Monthly Archives: February 2009

Tour of Ardkinglas House, Cairndow

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Ardkinglas House, a neo-baronial mansion was designed and built in 1907 by Robert Lorimer, one of Scotland’s leading architects of the day. The house, its renowned Gardens and its extensive estate with a four mile frontage on upper Loch Fyne and extending the length of Glen Fyne to Ben Lui, has a track record as a film location.

The Estate runs tours of Ardkinglas House every Friday afternoon at 2:30pm from April 3rd until 30th October.

Entrance fee: £6 per person. To book, please contact Ardkinglas Estate Office – by phone on 01499 600261; by Fax on 01499 600241; or by email at info@ardkinglas.com

Tour of Ardkinglas House, Cairndow

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Ardkinglas House, a neo-baronial mansion was designed and built in 1907 by Robert Lorimer, one of Scotland’s leading architects of the day. The house, its renowned Gardens and its extensive estate with a four mile frontage on upper Loch Fyne and extending the length of Glen Fyne to Ben Lui, has a track record as a film location.

The Estate runs tours of Ardkinglas House every Friday afternoon at 2:30pm from April 3rd until 30th October.

Entrance fee: £6 per person. To book, please contact Ardkinglas Estate Office – by phone on 01499 600261; by Fax on 01499 600241; or by email at info@ardkinglas.com

Argyll-resident QC of ‘Stone of Destiny Four’ in legal challenge to RBS on Wednesday in Oban

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Ian Hamilton QC, from North Connel in Argyll, is engaged in a legal dispute with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Mr Hamilton has taken a case against the bank at Oban Small Claims Court. He aims to recover the £1,282 cost of RBS shares that he bought in June – a time when he says the bank was technically insolvent. His case therefore rests on the presumption that RBS ‘fraudulently’ sold him the shares by concealing its insolvency.

In June 2008 RBS invited its shareholders to invest in a rights issue. Mr Hamilton’s wife received the invitation and he, on her behalf, bought around 640 shares at £2 each. they currently stand at 21.8 pence per share.

Mr Hamilton claims that RBS induced him make this investment ‘by concealing the true state of their finances’. In an alternative claim, he alleges the bank was ‘negligent in representing themselves as solvent at all material times when in fact they were insolvent’.

Were Mr Hamilton to win this case it would not set a precedent but it would offer encouragement and hope to other small shareholders to take the same route to recover their failed investment.

This has led RBS to take a legal step designed to frighten Mr Hamilton into dropping his case. It has written to Sherrif Court Clerk in Oban, asking that Mr Hamilton’s case be moved from the Small Claims Court to the higher Sherriff Court. The bank’s strategy is based on the Small Claims Court’s limit of £200 on costs payable. This limit does not apply to cases heard in the higher court.

Mr Hamilton says that, should the court agree to the RBS request and should he lose his case at that level, the RBS costs which he would then be required to pay would bankrupt him.

Oban Sheriff Court will, this Wednesday (18th February), hear Mr Hamilton and the RBS present their respective arguments on which court should hear the case.

Mr Hamilton was one of the now legendary gang of four students – along with Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson, and Alan Stuart – whose ingenuity saw them seize the Stone of Destiny from Westminister Abbey on Christmas Day 1950. Mr Hamilton has written on the matter: No Stone Unturned: The Story of the Stone of Destiny (published in 1952 by Victor Gollancz and by Funk and Wagnalls; and The Taking of the Stone of Destiny (a modern reprint by Seven Hills Book Distributors pubished in 1992)

Proposed Crown Estate exclusive offshore windfarm lease agreements include three sites in Argyll

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The Crown Estate- which historically owns the sea-bed to the 12 mile limit, including that around Scotland – announced today that it is offering exclusivity agreements for developments in ten areas within Scottish territorial waters. Three of these sites are off the coast of Argyll. This creates the potential for major economic development in the area. The sites in question are off the west coast of Kintyre close to Machrihanish, to the southwest of Islay and to the southwest of Tiree.

The Tiree site, the biggest of the three, is capable of producing 1,5MW, enough power for up to a million homes.

Welcoming the initiative, Argyll’s MSP Jim Mather – whose ministerial brief include energy – pointed out that the strategic development of renewable energy generation in Scottish territorial waters is a top priority. The Scottish Government is currently engaged in a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for offshore wind within Scottish territorial waters. This will see a managed  rather than piecemeal development process. The formal issue of site leases from the Crown Estate is subject to the specific outcomes of this assessment which will complete within the year.

Mr Mather says: ‘This is a hugely significant announcement and underscores the potential that the Scottish Government has identified for offshore wind as part of the development of renewables for Scotland.

‘Out of ten sites identified by the Crown Estates three are located off  the coast of Argyll & Bute and that must encourage hopes of long term economic benefit. While this is still at a very early stage I would like to put the following  on record:

  • ‘Our  Scottish Government is committed to the development of offshore wind and with approximately 25% of Europe’s offshore wind potential, the economic and community opportunities for Scotland are substantial.
  • ‘It is crucial that proposed developments, as they move forward, work hand in hand with the environment.  Therefore the Scottish Government is currently undertaking a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for offshore wind within Scottish territorial waters.  Formal site leases from the Crown Estate are subject to the outcome of this SEA, which will be completed within the next 12 months.
  • ‘Developers will also need relevant consents and licenses from Scottish Government – our processes not only involve full consideration of the potential impacts of site but detailed consultation with local communities and other stakeholders.

‘However it is clear that this could offer a major economic boost for Argyll & Bute’.

Details of the sites proposed for Argyll waters are:

Kintyre – where the applicant is Airtricity Holdings UK Ltd, the Capacity is 378 MW and the area of the site is 69.4 km2

Islay – where the applicant is Airtricity Holdings UK Ltd, the Capacity is 680 MW and the area of the site is 94.58 km2

Tiree – where the applicant is Scottish Power Renewables, the Capacity is 1,500MW and the site is 361 km2

McGrigor supports campaign to end long-distance transportation of horses to slaughter in Europe

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Highlands & Islands MSP Jamie McGrigor along with nearly eighty Scottish horse enthusiasts, joined an evening reception recently at the Scottish Parliament to show their support for World Horse Welfare’s Make A Noise campaign, aimed at ending the long-distance transportation of horses to slaughter in Europe.

The evening reception, hosted by World Horse Welfare and John Scott MSP was a success thanks to the wide range of attendees, including MSPs, horse and agricultural industry professionals, supporters and vets who all pledged to act to help end the practice, which causes over 100,000 horses a year to suffer.

Director of Campaigns and Communications at World Horse Welfare, Jo White, says: ‘We’re really pleased with such an outstanding show of Scottish support as we need as many people as possible to help us to tackle decision makers to end this inhumane trade’.

Dehydration, extreme exhaustion and injury are just some of the ways in which horses, ponies and donkeys suffer when travelling the slaughter route from source countries such as Poland, Romania and Spain to Italy, the main destination. These unnecessary journeys take days – one frequently used route passes 180 slaughter houses licensed for horses, meaning needless suffering continues rather than the horses being slaughtered and their chilled carcases shipped to consuming countries.

The reception comes just a few months after the hand-over of World Horse Welfare’s Dossier of Evidence to Commissioner Vassiliou (Commissioner for Health) in Strasbourg. The charity is now focusing on gaining as much support for the compelling document as possible. With transportation laws set to be reviewed this year, the Commission has given a clear indication that the recommendations outlined in the Dossier, on issues such as space allowance and journey times, will be given serious consideration.

Jamie McGrigor has backed his colleague John Scott MSP’s motion on World Horse Welfare’s campaign to end the long-distance transportation of horses to slaughter in Europe, which has so far been signed by 46 MSPs. Jamie comments: ‘I agree that it is unacceptable to think that in the twenty first century such a trade is allowed to continue when there are alternative methods which don’t involve vast numbers of horses suffering’.

If you haven’t yet signed World Horse Welfare’s Make A Noise petition please do it now online -  or call 01953 497262 for a paper copy.

There are Open Days and Open Days – but the Open Day at Dunstaffnage Marine Science HQ really is something else

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SAMS Arctic voyageThere really is only one place to be on 7th March – at Dunstaffnage and at the Open Day at the Marine Laboratory – or the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) as it’s properly called. SAMS is one of the major jewels in Argyll’s collection and its Open Day is an unrivalled opportunity to get in there, find out about the things they do and the places they go to to do them.

Most of what you find out you’ll never have imagined was going on, or that the engine driving it all is here in Argyll – on our doorstep.

Here’s a taster of the experiences and adventures waiting for visitors on the day.

  • Arctic Adventure – try on clothing worn by the SAMS scientists in the Arctic – meet these scientists  – see the sampling gear – and watch timetabled screenings of the BBC Newsnight Arctic programme about the SAMS Arctic cruise with images from the Arctic
  • Name SAMS’ new Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV)
  • Have a look at SAMS’ new Seaglider – with no propeller, it glides down through the ocean to deths of up to 1,000 metres
  • See inside the Minuglay Reef - one of the oldest and least explored coral reef habitats on earth

multibeam bathymetric sonar imageGo on board our research vessel (RV) Calanus and view the multibeam sonar

  • Visit the Culture Collection for Algae & Protozoa – which holds over 3000 cultures
  • Learn how to collect seawater and see what’s in there when you get it under the microscopes – you will be surprised
  • Be a sub-sea trekker: ‘It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it’ – observe real marine ‘aliens’ close-up
  • See a display of cold-water corals
  • Check out ‘what’s happening in Loch Fyne’ – could be news to locals
  • Explore the range of SAMS’ landers – Chamber lander, Ultra-deep transecting lander (things will continously move on this one) and the Eddy lander. Landers are devices built to study the chemical processes going on in what’s called ‘the near bottom layer’ of the ocean. SAMS’ landers fo regular sessions in Argyll’s Loch Creran. (Young people wll be allowed to release a lander – pushing the release button on the deck unit sending a signal to the lander to drop the weigth.
  • Use a VHF finder to track a lost lander – it can happen
  • Complete a multiple-choice quiz on landers – and win a prize

SAMS 2008 Open DayAnd there’ll posters, slideshows and short films of things related to lander deployments and measurements; display of different types of sensors and instuments (planar optode module, microelectrodes) including showing the tip (10microns) of a microelectrode in a microscope…

As we said – there is only one place to be on 7th March. Be there. The For Argyll fim unit will be there – trouble is we’ll have to work.

This fabulous event is supported by Sharing Science.

And here’s a conundrum For Argyll resolved – with a little help.

The SAMS inshore research ship, the RV Calanus is the second boat of that name. We wondered why it was called that, researched Calanus and discovered he was a sage of Alexander the Great who became ill with pneumonia in Persia and, rather than become a burden to others, cbose to die on a ceremonial pyre. Interesting story but we couldn’t immediately see any link to a marine science research ship.

Calanus CopepodSAMS then told us that the ship – their second Calanus – is named after a type of zooplankton, the Calanus Copepod. Copepods are tiny – 1-2millimetres long and they have these long outstretched antenna. But they don’t kill themselves, which was our first thought.

The Marine Biology Association in Devon has come up with one hint from a book written by two scientists, SM Marshall and AP Orr, at the Marine Station in Millport on Cumbrae. The suggestion is that the shape of this copepod, with its antennae held outstretched in this aesthetically balanced fashion, looked like a Yoga position. Calanus, the classical sage, was a Jain, an Indian ascetic religion whose followers may have practised this form of  physical health.

So there you are. That’s what we spend our time doing. As we’ve said before, we need to get out more.

From the top, the photographs are of: SAMS scientists on their first Arctic voyage in 2008; a wreck image from SAMS multibeam sonar; curious visitors at SAMS 2008 Open Day; a Calanus Copepod. The top three were supplied to For Argyll by SAMS and are reproduced here by permission. The bottom photograph – of a Calanus Copepod, is reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.

Argyll’s HMS Vanguard and French nuclear submarine – both heavily armed – damaged in major Atlantic collision

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HMS VanguardIt emerged a little while ago today that two heavily armed nuclear submarines had a serious collision in the Atlantic on 3rd or 4th February. Neither the British nor the French Defence Ministries will comment.

The submarines involved – the Royal Navy’s Faslane-based HHS Vanguard and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant, are both equipped with collision avoidance radar and should easily have been able to detect the other’s presence – but did not. Since both vessels also have sophisticated anti-detection gear, this was clearly the dominant factor in the equation that brought the two subs together.

While all nuclear deterrent operations depend on complete secrecy. The USA and the UK let each other know the areas where their submarines are operating. Although both France and the UK are members of NATO, neither vessel seems to have been aware of the close presence of the other submarine.

Both submarines have been described by the BBC’s Defence Correspondent as having been ‘seriously armed’ at the time of the collision. No injuries are understood to have occurred.

HMS Vanguard had to  be towed back into dock at Faslane on Saturday (14th February) with, it is said, ‘very visible dents and scrapes’.

Le TriomphantWhile both Defence Ministries insist that there was no danger of a nuclear incident this is not being accepted by experts as a credible position. A nuclear explosion was ‘unlikely’, according to a senior Royal Navy source talking to the Sun newspaper and reported by CNN but the source went on to say: ‘A radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster’.

Vanguard, launched in 1992, is one of four submarines making up the UK’s nuclear deterrent. Its weaponry includes 16 Trident II D5 missiles whihc have the capacity to deliver multiple warheads to targets up to 4,000 nautical miles away.

At 150m long,  Vanguard carries a crew of 141 and is powered by a uranium-fueled pressurized water reactor. Vanguard Class submarines routinely spend weeks at a time underwater on patrol in the North Atlantic.

Le Triomphant, launched in 1994, also 150m long and based at Ile Longue in Brittany, suffered severe damage to its sonar dome, in the collision according to the Daily Telegraph.

GlobalSecurity.org reports her as carrying a crew of 111. Her  weaponry includes 16 M45 missiles capable of launching multiple nuclear warheads.

The BBC quotes the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) as saying that this was: ‘a nuclear nightmare of the highest order”.

CND chair Kate Hudson said: “The collision of two submarines, both with nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons onboard, could have released vast amounts of radiation and scattered scores of nuclear warheads across the seabed.”

The nuclear risks in such an incident are twofold. The submarines carry nuclear warheads – which in this case were armed; and they are powered by nuclear reactors.

Both photogrpahs above – HMS Vanguard, top, (by John Bouvia) andf Le Triomphant, are reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.

Very good news for Lighthouse Caledonia

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Northern Link – a private equity investor advised by Edinburgh-based First Mercantile Partners – has just announced that it has taken a holding of 77 million of the 150 million Norwegian Kroner that Lighthouse Caledonia has now raised in the Private Placement of Shares it conducted at the end of last week. This has to be approved by Lighthouse Caledonia’s Board of Directors and its EGM on 3rd March and must be certain to gain that approval.

Northern Link would then hold more than 50% of the shares in Lighthouse Caledonia and says that when the current acquisition is approved it will be prepared to make a bid for the remaining shares, under the relevant section of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

First Mercantile, who have advised Northern Link in this, have a lot of experience in direct investment, in turning failing companies around and in public stock exchange listings.

In the announcement of this development, James J Mullins from First Mercantile says: ‘We look forward to this major strategic investment in Lighthouse Caledonia and are optimistic about the company’s position in the Scottish salmon market.  This transaction provides an opportunity for Lighthouse Caledoniato increase its working capital and to reduce and restructure its outstanding debt. This investment is a clear indicator of our confidencein the company and its potential, and we look forward to working with management and existing shareholders in helping to expand Lighthouse Caledonia’s markets and opportunities for growth’.

With Lighthouse Caledonia’s operation in Argyll a major part of the company’s business and supporting its role as an established employer in the area, this announcement is good news all round.

The arts – thoughts, provocations and blue skies

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Jim Mather’s conversation with the arts and culture people in Argyll yesterday got a lot of things moving. The turn events took in the afternoon also threw up big issues to kick around. This seems like a good time for everyone, makers and audiences of all sorts of artistic activity in Argyll, to open up and share aspirations, ambitions, good practice, insights, irritations, plans and invitations.

Let’s start with a look at the role of what we call ‘the arts’ in life. They are inseparable. Life is indivisible from art. We make sound. We sing. We dance. We use space to enable. We use colour, light, mass, angles, curves, the tactile to manage our environment, our reaction to it and what we offer to others. We juxtapose because we know intuitively that any creation is more than the sum of its parts. We find ways of representing inner and outer realties to offer to others to consider. We use words to shade, texture, ground and float meaning and emotion. And the urge to narrative is inescapable. It is the way we do what we can to shape and direct the anarchic life around us.

None of this is dependent on any agency beyond ourselves, or on funding, or on structures or even on recognition. We do it first for ourselves; and then, when we choose, to share.

This is the art nothing – not even repression – can stifle. Societies lacking the freedom of speech and controlled by censorship have traditionally found their own ways of going underground in private performances and in using the ambiguity of art to ‘say’ things in the codes of image which censors cannot demonstrate with certainty to be subversive.

But like everything else, the vitality of art lies in innovation and development. For those who choose this road, it involves opportunities to perfect an innate craft, to hone and move skills closer to perfection, to learn from others, to face diverse challenges, to experiment. And this requires resources, tuition, travel, challenge, mentoring, sharing and showing.

Then there are those – all of us – who benefit from receiving the experience of art as well – or instead – of making it. We use it to balance and extend our life experience, to come to terms with it, to intervene in it – and to enjoy it.

If the experiences are good enough, if they are attuned to our needs and if we grow to understand their value to us, we will pay for them. If they aren’t, why should others pay for them for us?

What sort of ground-up structure and infrastructure would best support these needs and breathe oxygen into the arts world, seeing it work to be self-supporting at the least?

Brecht said: ‘Food comes first. Morals follow on’. Government’s have utterly defensible priorities in line with this value set.  Art can never be at the same level in the pecking order of statutory provision as health or education, although it has symbiotic relationships with both.

So where do we start? What have we got? What can we do for ourselves? What do we want to see in Argyll? What will fit this place? And what’s the blue skies thinking?

  • Abolish all state subsidy – let die whatever people don’t want enough to pay for?
  • Liberate battery art – open the doors to all Art Galleries and let people come and take whatever they like and give it a good home?
  • Dump on ebay all the surplus art that’s never, or rarely, on show and has to be expensively – or ruinously – stored and maintained – and use the money to pay for new facilities and grow new art?
  • Nominate and elect our Arts representatives to Creative Scotland or whatever emerges from the catfight? Have non-party-political Arts constituencies, reps, manifestos, hustings and online elections? Let them come courting us? Make them accountable at the sharp end of a vote and get some new energy going?

Use the Respond facility below this and keep the ideas and comments coming – and comment on comments. For Argyll will make sure that the debate will get the attention it deserves. There a lot of capacity, innovation, ability and drive in the arts and culture scene in Argyll. Let’s make it stick.

Alan Reid seems to see Roseanna Cunningham as a lesser force than Michael Russell on the forest leasing scheme

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There has been a highly politicised and fact-free campaign against the Scotish Government’s quite sensible proposal to lease 25% of Scotland’s forest estate to raise the money to pay for climate change measures – which the taxpayer would other wise have to find.

For Argyll has noted with some amusement that Alan Reid MP, a minor player in this campaign, has issued a statement to the Argyllshire Advertiser welcoming the appointment of Roseanna Cunningham as Environment Minister, replacing Michael Russell who has been promoted to Culture Minister with responsibility also for Europe, External Affairs and the Independence Referendum to be held in 2010.

In his statement, Alan Reid says: ‘I am delighted that former Minister Michael Russell has been replaced (note: this is phrased to suggest failure – Alan is a spinner with the rest of them). He simply was not listening to the strong opposition of the people of Argyll to the SNP plans (note: not the ‘Scottish Government plans’ but the party political phrase: ‘SNP plans’) to sell our forests to private investment companies (note: the plan is not ‘to sell our forests’ but to lease 25% of them for 75 years).’

Mr Reid goes on: ‘I have sent her a message of congratulations and asked her to come to a public meeting when she is scheduled to be in Argyll on February 23rd to meet Councillors’.

It is instructive to compare some facts here.

Alan Reid has made contact with Roseanna Cunningham, at least 11 days in advance, to ask her to attend a meeting in Lochgilphead on 23rd February. In contrast to this fairly prompt action, he emailed Michael Russell about the previous meeting (itself held after the consultation period was already over) at 11.23pm on 27th January on an event scheduled for less than three days later on 30th January.

Interestingly Mr Reid addressed that midnight email not to Michael Russell but to ‘Government Ministers’ – which is the Holyrood ‘pool’ address. This receives hundreds of emails daily from the general public – to any and all Ministers and on every conceivable subject. It is staffed by an admin team who simply plough their way down the incoming deluge and issue general responses as a holding operation while they draw matters to the attention of the ministers concerned.

There is no way that an email sent at this notice to the general sink email address could have reached the Environment Minister in time – and it didn’t. The email pool staff did not even get to Mr Reid’s dead letter until 2nd February. The meeting was then told that no response had been received from the Minister to an invitation to attend or to send a statement.

Mr Reid’s fulsome and early welcome and invitation to Roseanna Cunningham would suggest that he sees her as a pushover where he was clearly running scared that Michael Russell – a combative debater on top of his brief – might actually come to his meeting. His actions in ‘inviting’ the Minister in an email sent this late speaks of a man havering out of fear.

Havering might be construed as an unfair judgement, as would procrastination, perhaps the Member for Argyll and Bute would like to comment below on what his reasons were for sending out the invitation at such a late juncture and to such a generic email address.

Alan Reid’s  judgement is no more secure on this occasion. Roseanna Cunningham is a formidable and well informed politician and Mr Reid is unlikely to find her rolling over when faced with however many anxious, angry and under-informed Argyll folk he can muster.

In clarification, we should state that our sight of the emails from Alan Reid to Ministers on the occasion of the belated Lochgilphead meeting arose from material supplied to us by Alan Reid himself.

For Argyll has found Alan Reid largely to be a conscientious constituency representative at Westminster. His behaviour in this devolved matter has been uncharacteristic, disappointing and has let him down.