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The Johnston Press, owners of The Buteman serving Continue reading
The Buteman’s owner, Johnston Press, faces possible job losses and sale of titles
Argyll’s Isle of Bute is anxious about the future of its excellent local paper, The Buteman. Johnston Press, owner of a portfolio of newspaper titles from The Scotsman to The Buteman, has announced record losses amidst a 36% fall in advertising revenues – warning that this is likely to mean further job losses on top of the 1,130 it shed in 2008.
With the company shouldering a serious debt burden of around £475million, it is also now thought that the sale of some UK titles is possible as part of the company’s restructuring. Johnston Press has, as For Argyll reported, recently started looking for buyers of some of its Irish titles.
The company is also pessimistic about the coming year. John Fry, its new CEO, has warned that 2009 are expected to be well below those of 2008.
On the same day, Trinity Mirror closed a local newspaper in Derbyshire. The Long Eaton Advertiser has been the voice of its community for one hundred years. It is among more than 30 localnewspapers in rthe UK to close this year with a loss of over 2,300 jobs. (Roy Greenslade, in Britain’s vanishing newspapers, estimates that 42 titles have closed in 13 moths – 4% of the total.)
The newspaper industry is asking the UK Government to allow more newspaper groups to merge in order to compete more effectively with the mass migration of news audiences and advertisers to online services.
This situation highlights Johnston Press’s problem. It began a long process of acquisitions in the 1970s. This continued into the mid 1990s when it bought up much of the EMAP press portfolio, up to 2002 when it bought Regional Independent Media’s titles and on to 2005 when, after spending £300 million on another six titles, it bought Scotsman Publications from the Barclay Brothers. Its fleet of titles today numbers over 300.
One obvious problem has been the falling pound which has hit particularly hard because Johnston Press borrowed in euros four years ago to acquire the Irish titles for which it is now seeking buyers.
That was bad luck. The big mistake was bad judgement and was therefore of the company’s own making.
With research evidence available on the scale of migration to online services of users and advertisers alike, it is hard to understand why Johnston Press persisted in major acquisitions after this pattern was known.
This is not a time for investment in newspapers, which itself may make it difficult for the company in the various restructuring measures it is exploring.
The Buteman’s owners, Johnston Press, to announce massive write downs
The Johnston Press, owners of The Scotsman and The Buteman among other titles, wrote off £109 million in its 2008 first half results.
In its 2008 second half results, to be revealed this week, it is expected to announce write downs of hundreds of millions.
Its advertising revenues, down by 30% in the last quarter of 2008 and by 40% in the first two months of 2009, are expected to be be down by 20% overall. Turnover is likely to be down by 12% to around £535 million and pre-tax profit down by over 30% to £93 million.
The company is thought to have a debt burden of around £450 million.
900 jobs have been shed to date and, with new CEO John Fry engaging in a deep cost cutting exercise to pull the situation back, more job losses now look inevitable.
This Is Who We Are – photographs from the journeys to find out
For Argyll has published a feature article – This Is Who We Are – on the exhibition of that name, the most inspirational of the main Homecoming Scotland 2009 commissions. Its creators are Graeme Murdoch, a photographer and former art director for a series of national newspapers and Harry McGrath, an academic and Coordinator of the Centre for Scottish Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver (pictured left, with Harry on the left and Graeme on the right).
The exhibition brings together images from a selection of Scottish diaspora communities in Canada – in Nova Scotia, Alberta and British Columbia.
The journey described in the feature – from Vancouver to Calgary, Airdrie, Canmore, Banff, Craigellachie, Coldstream, Mont Currie and back to Vancouver – was one of several the two men made in putting this exhibition together.
What follows here is a series of photographs taken on these journeys by Graeme Murdoch and captioned by him. Together they catch something of the flavour of the rich variety of experiences the two men encountered as they tracked the seeds planted by the Scots in Canada.
THE ROAD EAST: after a long flight from Edinburgh we headed east from Vancouver. Now we are in Western Canada driving hundreds of miles on the Trans Canada Highway through rainforests, snow capped mountains, and arid plains to places where Scots have been before and left a trail of toponyms – Calgary, Banff, Airdrie, Coldstream, Craigallachie, Abbotsford – for us to follow. Ahead of us is Mount MacDonald, named after John MacDonald, Canada’s first premier. Beyond, the Rockies, and our destination, Calgary. (Photo: Graeme Murdoch)
CALGARY, ALBERTA: the petro-capital of western Canada. The original settlement became a post of the North-West Mounted Police (now the RCMP). Originally named Fort Brisebois, after NWMP officer Éphrem A Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod after his home on Mull. The day after we hit town we appeared on CTV live noon news. ‘I had no idea that Calgary was named after a place in Scotland’, said Ian White, CTV anchor man. Our story was launched. (Photo: Graeme Murdoch)
AIRDRIE: the open plains of Airdrie in Alberta. (Photo: Kori Sych)
BEAR CUB: we were eager to see bears, and did in British Columbia, but our friend Pam Doyle, the writer/photographer on the Canmore Leader sent us this picture of a bear cub making a dash for the woods. (Photo by Pam Doyle)
IONA: East Bay, near Iona. This was the first major Scottish Settlement on Cape Breton Island (Photo by Derek Campbell)
CAPE BRETON CHURCH: snowy kirkyard in Inverness County, Cape Breton. (Photo: Derek Campbell)
SIGNS: Scotland is everywhere in Canada. This is the north shore road in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. One name not on the sign is Knoydart which is a small hamlet near Lismore. (Photo: Graeme Murdoch)
LISMORE, NOVA SCOTIA: The sun lit church cemetery of ST Mary’s RC church. Two lines from a poem on a panel by the church state:
“A narrow creed drove Scotmen o’er the sea,
Their hearts were Mary’s and they would be free.”
by Rev. A. A. MacKinnon
Lismore was once called Bailey’s Brook after John Baillie, a disbanded soldier from the 82nd Regiment, who settled at the mouth of the brook. It is a settlement of Highland Catholics beginning in 1788. (Photo: Graeme Murdoch)
PICTOU: It is 5.30am and I wake to the first clear sky since we arrived in Nova Scotia. This is the graveyard on the point outside town where many of the descendants of the settlers who arrived on the Hector in 1773 are buried. The names on the headstones are testimony to Pictou’s motto: “The Birthplace of New Scotland”. There are Grants, Frasers, MacDonalds, Mackintoshes laid to rest here. (Photo: Graeme Murdoch)
Copy right on all the photographs above resides with the named photogrtaphers and are reproduced here with permission.
This Is Who We Are
We’re about to describe a journey so start seeing it in your head. The first step is a drive east to Calgary, then north to Airdrie, back south to Calgary, then north west to Banff and south west through Craigellachie to Coldstream.
Much of this is familiar but something’s not quite right. If you drove east to Calgary you’d be starting in the Atlantic. If you went north from Calgary looking for Airdrie you’d be hard put to find it – and if you struck north west from Calgary to Banff you’d land on Barra first.
We’re not in Scotland, of course. We’re in Canada, travelling with two inventive and creative Scots. One is photographer and former national newspaper art director, Graeme Murdoch, who has worked with some of the world’s leading photographers and ‘done time at The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday’. His colleague is academic, Harry McGrath, who has lived in Canada for 25 years and has been Coordinator of the Centre for Scottish Studies at Simon Fraser University – a name known to every piper in the world and whose pipe band is the current Grade 1 World Champions.
Graeme and Harry are here in pursuit of the most exciting and productive of the inspirations to be stimulated by the Homecoming Scotland 2009 initiative. They’re exploring the other Scotland, out west – and finding out who we are, whichever of the Scotlands we live in just now.
The route travelled on the journey above, one of many on this odyssey, says everything about what the two men are doing. They are taking a set of what we receive as familiar places, then throwing them into an entirely different relationship to each other and to us – and the result is disturbing and oddly exciting. They then reveal ‘the other’, something we know and do not know at the same time.
All of this starts to put a picture together, to show us who we are. As Graeme says, you don’t have to be a native Scot to be of Scotland. An article in Hidden Europe said of Argyll, ‘Argyll is a state of mind’. This is as equally true of Scotland as it is of any place that matters to anyone.
The top photograph is of the Bay at the original Calgary in the north west of Argyll’s Isle of Mull. (Photo:Scottish Viewpoint) The lower photograph is of Calgary, Alberta - the petro-capital of western Canada. The original settlement became a post of the North-West Mounted Police (now the RCMP). Originally named Fort Brisebois, after NWMP officer Éphrem A Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod after his home on Mull. (Photo: Graeme Murdoch)
One place and another
Look at what happens if you superimpose the two maps.
Vancouver looks east to Canada’s Calgary and further east to the first Calgary on the north west of Argyll’s Isle of Mull – looking chronologically from the newer development to its source. It’s a reverse experience of standing at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, looking up the Champs Elysees through the Arc de Triomph and out to La Defense where the modern Grande Arche – the imperative of the future, dominates the horizon.
And talking of reversals, this is a world where Knoydart is a hamlet near Lismore.
Scotland’s first Airdrie can put itself in the position of its newer namesake (the photograph above shows the open plains of Airdrie in Alberta. Photo: Kori Sych ) and feel the pull of the mighty Calgary to its south.
All of this drives you to interrogate your orientation and to explore the impact of different relationships. There’s nothing so liberating as ‘What if…’.
Harry and Graeme put their journey plans together and then took off. Graeme describes them both as ‘media tarts’ so when they hit each place on their route, they make for the TV and radio stations and the local papers. It doesn’t take long for the old arterial connections they are after to start running free again.
On one occasion they were on CTV’s noon news bulletin in Calgary after what Graeme describes as: ‘… a 14 hour flight from Edinburgh via Amsterdam to Vancouver, then a 480 mile drive across the Rockies and looking like we’d been up all night, which was not far from the truth’. During the five minute interview, Ian White the anchorman, admitted he hadn’t known that Canada’s great oil and gas metropolis was named after a tiny settlement on the west coast of Mull. He does now – and so do his viewers.
This Is Who We Are
Graeme Murdoch says of the photo below: Now we are in Western Canada driving hundreds of miles on the Trans Canada Highway through rainforests, snow capped mountains, and arid plains to places where Scots have been before and left a trail of toponyms – Calgary, Banff, Airdrie, Coldstream, Craigallachie, Abbotsford – for us to follow. Ahead of us is Mount MacDonald, named after John MacDonald, Canada’s first premier. Beyond, the Rockies, and our destination, Calgary. (Photo: Graeme Murdoch)
In each community in their tours of Canada – in Nova Scotia, Alberta and British Columbia – the two initiate a photography project among the local people. What they produce will eventually link back to the places in Scotland with the same names and is gradually creating a digital archive of images of the Scottish diaspora.
Graeme and Harry are shaping an exhibition from all of this. It will never be finished because there are so many Scotlands across the world to be connected with each other. But it already has a strong identity. This Is Who We Are is the title of their initial exhibition. It was launched by then Environment now Culture Minister, Michael Russell, at Dumfries on Burns Night and will complete its current cycle in an exhibition at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood on St Andrews Day.
There can be no stronger statement about the perceived value of this work than that it has opened and will close Homecoming Scotland 2009. It is and will be the gatekeeper, the junction, the exchange of experiences, the melting pot, the new Scottish alchemy. It makes it possible for Scots everywhere to see backwards and forwards in a single gaze.
What it has already done is extraordinary. These two men have flown, driven and walked the line between Scotlands. They have been a physical and present link between them. You could legitimately use the word ‘ambassadorial’ but that word summons something more self important than life enhancing. This work articulates the incoherent heart of Homecoming Scotland, giving it meaning, dignity – freeing it to soar.
Discoveries
The men have entered the maelstrom of the diaspora and emerged clutching treasures from the deep past.
One of these was the discovery that many of the Lil’wat First Nation community in Mount Currie, near Whistler – host to the 2010 Winter Olympics – carry the surname Wallace. One of the Lil’wat Wallaces, now a friend, Stan Wallace, told how he thought they had come to have the name.
He believes that Government Indian agents went through the valley to register native people and ‘either couldn’t spell our Indian names or didn’t want to and so assigned us random names’. It seems likely that one of these agents was a Scot who used the iconic Wallace name as one of the ‘random’ names to be chosen.
Harry points out: ‘Renaming First Nation people was common practice and part of a form of cultural denigration that included banning of cultural practices like potlach and longhouses and eventually the taking away of children and placing them in residential schools far from their community. The latter happened to Stan who was taken as a child by the Oblate Fathers and put in residential school three hundred miles away near Prince George’.
Stan’s wife, Shawn Wallace who is the main continuing contact for Harry and Graeme, has her own more direct Scottish connection. Her Great Great Grandfather came from Orkney and was called Bruce – so in her life she has been both Bruce and Wallace.
Harry also says that the youth soccer team from Mount Currie has been to Scotland to play, brought here by Jim Easton who was a professional with Hibs in the 1960s and now lives in Vancouver. The most recent connection with Mount Currie is the This Is Who We Are project.
The photograph above shows Frank Wallace, a Lil’wat traditional dancer (Photo by ShawnWallace, wife of Stan Wallce whose theory about the origins of the Wallace name in the Lil’wat First Nation is above.)
Art for life’s sake
This article reflects only a fragment of the interconnections Graeme (on the right in this photograph) and Harry (on the left) have unearthed and reinvigorated and it makes you impatient and hungry for more.
The exhibition in not the sort of art that any Duke of Sutherland will ever sell to the nation for £50million for passive viewing.
This is an art that we are a part of making, that encompasses us, that shows us to ourselves in new ways, that opens doors to possibilities of all kinds. It is a fluid and living art, responsive to its circumstances, never complete. It deals in the territory between the moment and the infinite. It is not a fixed and unchanging art that draws its audiences to its own certainties.
As he opened the exhibition at its launch, Culture Minister Michael Russell said: ‘This exhibition brings us closer to the real idea of homecoming: it presents the link that is made by people who are like us but who have faced different challenges. It is an exhibition that is not only visually exciting but also one that stirs emotions and thoughts’.
Jim Mather, Enterprise, Energy and Tourism Minister and Argyll’s MSP, said of the project: ‘This is a truly magical project that uses the power of photography to connect and lift the spirits of people in Scotland and Canada. For many of us on this side of the Atlantic we now have the evidence that not just hearts are Highland and Scottish but so too is the warmth of many modern photographed Canadians. Equally, these photographs confirm the great affinity between our peoples whether there are genetic links or not. The photos also show we share values and attitudes and my wish is that long may they continue to bind us together’.
It would be a privilege for Argyll to have the opportunity to be a part of this most galvanic of the Homecoming Scotland events and to engage in this conversation between Scotlands. It has to be possible and it has to be made possible.
The photograph above shows Harry McGrath on the left and Graeme Murdoch on the right.
Footnotes:
See and read the companion story to this feature under Homecoming Argyll in the top menu of this site – This Is Who We Are: photographs from the journeys to find out - a piece of photo-journalism by Graeme Murdoch on the his and Harry McGrath’s journeys and experiences across Canada, treading in the footsteps of those whose forefathers footsteps had once imprinted on the hills and glens of Scotland.
See and read too the articles below, from the media in the UK, Canada and Scotland, describing and reflecting on This Is Who We Are. There is little duplication. Each of these adds to what you see and discover about this adventure in Scottish conversations.
- Scots Canadians tell mither country who they are (Times Online)
- Photo project unites Scotland with Canada (Canmore Leader)
- The Scots in Canada (Video news onThis Is Who We Are: The Herald on Sunday)
- Scots connect the dots via Photos (Canada.com)
- Photo project connects with Scotland (The Advocate – Nova Scotia)
Copyright on all photographs above resides with the named photographer and are reprodced here with permission.
So why did Argyll refuse the This Is Who We Are exhibition?
There is another side to ‘who we are’: unmotivated, uninventive, unenthused, unambitious, perhaps demoralised. This negative tendency just booted into touch a proposal that the This Is Who We Are exhibition might come here. (Sorry for the metaphor but it has been a big rugby weekend.)
Argyll was offered this exhibition and the brief reply received from Argyll and Bute Council’s arts department at Eaglesham House in Rothesay was simply that there are no exhibition spaces in Argyll and Bute.
When this was brought to For Argyll’s attention yesterday (28th February and not, we would want to make clear, by the curators themselves whom we had not known before) we were infuriated, despairing and challenged in equal part.
It is infuriating to have evidence that indicates a lack of imagination, red corpuscles and simple get-up-and-go in the only formal point of access to the arts in Argyll. Who could not be enlivened by the generative excitement of this work? Who would not bend walls to make it happen here?
It is despairing to wonder how many other exciting experiences have been offered to Argyll over God knows how many years and have been similarly stifled at birth. This is unlikely to have been the only such incident.
Argyll cannot afford to be seen by the creative industries as an inactive sump. Along with renewable energy, outdoor activity resources and wildlife access, cultural energy will breed a major part of the social and economic development Argyll badly needs.
Yes, it may be that good people are in the wrong jobs. It may be that the appointing criteria are wrong – that the added value that specific ‘charged’ individuals can bring to a job is not prioritised. It may also be that the jobs are wrong, that they don’t offer room for creative and policy input. It may be all of these things. Neither Argyll nor Scotland will grow if we do not engage with these issues and take responsibility for change.
And we can do this
Calgary is a major link between Canada and Argyll. So is Campbeltown. So is Rothesay. So is Lismore . So is Iona. And there are others. This work speaks to and for Argyll. It has to be seen here.
For Argyll was immediately challenged by the immediate nonsense of the alleged lack of any suitable spaces for this exhibition in Argyll. You have only to read the links to media responses to the exhibition in the UK, Canada and Scotland – given here below and supplied to Argyll and Bute Council arts department – to understand the flexible and informal nature of the work. Its heart is conversational and interactive. It does not need Tate Modern to materialise in Mid Argyll.
The exhibition, as it is formed – and it can be reformed – consists of 4 wall-hung panels measuring 1.6 metres wide and two free-standing displays which are 2.6 metres wide by 2 metres high. These use both sides. There is also an iMovie video. Graeme and Harry have made it clear that they will also do a talk and slideshow in venues too small even for such a physically undemanding show.
So the Corran Halls in Oban could not host such an exhibition? And An Tobar on Tobermory, next door to Calgary, is incapable of this as well, even though exhibitions are part of its normal programme? Aqualibrium in Campeltown has no exhibition space and would have no interest in this opportunity? We’ve phoned Aqualibrium and the answer is a positive yes on both counts. What about the magnificent Craignish Hall or the almost mystical Crear? What about Islay’s Ionad Chaluim Chille Ile – and the new Port Mor Centre? And what about the Here We Are centre at Cairndow – a perfect foil to ‘This is who we are’?
What’s not possible?
- Scots Canadians tell mither country who they are (Times Online)
- Photo project unites Scotland with Canada (Canmore Leader)
- The Scots in Canada (Video news onThis Is Who We Are: The Herald on Sunday)
The photographs above are, top, of the This Is Who We Are exhibition at Mid Steeple, Dumfries; and of a road sign in Nova Scotia. Graeme says of this one: ‘Scotland is everywhere in Canada. This is the north shore road in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. One name not on the sign is Knoydart which is a small hamlet near Lismore. (Both photos: Graeme Murdoch)
More signs of trouble at Johnston Press, owners of The Buteman
Johnston Press, owner of The Buteman and currently dealing with straightened financial circumstances by organising an asset sale of some of its Irish titles, has another disruption on its hands. It has just seen Mike Gibson, editor of its Scottish flagship title, The Scotsman, resign with immedate effect. It is understood that he has already gone back to Portsmouth where his family still stay.
He follows Les Snowden, Editor of another of the Group’s Scottish titles, Scotland on Sunday, who is moving to become Sports Editor at the Daily Mail.
Johnston Press bought The Scotsman from the Barclay Brothers wo years ago, paying £161million for it. In the company’s current circumstances it has been rumoured that it might not keep The Scotsman but its plans now seem to be focused on cost-cutting.
Mr Gibson has been its editor since 2006. His resignation arrives in the context of a a restructuring of the editorial team and processes. This may involve estabishing a single team to design and sub-edit all of the Johnston Press’s Edinburgh-based titles – which include the Edinburgh Evening News and Scotland on Sunday. The Scottish division of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said that these plans will involve no more than a few redundancies, all of which will be voluntary.
Mr Gibson seems to have been unhappy with the current restructuring plans, which include the possible appointment of a single Editor-in-Chief. The inside track for this post is thought to be held by John McLellan, who edits the Edinburgh Evening News. The departure of the editors of the two other major Edinburgh-based titles leaves that situation clear.
John McLellan has now been appointed to edit The Scotsman, the paper’s 10th editor in 15 years. An announcement is expected on Tuesday about the future of the three titles and this is expected to to focus on a merged editorial team to produce them.
Johnston Press, owners of The Buteman, may sell some titles to address £465million debt
Johnston Press, the regional newspaper publisher which owns The Buteman among a portfolio which includes The Scotman and the Yorkshire Post, has appointed accountants KPMG to lead negotiation over refinancing with its banks.
The group cut its workforce by around 12% in 2008, largely through natural wastage. Its new CEO, John Fry, is known to be looking at selling some titles as part of the approach to dealing with its debt burden, said by the group at the end of November 2008 to be around £465million. Dublin’s Raglan Capital has already been employed to handle potential sales of some of the group’s Irish titles.
Tim Bowdler, Fry’s predecessor as CEO, oversaw the stream of acquisitions which took Johnston Press to a position as second largest UK newspaper group.
However, with falling advertising revenues (down by 15.5% in the 44 weeks to 1st November 2008) and more difficult trading conditions, the group’s share price has dropped drastically – from 490.5p in 2007 to 7.125p at close of play on Friday 6th February. Newspaper sales revenue was down a little on the previous year with falling circulation and a parallel loss of interest in property sales.
The Buteman is important not only to Bute but to Argyll at large. It is a lively paper with a good website and good journalism. Obviously there are concerns about the security of its position in its owner’s current situation.
Craig Borland, its editor, says that the paper has had no communication on its future from Johnston Press – a fact which at least offers reassurance for the time being. He notes that there have been no reports of sales of any Scottish titles and that the group’s focus in this area seems to be on some of its Irish titles at the moment. Pragmatically, he says that The Butemen ‘will cross this bridge if and when we get to it’.
Comment from Environment Minister, Michael Russell MSP, on political scaremongering on forest leasing scheme
For Argyll has reported several times on uninformed and irresponsible political scaremongering on the Scottish Government’s forest leasing proposals. The latest example of this – and the subject of a very recent report – was unfortunately perpetrated by former Argyll & Bute MSP, George Lyon at the opening of his campaign to go to Brussels as an MEP.
Michael Russell has now himself sent For Argyll a comment on this matter – and please note his invitation to put forward any suggestions and ideas which you think would improve the proposed scheme.
Mr Russell says:
‘The Liberal Democrat campaign of disinformation about the forestry proposals is now a matter of serious concern. People have a right to expect their elected representatives and their potential candidates to tell the truth but alas on this occasion the Liberal Democrats have preferred to peddle downright lies.
‘I suspect it will rebound upon them but for any party – or any individual – to seek a few extra votes by means of deliberate deceit is a disgrace to democracy. And when the issue goes to the heart of the greatest challenge facing humanity – that of climate change – then most of us will only have contempt for such people.
‘I remain open to all views on the forestry proposals, including ideas that can improve upon them or present viable alternatives. All I ask is that such a debate is conducted using fact, not fiction. On that criteria the Liberal Democrats have excluded themselves from the discussion’.
Today’s Scotsman carried a factual piece underlining just how falsely based is the convenient alarmism of the moment.
It reminds us that Scotland has 1.1 million acres of state-owned forest (460,000 hectares), making the ninety year-old Forestry Commission Scotland biggest landowner. It needs an annual subsidy of £28million, some of which is used for non-commercial activities, leaving the forest estates still losing millions of pounds each year.
The Scotsman goes on to say that Jim Hume, the Lib Dem’s Environment Spokesman, has implied that:
- local businesses will lose contracts
- outdoor activities the Forestry Commission supports will be stopped
- hundreds of jobs will be at risk
- Forestry Commission Scotland’s income will be ‘severely diminished’
- all if state forests – 25% of them – are leased to the private sector.
The Scotsman dismisses such alarmism as ‘grossly misplaced’. It points out that virtually all facilities made available to the public in the forests could be safeguarded in the terms of the lease – and Michael Russell has guaranteed that they will be.
In fact such facilities cannot be other than safeguarded since they are all certified under the UK’s Woodland Assurance Scheme. This deals with issues like the provision of local employment, public access, biodiversity and health and safety.
As the Scotsman says and as For Argyll has ponted out on many occasions, it is only the taxpayer-funded annual subsidy which will be ‘severely diminished’.