As I continue to fill in for Jim Lynch (who is mending well) I noticed that on Monday of this week he had a rather long letter in the Herald. Told you he was mending. As it was about oil and given that today (Tuesday) the oil workers are striking, I thought I would share JIm’s letter for those who haven’t seen it. Margaret.     I have to confess that, unlike John- Paul Marney, I am not an oil production expert (Letters 19 Jul 16) so would not regard the Wood Mackenzie report on shale extraction as bedtime reading.  However I am well awareRead More →

What is Trident. I mean, apart from the obvious weapon of mass destruction. Everything I have read leads me to the conclusion that it is merely a way of the big boys measuring their worth. The ‘would be important’ peoples’ version of ‘mine is bigger than yours’ Why would you want to have weapons of mass destruction? Bear in mind we invaded another country our UK government felt had no right to have them. What makes us so special we should have them? Although Trident was designed as a strategic deterrent, the end of the Cold War led the British government to conclude that a sub-strategic –Read More →

As I watched David Cameron announce his resignation on the morning of the 24th of June, the words of an old childhood game came to mind. Do you remember playing Hide and Seek? When you were about to be caught, you quickly crossed your fingers and said “keys no het”. That is exactly what Cameron was doing after the EU Referendum result. To put it another way, in words I often heard as the social worker at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court – it wisnae me, I wisnae there, a big boy did it and run away” That “big boy” was of course Boris, and run awayRead More →

During the General Election campaign in 2015, I was stopped by a woman who identified herself as a natural SNP supporter but said that if a party would stand up for women her age, then it would get her vote. She went on to explain that she had now seen her anticipated retiral age be raised twice; already in ill health, she had a very real fear that she would never get to see her pension and she pleaded for somebody, somewhere to stand up for her generation. Caithness Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) was launched last week in a a effort to raiseRead More →