THE most recent onslaught on Scotland’s farmed salmon industry has come from The Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust, who commissioned a report from Salmon & Trout Conservation Scotland claiming that the value of farmed salmon to the Scottish economy, and the number of people it employs, are both massively overestimated by a staggering 251%. The success of Scotland’s aquaculture industry and its employment of large numbers in remote, rural parts, has always rankled with the industry’s crit
CAN I tell you how I feel? I feel, sometimes, like everyone in my life has suddenly been reduced to flat, distant images on a computer screen, like we’re in Star Trek. And I don’t like it.
IT was impossible to escape a heart-sinking feeling this week when reading reports that a senior UK Government source believed people were “addicted” to the furlough scheme.
MY after work walk on Wednesday was a zig zag, following the sun as she headed west.
IN the years BC (Before Covid), my morning routine was consistent. First, perusal of the paper, starting with the sport followed by the death notices. Continued absence from the latter represented a pretty good start to the day. Omnipresent coronavirus has reversed that order. Now, my first port of call is the ever-expanding family notices. Worryingly, for a man in his eighth decade, the deaths section lengthens daily. Equally concerning, is my proximity to the average age of those whose demise
IN pre-lockdown days I had a much-ridiculed addiction. Using Snapchat Maps online, I would click all over the map to see the ‘stories’ of random people I didn’t know in all corners of the world.
WE should be wary of comparing the crisis of war with the crisis of coronavirus, but the 75th anniversary of VE Day is a reminder of what a national emergency can do to a leader. It can reveal their weaknesses and end their career, or it can highlight the qualities and skills that are needed in a time of trouble.
THE fact that Scotland’s testing figures have fallen well behind the strategy outlined by the First Minister on April 3 of “proportionately” matching those of the UK government is a cause for concern, and the reasons for it certainly merit examination, but it would be hasty to regard it as an indictment of overall policy.
As Westminster’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, pointed out yesterday – and as the First Minister readily agreed – Nicola Sturgeon’s comments on the likely steps to be taken in easing lockdown are hardly out of line with the UK government’ s approach to the coronavirus emergency.
AS expected, the UK and Scottish governments have decided, after the first three weeks of restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus, that they should remain in place. Strictly speaking, that is not an extension, but the default position; the legislation allows for the lockdown to continue for six months (when it must then be renewed by the parliaments). Interim reviews are to see whether the circumstances allow for relaxation, or indeed, require tightening of the measures.
When the Coronavirus Health Protection Regulations were introduced by the UK’s governments on March 26 (two days later, in Northern Ireland), they included the provision that they be reviewed after 21 days, a deadline now approaching.
THE Government’s ambition to reach a daily target of 100,000 tests across the UK by the end of the month will, as Matt Hancock admitted, require a “huge amount of work”.
IN THE five days since Scotland and the rest of the UK effectively went into lockdown, it is heartening to see the ways in which the vast majority of the population has responded, not merely with compliance and resilience, but with a community spirit and a great many acts of personal service and sacrifice.
AMID the terrible personal losses and hardships provoked by the coronavirus crisis, and its huge impact on the global economy and the lives and welfare of even those not directly touched by the disease, there are some small consolations.
THE primary and ultimate responsibility for the parlous state of the high street lies with its customers, or former customers, since we are increasingly giving our custom to online retailers instead.
It is true, as the Education Secretary John Swinney said this week, that it “takes time” to implement reforms in education, and natural that, since the effects must be seen as a cohort of students moves through the various stages, any improvement will take a while to evaluate.
VE DAY in 1945 was obviously an occasion for major celebration in Britain and throughout Europe. But there is reasonable debate as to what we should make of it now.
EUGENE Cairns (Herald Letters, May 6) feels that a fitting tribute to our NHS heroes would be to name hospitals and wards after those who have died in our service during the pandemic crisis.
THE surge in hobbies and home improvements during lockdown has led to a rise in injuries, with optometrists in particular issuing a warning to lockdown Brits to take extra care.
“I AM an Asian Tiger Mum, for whom education is the only way to success for my children, and excellence in music, sport and ballet is a prerequisite to living any sort of life at all.”
How desperate would you have to be to put your child onto a rubber dinghy and wave them off to the mercy of the world? It beggars belief that people are doing it but they are. Some are parents who can afford only one fare so they buy a way out for their child.
What have we done? That’s what Hawick housewife Carol Martin said when she realised her lottery ticket had scooped £33 million.
The court was furnished in blond wood. There were no wigs and the accused man wore a jersey. But the informality was in contrast to the gravity of the charges. An army officer was on trial for a war crime: the killing of 11 innocent women and children in Afghanistan.
If you have never given your gender much thought, count yourself lucky. If that tick in the box on almost every form requires no more effort than a flick of the wrist, be aware that for many people gender is not so straightforward.
It was her appreciation that impressed me. She was one of the early migrants to Glasgow. She had fled a war zone with her four children. She’d been assigned a flat in a high rise in Easterhouse. She spoke about it as a dream come true. To her it was a palace.
It’s not that I would be without the pyramids. Nor do I think that the Taj Mahal is a waste of good stone. These tombs, monuments to the departed are treasures beyond price. But can you name the pharaohs or the Mughal empress whose death they mark? No, nor can I without the help of Google.
By the time I left school, aged 18, I couldn’t distinguish between which beliefs I had worked out for myself and which were absorbed through conditioning.
There are times when I wish my family’s life revolved a little less around Andy Murray. Two words, "Andy’s playing", are sufficient reason for outings to be delayed or abandoned; invitations turned down; even holiday dates tweaked.
An armoured car guarded the Grand Place in Brussels city centre yesterday as a group of women sat drinking coffee at an outdoor table. A reporter asked one of them what she would do if terrorists started shooting? She said: "Smile. Sit. Drink coffee. Enjoy – even if it is the last."
Dried up talent
BEING a sensible mother, Martha Bryson, from Falkirk, told her young daughter, Sue, never to sneak into the attic. Being a naughty scamp, Sue ignored this advice and got sneaky.
WHAT’S a little distancing between us? Go on, stick your nose closer to the page or screen. Let’s snuggle in a little closer.
THE Herald has reported (May 6) on another economically and socially “lost generation” of children and young people due to Covid-19.
BEING a full-time, voluntary, unpaid carer, since November 2018, for my wife, who has dementia, I would like to ask a question of the Scottish Government, especially Jeane Freeman, the health secretary.
LIKE many people with a wee bit of time on their hands at the moment, I enjoy a morning walk along the cycle track between Elderslie and Castlehead, a nice enough stroll, if you like litter that is; and I mean, really like litter.
YOU report (HeraldScotland, May 5) that Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the UK government’s key advisers on the current lockdown restrictions, has resigned after breaching the government (and his own) strong advice on the need for social distancing.
IT is good to see that one of your readers, R Russell Smith, has been enjoying our wildlife and fresh air, having “walked over fields and alongside the burn close to home, enjoying the sunshine and company of lambs gambolling” (Herald letters, May 5).
READING about the Brooks family and their foraging for food (“Family serves a dinner-time treat ... Japanese Knotweed crumble”, The Herald, May 2) provoked very happy memories of another forager-par-excellence; Rosalind Burgess, the Skye weaver, cook, and writer of an excellent book on how to use the things you grow and forage.
NEIL Mackay (“Johnson? Sturgeon? When it comes to coronavirus they are both the same”, The Herald, May 5) lambasts Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson for both taking an almost identical approach in their fight against Covid-19, somehow implying that this is in itself a fault.
LIKE many of your readers, I would imagine, I am a fairly enthusiastic armchair football supporter with no real club affiliation.
HELLO and welcome to Step on a Rake, the game show where clever people do dumb things. Previous winners of the show have included Catherine “Second Home” Calderwood, Scotland’s former chief medical officer, and Robert Jenrick, England’s well-travelled Communities Minister.
ONE trusts the stork’s passage across London was peaceful, its job of delivering Baby Johnson to his delighted parents made easier by the emptiness of the skies. Congratulations and welcome, young man.