Highland Council credit card spending revealed
The Telegraph launches a crusade against council spending, after requesting details of credit card payments over £500 from each council: An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has uncovered details of apparently questionable spending decisions by councillors and local government officials, with more than £2 million spent on travel over the last three years, including flights [...]
New fortnightly rubbish collection
Responsible recycling drive, or flytippers charter? From July 4th, normal household rubbish collection will be reduced from weekly to fortnightly, while new big blue wheelie bins will be provided for paper, plastic, tins and cans. Still no glass recycling in the Highlands I see. While no doubt it will force some people to push more [...]
SNP landslide in Scotland
It’s turning into a landslide for the SNP in Scotland, with the party looking like it’ll be able to form a majority government in Holyrood. Our own Fergus Ewing took a 51.5% majority for the Constituency of Inverness & Nairn, with a swing of over 10% – something the Gurn predicted with it’s own polls. [...]
DST changes debate
The BBC reports on some of the pros and cons of Britain no longer using Daylight Saving Time. Key points it raises is that farmers are not particularly concerned about whether we use DST or not, and that accidents actually lowered on previous experiments – a rise in the morning, but more than offset by [...]
Grumpy Northerners
Surely it’s not suggesting that the only two councils in the UK not allowing staff off work for the royal wedding are Scotland’s most northerly? No Royal wedding holiday for two Scottish councils Two Scottish councils have said they will not let staff have a day off to celebrate the wedding of Prince William and [...]
Labour Party in personal attack on Danny Alexander
Sad to see that instead of trying to come up with any kind of credible plan for the economy, Labour members are instead just taking cheap shots at the Liberal Democrats. It’s as if the Labour party thinks itself only electable if they can discredit the Lib Dems. While the existing coalition cuts are not [...]
RAF Lossiemouth to close: Welcome Space Port Lossiemouth?
The strategic defence spending review looks like it confirms at least one of the Moray RAF bases will definitely close: The decision to axe the replacement Nimrod MRA4 reconnaissance planes – a project Mr Cameron said had cost more than £3bn and was more than eight years late – puts the future of RAF Kinloss, [...]
Highland Council restricts school swimming lessons
In their wisdom, the Highland Council has now dediced to restrict swimming lesson tuition in the local schools. The news was sent to local parents via a letter from their schools. P4 and P5 pupils will now be the only years to receive swimming lessons – and even then, only over 8 week period. The [...]
Joe Telfer and Swan Island under attack?
I’ve not seen this week’s paper, but judging by the most recent blog post at Simply Swans, some in the River Community has been critical of Joe Telfer’s efforts with Swan Island, as reported by the Nairnshire Telegraph: Axe Grinders Attack Swans Island….and Me ! Because I haven’t read the Nairnshire Telegraph piece, I’m not [...]
Highland Green Party – still very out of touch
Another idiot press release by the Green Party, showing how out of touch and ridiculous they have become in the Highlands. There are plenty of real arguments about where the Highland Council may be failing to govern effectively, but proclaiming the refusal to add a special supermarket tax as one of these is just daft. [...]