Fingers crossed that they have changed their mind.

During the six weeks of the campaign thousands of people expressed their opposition to the closures and we know of hundreds who sent off letters or signed petitions.

On Wednesday we will find out if it was enough.

TV approx. 80 %
Newspapers approx 55 %
Radio approx 25 %
Internet approx 20 %

I would imagine these figures would be similar across the UK, with these provisios garned from Ofcom:-

Scotland has a 53 % takeup of broadband.
England has a 58 % takeup
Northern Ireland has a 52 % takeup
Wales has a 45 % takeup

The UK on average has a 57% takeup of broadband.

(Ofcom also breaks Scotland's takeup down by region:-

Aberdeen 64%
Edinburgh, Highlands and Islands, Dundee 62%
Glasgow 32 % )

Glasgow's figure is low because there is less takeup of PCs.

It is also clear that the figures in Glasgow, its largest city, are slowing down Scotland's takeup figures as a whole! If Glasgow had a figure close to that of Edinburgh, Dundee or Aberdeen then Scotland would be higher than the UK average with a figure higher than 60 %.

Ofcom's figures for the UK show are a slight improvement than the standard

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/cmrnr08/scotland/

So it would be fair to say that the figures for the internet news mentioned in the Scottish Broadcasting Commission would probably be slightly higher in England, probably around 22 % closing in on radio. If reflected on Northern Ireland and Wales the internet news figure would be slighly lower.

What does all this mean for Scottish bloggers?

Well it really means that percentage-wise our Scottish audience figures will be low. How many internet users could be swayed by news or political blogs online in Glasgow East, say?

Glasgow has a 32% take up of broadband. Its probably less in Glasgow East, but Ofcom's figures don't break down by constituency.

So if we take the Glasgow East constituency of say 60000 (compensating for the lower broadband take-up and making the arithmetic slightly easier); only 1/3 of people there will have broadband.

That's 20 000.

Now only a fifth of those use the internet for news.

That's 4 000.

That's a maximum amount of Glasgow East people that political bloggers and online newspapers etc can reach.

But compare that figure to the Daily Record.

Average daily circulation figure in Scotland around 360 000.
Population of Scotland about 5 million people.

Thats 7.2% of the population.

7.2% of 60 000 (roughly the Glasgow East electorate) is 4320.

A remarkably close figure to the internet figure.

The difference is that the news hungry internet people have a world of choice to get their news, and those reading the Daily Record are stuck with the Record's view on everything from politics to big brother and the Old Firm.

What better reason could there be for extending the broadband take-up in Scotland?

Scotland has 53% broadband take-up. South Korea has 93 % broadband take-up.

South Korea has legislation making new house-builders put broadband in place as standard. What's more its usually better and faster (mainly fibre-optic technology) and cheaper than the standard in Scotland.

Something to think about for Scotland.

Greenock Morton lost their latest friendly when they went down 2-1 at home to Hartlepool. Morton fielded four trailists for the game, but it was  Steven Masterton, recently signed from Clyde who got the consolation goal for the 'Ton. Some trivia for you: Morton played Hartlepool once before, back in 1922, right after the Greenock side won the Scottish Cup. The fixture had been arranged before the team beat Rangers in the final,  so right after the game, the team boarded a train - taking the Cup with them - to Hartlepool to play the game; it remains, to this day, the only time the Scottish Cup has left Scottish soil.

Dundee United may be having a torrid time over in Ireland, but back home the U19's are fairly sticking them away. A slender 7-0 victory away to Lossiemouth is showing the auld yins how you do it. Four-nil up at halftime, the final goal was scored by Scottish youth international - and the youngest ever player ever to score an SPL goal - David Goodwillie (stop sniggering at the back!). 

Not far up the road, Aberdeen sent their youngsters up to Scotland's fastest town, Nairn (think about it) while the seniors where away in Dundee drawing 0-0. The youngsters fared a little better, coming out 1-0 winners. While we're on the subject of Aberdeen, the club have announced the signing of former Celtic and Wolves left back Charlie Mulgrew. Charlie, a former Scotland U21 player, signs a two year deal. He'll be taking Alan Maybury's place at left back after the Irish international declined the offer of a new deal with the Dons. Dundee meanwhile sign another former Wolves player, Colin Cameron. Cameron is still contracted to MK Dons, but has signed a pre-contract agreement with the Dee's.

Forfar's pre-season continues as they beat Angus rivals Brechin City 3-1 at Station Park, Bryan Duell and Kevin McLeish getting the goals for the Loons. It was their first win under new manager Dick Campbell.

Upcoming fixtures include tomorrows games as Airdrie play Hamilton and Dunfermline take on Hearts (who also lost against Irish opposition, the Tynecastle side losing their first game under their new manager 6-5 on penalties to Glentoran). Up in the Highlands, Inverness Caley Thistle take on former Highland League foes Brora Rangers.

On Thursday Falkirk try and do what Morton couldn't do, i.e beat Hartlepool while Forfar hope to continue their winning ways when they take on a Hibernian select XI.

Looking even further ahead, another north-east derby takes place when Aberdeen travel up the coast to Peterhead on Friday, while Celtic travel all the way south to face one of their manager's former sides, Southampton.

Lastly, it looks like Rangers will be playing FBK Kaunus in the second qualifying round of the Champions League. The Lithuanians beat the Andorran champions Santa Coloma 4-1. The Brazillian striker Rafael Ledesma got two of the goals.

That's it for now. We'll bring you the outcome of the Raith Rovers against Hibernian fixture tomorrow; the lines to Methill seem to be down. Hopefully Hibernian can put the disappointment of their early European exit behind them and take out the frustration on lower-league cannon fodder. Or possibly not. Comments to the usual place, talk to you again tomorrow!

these three illustrations were for my visual narratives module for my second year of uni, they're about my own personal psychosis and thoughts in life, they're all things I've tried to produce before but thought i would make an effort to make proper illustrations from my initial ideas.

Compiled by members of think tank ThoughtFish, the document defies the opinions of policy-makers by suggesting that these youths who carry knives "already recognise the fact that they're breaking the law and hurting people" and that this "may be one of the reasons they do it".

While shocking the majority of intellectuals debating the issue, the findings of ThoughtFish seem to come as no surprise to our knife-toting spawn. When confronted with the findings, machete-wielding Hackney-resident, Shariq "Da Mercyless Bludrunna" Townsend, 8, responded by saying, "Yeah, that seems about right." He continued by stating: "I mean, I'm running around the streets with a lethal weapon and stabbing people, you would've thought everyone would just shut up talking about it and arrest me already."

Despite the validity of its findings, the report is expected to be largely ignored following its dissemination to members of parliament and key advisors on Monday. A spokesman for the governement announced earlier today that, "While we will not comment on the report until we've had a proper chance to explore its findings and select the ones which already agree with our position, I would like to assure everyone that this government is determined to spend an excessive amount of time, energy and taxpayers' money debating and discussing this issue".

As part of the government's plan to begin discussion of potential commitees to form possible solutions to the issue of deciding what might be done about the initiation of a workable agenda for further meetings in the near future, a new position of Knife Tsar has been established - intended to promote the government's hardline policy of going 'Back to Basics' on the knife issue.

As explained by Junior Cabinet Minister Terence Flitworth-Gashface: "The problem we face in parliament is that we find it difficult to associate with these youths carrying knives. How can we come up with a solution until we understand every aspect of what we're dealing with? Back to Basics is about starting at the very beginning and asking the question 'what is a knife?'. The new Knife Tsar is the perfect person to answer that question."

The Knife Tsar will be officially appointed on Wednesday though there is little doubt that the position will go to the prominent Australian ambassador, Michael "Crocodile" Dundee who is expected to enjoy widespread, cross-party support due to his rugged good looks and disarmingly charming, simplistic view of a complicated world. Critics, however, do warn that Mr. Crocodile's frequent fish-out-of-water gaffes and predilection for PG violence may cause the government's policy to be viewed as some sort of outdated romantic-comedy.

Despite such comments, in parliament there seems to be little doubt that Mick is the best man for the job. As Flitworth-Gashface asserts, "This man knows better than anyone else what is a knife and what isn't."

Submission to Post Office Limited regarding proposed Post Office closures in Dundee from Scottish Socialist Party – Dundee branches

We believe that the Post Office network across the UK should not just be viewed as a chain of branches of a standard business, assessed solely on its ability to make a profit.

The nationwide network of Post Office branches is a valuable public asset that provides a vital social service in both rural and urban communities across Scotland. As a public service, Post Offices should be viewed and assessed on the wider role and benefits they provide to communities, not on the profit (or loss) they provide to Post Office Limited.

In light of the government’s recent £50 billion bail out of Northern Rock, Post Office Limited have strong grounds for going back to the government and asking for an increase in subsidy to protect the Post Office branch network, thus maintaining its positive role in communities.

It is also deeply insensitive to these communities, who are having to fight for their local Post Office service, that Royal Mail’s Chief Executive, Adam Crozier, earned £633,000 basic salary, topped up with a £3 million bonus in 2007/08!! How many Post Offices could have been saved with that £3 million?

In March 2007, Adam Crozier was appointed Chairman of the EFD.

At the time he stated

"I am extremely pleased to have been invited to take on this role. Ensuring equal opportunity for all is hugely important to us at Royal Mail and I look forward to helping to promote and develop the terrific work which Employers' Forum for Disability does with employers throughout the UK."
Source

On its website EFD states EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.

One has to question Mr Crozier’s commitment to EFD’s stated aims as the closure of Post Offices around the country is hardly going to improve Post Office Limited’s service to its disabled customers. It is going to make accessing post office services more inconvenient, more time consuming and more costly (public transport, taxis).

The recurring objections that have been raised by the hundreds of customers of the four Post Offices threatened with closure in Dundee to whom we have spoken over the last few weeks while campaigning, are:

Accessibility to the next nearest Post Office and the ‘fitness of purpose’ of those alternative Post Offices.

Lochee Road Post Office:

If this branch closes then the nearest Post Offices will be Ward Road, Tescos in the Stack, Brantwood or Blackness Road.

If walking, all of these alternatives involve either an uphill journey there and a downhill journey back, or vice versa. The bus services to both Blackness and Brantwood branches are infrequent. Any bus journey would involve added expense (For example, 2 visits per week to the Ward Road branch would incur a cost of £4.40).

This added expense would have a profound effect on those many Post Office customers who are on very low incomes and benefits. Many of those who use Lochee Road Post Office are elderly or disabled and/or on low income.

Although the public transport into the City Centre (Ward Road) is more frequent the extra expense is still incurred. The service at the Ward Road Post Office is already poor because of the lack of staff, resulting in long queues and standing time. At busy times, it is not uncommon for customers to have to queue for 10 – 15 minutes before being served. This adds to pressure and stress on staff and customers alike and can lead to a hostile atmosphere. Also some of the transactions carried out at Ward Road are the more complicated ones such as passports and car tax, which obviously increase waiting time.

Broughty Ferry Road Post Office:

Like Lochee Road, this branch serves a high proportion of elderly and disabled customers, who will find it extremely difficult to access other branches if Broughty Ferry Road closes.

Their alternative options are Ward Road branch (see above for comments); Maryfield branch or Arbroath Road. Both these branches involve a lengthy uphill walk and bus services in the area have recently been cut. Of course, the use of public transport will mean additional costs to those who can least afford it.

Nethergate Post Office:

The two alternatives for Nethgergate customers are:

• Ward Road branch (see above) and it involves crossing 2 busy main roads to access it;
• Perth Road branch, which is already extremely busy, often experiences lengthy queues in quite a small premise. So again there will be increased waiting times and queues, literally, out the door.

The Nethergate Post Office is also the nearest branch to the University of Dundee which is attended by thousands of students and hundreds of staff. The University has also recently built new premises in the Hawkhill area which might put even more pressure on Ward Road branch.

There are also many businesses in this area, such as Bank of Scotland, DVLA, HMRC and the new Alliance Trust offices being built just around the corner.

Fairmuir Post Office:

Again, there is an elderly population in the area of Fairmuir Post Office. An adjacent branch is the one in Arkley Street, which provides an excellent service, but the premises are very small. Under present circumstances, it can become overcrowded with four people waiting to be served. If it has to absorb Fairmuir’s customers then the service provided will decline. Elderly customers could be queued out into the street. This is surely not an image that Post Office Limited would want to be associated with, particularly during cold or wet weather.

All four branches are surrounded by independent, local shops or small businesses. Those shops we have canvassed have expressed their concern that the closure of the neighbouring Post Office will have a significant impact on their ability to survive. This is at time when they are already under pressure from the supermarket chains such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Another factor that should be considered is that a significant proportion of Dundee’s population is on lower than average income and in receipt of social security benefits. Dundee also has one of the highest child poverty rates in Scotland.

Our extensive research and discussion with residents in all four areas leads us to conclude that none of the Post Offices in Dundee targeted for closure should be closed. We have found support for the retention of these four branches to be overwhelming among their local communities.

July 2008

And yet this week Dundee Police issued an apology in case the campaign or more importantly this poster had offended muslims. Like many people I come in to contact with Asian folk mainly through their retail businesses. People like David (not a made up name but his adopted western one) who is a muslim and owns the corner shop near to me. David has no problem selling greetings cards with pictures of cute dogs on them. But then he'll just as readilly smile as he takes payment for some tins of Pedigree Chum or indeed a pack of bacon or pork sausages. I have just hired a company to do balloon decorations at our upcoming silver wedding celebration. The guys who own the shop are Scots/Asian and I think muslim (although in all my dealings with them the subject of religion hasn't come up). They are good guys with a great sense of humour. Ali owns the restaurant where Mrs B and I go for a businessman's lunch on our day off. Nice guy and I know he looks after my old mother when she goes to have meal with her friends too.If any of these people were offended by a wee dog on a poster I would be very, very surprised.

So which muslims WOULD be offended by the depiction of a dog? Certainly not the German Shepherd Club of Pakistan ! The point is that the 'apology' by the Dundee police will do much more harm than good. It is similar to the situation in Birmingham a couple of years ago when Christmas decorations and trees (in fact a pagan symbol) were removed in case they offended muslims. All this does is fuel yet more anti muslim feeling.

I did hear one young muslim interviewed this week who WAS apparently offended. In a piece of no doubt unintended irony she said "I mean, this is the twenty first century". Indeed it is and yet here we are issuing apologies to a tiny section of people who live according to a social code dreamed up in Mecca in the sixth century.

Am I alone in thinking that the Dundee Police response should have been "Our campaign involving Rebel has had community-wide support and will continue as it has been very successful. There was no intention to offend anyone"?

Really if we have to take account of every hair brained religious view as we go about our daily lives we really are doomed.

Right if you'll excuse me I have to go and feed my dog. And then wash my hands seven times.

Have you read about the puppy dog, the police in Dundee and the Muslims? Do you want to know what actually happened and what is going on? If so, you can continue to read my post. As an anthropologist working and living in this region of Scotland, I may clarify some points. However, before explaining what actually is going on, let me highlight some important aspects.  In a previous post I complained how the mass media paid attention to the most slight, trivial and ridiculous event involving Islam and Muslims in this country and in the world, but become shy and extremely politically correct (together with their readers) when reporting racial, nazi-inspired crimes, such as the case of the Nazi pedophile Mr Gilleard, a white, Christian, uber-British nationalist.

I did not need even one day to have another clear evidence of this fact. Today all the national newspapers are reporting the ridiculous story of the apologies offered by the Tayside police to the Muslim community for a postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat issued for their new non-emergency telephone number. Of course, immediately the voices of the readers rise in indignation for such a ‘politically correct’ response of the police force. I leave it to you to read some of the comments, which also seem repetitive and similar from one newspaper to the other.  International broadcasters, such as Fox News, have reported this little ridiculous piece of news in sensationalist terms. 

 I remind you that no international TV news or newspapers had reported neither the Mr Sandalo ‘Love Jesus and kill Muslims’ terrorist network, nor the crusading nationalist plots of Mr Gilleard. 

Ask yourself why a stupid contested postcard should become an international case more than the evidence that dangerous, fanatic Nazi and Fascist movements are exploiting the much constructed fear of Islam in order to promote their ideology and find support among the general public by targeting Muslims? The reason is that the above news should be read within a meta-discourse which says ‘Here’s more evidence that we are becoming all Dhimmi’ as the new Christian prophets (among which we can mention Bat Ye‘or, andFallaci&co. This is the real reason for which newspapers should report such trivial stories (and possibly undermine others). 

Now, let me summarise the story. The police force in Tayside, of which Dundee is part, has issued a new card to be displayed in public places and shops to remind people of their new telephone number. Mr Mohammed Asif, the Muslim councillor of Dundee City, but also a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board, has advised the police force that the new card, because it displays the image of a black cute puppy dog,  ‘may be not be welcomed’ by some members of the Muslim communities owing shops, and consequently they may not display it.

Now this was the advice of a member of the Muslim community who had some knowledge of the community and was for this reason part of the Tayside Joint Police Board. As such, he had not only the right but actually the duty to advise the police on such a matter. 

I find interesting how the advice of a member of the Joint Police Board becomes the official complaint of an entire community, and how immediately newspapers remind their readers how Islam dislikes dogs. Again we are witnessing disinformation through essentialisation (for more you can read my book The Anthropology of Islam). First of all, Mr Asif was providing advice.

The reason for this advice is that the majority of the Muslim shopkeepers in Dundee are of South Asian background, particularly from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Without going too much into detail here, we can say that some Muslims from these areas dislike dogs, and see them as polluted (or are just scared of them, with some good reasons when we consider that many dogs in these countries are less than domestic). Yet the newspapers report that all Muslims dislike dogs because they are forbidden in Islam. Well, nothing is more easy to disprove than these misleading reports.

Muslims are different and likewise their Islam. I will use as an example to contradict the stereotype of Muslim-dog-hatred, not just some ‘soft-core’ Sufis, but nothing less than the most respectable Wahabi families: The Saudi family and their  love for  Salukis, read the article and laugh at those whom insist in claiming that all Muslims hate dogs! 

 I have not received any complaint about this card, and other sources have confirmed that many Muslims in Dundee have been very surprised about the scandal.  Clearly the Daily Mail and others are trying to use this ridiculous story for scare-mongering the Scottish population. 

Yet to have a totally clear picture about this story, you need more relevant information. We have to go back to 2006, in December, when the Tayside Special Branch seemed to become over-zealous in its activities in Dundee. I have personally collected stories of frightened students being fully interviewed, without real reason, by officers, and even asked how many times they went to the mosque, to which mosque, and how many times they prayed: all useful questions to find and recognise terrorists! Of course, these useless interviews and the apparently clumsy start of the new police unit, did not win the hearts and minds of the Muslims in Dundee. The result was tension and lack of collaboration.

Mistake after mistake, the relationship between the Muslim communities in Dundee and the police in general were at the lowest level; this despite the fact the no evidence was ever found of criminal activities and the Scottish Muslim communities in Dundee are among the most law abiding in the country.  

Now, we can clearly understand what really has happened in the police-card affair.   One Muslim councillor, who happened to be also part of an advisory organ of the Tayside police forces, knowing of the very fragile relationship between the local police force and the overall Muslim community in Dundee, has advised the police about the possible reactions, from some members of the communities, to the advertisement. The police in Dundee, which cannot renounce the assistance of the Muslim communities to fight violent extremists, decide to take the safer route, and apologise for the eventual offence to some of the members. 

Hence, there are some important conclusions to be stressed. This ‘affair’ is a very local one and influenced by local politics and previous local situations. It has nothing to do with Islam disliking cute dogs (as I have clearly proved). The majority of the Muslims in Dundee are surprised to read this stupid and ridiculous story no less than you and will agree with the majority of the people living in this country that this is a trivial case. Finally, we have another example of how the mass media are manipulating (some for money, others for political ideology) reality in order to convince the majority of non-Muslims that we are ready for Dhimmitude and our politicians and even police forces are not really able to prevent this and defend the Christians values of this country as well as our (not-so Christian) ‘style of life.’  

Once again, thanks to the irresponsibility of the mass media and their partial (or misleading) reporting,  Muslims find themselves in the middle of a sensationalism which will even further damage their lives and will see even more, in Dundee, their children bullied at school and in the street. At the same time, the fantasy scaremongering of a Dhimmi conspiracy will offer the Sandalos and the Gilleards more hopes for their dream of a Nazi-Christian-Aryan nation. 

... Using the Yahoo search engine I looked for the number of hits on various versions of "Muslims Outraged." We put the phrase into quotation marks so that it would only show a hit where those words appear together. That particular grammatical usage would more often appear in headlines than in the body of a story where the phrase would more likely be "Muslims were outraged." So .. here are your results.

Of particular note here is the fact that Democrats appear to blow their tops even more frequently than Muslims!  And often on the exact same issues I might surmise...

The adorable German Shepherd puppy you see in the photo above is named Rebel. He is a police dog-in-training for the force in the Scottish district of Tayside. So popular was this little guy with visitors to the Tayside Police website that the force decided to use his image in a postcard mailer that was designed to inform local residents of a change in their non-emergency phone number.  Splendid idea, huh?

Enter once again the peaceful, loving, tolerant religion of Islam. It seems that this pooch has managed to offend some members of Tayside's Islamic community because a dog is considered a ritually unclean animal in their faith. Outraged at being subjected to such "filth", some shopkeepers in the city of Dundee are even refusing to display the postcard in their shops. And the Dundee councillor -- who is also a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board -- is now looking into the matter. The councillor's name is Mohammed Asif by the way:

'My concern was that it's not welcomed by all communities, with the dog on the cards.

'It was probably a waste of resources going to these communities.

'They (the police) should have understood. Since then, the police have explained that it was an oversight on their part, and that if they'd seen it was going to cause upset they wouldn't have done it.'

Mind you this controversy is being generated by the non-extremists of this faith. This is the tame element, folks. The extremists if you'll remember actually like to take some of these ritually unclean canines, lock them in a sealed container and seep poison gas into it.

And you thought Christian fundies were ruining the world?

I think the Tayside force ought to apologize and send out a replacement mailer... featuring Scrappy the baby pig. What a load of PC dog-squeeze.

The full story, along with a pic of the offending postcard, can be found below:

Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

It's also a plant I had occasion to visit on quite a few occasions, and was one of those places I looked at with a certain degree of envy - another big electronics business where people I knew had cushy jobs and were being paid a wad more than yours truly for sitting on their backsides and working under very little pressure. Then it got a shiny new technology centre a few years ago, an addition to the cash machine manufacturing operation.

News now is that 50 jobs are about to be lost there, which will leave only 170 manufacturing posts there, after some 600 workers were laid off about 19 months ago. This leaves something like 600 positions in engineering and advanced development, services support operations, product management and marketing on the Dundee site.

There's no magic involved, and it's just more evidence of the the results of the reality of worldwide industry, and the company has transferred production to Hungary, where wages are cheaper.

Wonder who will be next?

A wee quiz question: what does St Paul have in common with Dundee?

There's a clue in the title of this post: they both made tents. It's true -- see here and here. So for the Year of St Paul what we really need in Dundee's cathedral is a great big tent, right?

Here it is, then: the mystery project revealed.

It may not look like much but there's about 40 square metres of it (5 x 8 or thereabouts) and heaving it around has aged me by ten years at least. Here it is in the sewing machine as I was making the channel for the pole at the bottom:

I've learned a lot about ropes and knots, too, as has the ever-valiant Stuart who was recruited as technical support on the engineering side. Unfortunately, my close-up photograph of one of our beautiful knots is a complete blur. I suspect my hands were too tired to hold the camera steady.

Anyway, we put it up yesterday afternoon for the special evening service to launch "The Year" and it was still there this morning, which was cause for Much Relief All Round.

DVA 10 Constitution Road
Dundee

Tuesday 1st July, 2008. 7pm.

I slept in a little since I had a long day and late night of work on Saturday, and then a really early work day on Sunday.  I was pretty tired.  When I got to work I scrambled to meet some deadlines on a handful of projects in my queue.  We ordered Thai food for lunch and, unfortunately, I ordered and ate a stirfry with basil, peppers, onions and a brown sauce that was undoubtedly made with soy sauce.  I didn't think about it while I was eating it.  I was starving.  It wasn't until after I ate, that it dawned on me I had just ingested gluten.

After lunch I drove up to a winery in the Dundee Hills and helped the Oregon Pinot Camp staff set tables for the traditional salmon bake dinner.  It was fun - I sang show tunes with one of the staffers, including "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from Gypsy and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" from My Fair Lady.  We goofed off while beautifying the tables.  We put out the table cloths, the napkins and silverware, the glassware and the flowers.  Again, I love setting dinner tables and making them lovely.  After two hours, though, I had to go.

I dashed off to downtown McMinnville, on historic and quaint 3rd Street.  I went into a Cowgirls shop looking for a sweater to wear that evening.  I knew it would get cold and I left my jacket at home.  I saw some cool cowgirl boots, but nothing that would work for that evening.  So, I went into one of my favorite boutiques, Mes Amis.  There, I found a nice three-quarters sleeved white shirt, a colorful turquoise and pink Pucci-esque scarf and an adorable white jacket that would work perfectly with my sear sucker pants.    The owner, Naomi, was super accomodating.  She allowed me to get ready in her shop.  I brought in my sear sucker pants, put on a pair of heeled sandals, the new white shirt and scarf, and then I put on my straw cowgirl hat (see photo below).

I met the Gold bus at the Red Lion in McMinnville and we headed for the dinner location in Dundee.  When we arrived, we went to the wine tasting first.  It was nice to catch up with industry friends, to taste through some interesting wines and to interact with campers.  I spent a good amount of time with a nice fellow who works at one of my favorite wine shops in Shirlington, Virginia, called the Curious Grape.  It was cool to hang out with folks from my hometown.  I also ran into an old acquaintence who I had come to know when I worked at Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg, Virginia. 

After the tasting, I headed over to tent for dinner.  I sat at a table with a handful of industry friends and a few campers.   We had a tasty dinner of salmon and lite salads and sides.  Gorgeous Pinot Noirs were flowing.  It was a lovely evening.

I got better acquainted with a couple of industry folks that I hadn't known super well prior to OPC - which was really nice.  And then there was the fire pit with S'mores.  I just toasted a couple of marshmallows with a small piece of Hershey's chocolate.  Before long, we loaded the campers on the bus and headed back to the hotels.

After, several people went to Lumpy's Landing, the infamous dive bar in Dundee.  I played a few rounds of pool with some friends, including a cool sales rep I got to know when I went to Colorado in November.  I left relatively early, as I was exhausted.  It was a long day and I was already reeking of cigarette smoke from the bar. 

Irrespective of the tar and smoke stench in my hair and on my clothes, I was feeling pretty good.  In fact, all the while home I was smiling.  I knew it was going to be a good summer.

Smokers offered money to give up

Smokers in the poorest areas of Dundee are being offered £150 worth of groceries by the health service if they are able to give up cigarettes.

Participants in a 12-week scheme will be given £12.50 a week by NHS Tayside if a carbon monoxide breath test proves they have not been smoking.

The money will be credited onto an electronic card which cannot be used for cigarettes or alcohol.

There are 36,000 smokers in Dundee, about half of whom live in poverty.

The scheme is similar to a project used by the trust to encourage pregnant women to give up smoking.

BBC News

I'm kind of in favour of this one, myself. When I gave up smoking, it was through willpower alone. Well, that and sugar-free Red Bull. Anyway, while it was through willpower alone, it was difficult, because I used to love to smoke. It was like my hobby. I had gold certificates for smoking. I was on the national team. Smoking is a comfort, it helps relieve stress a little, it provides displacement activity and so on. I can see that it might be even more difficult to quit if you're on the poverty line...

Incentives to help people quit may be just the right thing.

Turns out it's all to do with fibre optic cables using the sewars as a convenient conduit to route the cables. Neat idea - though I wouldn't want to be the guy looking for a cable fault.

Please sign the petition

Some articles from the local press on the issue

Saturday 14th June
Family face being torn apart after visa mix-up

Monday 16th June
MP fights visa case with Home Office

Tuesday 17th June
Community rallies round to keep Josie in Scotland

Tonight's Eveneing Telegraph contained an article about the activity in Dundee

For more information on the issue visit www.freepublictransport.org/

When the policy was introduced in Hasselt in Belgium there was a massive uptake in the use of public transport. Massive numbers of people started cycling after encouragement from the local council (contrast with Dundee where the Council stopped a local bike recycling charityselling their cheap affordable bikes in the city centre!).

If you would like some stickers, posters or leaflets about the campaign, contact us.

*terrorists not being the dictionary definition of course, but New Labours makey upey definition.

A local political activist, Alan Hinnrichs had submitted a request to every Scottish Council about their use of the "Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act" to spy on members of the public and has compiled his results. These have now been printed today by the Sunday Herald today.

SACC article detailing his investigation

Sunday Herald Article detailing his investigation

SACC claims councils are abusing the civil liberties of the Scottish public and says civil servants and bureaucrats should not have such wide-ranging powers. The watchdog believes that spying on ordinary citizens should only be a power granted to the police or the security and intelligence services in cases of extreme danger such as threats to national security or to prevent major crime.

Of the councils which replied to the FoI requests, Edinburgh was found to be using the Ripa laws the most excessively, authorising spying actions 1252 times.

Although low by comparison to other countries, this figure accurately reflects Scotland's low population density in many areas. This is in no small part due to the previous Scottish Executive's decision to try and push Scotland's rural broadband infrastructure across to the remote Highlands and islands - a move which would have not been economically viable if left to market forces. Without that Scotland would probably have a broadband take-up comparable to Wales.

Due to the rural broadband push, around two-thirds (67%) of Scotland is connected to an unbundled exchange. This compares with a figure of 84% in England.

Thus the SNP have argued for a final push for broadband connectivity for exchanges. They managed to secure a £3.4 million grant from the European Union to begin this task in April 2008.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes commented: “I am pleased to endorse public funding that will allow residential and business users in Scotland, who still do not have access to affordable broadband services, to reap the full benefits of the knowledge-based economy.”

Hopefully with this initiative, broadband will reach Scotland's remotest communities.

The effort taken by the previous Executive and the new Scottish Government means that the Highlands and Island have a broadband take-up at 62%; higher than the average broadband takeup in England. In rural areas of Scotland overall, the figure (59%) was comparable to England's average.

The main cities of Scotland:- Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow showed variation. Three: Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh had take-up rates of 62 - 64 %. Glasgow showed a take-up rate of only 32 % - that is a rate only slighly better than the Czech Republic (30 %) and other Eastern European countries in the recent ITIF report.

The Ofcom report explains the discrepancy by pointing out that only 44 % of Glasgow households own a laptop or PC, compared to a Scottish average of 64 %, and by low household incomes.

The Glasgow figure does not look like catching up with the rest of Scotland. Of those who do not have broadband in urban Scotland (48 % of the population) only 15 % said they were certain or fairly likely to get broadband in 2009. That would raise the Scottish urban take-up from 52 % in 2008 to 59 % in 2009.

If the same 15 % figure was applied to Glasgow its take-up would rise to 42 %, pretty much everyone who currently owns a PC in the city - so I'd suggest that the 15 % figure would be lower in Glasgow too. I don't think we'll see a glut of people in Glasgow buying PCs next year so that the 42 % will be reached.

We can see from this the low take-up rate in Glasgow is skewing Scotland's broadband figures as a whole.

Take out the Glasgow figures and the Scottish broadband take-up rate would be about 62 %.

That is higher than anywhere else in the UK, and higher than Australia, and beginning to catch on Canada.

Its clear that Glasgow's Eastern European-like broadband take-up rate is affecting our country.

Perhaps it's not only the rural broadband push that we need to consider. Would the European Union give a grant for Glasgow?

That's a sobering thought since Glasgow is hosting a major sporting event in 2014.

Lets look at the World leader in Broadband take-up, South Korea (93 %). Perhaps they can teach us lessons.

South Korea has put broadband in every residential and office block in the country. Large residential and office blocks have had fibre connections since 1997.

The speed of the broadband connections remain the fastest in the world. That has meant that the online gaming industry has exploded in growth in South Korea. Many gamers from around the world have settled in the country for that reason.

With this broadband backbone, South Korea is now the 13th richest country in the world by GDP. Its economy is the 4th largest in Asia.

At the start of the 21st century, the South Korean Government began a National IT project. It is now the world's leading IT nation. It now has plans to become the world leader in robotics, and seeks to put a robot in every South Korean home by 2020.

By comparison Glasgow's plans; putting wifi in Glasgow's Underground trains and regular trains to Edinburgh - are just tinkering around the edges.

Until radical policies address the social problems of Glasgow, and housing is built with broadband as standard; Scotland will continue to lag on the IT superhighway hard shoulder.

The song was 'Glasgow belongs to me.' Without Broadband to open up the world's possibilities that's all a Glaswegian will get.