@peterbrown@mastodon.scot
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

peterbrown

@peterbrown@mastodon.scot

Volunteer director of community wind company and new community distillery. Locally owned businesses are the drivers of development in the Hebrides. También soy guía turístico en Escocia desde hace muchos años.

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simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
@simonvarwell@mastodon.scot avatar

It’s been a busy week, ending thankfully with an afternoon off enabling a wee wander round the city centre to get a few things. We moved house a month ago to the edge of town so it was nice to be in the centre for the first time since then. In a way I suspect I’ll enjoy the city centre more because I’ll plan ahead and make the most of it: visiting the spice shop, off-licence etc.

Now sitting in the garden listening to music, enjoying a beer (Aldi, sadly) and mulling over the General Election.

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@simonvarwell I don’t know about your constituency, but for the UK election, I’ll be sticking to SNP.
Different story for Holyrood though.

JackTheCat, to random
@JackTheCat@mastodon.scot avatar

Grr. Yoon bastard subservient rag. Last 'news' link from me. 🤬🤬

Why the Scottish vote matters to Starmer and Sunak.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/24/scottish-vote-can-markedly-alter-labour-tory-balance-in-commons?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@Wen @JackTheCat totally out of touch with the needs of the people I’d say

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

In the worst 'Ghost Enclaves' over 50% of local homes are owned by investors for short-term holiday lets (or as seldom used second homes).

This, of course, has knock-on effects for locals trying to stay in the area for work or family reasons - the housing crisis is driven by inequality & them compounds that inequality.

The Q. is will the next government have the political will to expand social housing & clamp down on non-residential uses of homes?


https://theconversation.com/the-uks-coastal-ghost-enclaves-are-the-result-of-government-failure-on-low-use-homes-227743

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 https://press.coop/@guardian/112494576573077087 and bang on cue, here is the Guardian promoting the sale of rural properties to city people.

ChrisMayLA6, to food
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Its difficult to assess what % of food (or food based energy) consumed is ultra processed, but here is a chart that aggregates a number of studies to suggest the range of % for a selection of countries.... & then when you know Big Food in the USA spends more on lobbying than the Tobacco industry (which is likely to be similar in UK)... it starts to make sense.

Link that to public health & we have some more context for the UK's health crisis.

More food regulation is needed now!

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 the elephant in the room is homogenisation, which is probably the most pernicious form of processing as it diminishes the molecular structure to the point where foodstuffs can pass through the wall of the gut into the bloodstream unaccompanied by enzymes. This causes heart disease and is probably a major factor in type two diabetes. 

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @sunflowerinrain yes, 150 years ago the poor couldn’t afford to buy food that would do them harm, but now they can’t afford to buy food that will do them good. Ironically, poor peoples food is still available, but nobody eats it.

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@Wen @ChrisMayLA6 @sunflowerinrain ditto porridge and broth

NormanDunbar, to weirdfolks
@NormanDunbar@mastodon.scot avatar

Good morning fellow Mastos and hello Friday. Not long to go to the weekend plus, there's another bank holiday on Monday. Why do banks need so many holidays I wonder?

According to the forecast, the weather is doing the "wrong" thing and is actually getting better in time for the holiday. We truly have broken the climate if this is the case! 😉

Have a belter of a Friday. Have fun, whatever you do, lots of laughter and stay safe.

Today's photo is dedicated to @MaJ1 & @weirdfolks See ALT text.

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@NormanDunbar @MaJ1 @weirdfolks well strictly speaking bank holidays are for banks and public holidays are for the general public. But since in England they didn’t seem to have any public holidays they took bank holidays, and now the anglicisation has crept all over Scotland.
This has been compounded by the loss of Town and County Councils which used to set the public holidays for each local area.
So much has been lost; many local festivals, and now a generation don’t know what a county is.

NotImpressed, to Palestine
@NotImpressed@mas.to avatar



@palestine

What fresh hell is this?

"In effect, H.R. 8445 is a measure designed to ensure U.S. legal and financial protections are being extended directly to U.S. citizens on the ground in Occupied Palestine as they assist in the ongoing colonization, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Palestinians"
"This act also only furthers a reality in which U.S. citizens are functionally incentivized to act as mercenaries for the Zionist colony,"

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/new-bill-seeks-to-extend-u-s-military-benefits-to-americans-serving-in-the-idf/

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@NotImpressed @palestine if the US carries on the way it’s going they will find themselves at war in Israel against Europe and the rest of the world.

MadeyeTheCarnaptious, to Scotland
@MadeyeTheCarnaptious@mastodon.scot avatar

Stand by for the big blue tent camper van time bomb to go off at a key moment in the campaign.

Watch the polls in .

Tick, tick, tick...

Time bomb with a digital countdown display. 2 seconds to go...

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@MadeyeTheCarnaptious  I don’t think it will just go off once. MI5 alerted to Rishi describing nationalists as extremists.

I think it will go off in lots of controlled explosions, each designed to put it onto the front page on that particular day. What is beyond doubt is that they will keep it rolling along with periodic press releases and it will only be finally settled one way or the other AFTER the election.
If they don’t like the result, it will be resuscitated for the Scottish election.

peterbrown, to random
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

Since July 4 election day is during the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿school holidays, get yourself a postal vote to ensure you don’t miss out!

peterbrown, to random
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

Seems we are now in the lead up to a general election so worth thinking about how well the country is being run

AnthonyFStevens, to random
@AnthonyFStevens@mastodon.online avatar

Austerity, Brexit, Covid Lockdown Parties, PPE Scandal, Raw Sewage in UK Waterways & Coastal Areas, Economic Crash, Record Inflation, Record Interest Rates, Cost of Living Crisis, Pensions Decimated, Mortgage Rises, NHS in Crisis, Schools Crumbling, Housing Crisis...

This is the choice. It's really that simple.

4th July

Vote 🌹 ❎️ 🗳

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@Wen @AnthonyFStevens @soren @CloudyMrs in point of fact nothing Scottish labour say is worth the paper it’s written on, since it can be and will be overruled by Westminster

eharlitzkern, to history
@eharlitzkern@historians.social avatar

Best team name ever in my summer course Medieval Culture goes to this year's group doing research on medieval England:

Serf and Turf.

😎

@medievodons @histodons

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@eharlitzkern @medievodons @histodons dangerously close to serf and terf

thisismyglasgow, to glasgow
@thisismyglasgow@mastodon.scot avatar

An imposing blonde sandstone Victorian tenement on Novar Drive in the Hyndland area of Glasgow looking gorgeous in this evening's sunshine.

#glasgow #tenement #glasgowbuildings #architecture #hyndland #glasgowtenement

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@thisismyglasgow the total absence of white plastic windows makes a huge difference to the aesthetic of the building 👍🏼

thisismyglasgow, to glasgow
@thisismyglasgow@mastodon.scot avatar

The Scottish Event Campus on the banks of the Clyde in Glasgow, with a rather large reminder that the area used to be one of the city's largest docks before the SEC was built.

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@thisismyglasgow I am sure they thought it was very clever to mutate from the SECC (Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre) to the SEC and call themselves the Scottish Event Campus but for those of us not in regular contact with these organisations it is merely confusing.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the old name.

fitheach, to Scotland
@fitheach@mstdn.io avatar

By all means, let's protect our natural environment, but, we DON'T need another bureaucracy.

No more national parks.

I'm not alone, I've seen a few such banners in the locality.

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@fitheach well, national parks provide an income stream which the Council cannot and will not provide
If you want to say goodbye to that then fine.

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@fitheach there’s a lot more practical local control in the national park than there is the average Council. Otherwise there would be no point in having them.

What is critical is to get in right at the beginning and ensure that the national park board has a majority of local members .

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@fitheach well I experienced one of the Italian national parks as a visitor, and I was so impressed with the way it was operated that I made the effort to read their constitution and rules.

The enabling legislation is just that – enabling. The actual set up of the national park is up for grabs, and it is up to local people to grab it.

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@fitheach well that’s absolutely fine. Harris would bite your hand off to get it. The local Council prevented it from going ahead, and as Harris is only a small part of the CnES area, they could do nothing.

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@fitheach  I don’t want to prolong this discussion unnecessarily, but just to add that this is an example of a dispute that could be solved by national park status. In Italy local residents are allowed to continue to fish but it is prohibited for everybody else. The same applied to shooting and other recreational activities. Locals also have exemptions for tourism businesses.
Maybe our national parks are not as daring as they were in Italy, but that is up to the founders https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/nova-scotias-billion-dollar-lobster-wars

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@fitheach sorry, just a ps.
Holiday houses in the Lake District are controlled because they’re in a national park. There are protective measures available to help support the local population under National Park status which are not available to local councils
I understand there is a similar system on Loch Lomond side

https://universeodon.com/@Judeet88/112495247735771389

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@fitheach actually I think a lot of the national Park legislation should be extended across the whole of Scotland.

jdmccafferty, to Scotland
@jdmccafferty@mastodon.online avatar

19 May 1568: Elizabeth I of #England orders the arrest of Mary Queen of #Scots #otd #Scotland (BM)

image/png

peterbrown,
@peterbrown@mastodon.scot avatar

@jdmccafferty my understanding was that Mary had escaped to seek the “protection” of Elizabeth of her own free will?

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