Monthly Archives: February 2009

The Herald goes for hypocrisy

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Sad to see a good newspaper lose the plot so comprehensively. Today’s (28th February) Herald has:

  • its lead two-column article on Page 1 -  ‘Pressure on Sir Fred to do the right thing on pension’.
  • a full-length single column continuation of this on Page 2, inside the front cover
  • almost all of Page 5- a right hand page – on the Goodwin pension issue, under the page-wide banner headline: ‘Heat falls on Myners as blame game begins over ‘Fred the Shred’ pension

And of all of this copy, a total of about two column inches – at the end of the major piece on the Page 5 spread above, is devoted to this:

‘Of course, given all the heat the UK Government has taken on the banking crisis, it comes as no surprise that Mr Brown and his colleagues are keen to keep the limelight firmly on Sir Fred and his £16.6m pension pot rather than the little matter of the UK Government’s biggest ever financial commitment, the taking on of the banks’ bad debt which could ultimately run to £600bn’.

There’s a simple solution to this that the editor of The Herald might consider. You can recognise that the Government strategy is to turn the spotlight on Fred Goodwin’s pension and keep the public barely aware of the major morass into which it has led the national economy – but you do not have to help to do it. And you deserve little but contempt for the hypocrisy of trying to maintain some credibility by saying what you see in a throwaway paragraph at the end of a rabble-rousing splurge. Face up to your very real responsibilities.

For Argyll is no apologist for bankers but there is something profoundly distasteful about the nationwide baying over the Goodwin pension. The distaste is not just for the mass bullying. It is for the lack of independent thought and for the inadequate pubished scrutiny of Government behaviour.

The Herald, on its front page piece, quotes Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Oxford yesterday, expressing ‘anger’ at Sir Fred’s pension and saying that it is ‘ “unjustifiable and unacceptable” given Sir Fred had led the bank to the brink of collapse and to a record £24bn annual loss’.

Yet the paper did not attempt to set Brown’s comments in context. These remarks were, after all, made by the man who has led the entire country to the brink of collapse and to a record and unimaginable volume of national debt – £2 trillion and rising. Sir Fred’s £693 thousand pension is peanuts and it never was the issue.

The newspaper industry is in deep trouble – in America, where Seattle, Denver and Tucson are about to lose major titles – and in the UK. It is in trouble because it has failed to renew itself and to translate itself to operate in today’s media environment. Here we have a rightly respected Scottish newspaper letting itself down badly – demonstrating that it has not even rethought the outdated journalistic ruts of yesterday.

Mid Argyll Swimming Pool – a vital community facility that needs community commitment now

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Mid Argyll Swimming Pool is still operating – so keep using it. The Board met last night (26th February) in emergency session to discuss its current financial crisis. There were seventeen people present.  Fifteen were supporters representing a range of supportive community groups and organisations. The others were the only two remaining members of the Board: Chair Colin McLean and Denise McDiarmid, each of whom has a strong background in finance..

Even this fact makes several important things clear. There is strong and widespread community support for the facility. The remaining members of the Board are key placements with very necessary skill sets. The Board now needs new members. Start thinking about this and we’ll return to it shortly.

Since our last report, as well as last night’s meeting the following developments have taken place:

  • The bank extended its overdraft to enable staff wages for February to be met.
  • The Pool has had a good earning week with a new series of swimming lessons just started
  • Management accounts and a crisis-response business plan are already in preparation
  • The Chair of the Board met with senior Council officials this afternoon (27th February) to discuss what they would want to see in place to enable them to consider emergency assistance

After this whirlwind series of events and admitting to not having slept for ten days, Colin McLean says cautiously that:’The position is still fragile but there is reason to be hopeful that a solution can be found’. It should be noted that Mr McLean considered the word ‘optimistic’ here and rejected it in favour of ‘hopeful’ – a more sober assessment of the realities.

If short term assistance can be provided by the council, it is clear that additional sources of funding for the future will need to be found from other sources.

The situation is recoverable if the will can be summoned communally to make it happen. The Board needs £10,000 for the Pool’s immediate stability. While this is not an insignificant amount of money, it is not impossibly daunting.

This is an important community resource. Children learn to swim in it. People of all ages use it to exercise, socialise and stay healthy. To stay open, the Pool now urgently needs resources from the community it serves:

  • new members of the board – and people with a business or management background would obviously be hugely valuable. This might come from recently retired business people willing to step in and bring thier expertise to bear for the good of the wider community. It migh come from working business people who are good time managers and are prepared to bring their skills to bear on the situation. If you could help with this, please ring 01546 606676
  • donations and sponsorships – from individuals and businesses. These will not only help at a very practical level. They will demonstrate to potential funders that the Pool is regarded by its community as a genuinely valuable service. However small or large such donations may be, they will be warmly welcomed. If you could help with this, please ring 01546 606676

Polphail: Argyll’s Most Recent Lost Village

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Polphail 1 © Philippa Elliot 2009The idea of lost villages in Argyll conjures visions of the clearances, of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, of windswept tumbledown steadings, of the displaced and dispossessed. Philippa Elliott’s online photo exhibit of Polphail published on this site today shows a deserted, deteriorating village, but one which was never even inhabited and was built in the 20th century.
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Volunteer for the RSPB’s Argyll Black Grouse Recovery Project – and read a great Press Release

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Black Grouse - Chris Gomersall copyrightThe Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is calling for volunteers to take part in its Argyll Black Grouse Recovery Project. RSPB Press Officer Jenny Tweedie has sent out a classic Press Release to publicise the need for people to help staff count the numbers in Argyll of this famously secretive bird. There are a lot of different sites so the RSPB really need  people to volunteer from every area of Argyll. It sounds like a fabulous experience. But let Jenny Tweedie tell the story: Continue reading →