The Rampant Scotland Newsletter - your weekly insight into what has been happening in Scotland, snipped from the Scottish media, for Scots in Scotland and abroad, bringing you news, events plus a Scottish magazine section. Printed with 100% recycled electrons.
Previous editions of this Newsletter are available in the Archive and the Index to the other pages of the Rampant Scotland site is available here.
The Scottish Snippets Newsletter in its original format began in April 1997 and continued in an unbroken series for 591 issues. Although no longer produced in that format there is now a regular update on the new and updated pages on the Rampant Scotland site and also "Scottie's Diary" on an intermittent basis, To receive this, kust send an e-mail to Scottie with "Subscribe Newsletter" in the subject line.
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Historical Affairs - Topical Items from Scotland's Past
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The "Magazine" section consists mainly of brief descriptions of the items involved and a link to the Web page where you can find the full feature, if you find the subject of interest to you.
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This poem is said to have been a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Considering the last verse (by the boastful McAllister) it must be assumed that the Queen Mum had that famous twinkle in her eye when she said she liked it! McAllister Dances Before the King Clansmen, the peats are burning bright,
For as a dancer in my youth,
My brand new presentation kilt
Soon I heard a Lord or Duke
"Open the door" I sternly cried,
The door was opened; word went round,
The King was sitting on his throne,
And all the ladies of the court
Slowly at first with hands on hips,
At last no human eye could see
The King was greatly moved,
And then the gracious queen herself
Her whisper I shall n'er forget,
Meaning of unusual words:
As a non-Gaelic speaker, I have always been reluctant to include items on the language of the Highlands, apart from the odd "slāinte maith" (good health, said as a malt whisky is being quaffed). But for those readers who would like to see some Gaelic (perhaps to drop into an e-mail, to impress your friends - I've collected a few of those over the years myself) here are some "everyday Gaelic words".
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Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
The Scottish Parliament this week finally passed the legislation which allows individuals freedom of access to information held by government, local councils, schools, police and health service. While campaigners say that it still does not go far enough, the Freedom of Information Act goes further than anything seen in the UK for over 100 years. The principle of the legislation is that anything should be publicly available - unless there is an overwhelming reason why it should be kept secret. There will be an independent "watch dog" appointed by Parliament who will be able to order public bodies to release documents on request. The Justice Minister, Jim Wallace, claimed that the legislation demonstrated how "devolution is delivering" and had been tailored to meet the needs of Scotland. Even the critics had to grudgingly admit that it was a better set of rules than the one being progressed by the Parliament in London which will apply to England and Wales.
The Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) got into a stoushie (the Scots word for a row or an uproar) this week about the proposed seating plans for the debating chamber in the new parliament building at Holyrood. Project managers had cut the number of seats with disabled access from 81 to 61 in the 129-seat parliament and had modified the layout to allow back-bench MSPs to be closer to the front - to create a more compact debating forum. Not that there will ever be such a substantial number of disabled members, but the available seats would give a larger freedom of choice to those in wheel chairs etc. Even with the reduced numbers, the new building will have one of the most accessible parliament buildings in the world.
The Post Office braced itself for high demand for a set of postage stamps commemorating the life of the Queen Mother which went on sale on Thursday. The set of stamps shows photographs of the Queen Mum from different periods of her life, including one as a child at Glamis Castle in Angus. The same stamps, without a black border, were originally issued to celebrate her 90th birthday in 1990.
The City of Glasgow Council (the local government for the city) receives more than 20 million telephone calls every year, routed through their eight switchboards. But the high volume means that two out of every five calls are unanswered (as anyone who has tried phoning the Council can testify). But now the Council is to launch a new telephone call centre which will provide a "one-stop shop" for information and complaints. When it is initially set up in the autumn of this year it will employ 80 staff but Council chiefs say that number could rise to 200/300. It will operate from between 8am and 8pm handling calls on public relations, council tax, social work, roads and other council services.
On St George's Day (celebrating the patron saint of England) the leader of the Scottish National Party, John Swinney, mounted a charm offensive on England as he visited the set of "Coronation Street" a popular TV soap based in Manchester. Swinney described the programme as a "quintessential cultural icon enjoyed by millions, both Scottish and English." Just in case anyone in Scotland was worried that such English-based programmes might not be televised in Scotland if the country gained its independence, he assured viewers it would continue to be available - after all, Swinney himself is a fan of the programme. St George's Day is also the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and the Scottish Nationalist leader said it was an appropriate occasion to highlight the fact that the Bard of Stratford was part of Scottish culture too, with his works studied in Scotland's schools. His well publicised visit prompted opposition parties to suggest that the story lines in the TV soap were more believable than the SNP's policies.
The police were praised by Justice Minister Jim Wallace this week as the statistics on crimes in Scotland in 1991 were published. Overall, the number of recorded crimes was down for the second successive year, resulting in the second lowest crime figures for 20 years. But the number of violent crimes had risen by 5% (to 7,300) and crimes related to carrying offensive weapons rose by 6% (to 8,700). The police say that the rise in the number of cases involving offensive weapons was due to increased police activity in stopping and searching suspects. 
The Scotch Whisky Association has reported that exports of Scotland's national drink soared to £2.2 billion last year. That was a record rise of 6.4% and was the equivalent of a billion bottles of whisky. The product is one of the UK's top export earners and the government receives a billion pounds in excise duty each year. Not bad for something made from barley and water. One of the biggest recent successes is the Aberlour brand, which is now the world's fastest-selling malt whisky. It has yet to knock giants like Glenmorangie and Macallan from the top spot in North America and the Far East but sales around the world grew by 16.7% last year as a result of slick marketing. Spain is still the biggest export market for Scotch whisky, where it is regarded as young and trendy - and usually drunk with cola. Ten years ago sales were practically nil. Sales in the UK were also up last year, by 2% on the previous twelve months, reaching 114 million bottles.
The cities of Glasgow and Havana in Cuba have been building up cultural and business links over the last two years and an official "twinning" agreement is now set to be signed when Glasgow's Lord Provost visits the Cuban capital on a trade mission in December. There have been two export missions to Havana in recent years and it is hoped that the closer ties will allow Scottish companies to bid for contracts in Cuba's offshore oil developments and growing health and biotechnology industries.Glasgow is also twinned with Rostov-on-Don in Russia, Dalian in China and Nuremberg in Germany.
Farmers are usually not optimistic, but sheep farmers are reporting that the relatively mild spring and heavy rain in February and March has resulted in an abundance of grass in most areas which has meant that ewes are feeding well and providing lots of milk for spring lambs. Even so, in the aftermath of foot and mouth disease last year, the number of lambs will be 15% down on earlier years. But that should help farmers to get a good price for their lambs, when they come to market.
The Victoria Cross (VC) is Britain's highest military medal. Only 984 members of the armed forces (150 of them Scots) have won the medal since it was instituted in 1856. A granite arch was unveiled last week by Dr John Reid, (the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and a local Member of Parliament) to 14 men from Lanarkshire who had won the Victoria Cross, as a lasting memorial to their courage and valour. A local artist, who came across the stories of some of the heroes, had campaigned for four years to have the memorial created. He says: "There is an old adage that says if we forget our history, we're doomed to repeat it and the younger generation needs to be educated about the past."
The shortage of students at Scotland's only training college for Catholic priests has prompted the Scotus College in Bearsden near Glasgow to open its doors to lay people. It is now being marketed as a venue for Catholics who are looking for relaxation or want to run a prayer event or conference. Officials hope that it might even encourage male guests to consider becoming a priest. Currently, there are only 16 trainee priests at the college. The Catholic church has 900 priests serving a church membership of around 800,000. The seminary is named after the medieval theologian Duns Scotus - from whose name the term "dunce" is derived.
A former police sergeant is launching a massaging service for foot-sore walkers on the 96-mile West Highland Way. He will be using a converted Mercedes bus as his base to operate his mobile massage service "Fitsteps". In case there are not enough customers on the West Highland Way (which runs from Milngavie, near Glasgow to Fort William) he will be working in industry and with dancers. He says the same massage techniques are beneficial in relieving pain, strain and stress, regardless of the cause.
A report on Scotland's forests says that the country now has more woodland than it has had for the last 700 years. 17% of the land is covered by trees, compared with just 5% 100 years ago. At one time, forests covered 80% of the land mass but that had fallen to 20% around the 12th century. The National Inventory of Woodland and Trees for Scotland also says that more native varieties are being planted than foreign conifers and that plans to expand the areas covered by trees will mean that they will cover at least 25% of the land surface by 2050. Native trees provide a better environment for Scottish wildlife and flora. Even so, 70% of current planted areas are coniferous, mainly the fast growing sitka spruce. Other European countries have larger areas with woodlands - Germany has 30%, France 27%, Italy 34% and Spain 28%.
The thermometer climbed after the weekend reaching 17/18C (63/64F) for a few days in the middle of the week. The north-east saw the best of the weather with Kinloss reaching 19C (66F) on Wednesday and Aberdeen having 13 hours of sunshine on both Wednesday and Thursday. But the above average temperatures for the end of April soon fell back, with Glasgow only managing a chilly 9C (48F) on Friday. On higher ground in the Highlands there were some fresh falls of snow. But the spell of generally milder weather has encouraged many of the trees to burst into leaf, including the fresh green of beech and elm. Although there were a number of showers, rainfall was slight during the week, apart from Monday when an inch of rain fell at Eskdalemuir and Glasgow had 0.8 inches on the same day.
In 1744, the first rules of golf were established and played at Leith Links, near Edinburgh. Now, over 250 years later, golf will again be played in the old style on the links to coincide with the British Open at The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (better known as Muirfield) on 18th July to 21st July 2002. Five greens will be created on a temporary basis on the east side of Leith Links from 13 to 22 July 2002, with each hole approximately 150 yards each in length. Players will be able to hire traditional hickory clubs, gutta percha balls and armed with an original style score card before setting off on what is regarded as the oldest golf course in Scotland. It is believed that golf was first played on the ancient links at Leith, the shipping port of Edinburgh, where the first rules of golf were drawn up and recorded. Golf was then played at the nearby fishing port of Musselburgh, before moving to Muirfield along the east coast in 1891.
The Victorian villa in Helensburgh which was once the home of John Logie Baird, the inventor of the first television broadcasting system, has been put on the market. The five-bedroomed detached house was where Baird carried out some of his early inventive experiments - some of them nearly disastrous. He set up an early "telephone exchange" with low wires strung across the road and nearly decapitated the driver of a hansom cab which was passing by. He also tried (and failed) to launch a glider, aided by a childhood friend, Jack Buchanan, who later became a Hollywood movie star. The estate agent says there has been a great deal of interest in the house - quite apart from the historical connections, Helensburgh is a popular area with quiet leafy streets, overlooking the Firth of Clyde and a good train service to Glasgow.
The major new exhibition of the work of David Mach, one of Scotland's more controversial artists, began at the end of last month in the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Glasgow. A collection of his works are on display under the title of "Hell Bent". They include "sculptures" made of coat hangers, a series of heads made from matchsticks (which are surprisingly life-like) and a collection of cuddly teddy bears brandishing power tools in a most menacing fashion. That juxta-position of symbols which are regarded as soft and cozy with violent ones is continued with a large montage of garden gnomes, fighting their way through a garden armed with dangerous-looking garden tools. Many of the exhibits are quite amusing, which fits in with GOMA's aim to entertain and make the visitors smile. David Mach himself has been in the gallery for the last few weeks creating a sculpture in front of the spectators. Like many of Mach's larger scale works (he made a full-size steam train from bricks) it uses small-scale objects (in this case, 40 tonnes of the local "Herald" newspaper) piled into huge swathes and curves, with rusty motor cars mixed amongst them. Entitled "Bangers and Mash", Mach has constructed the massive sculpture with the help of his brother and a local artist. One question remains. Who will move the 120,000 newspapers when the exhibition ends on September 29?
Burns Cottage in Alloway has been getting a makeover in recent weeks in the form of a new thatched roof in anticipation of the "Burns and A' That" festival which begins on 27 April and runs until May 5. Although it may spoil a few photographs, the work is being done during the festival to let people see how traditional thatching in the 18th century was carried out. The festival itself is a hotch-potch of poetry, fireworks, folk music and pop. The organisers say that they have tried to reflect both the radical and romantic tradition of Burns. See 
Former Rangers' football star Ally McCoist (known as "Super Ally" in his playing days) was in Los Angeles this week, attending the US premiere of the comedy drama "A Shot at Glory". The film, directed by Robert Duvall and starring Michael Keaton, tells the story of tiny Kilnockie Football Club which wins through to the Cup Final against Rangers. The scenes in the final were shot in front of a large crowd of "extras" who got free entry to Hampden to see the "game" which ends with a penalty shoot-out (see graphic). The film was a flop in the UK although Ally MacCoist was widely praised for his acting. 
Berti Vogts, the German-born manager of the Scotland football team, accompanied the Scottish First Minister, Jack McConnell when he visited Sweden this week to put the case for Scotland and Ireland to host the Euro 2008 football championships. A joint Scotland/Ireland delegation formed a high-profile attempt to lobby UEFA officials who were meeting in Stockholm. A new logo for the joint bid was also unveiled for the first time. During a media briefing, Bert Vogts was so enthusiastic about the bid to host the Euro 2008 championships that he pledged to remain in charge of the national team if Scotland and Ireland are awarded the tournament. He currently has a four-year contract.
The real Euro Cup was moved this week under tight security from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, where it had been on display for the previous ten days, to the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park. It will be on show there until the Euro Cup Final on May 15. Meantime, a valuable replica of the cup is now on display at the St Enoch shopping centre as a reminder of what is in store when the finalists reach Glasgow. A second replica is on permanent display at Celtic Park where fans can see it on stadium tours - Celtic won the trophy in 1967 when the "Lisbon Lions" beat Inter Milan 2-1.
The financial difficulties of football these days were highlighted again this week when the directors of Scottish Premier League side Motherwell decided to place the club in administration and look for a buyer. Manager Eric Black, who joined the club earlier this season, has resigned, despite earning the respect of fans and football commentators. The former Rangers and England captain, Terry Butcher, who has been in charge of the club's youth development department has been given the job of manager. But it is unclear whether he will stay. The club chairman could not rule out a move to part-time players. Attendance at Fir Park has slumped to an average of 6,000 this season and the club's sponsors, Motorola, are ending their ties with the club this summer. The club's owner, businessman John Boyle is reputed to have put £11 million into the club but has found that running a football club is harder these days than making a profit in his travel firm. There are hopes, however, that a buyer for the club will emerge.
The 250-year-old Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews, the upholder of the traditions and rules of golf, has signed a commercial deal with leisure wear designer Ralph Lauren. It will see the Claret Jug trophy of the British Open Golf Championship on sportswear for the first time. The club's name will not appear on the goods - but all golfers will recognise the outline. Cashmere sweaters are expected to sell for around £135.
Rangers and Celtic fans have accused the Scottish Football association of a "rip-off" for charging full price for all seats at the Cup Final at Hampden on May 4. Last year, when Celtic were playing Hibs in the same event, concession prices were available for those under 16 and over 60. All the 52,000 tickets have been sold at prices ranging from £25 to £35. The SFA say that the prices were decided in December, before the finalists were known, but they had checked with Rangers and Celtic once they had won through and neither club had objected. The last time no concessions were offered was in 1999, when Rangers and Celtic were again the finalists, convincing fans that the SFA were cashing in on the high demand for tickets for matches involving the "Old Firm."