The ‘Lasting Legacy’ of Glasgow’s Commonwealth Shames

I have referred to the Glasgow 2014 money pit as The Commonwealth Shames, but such wit grows tiresome if overplayed, so I have not pursue the metaphor.

However, it looks as if I was right, and Glasgow’s reputation now does have the Lasting Legacy that the games’ organisers promised – but probably not the one they wanted to be found out for:

Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games chief John Scott quits

John Scott John Scott has stepped down as chief executive of the Glasgow 2014 organising committee

John Scott stepped down after admitting breaking rules over accepting gifts and hospitality from a potential supplier.

A statement from the organising committee, said Mr Scott deeply regretted his mistake.

David Grevemberg, the chief operating officer, will take charge of the organising committee until a permanent chief executive appointment is made.

Lord Smith, chairman of Glasgow 2014, said: “John Scott has made an important contribution to the planning of what we believe will be an outstanding Games.

“The board has accepted his resignation for an error of judgement he made in accepting, and not declaring, an offer from one of Glasgow 2014′s potential suppliers, in breach of the organising committee’s strict gifts and gratuities policy.

“I know he deeply regrets this mistake and this was a job that he loved. It is a measure of the man that he has put the values and reputation of the OC ahead of his own at this time.”

He said that because Mr Scott was was (sic) largely responsible for setting the committee’s standards of governance he felt he could not continue in his role as chief executive under the circumstances.

BBC News – Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games chief John Scott quits

Glasgow Commonwealth Games chief resigns after breaking gift rules | Glasgow and West | STV News

Thanks very much John Scott – you’re just the advert Glasgow needs.

Health and Safety Executive begins to fight back against media misrepresentation

Regular readers of the Forum and Blog will be aware that I take an active stance against the Jobsworths and the media, both of which use the phrase “health and safety” as a throwaway item to either demonstrate power that they can exert without good reason (and which strangely often seems to result in ‘spoiling’ people’s enjoyment), or to get a cheap laugh at the expense of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The stories usually involve some sort of bogus claim that something has been banned or closed down, and is generally written in such a way that the uninformed reader will assume blame for this lies with the Health and Safety Executive – but the truth is that the Executive will not even be aware of the subject, let alone involved with any cancellation decisions.

I take this stance because although I was never directly employed by the HSE, I was personally responsible for working with them, and responsible for certifying as safe equipment which could kill or maim people if the certification I had signed off had not been in order, so the trivialisation of the Executives’ work, almost always for things which it actually has, or had, no involvement with, is something which ultimately damages the reputation of that organisation.

In a recent post, I suggested that it was perhaps time for the HSE to employ someone to take action against those who were misrepresenting the organisation and its work.

Thanks to an alert reader, I was quickly informed that as of 2011, the HSE had started to make public statements regarding specific cases where it is misrepresented in the media. The HSE’s web site now contains the following section:

HSE Press Office – putting the record straight in 2011

Putting the record straight

Responding to health and safety related articles and reports in the British media.

Wherever possible we will now include a link to the original article with our response, except in cases where no online version is available or copyright prevents us from reproducing the text.

I wholeheartedly applaud this move to protect its reputation, and suspect it was motivated by a shameful strip-cartoon style attack on the HSE by the Forestry Journal, to which a written response from the HSE began as follows:

Your insulting and offensive portrayal of a health and safety inspector as a Nazi (Lumbering Jack, Forestry Journal, November) not only grossly trivialises the suffering of the millions in the Second World War, it also fundamentally distorts the work that regulators do with businesses on safety.

The Forestry Journal’s ‘joke’ can be seen here:

HSE responds to Forestry Journal Lumbering Jack cartoon – ‘Nazi’ safety inspectors

Prior to this item, which is the first item to appear in the ‘Putting the record straight‘ section, the HSE had sought to treat the media abuse in a more light-hearted fashion, in the following section of its web site:

Myth of the month

This is long overdue, and I wonder if the HSE has any plans in hand to take some of the worst offenders to court in future. Given the sort of trivial rubbish that makes it there under our laws regarding libel, I’m almost surprised something similar has not taken place already.

Further reading

HSE’s job is to prevent people being killed, injured or made ill by work.

What HSE does / doesn’t do

HSE – Scotland

Inverness to host Sunbeam Talbot Alpine car event

About 100 Sunbeam Talbot Alpines from the UK, continental Europe, and North America are expected to meet in Inverness over the weekend of July 1 to July 4, 2011, Friday to Monday.

Owners and their cars will visit sites around Inverness, including Culloden Battlefield and Bogbain Farm.

It is now more than 50 years since the marque was last manufactured.

The Sunbeam Talbot Alpine Register (STAR) are involved in organising this event, described as the first such rally to be held in Inverness.

STAR was established in 1969 to encourage the use, restoration and preservation of the Talbot, Sunbeam Talbot, and Sunbeam cars manufactured by the Rootes Group between 1936 and 1957.

BBC News – Sunbeam Talbot Alpine cars to gather in Inverness

STAR – the Sunbeam Talbot Alpine Register

RTD – Russia Today Documentary – launched

There are probably more secrets to be found in the vastness of Russia, once locked behind the doors of the Soviet Union, than anywhere else.

RT has amassed a stunning array of documentaries for viewing online, but they can be hard to track down on what is really a news channel, and is now sprawling and huge.

There is a wealth of amazing subjects to be found in a huge country, and where many things that were once secret and hidden – and you would probably have been shot and forgotten if you had tried to see them – are now lying abandoned and derelict.

Chances are you can now learn about them a little more easily now, than yesterday:

RT has launched a brand new 24-hour documentary channel bringing you the best of Russia in English. The channel was launched on Thursday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited RT’s studio in Moscow.

RT’s launching a new project – an English language documentary channel about Russia. The project team worked for over five years making documentaries about the world’s largest country and taking viewers to its farthermost and little-known corners.

Today, they are ready to present all of their findings. RT’s new channel will feature RT-made unique documentaries which received high appraisal from industry’s professionals, were distinguished by Media Excellence Awards, and won a New York Festivals prize. Discovering Russia will offer a tour of Russia’s most beautiful and interesting cities and towns.

Meeting with Nature will take viewers to Russia’s unique nature reserves. Technology Update will report on advancement in science and technologies. Faces of Russia will introduce the audience to culture, arts and crafts of Russia’s ethnic minorities. Culture Fair will report on culture, arts and fashion, while history fans will learn a lot about Russian history from the Historical Files series.

RTD – Russia Today Documentary

Glasgow in the 1970s – a set of photo surveys

My visit to a couple of Glasgow museums was well-timed last week, and I already mentioned GLASGOW 1955: Through the lens.

I picked up another book, similar but this time 1970s’ Glasgow: Through the Lens.

Also the result of surveys by the Partick Camera Club, it covers three: Partick in 1975, Calton during 1976-77, and the Fish Market (including Paddy’s Market) over 1977-78.

The period is significant, as it shows the effect of The Bruce Plan, born as far back as 1945, and which saw 300,000 people relocated out of Glasgow on the late 1950s, to New Towns like East Kilbride, Cumbernauld, Irvine, Livingston, and Glenrothes. or moved into newly built housing schemes on the edge of the city at Easterhouse, Castlemilk, Pollock, and Drumchapel. This also brought the high-rise tower blocks (now largely demolished), and the M8 motorway through the city.

The three surveys resulted in well over 1,000 prints, which were displayed in the city’s museums, and ultimately joined their collections.

The pictures have an uncanny, and almost unsettling atmosphere to them.

Although they are not particularly old, the fact that they have been printed as black and white images gives them a feeling of being much older than they actually are, a feeling reinforced by many of their subjects being of ‘old’ Glasgow – places that were originally created in Victorian times, and are now gone in many cases, having been razed to make way for plans which promised newer and better things.

Whether or not they ever arrived will be a matter for endless debate amongst those of us who lived through, or just after, that period, and can see the city in the form it has now taken.

First published in 2011 – and currently priced at £9.99 – this is another one worth adding to the collection if interested in Glasgow.

This is a new publication, and there is an exhibition behind it, at the Scotland Street Museum, From June 3, 2011, free admission:

The Glesga that I Used to Know

What’s On – The Glesga that I Used to Know – 1970s Glasgow: Through the lens From June 3, 2011

Glasgow 1955 and a one day photo survey

I was able to visit a couple of Glasgow’s museums last week, and wandered into the shops for a look.

Being local, I’ve pretty much bought most of the reasonably priced offerings directly related to the city (not the tourist trade tat – but the proper historic reference goodies that appear from time to time), so just go in out of nosiness, and to see if anything new has been produced. I was in luck this time, as they had some new books, and one was GLASGOW 1955: Through the lens.

This turned out to be more interesting than it had at first appeared.

In April of 1955, a letter had been sent to all members of the Partick Camera Club, inviting them to take part in a citywide photographic survey. Photographs were to be submitted by September of that year, and would later be exhibited during the autumn, in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Everything was to be included, work, leisure, play, sport, recreation, streets, etc, with the only limitation being that the subject be within the city limits. The organiser had a published aim of creating photographs that:

Will be available to future generations, as yet unborn, as a factual and almost visible record of their city in 1955.

600 prints resulted, and these were displayed in the museum for one month (and I believe were also shown in the People’s Palace), then donated to the City of Glasgow.

First published in 2008 – and currently priced at £9.99 – I can recommend this one as it does what it says on the tin and provides a record of the city of Glasgow at time when it was on the way to major changes, then already well underway following the end of World War II, of which the effects were only then coming to an end, and moving towards the 1960s, which would see radical changes to both the city and the lives of the people within.

Glasgow 1955+55 project

The following update was received (November 7, 2011) regarding the project:

Queen’s Park Camera Club was one of the original camera clubs which took part in the 1955 survey. As it was the only surviving club of those that took part in the original survey, in 2010 the club carried out a full-year update photo-documentary survey of Glasgow. The project was christened ‘Glasgow 1955+55′ and we tried to record as many aspects as possible of Glasgow in 2010 to feature in an exhibition to show the comparison between Glasgow then and now. Our main objective in carrying out this update was to provide the city and the wider community with some quality archive records of Glasgow in 2010, and for future enthusiasts to look at and, maybe, in their turn, to update.

BBC News – Appeal after cat found abandoned in carrier in Aberdeen

An appeal has been launched after a cat was found abandoned in carrier in Aberdeen:

The cat was found abandoned in the Bucksburn area of Aberdeen

A cat was left abandoned in a pet carrier in Aberdeen by a “cruel and irresponsible” owner, the Scottish SPCA has said.

The black and white male cat was found in the Bucksburn area with a small amount of dry food and no water.

The animal charity has appealed for help to trace the culprit.

Scottish SPCA Inspector Fiona McKenzie said: “The cat’s owner couldn’t have been sure he would be found as he was left in quite a remote area.”

She explained: “It was obvious that the cat had been dumped as he was locked in the pet carrier.

“This was a cruel and irresponsible act.

“He’s a big friendly cat and he’s in good health. However, he wasn’t wearing an identity tag and there was no microchip so we have been unable to trace his owner.”

The charity wants to hear from anyone with information about the 9 June discovery.

via BBC News – Appeal after cat found abandoned in carrier in Aberdeen.

I would add that while I sympathise and agree to a degree with the attitude of the SSPCA and the statement made about the owner, at this stage they do not know the circumstances that led to someone who clearly had looked after the cat, and had a cat carrier and food to hand, and not everyone who has a pet also has a brain the size of a plan, or thinks clearly of some sort of overriding tragedy strikes them unaware. The owner may even have been someone with mental difficulties, and had been given the cat by someone well-meaning, but not aware of what might happen.

Isle of Wight Festival organisers earn contempt for folding chair ban

Although I believe it has nothing to do with any intervention or action by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive), there is a story from the Isle of Wight Festival that will no doubt come to be quoted as another case of “health and safety” excess or over-zealousness.

Some Jobsworth type who has the power to stop people bringing folding chairs into the festival has banned such chairs from the festival site, forcing attendees to abandon them and leave them outside the site.

Visitors to the Isle of Wight festival have said they are “furious” after being prevented from bringing foldaway chairs on to the site.

About 100 people were told they had to leave their seats at the entrance to the site at Seaclose Park in Newport.

Among them, Clive Woodford from East Cowes said he needed to sit for medical reasons and there was no prior notification of chairs being banned.

The organisers confirmed chairs were not allowed in but declined to comment.

Mr Woodford said: “I’m absolutely furious. It’s 175 quid down the drain. [The organisers] need to treat the public with respect.”

Other festival goers said they had brought chairs in previous years without a problem.

Mr Woodford’s wife said she was told it was a “healthy and safety” issue.

…

BBC News – Isle of Wight Festival folding chair ban sparks anger

As usual, the organisers have made an unsubstantiated ‘health and safety’ statement, without quoting any reference.

And the Jobsworth responsible is cowering behind the anonymity of the organisers, and both are hiding behind a statement of “No comment” when asked to explain.

I would suggest it really is time the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) got its house in order, and employed someone to keep these Jobsworth types in order, and dissociate the HSE from this sort of nonsense, which serves to do nothing more than devalue the organisation and make it an undeserved laughing-stock.

Two years on, the Wee Cumbrae con is still in denial

Little Cumbrae House © Eddie Dowds

We mentioned the sale of the Little Cumbrae, or as we prefer locally, the Wee Cumbrae, back in 2009:

Little Cumbrae seems to be sold at last

I avoided the temptation then to refer to Baba Ramdev, and use words like conman near his name, but two years on, the Wee Cumbrae remains much as it was two years ago, with none of the great developments the buyer foresaw, after the penniless guru was flown over to celebrate the purchase.

He is described as not even having a bank account – of course not, when you are cooking the books you have make sure there are no financial records around to incriminate you when the bubble bursts.

This article gave a great build up to the Wee Cumbrae yoga project, and some worshipful praise for Ramdev – carefully failing to mention any of the investigations the authorities have running regarding him and his organisation:

Exclusive: She donated an island to Baba Ramdev – Rediff.com News

I find it really sad the way the apparently otherwise sensible and wealthy people are taken in by these types. It may be rampant in America, where the TV evangelists can be excused in a way, given the mental state of much of their audience, but that excuse doesn’t really work for Scotland.

The yoga guru was recently ‘forced’ to abandon a declared ‘Hunger strike to death’.

BBC News – India: Protests against crackdown on Baba Ramdev

I have to say that this would seem to show he doesn’t have much willpower, or conviction (of the non-criminal type in this case) or it was a con. After all, it doesn’t take much effort to stop eating, and unless the authorities start force-feeding you with tubes, then your chances of a successful and fatal conclusion are pretty certain.

A great way to gain publicity and sympathy amongst followers though, without having to deliver on the original promise, and claim you were prevented from doing so by the corrupt authorities.

Small wonder the word ‘artist‘ is sometime seen in close association with the word ‘con‘.

Incredibly, after £2.5 million for the island, the buyers are still looking throw away a further six-figure sum in order to develop this “penniless fellow’s” yoga retreat.

They previously made the point that Baba Ramdev does not even posses a bank account – he doesn’t need one!

Yoga followers fail to take up position on Scots island – Scotland on Sunday

Yesterday Poddar insisted that the organisation was still attempting to raise money to continue with its plans for the island. “We want to make sure everything is in place before we open to the public so we are trying to raise funds so we can do that,” she said.

“With the planning and an architect, health and safety restrictions and fire issues, we’re looking at a six-figure sum that we need to raise.”

“We are very much still online to develop Little Cumbrae. Ultimately we do want to build a retreat centre there where people can come and practise yoga and get better.”

She said that members of the public were still welcome to visit the island to appreciate its natural beauty, but that retreats would not be open to the public until next summer at the earliest.

Picapp purged

Funny, when you think something is too good to be true, and then are surprised when your thought turns out to be correct.

An application known as Picapp appeared for this hosted blog, giving free access to a supply of commercial images in return for a bit of a plug.

As it looked fairly innocuous, and the images were current, I decided to fly with it, and things went fine for a while, then there was a message stating that it was to go, and would no longer be available.

But, we were assured that Picapp was committed to maintaining the supply of images to any existing blog entries that already used them.

I should just have ditched Picapp at the first strike, but gave it a chance, and was let down – which should not really have come as any surprise.

I happened to look at a few blog entries that used Picapp images, and only one still had the original image showing – the rest all contained dead links.

I just decided to purge the lot this afternoon.

So, if any old blog entries are noted to contain references to images that don’t exist, then it’s probably because I have deleted the Picapp link.

I did try to reword some of them, but not all were simple, so there might be some odd wording left over – my apologies, but it’s not really my fault.