Blethering Skite

UK figures released last week show that child poverty rates are now 35% higher in England than in Scotland.

Annual statistics show compared with the previous year’s statistics, relative child poverty in 2023-24 reduced from 26% to 22% in Scotland while absolute child poverty fell from 23% to 17%. UK Poverty statistics show compared with the previous year’s statistics, levels of relative child poverty at 31% and absolute child poverty at 26%.

Believe in Scotland founder Gordon Macintyre-Kemp said: “It’s abundantly clear that the Scottish Government is trying to address child poverty, whilst the UK Government is hell bent on policies that create child poverty. In so many ways, being a part of the UK is making reducing child poverty in Scotland harder. Take energy - which was privatised by governments Scotland didn’t vote for. Scotland’s energy poverty rates are 31%.

“It is not possible for Scotland to truly tackle child poverty without the full powers of independence. As an independent country, Scotland could focus on creating a well-being economy and ending the systemic poverty which still affects far too many children in Scotland.”

The UK media has been amplifying the ridiculous claims that the UK’s 10% tariff on trade with the USA is somehow a Brexit bonus because it is lower than the EU’s 20% tariff. A moment’s thought undermines that - the UK is being hit with 10% tariffs not because we have a special relationship or because we are not in the EU its because the UK doesn't have a trade surplus with the USA - in other words the UK as a whole is not that good at exporting and so doesn't have as big a target on its back for Trump’s bullying.

If Scotland were an independent country and inside the EU it would have free trade with 27 allied countries. It would benefit greatly from being inside the world’s largest economy, part of one of the top three in terms of global trade.

But thanks to Brexit and the resulting weak and isolated trade position of the UK, we are perilously exposed to Trump’s bullying and the increasing global uncertainty. The UK is now without a reliable prospect of free trade with either the USA or the EU, where non-tariff barriers to trade loom ever higher.

A sperm whale has died in the Firth of Clyde after becoming stranded off the Isle of Bute.

The whale was spotted in the shallows of Ettrick Bay on Tuesday (April 8). The 14-metre long whale was moving on Tuesday evening.

Drone images taken by SDPhotographyBute show the animal resting in the bay, half submerged as it exhales, sending a plume of water into the air. Sailors were advised to avoid the bay to allow the whale to remain undisturbed.

A new group has just launched hoping to bring new creative energy and ideas into the independence movement as the campaign for Scottish democracy has a re-boot and a re-launch. We’ll be covering the new projects as they emerge over the next few weeks.

Not since the National Collective has there been a formal organisation dedicated to bringing together artists who support independence. The group is open to designers, illustrators, actors, musicians, poets, writers, photographers – or whatever category of artist you are.

A robotic dog has again shown its value to the Dounreay decommissioning programme by carrying out a task that was beyond the reach of human workers.

Spot is able to work in hazardous areas thanks to attributes such as the ability to climb stairs, avoid obstacles and move over rough ground.

Its latest important job was to assist staff in the site’s Fuel Cycle Area by reactivating a crucial building crane in a reprocessing plant.

The crane had been deactivated at the switchboard in 2023. Safety restrictions prohibited human interaction with the switchboard, further delaying its reactivation.

However, the facility required the crane for waste shipment and for ongoing decommissioning efforts.

On 6th April 1320 the barons and freeholders of the Kingdom of Scotland wrote a letter to Pope John XXII. The letter asked the pope to recognise Scotland's independence and acknowledge Robert the Bruce as the country's lawful king. Written in Latin, it was sealed by eight earls and about 40 barons. It was authenticated by seals, as documents at that time were not signed.

Water bills in England are rising much more than in Scotland. You would not know that from watching BBC Breakfast as they presented the rise as an average £10 a month for England and 10% for Scotland. The average rise for Scotland is £3.68 - about one-third of the English rise.

England is the only country in the developed world to have fully privatised its water. Scotland did not go down that road and as a result, Scottish waterways are much cleaner than in England and water bills are lower.

Bass Rock seen from the superb beach at Seacliff in East Lothian, a place that comes complete with a ruined castle and a contender for the title of Scotland's smallest harbour. More pics and info:

On the 1st of April, the energy cap on domestic energy bills rose by 6.4%. Right-wing commentators like to argue that the push for Net Zero is putting up energy bills. They have got that wrong - it is the privatisation of energy which is to blame for the fact our energy bills are sky high.

Renewable energy is cheap to produce but the cost of making it does not have anything to do with what Scots pay to heat their homes and cook their food.

Westminster governments, which Scotland didn’t vote for, privatised the energy network in the 1990s. Research carried out for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition shows private energy companies across the UK have pocketed over £420bn in profits.

The companies that were handed control of Scotland’s energy networks oversee a natural monopoly industry. They’ve reported higher profit margins than any other sector of the economy.

619 years ago today. King Robert III died at Rothesay Castle on the Isle of Bute at the age of 68 on 4 April 1406 after hearing that his son James was being held captive by Henry IV of England. More about Robert III:

Bonnybridge is Scotland's Bermuda Triangle, known for years of mysterious events

Scotland is steeped in myth and legend, and you don’t have to venture into the rugged Highlands or explore the ancient streets of Edinburgh to encounter the unexplained.

Nearly every town and village across the country has its own eerie tales and mysterious stories - but one seems to see more oddities than the others.

Dubbed the "Falkirk Triangle," after the local council area, the region became so notorious for UFO activity that some even speculated it might be a gateway to another dimension.

Although globally scarce, Middle Jurassic dinosaur tracks are known from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and help indicate the palaeoenvironmental preferences and behaviour of major dinosaur clades. Here, we report an extensive new tracksite from Skye: 131 in-situ dinosaur tracks at Prince Charles’s Point on the Trotternish Peninsula.

In the Kilmaluag Formation at Prince Charles’s Point, on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, we report and document 131 dinosaur tracks of Middle Jurassic age. These include tracks we hypothesised were made by a large megalosaurid and a non-neosauropod or basal neosauropod trackmaker. All traversed across a shallowly submerged lagoonal margin surface within a closed, ephemeral, freshwater (low salinity) lagoon palaeoenvironment, represented by a fine-grained rippled sandstone.

The trackmakers consistently walked in non-uniform directions, which likely represented cumulative milling behaviour rather than interspecies or gregarious interactions. The occurrence of these tracks in a lagoonal shoreline provides further evidence to the widespread habitation of sauropods in these palaeoenvironments on ancient Skye, as indicated by previous discoveries, and suggests that theropods may have been more common components of the lagoonal assemblages than previously recognised.

Traditional Haggis Spotting In Scotland For Ladies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPxTfXv_pUo

An underwater camera set up 55 years ago to try and photograph the Loch Ness Monster has been found by accident by a robot submarine.

The ocean-going yellow sub - called Boaty McBoatface - was being put through trials when its propeller snagged the mooring for the 1970s camera system.

It is believed it was lowered 180m (591ft) below the loch's surface by the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, a group set up in the 1960s to uncover the existence of Nessie in the waters.

No footage of Nessie has been found on the camera, but one of the submarine's engineers was able to develop a few images of the loch's murky waters.

Public spaces all over Scotland are being lost to private developers. The Church of Scotland is selling off hundreds of buildings, Police Scotland is doing the same. Portobello in Edinburgh is an example of this happening but also may be setting an example for how to respond.

The good news: Bellfield is in safe hands and can thrive with your help

Since acquiring Bellfield in 2017, Action Porty has turned the former Old Parish Church into a bustling community hub. Today, Bellfield is a place where nearly 30,000 people come together each year, building connections, learning new skills, and creating memories. It hosts 26 community groups and organisations, offering 38 activities and classes weekly, alongside other events, performances, and celebrations.

The Bishop’s Palace and Earl’s Palace, the Broch of Gurness, and Hackness Martello Tower and Battery, which have been closed for the winter will reopen to visitors in April. The Bishop’s Palace is Kirkwall’s oldest surviving domestic building, dating from the early 1100s. It is the only episcopal palace ever built in Norse Scotland, and where the last Norwegian king in Scotland died.

Brow Well is a chalybeate spring that flows with naturally iron-salt-rich water. This water was believed to cure a whole host of illnesses. During the 17th century it became fashionable to visit spas with mineral springs in the pursuit of health and beauty.

When Scottish poet Robert Burns’ health began to decline in 1796, he visited Brow Well to take its waters and sea bathe nearby. He actually died soon after, but the well became a place for enthusiasts of his poetry to come and contemplate his works. An annual commemoration takes place here each July.

After rain the area surrounding the pool can be slippery, please be careful.

The water is not suitable for drinking.

The amazing Norman carving on the Edrom Arch near Duns in the Scottish Borders. This is all that remains of a church that was built in the early 1100s and demolished in 1732.

The Westminster government talks a lot about the importance of jobs. Yet today’s “spring statement” - effectively an emergency budget - is only going to do further harm to Scottish businesses, Scottish jobs and the Scottish economy.

Scotland has a measure of devolution - but the levers of power when it comes to the economy are still held by Westminster.

The Scottish government’s budget is set according to what England’s politicians put in place for England. The cuts in welfare and government operational spending will impact Scotland’s budget next year.

But also the Scottish government cannot borrow money for infrastructure so it depends on the UK to support that. It also cannot affect the damaging tax on jobs.

Scotland cannot rejoin the European Union or even the single market, the biggest possible game changer for the Scottish economy.

Only with independence can the Scottish people elect a government with the powers to act according to Scotland’s needs and priorities.

Disabled and chronically ill Scots are worried about the effect the Westminster government’s cuts to welfare are going to have on them. And the uncertainty Scots face is a direct result of devolution.

The detailed costs have not been finalised yet but economists say it is likely to mean a cut of £1 billion from Scotland’s block grant. That is because Scotland gets a population share of what England decides to spend.

Under devolution, Scotland gets powers on paper in areas like welfare. But in reality, the Scottish government doesn’t control the levers of power. Holyrood is often held accountable for things they can’t control.

If Scotland were independent and in control of tax, spending and borrowing it would be able to make and stick to policies in line with what its people vote for.

But as it is, whatever Westminster decides automatically impacts the money Holyrood has to spend. Devolution is becoming an impossible position.

OP: @[email protected]

F. Marian McNeill led quite a busy life; she was deeply involved both in social work and in the literary and cultural revival movement in Scotland. She was active in politics, serving as the organizer for the Scottish Federation of Women’s Suffrage Societies from 1912-1913, then later becoming a vice president of the Scottish National Party in the 1930s. She also worked as a researcher and principal assistant on the Scottish National Dictionary. She was especially passionate about preserving Scottish folklore and culture. Besides The Scots Kitchen, she also wrote The Silver Bough, a four-volume study of Scottish folklore, and The Scots Cellar, a book about beverages and drinking customs in Scotland. In 1962, she was made an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for her services to Scottish culture.

The Scots Kitchen is a truly fascinating book, and one I would highly recommend to anyone interested in Scottish food. I will almost certainly be making more recipes from this book in the future – although I will probably make my way through the baking section first, and leave the haggis for last!

More years ago than I care to remember now, whilst perusing the empty part of an Ordnance Survey map of the Bridge of Orchy area, my eye caught three words written in the medieval script that mapmakers use to denote a man-made structure of some antiquity: Tigh nam Bodach – the house of the old man. What, I asked myself, could this be? It was clearly important enough to get its own Gaelic nomenclature but many miles from any other settlement or structure. The high, craggy hills that encircled Tigh nam Bodach looked as though they huddled around it to form a protective shield. Not quite an impenetrable barrier, but quite enough to deter all but the most committed walker. For years thereafter, whenever I’d unfurl that particular map, Tigh nam Bodach would always catch my eye, as though goading me to visit it.

Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement that she was standing down next year came as a surprise to no-one. She, like a great many of her colleagues and peers, is giving up on politics to turn their attention to, well having a life. And, who could blame her? Well, it turns out almost everyone.

Sturgeon’s announcement was closely followed by the news that the Branchform investigation, that had dragged on for an incredible four years, had proved her in the clear and would not be pursuing any further investigations into her, or ex-party treasurer MSP Colin Beattie.

Beautiful and mysterious Rosslyn Chapel south of Edinburgh. What was actually built was only a small part of what its founder intended before his death in 1484, yet it remains a truly remarkable achievement. More pics and info:

Neil Findlay’s resignation from the Labour Party is a signal of deeper change and crisis in UK politics but also a momentous moment for Scottish Labour, who were trying to organise for the Holrood Elections next year.

In a scathing visceral letter to Keir Starmer Findlay takes no prisoners: “A party that gave assurances to voters that “change” was coming but failed to tell them that the “change” they meant was to impoverish pensioners through cuts to their winter fuel allowance, betray WASPI women by refusing to compensate them for the states’ failure, punish defenceless children by maintaining the horrific two-child cap, abandon the Grangemouth workers and now attack the long term sick and disabled by slashing social security payments (I refuse to call them benefits or welfare). Al of this to fund increased spending on the UK war machine – weapons that will be used to kill and injure innocent men women and children in far-off lands”