.

Let’s take this in shall we. They think that the wheel will be a tourist draw. No it isn’t! It’s Loch Lomond and the surrounding area that is the tourist draw this is merely a scheme to make money off the back of it. There’s certainly an argument to say that while they might make more money putting it up and charging a pretty penny to go on it, the numbers of tourists overall visiting the area could be hit. Certainly more people probably don’t want to look at one of these things on the bonnie banks.

It’s one thing having them in London, Edinburgh or York where they are sited among a built environment but quite something else in the natural beauty that is Loch Lomond. The proposal has yet to be approved by Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, which governs the national park, but those behind the structure claim it would not be visually intrusive.

They would and they are barking if they think that.

Loch Lomond Shores attracted more than 1.2 million visitors last year, and Clare Gemmell, the centre manager, views the wheel as a means of increasing that figure. She said: "We have no intention of this attraction being seen as a funfair big wheel, and we will ensure the structure and the promotions surrounding this proposal will be seen as an educational, environmental tool.

The centre had 1.2 million visitors, it didn’t attract them and how can it be seen, as anything other than what it is. . .a bloody great wheel!

To cap it all those experts in all things tourism Visitscotland are hoping that the Lomond Eye could be as successful as the Falkirk Wheel, which last year attracted over 500,000 visitors. Do they not get it?

In an increasingly busy, built environment we need to protect the natural beauty that offers visitors to Scotland respite from the visual assault that cities provide. A few years ago the former head of Scottish Boarders Tourist Board said to me. “The trouble with the Borders is we don’t have a world class attraction.” This scheme is a result of that same muddled thinking. We have the best world-class attraction of all in Scotland. The beauty of the hills, mountains, lochs, views, seashores, moors and the fact that there’s not a lot of people.

Let’s not try to fix it, ‘cos it ain’t broke.

World Class Golf Resort in the Rough

. . . and no it's not the Donald's

The multi-million pound celebrity golf resort on the Ury Estate, near Stonehaven is under threat as the Edinburgh-based FM Group of companies, which includes the firm behind the golf course project, FM Developments, has called in the administrators..

Jack Nicklaus had been due to open a £40m ‘world-class’ course in time for 2010 season; it’s Nicklaus that has designed the course. According to the administrator "We're firmly committed to exploring the future options available for the group's developments and in particular the ambitious plans for the Ury Estate and its proposed Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course. The Ury Estate is a stone’s throw from the Donald's ‘billion-pound’ development.

The Trouble For Trump

It's simple really. The Donald's business model is to get people to stump up the money and call whatever they're doing Trump – Trump towers. Trump casinos, Trump resorts etc. Trying to get to the bottom of where he has his money invested is difficult. Certainly the demise of the casino business has cost him dearly but what about the other projects around the world? The slowing of work on the New Orleans project, the apparent problems in Dubai and several other difficult situations do nothing from brand Trump.

When it comes closer to home who exactly are the people who are going to be putting up the money to build, 'the world's greatest golf course'? Will they now be thinking again about digging deep into their pockets to fund the scheme? This despite the protestations of Team Trump that, "The money is there, ready to be wired at any time. If we needed to put the development up tomorrow, we have the cash to do that. It is sitting there in the bank and is ready to go."

Does anyone seriously believe it in the current climate? What's more how bad is the damage to the Trump brand are this week's events? Naturally the Donald is having none of it, his brand is “stronger than ever” and that “sophisticated people understand that the casinos were a very small portion of my net worth and I had nothing to do with the management of the company.”

I wonder what the Scottish Government think now about throwing themselves at the Donald like school girls trying to get close to some X-factor winner, hoping that some of the charisma will rub off. What about those 500 houses? The hotel and all the jobs that were going to come flooding into Scotland as a result of the Donald deigning to come home to the mother country to spread some of his largess? On his web site it opens with a big sounding splash that says 'Welcome to the world of Trump.' Some world!

Oh Dear What Can The Matter Be? Trumptown Latest.

Back in November 2008 the man who runs Billionaire Donald Trump's Scottish operation said that he had a billion £. "The money is there, ready to be wired at any time. I am not discussing where it is, whether it is in a Scottish bank or what, but it is earmarked for this project. If we needed to put the development up tomorrow, we have the cash to do that. It is sitting there in the bank and is ready to go."

Well there's news this morning that might make that a little more difficult to believe. According to Reuters. "Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc , Donald Trump's casino group, is expected to file Tuesday for bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company's board was scheduled to meet late Monday night to decide whether to authorize the filing, the newspaper reported in its online edition. Otherwise, the casino operator would be forced into bankruptcy involuntarily by creditors, the newspaper said."

Unfortunately the timing of this little financial worry could not be worse. The Donald is about to start a new season of the Apprentice on American TV. Perhaps he'll fire himself? Oh he already has...

Because the Donald is no longer at the helm of his troubled casino operator – at the weekend he resigned. The resignation followed weeks of negotiations with bondholders to restructure debt. Apparently Trump could not come to terms with the company’s creditors in seeking to refinance $1.25 billion in debt owed by Trump Entertainment. He said bondholders would neither sell the company to him nor accept his offers to repay existing debt. “I strongly disagree with the bondholders’ decisions and actions. Part of the reason that these bondholders can’t make a deal is… they’ve lost so much money on this deal, and they’re probably going to lose so much money on other deals, that my impression is they don’t care.”

Trump who controls over a quarter of the company's stock has seen the value of his shares crash to around 25 cents each from $4 a year ago. Will this make him a nearly billionaire?

Bloomberg are reporting that Trump’s exit from the gaming company may endanger the sale of the Trump Marina Casino to Coastal Marina, a deal already entangled in financing problems. Trump Marina’s price had been lowered to $270 million, still quite a bit of cash for the cash-starved company.

Of course this is not the first time. Back in the early 1990s he almost went to the wall when his Atlantic City casino, it too cost a billion (do all his developments cost a billion?) and was built with money from high-interest junk bonds ran into trouble. Such was the level of debt servicing that was required that it ate through most of his companies cash and almost finished him. Trump had to file for bankruptcy protection.

Meanwhile according to the Herald this morning. Gordon Dewar, the secretary of the Scottish PGA, last night revealed that he had made an audacious bid to lure Donald Trump, the US tycoon, to the Tartan Tour as a sponsor for the Northern Open. The 72-hole championship, one of the oldest professional events in Scotland, will still go ahead in May despite losing the financial backing of the anonymous benefactor who has bankrolled the 78-year-old tournament for the past four years.

"We have a number of sponsorship options that we are working on but we thought it was worth giving the Trump idea a go," admitted Dewar after receiving news that his bold move had failed.
It was a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained and we did receive a response thanking us for our inquiry but that nothing would materialise."

So where does this leave the development of the greatest golf course in the world? Naturally complex corporate financial arrangements are at play and the Donald's golf and construction empire will be totally divorced from his gambling empire. But, who would still like to bet on there being a billion in the bank just ready and waiting to finance the Menie project? It's all pretty hair-raising

28 Million People Should Buy This Book

Did you know that about 28 million people worldwide can claim Scots ancestry? It means if they all turned up during the year of homecoming we'd be in deep trouble! I know this fact because I've just heard about a fascinating new book to be published next month called Scottish Genealogy by Bruce Durie.

Did you also know that Scotland has possibly the most complete and best-kept set of records and other documents on the planet? Given the extraordinary worldwide Scottish diaspora, there's clearly a need for a thorough guide to Scottish genealogy; Bruce Durie’s book brings authority to the subject and is firmly based on established genealogical practice. Bruce disabuses the reader of the many canards which have accompanied the recent upsurge in interest in family history, notably that it’s ‘all on the internet,’ that there is such a thing as a ‘family coat of arms’ and that everything written down must be true (just check out the blogosphere!).

Bruce is the Course Director in Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde and was formerly a biochemist, pharmacologist and neuroscientist; he is also Archivist and Historian to the Chief of the Durie Family and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

The Great Edinburgh Airport Sell-off – Panacea or Problem?

According to the Scotsman today in an article on the proposed sale of Edinburgh Airport 'passengers should eventually benefit from competition, meaning lower prices and possibly better route choice. The airports should be expected to vie with one another to offer airlines better terms and services.' This is according to Michael Dean, partner, EU, competition and regulatory team, Maclay Murray & Spens LLP. This is typical of the misguided thinking that has got us into the crazy position where our airports are treated like real businesses that have any serious level of control over their own destiny. Even more bizarrely the SNP said: "We need real competition between the lowland Scottish airports to ensure the best services." The fact is that airports have very little influence over which destinations get served and which airlines serve them.

According to the Competition Commission's report back in August "In Scotland, BAA has until recently been noticeably slow to develop new routes at Glasgow and Edinburgh, whilst at Aberdeen, its investment plans are regarded as unambitious despite relatively high levels of profitability." It's not the BAA's job to develop new routes, that's a job for the airlines; they have a part to play, but it's a very small part. For Scotland's size, and with all the other factors taken into account, air travel is comparatively well developed and will not be magically bettered by a bit of airport competition. The Competition Commission's report reads like a student's thesis and they need a sharp dose of reality. Many of the problems that exist are about capacity, government, planning and CAA regulations; all this is against a background of demand for air travel.

The landing fees at Edinburgh probably represent around 3% of the operating cost of a roundtrip flight from London. Landing fees are about the only way that airports can make themselves more attractive to an airline, after you remove the fact of their geographical location. If it were as simple as lower landing prices then all flights would leave from Prestwick where they have (slightly) lower fees than at either Glasgow or Edinburgh. Just by way of example BAA Edinburgh already charge less in landing fees than Bristol or Cardiff's airports.

Even if either one of the two main Scottish airports halved its landing fees then it would not necessarily a big boost for the airlines – other than those already using the airport. Of course competition is such that if one airport did slash their landing fees, then the other would follow suit and there would be a short-term gain for the airlines, but probably very little benefit for the passenger. BAA derive a significant proportion of their operating revenues from airport shopping, concessions and parking; so on the face of it they could afford to drop their landing fees somewhat. However, the splitting up of BAA (lowland) Scotland will not be the bonanza for passengers that some are predicting. There won’t suddenly be a long line of airlines wanting to fly from either the airports, even with lower landing fees, because the problem is passenger demand, not a falsely created competitive environment.

BAA Edinburgh is performing well below their own lowest anticipated growth targets for 2013 that were made back in 2004/5. Their low forecast was 11.9 million passengers in five years time; their high was 13.7 million. The likely figure is in the range of 10.2 million to 10.9 million. And one thing’s for sure. This competition will do nothing to influence that situation or improve the ‘passenger experience’. It will of course severely hit BAA's results because of the reduced volume of travellers that will produce less revenue from shopping, eating and parking.

While it's easy to talk about the abstract concept of airport competition it's much harder to fix it. Splitting the ownership of Scotland's two main airports is not a panacea, nor anything to do with a solution.

Trumptown Latest....

I've been a bit busy which has slowed the flow of blogging just lately but I just spotted this. "Sir Sean Connery has already agreed to conduct a ceremonial tee-off to mark the opening of the development, which is expected to be ready in 2010."

Really?.....2010?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

...the forecasters got it spot on. . .

The Developer's Club

According to Stewart Milne, Chairman and CEO of the Stewart Milne Group in a letter to the Scotsman. "The social and economic benefits to be derived from this project are of national rather than just local importance. This development will be a tremendous asset and source of pride for Aberdeen and Scotland for many generations."

Now you might be surprised to know he's talking about The Donald's project. Quite how a housing estate and a golf course will provide "social and economic benefits of national importance" I'm at a loss to see. The level of rhetoric surrounding this whole affair is being cranked up to bursting point, following Trump's man's assertion that there's £1 million in cash in the bank just waiting to be spent.

Mr Milne's company are house builders and they need to talk a good game on this subject. They too would probably enjoy the opportunity to build homes where the "economic benefit far outweighs the environmental concerns." Mr Milne finishes by saying "(Aberdeen) will gain comfort from the commitment of the Trump organisation, which will do its utmost to make this work for the benefit of us all."

That's all of us in the developer's club. It's still the wrong idea for the wrong place.

Billionaire Trump has a Billion

So there we have it. According to the man that runs the Donald's Scottish operation he has one billion pounds, not one billion $, but a billion £, just sitting in the bank ready to fund the building of the world's greatest golf course and a small town in Aberdeenshire. According to Mr Sorial: "The money is there, ready to be wired at any time. I am not discussing where it is, whether it is in a Scottish bank or what, but it is earmarked for this project. If we needed to put the development up tomorrow, we have the cash to do that. It is sitting there in the bank and is ready to go."

Have you ever heard such guff? Ready waiting to be wired to whom exactly? No one person is building this thing, no one organization will be in receipt of the money; it is a properly (we hope) funded and costed project with a whole raft of suppliers and companies that will be involved. Of course it's all bluff and bravado, because there are hints that all is not good in the trump empire with at least one law suit against one of his developments.

Let's not forget the Government's involvement in all this, a set of circumstances that may still come back to haunt them and the project. I can just see it all becoming a touch unravelled and the Government having to step in to save the project. . . with our money of course.

And another thing. . . it's one thing having the money to build the thing but you've also got to sell it Mr. T.

Should We Have a Scots Language TV Channel?

In the Scotsman this morning someone by the name of Paul Henderson Scott has written a piece saying, in short, that there should be a Scots language channel alongside the Gaelic TV channel to preserve the Scots language. While I concur that it would be wonderful to find a way to do such a thing the problem is on the one hand money and on the other hand the fact that the language is in decline anyway. All in all a bit of a catch twenty two. However, and isn't there always he says.

"A London-controlled broadcasting service naturally gave preference to the great majority of its audience south of the Tweed. This destroyed the self-confidence of many Scots by giving them the impression they lived in an unimportant backwater which had never achieved anything of importance. It also meant that English voices, and hardly ever a word of Scots, penetrated into virtually every household north of the Border."

It's this kind of thing that really undermines the whole argument. Haven't we got numerous Scots on TV? In high office? In Business? Do they speak Scots? Did any of this sap their confidence? No of course it didn't. Its about education and no one can tell me we should be educating Scottish school kids in the Scots language to go out into the world to prosper, at the expense of teaching English. Of course we should be teaching them to appreciate Scots literature, but the language of the world is English; mostly for reasons that have little to do with 'that damned government in Westminster." The challenge of educating children is, for reasons I don't understand, greater than ever, to add the Scots language into the mix will do nothing but confuse the issue.

Before the Flood...

My friend Kevan just sent me these pictures of the Whiteadder that he took last week from virtually the same places as I took them yesterday . It looks a little different....

A Wet Day in the Borderlands

Mrs H. and I went on a digital photography course today which was held about four miles up the valley from us. It's been a filthy day here in the Borders and on the way home I took these pictures; I didn't get much chance to practice what I'd been taught as I was too busy trying to keep the camera dry. This is the River Whiteadder, yes there's also a Blackadder, which is pronounced Whit-adder and it's normally a third of the width of what you see in the picture. It's great to be back home...log burner lit, curry for supper and a malt whisky beckons. . .

The Loco Income Tax

So Alex Salmond has set out his minority government's programme for the coming year at the heart of which is the local income tax plan. Clearly every party, including the Greens, are opposed to it in someway or another - even the LibDems - and despite some of the more looney comments on the Scotsman's web site it will be difficult for the SNP to get it approved by parliament. Quite a few of their commentators seem to be unaware that the SNP is a minority government. Then again AS knows this and quite likely doesn't care anyway. So much of what the SNP does has nothing to do with governing Scotland today, it is all geared towards gaining independence tomorrow. Anything that pitches David against Goliath is sesn as opportunistic politics by the SNP. Moves are made, speeches are given, comments are offered on everything and every action by the SNP is geared towards trying to show that Scotland would be better with independence. I have no argument with doing that, I'd probably do the same. But it's always best to keep in mind that what we're seeing is not what we're likely to get.

On a more mundane level it's interesting that so many people have come out and said it's the practicalities of a local income tax that are unworkable. Breaking up the Union and running Scotland as an independent country will all be about the enormously complex practicalities and the costs involved with such a break up. I've always argued that I get the emotional idea of independence, but it's the practicalities that scare me. Add to this ego and ambition and the longer this goes on the bloodier it will become.

Presumably under a LIT regime anyone owning a second home in Scotland, whether or not they live in Scotland will not specifically pay anything more for that property. It seems to me that both the Borders and the Highland's councils will see a reduction in their revenue. I wonder how many properties in Scotland are owned by people who live in England? They presumably will not pay a penny.

Loco = wildly irrational

The Skirl o' the Pipes

Richard Thomson over at Scots and Independent has an interesting post all about his weekend with the Huntly Pipe Band. It reminded me of just one of many incidents I was involved in with a pipe band - back when I had a proper job, although quite how proper job and working with a pipe band appear in the same sentence I'm not so sure. British Caledonian Airways was, because of its Scottish heritage, in love with all things tartan, which of course meant that the female staff uniforms were just about the best there has ever been. The site of a girl standing at the top of the aircraft steps, ‘somewhere in Africa’, in her crisp white blouse and her kilt has been known to make many a grown up ex-pat go weak at the knees. Anyway I digress, because what BCAL also had was its very own Pipe Band. At the drop of a hat, or the start of a new route to some far flung corner of the world, the Pipers were dispatched to stir the hearts of everyone to hopefully make them buy more tickets.

When a new route was started the Pipe Band became a focal point of the airlines activities in the new destination city. The Pipe band were clever, they always learned a new tune with particular links to that city for playing at events and so on around the new route start up. When BCAL began flying to Houston they played The Yellow Rose of Texas while walking along the main street of the downtown area. Next thing you know they are all over the TV with local stations oooo-ing and ahhhhh-ing over this wonderful new Scottish/British airline.

When BCAL began flying to Atlanta I was asked to ‘keep an eye on them’ during their time in the city while the more important BCAL employees got on with the job of schmoozing the local big-wigs and the guests on the inaugural service, which included the late Labour Party leader John Smith. A huge reception was planned in the ballroom of the Omni hotel, so the band and I went through what it was they were going to do. Most of the talk surrounded how they were gong to walk around the balcony area before descending the steps of the ballroom to properly entertain the one thousand or so guests. We didn’t talk about what songs they were going to play. That was my big mistake.

That night, with the great and the good of Atlanta, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, assembled in the ballroom, it came time for the band to enter. I was standing next to BCAL's chairman, Adam Thomson. First we hear the muffled strains of the pipes, they are playing Scotland the Brave as the enter the top level of the room. As they got to the staircase and started to descend to the room in which we were standing the Chairman turned to me and said.
“Well done Richard, aren’t they marvelous.”
As I was about to reply the pipers and drums segued into the special song they had learned especially for Atlanta.
“Oh my God.” Was all I could say.
“What? What is it?” says a worried Adam Thomson.
“This song, you know what it is don’t you?" I asked him
"No, No, what is it?
"It’s Marching Through Georgia, the song the Union troops whistled and sang as they burnt Atlanta during the American Civil War.”
I thought he was going to have a seizure. I was lucky to survive that one, because somehow it became all my fault.

Never Forget We Have A Choice...

I'm back on the subject of save the Titians so that the Duke of Sutherland will be better off by around £100 million and naturally the cultural health of the nation will also be saved - just as long as these pictures remain in Scotland. I watched Songs of Praise this evening and there was a piece on the programme about a project in Glasgow called Galgael.  This is what the Songs of Praise web site says about them.

Colin MacLeod led the protest movement against the construction of the M77 motorway in Glasgow. It was a battle he lost, but having discovered the potency of community he founded Galgael (The Foreign Gael), and organisation dedicated to making those who are or feel outside become restored and affirmed. He believed in the spiritual value of developing skills in working with natural materials, and in Galgael's workshop old bits of wood are turned into beautiful artifacts. Recycling things, and recycling people who have been rejected. Galgael specialises in building, reconstructing and restoring boats, believing that launching out in something you have helped build, setting off on a journey, and arriving at a destination, are vivid life and faith metaphors. After Colin died two years ago, his vision was sustained by a team led by his widow Gehan.

Now some might say that we should support that as well as buying the Titians. Well life is about choices and if I had to choose I'd put a million pounds into a hundred Galgaels before I'd buy a single Titian. Watching the guy on the programme talking about how it had saved him from addiction issues was a thousand times more moving than the Director of the National Gallery of Scotland telling us how important the Titians are to our cultural well-being. Of course the whole thing is some sophisticated form of artistic blackmail. Because once the paintings are bought for £100 million the remainder of the Bridgewater Collection - of which the Titians are part - will remain on long-term loan at the National Gallery of Scotland, where they have been on display since 1945

Just so as you know The Duke of Sutherland is a serial seller of old masters to the nation, which are paid for, in part, by us. In 2003 he was paid £11.6m for another Titian through funding raised by the galleries, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Scottish Executive and the National Art Collections Fund.