Lang may their lum reek!

Calton would like to congratulate the residents of Tweedsmuir who have managed, in the nick of time, to raise enough money to buy the Crook Inn. It's a while since Calton has been down that way, however he has fond memories of sitting in the bar at the back, by the log fire, with a pint of Guinness and a steak pie or sitting in the art deco lounge at the front, by the log fire, with a pot of tea and a jam scone. It would be good if the place could open again, serving the same old-fashioned Scots fare - a great meeting place for locals and travellers alike, with its strategic location right on the A701 Moffat road. Calton would like to raise a glass to the Crook Inn locals this Hogmanay - lang may yer lum reek!

The devil is in the detail

If Nicola Sturgeon is serious about wanting the people of Scotland to make an "informed choice" about independence she should get her head down and make sure that the Scottish Government's much-vaunted white paper addresses all the questions raised in CBI Scotland's issues paper on independence, with supporting evidence. Then, and only then, we might get a positive debate on the subject rather than a load of old assertions. At the moment, Calton has to agree with Alistair Darling when he says that the Nationalists have "not thought through their answers to the really big questions". Calton doesn't think they have thought through their answers to the small and medium sized questions either. And we all know that the devil is in the detail.

Optimism triumphs over experience

Calton thoroughly agrees with David Watt of the Institute of Directors in Scotland, who has said in his New Year Message that Scottish politicians are spending too much time on unnecessary legislation and debating independence instead of focusing on economic growth. Calton would include legislation on gay marriage in the category of 'unneccessary' given that civil partnerships already give homosexual couples all the legal rights of married couples. Instead, the Scottish Government have embarked on a second public consultation on the implementation of gay marriage, at a cost of goodness knows how much, when it wasn't in the SNP's manifesto and, quite frankly, the state of our economy is far more important at this moment in time. Businesses are struggling with the uncertainty produced by the prospect of independence and yet the SNP's response is to tell them to wait until November 2013 for answers to their many questions. CBI Scotland have produced an excellent paper listing all the issues which need to be considered if Scotland is to become independent, including the cost of setting up our own regulators for things like pensions, telecoms and energy and the cost in jobs of closing down Faslane, and they are hopeful that the Scottish Government's white paper will "address these questions in full and provide the necessary supporting evidence". Sounds like a triumph of optimism over experience to Calton.

Heartwarming and earwarming

It is heartwarming to hear that Stonehaven has been inundated with offers of help, gifts and furniture after the floods earlier this week. Donations can still be handed in to Stonehaven Town Hall. On the other side of the country, the A890 has reopened after the Christmas Day landslip, which is good news for the people of Lochcarron. In other good news, Harris tweed production topped 1 million metres of cloth in 2012, reversing the decline of previous years. Calton is not surprised - he quite fancies a tweed jacket himself and a deerstalker hat to go with it, especially now that Messrs Smith and Cumberbatch have gone some way to removing the old man image of such items. Calton may not be in the first flush of youth but he doesn't want to look old before his time!

Happy Boxing Day!

Calton now has a new woolly hat - a red one - from Santa and has found that there is at least one church still resisting the trend to update the words of old carols and so two of Calton's Christmas wishes have been granted. Unfortunately a third is under threat from an influential section of the American public who think that the answer to the USA's gun problem is more guns. Doh!

Calton's Boxing Day sympathies lie with the residents of Lochcarron, who, once again, find themselves cut off from Plockton and Kyle due to another landslide. Yet another reminder that the best engineering of man is still vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather. It's time a long-term solution is found to the problems of this road.

Finally, Calton is glad to see that we haven't yet reached the same stage as Santa Monica, where public nativity scenes have been banned, and so the nativity scene in Dalmally phone box can be enjoyed, not just by the residents of the Argyllshire town and their visitors, but by people worldwide thanks to the Dalmally Phonebox facebook page. Happy Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas!

Calton would like to wish all his readers a very happy Christmas!

It's raining again!

Calton didn't realise that Richard 'Wellington' Benyon is also the Floods Minister - now there's a man whose wellies are full to overflowing. Meanwhile, it has started raining again in the NE of Scotland which is not good news for the residents of Stonehaven. Calton has decided to add another item to his Christmas wish list - for the rain to stop! He is also hoping even more that item 4 on the list is fulfilled, after the senseless shooting of two firemen today in New York. Yet more grieving families on what should be a happy, family day. Calton's thoughts and prayers are with them.

A Christmas Carol

Glory be, one of Calton's Christmas wishes has been fulfilled already! He has winged his way to the Granite City and was fortunate enough to attend a lovely carol service at Gilcomston South this evening where he was able to sing many of his favourite carols and the words had not been modernised! The age of miracles has not ceased. He is now sitting in front of a log fire, full of mince pies, trying to resist the temptation to squeeze the parcels under the Christmas tree to see if he's also going to get a woolly hat. He hasn't, however, forgotten the plight of those who have been flooded out of their homes recently, particularly in nearby Stonehaven. Thankfully the rain has stopped for the moment and Calton hopes that it will not be long before they are back in their homes.

Great expectations

It's obviously good news that Statoil are to invest £billions in the Mariner North Sea oil field with hundreds of new jobs. Looks like the black gold will keep flowing a while yet, contrary to what Calton said a couple of days ago. The contradictory news stories of the past week do, however, demonstrate the unwisdom of relying on oil to gain us entry into the EU and support things like free tuition and free personal care for the elderly. It's just too volatile, not unlike another energy source currently popular with the Scottish Government, namely wind. Is Calton just being mischievous in seeing a link between slippery Salmond with his hot air and the forms of energy he and his party favour? Perhaps. Anyway you can't beat a roaring log fire at this time of year and Calton already has his stocking hanging up by the mantelpiece!

Calton's Christmas wish list

Here are the things Calton would like for Christmas, in no particular order:
1. A definitive answer on the position of an independent Scotland vis a vis the EU.
2. A moratorium on the building of windfarms on Scotland's mountains so that he can visit his relatives over the festive season without risk of being clattered on the back of the head by a turbine blade.
3. People to stop updating the words of the lovely old Christmas carols Calton has known since he was just out of the egg.
4. The US to enact some sort of gun control so that at least some good can come out of the terrible evil of Sandy Hook.
5. A woolly hat - because you can never have too many of them and asking for one will ensure that Calton gets at least one item from his wishlist!