This photo is of a Harbour Porpoise at Fjord- og Bæltcentret in Kerteminde, Denmark, taken by Malene Thyssen and licensed under Creative Commons.

Freedom of Information procedures have shown that when it was known that Westminster Scottish Secretary, Des Browne, intended to appoint Mr Morrison, Ms Fabiani made a formal objection. She also feels that scant time was given to the Scottish Government to comment on the matter. She has told Mr Browne’s junion minister in the Scottish Office, David Cairns: “You appear oblivious to the prospect of eroding public confidence by the selection of a former member of the Scottish Parliament and previous minister as chairman of a public service broadcasting organisation.”

In response, Mr Cairns said he profoundly disagreed with the Scottish Culture Minister’s claim that the Scottish Government had the right to have a “significant influence” over the appointment since the new Gaelic media service, MG Alba, had been established with £12million in Scottish taxpayers’ money. Mr Cairns refused to accept this, saying - with no apparent sense of irony: “I do not believe any government should exercise such influence. … I believe strongly in the independence of the media, which is why this government ended the practice of previous Conservative ministers appointing their cronies to chair the BBC”. In turn, Ms Fabiani has formally written to Sir Christopher Kelly, Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, drawing the matter to his attention.

The lifejackets affected by both recalls all bear the following marks: IV/05, I/06, II/06, III/06, IV/06, I/07 and II/07. They are marked with the manufacturing date on the reverse of the white labels found sewn into the lifejacket below the inflation system so if you own one of these types of jacket, please check the manufacturing date as described above. Contact Seago direct on 01825 873632 if you have any queries. In major sailing waters like those of Argyll, this is an urent matter. Please pass on this information to any sailing friends and circulate it in your yacht club..

The correct number for Oban Airport is 01631 710910 - but don’t ring today. It’s affected by the local authority workers’ 24-hour strike and there’s no one to answer the phones. The airport is run by Argyll and Bute Council.

Most UK newspapers, including Scottish ones, have had an online service for some time but have seen it as their second string rather than the news frontier it is. This means that their web presence is not optimising the advantages of the very nature of the medium and can be quite lame. On the other hand, the BBC recognised very early the unstoppability of the internet and decided to get in there and lead the way. It has been innovative, strategic and energetic. Others could have done the same but lacked the vision. It has not simply been about money. It has been about foresight and a commitment to the new. Now all that the left-behinds can do is attempt to obstruct development. This is the thumb-in-dyke moment for the press world. There would be a logic in their attempt to slow down the advance of the BBC if they were using the time to develop radically their own online services behind the scenes. On evidence, this is unlikely. People use the BBC’s online services in hugely increasing numbers because they are the best. There are ways of competing with them and the energetic will find those ways. while the rest continue to whinge.

See previous comment in this issue in our Yakking section - above under Activities.

The photo above is of Skipness Castle. The copyright on this image is owned by Patricvk Mackie, licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Photo above shows The Waverley in its 1994 guise, steaming off Gourock in the Clyde. The photographer is Dave Souza and the photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.