Blethering Skite

Created by Tina Ross, this map details the kingdoms and states that existed in Europe at the beginning of the 11th century. While the Holy Roman Empire was the major power in Central Europe, other powerful states include the Caliphate of Cordoba and the Bulgarian Empire. Many smaller states also existed, including the kingdoms of Strathclyde and Naverre. The map also details the important cities and towns that existed in the year 1000.

Friday 13 October, 1307, is a date that echoes across history, spawning a deep-seated superstition about any Friday 13th. On that day, Philip IV, King of France, arrested hundreds of Knights Templar in France. Philip had been out to get the Templars since 1302. This had nothing to do with the global mythology that has since grown up around the Knights Templar, and it especially had nothing to do with the Holy Grail: it was simply that, as one of the richest organisations in Europe, the Templars had turned down a demand from Philip for a loan he needed to further his military adventures.

His campaign against the Templars extended to kidnapping Pope Boniface VIII in September 1303, and possibly poisoning his successor, Benedict XI in July 1304. In 1305 Philip finally got a Pope who would see things his way, when a Frenchman who had been a childhood friend became Pope Clement V. By 13 October 1307 Philip felt his position was strong enough for him to move against the Templars in France, arresting their members and seizing their treasury and assets.

Confessions of heresy and a wide range of other invented crimes forced out of the arrested French Templars gave Philip IV the ammunition he needed to try to persuade Pope Clement V that the Order should be suppressed worldwide. Clement V finally succumbed to the pressure, and issued an Edict to dissolve the Templars after the Council of Vienna in 1312. Templar properties and assets in countries previously sympathetic to them were seized, in many cases being transferred to the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. At the same time, many Knights Templar who had not already gone to ground were put on trial and executed. It had taken ten years for Philip to get even with the Templars, but get even he certainly had.

In Scotland, King Robert the Bruce, himself under excommunication from the Church after his murder of the Red Comyn, was less inclined than most European monarchs to rigorously enforce all aspects of the Papal Edict dissolving the Templars. As elsewhere, their Scottish lands and properties, such as Temple itself and the church at Tullich, were transferred to the Knights of St John, but there was little persecution of individual members of the Order in Scotland, and many Knights Templar were allowed simply to become Knights of St John.

Since they had first been established in Scotland by David I in 1153, the main Scottish base of the Knights Templar had been 15 miles south of Edinburgh at a place called Balantradoch. Here they had a monastery on the east bank of the River South Esk. In 1312 ownership of the monastery was transferred to the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John, and became part of the property they administered from their Scottish headquarters at Torphichen Preceptory near Linlithgow.

During the 1500s Balantradoch came to be known as Temple, reflecting its earlier history.

Named after the Irish monk Saint Donan, who is believed to have lived here in the sixth century, Kildonan lies at the south-eastern extremity of the Isle of Arran. Reached via a loop of minor road dropping to the shore, the village stands out for two reasons.

The first is that it is home to an excellent beach which offers stretches of sand, a relative rarity on Arran. The second is more immediately obvious as you approach it. The views south over the village to the Ayrshire coast and the islands of Pladda and Ailsa Craig are simply superb.

Kildonan also boasts a castle, standing out on the old raised beach behind and above the village. It was once, with Lochranza Castle and Brodick Castle, one of three fortresses guarding Arran's strategically important position in the approaches to the Clyde. Today's Kildonan Castle is only a shadow of its former self, but still reflects its origins as a 13th Century keep.

The castle was originally built by the Lords of the Isles, but by 1406 was in the ownership of Robert III, who in that year passed it on to his illegitimate son, John Stewart of Ardgowan. In 1544 it was acquired by the Hamilton family, the Earls of Arran.

How can it be that millions of Scots are struggling to pay essential bills?

It could be because economic growth as measured by GDP was never designed as a yardstick of a society’s success or otherwise. It only really measures financial flows (it’s the same in GDP terms whether you spend £10 billion to build affordable, quality social housing or on bagging yourself a gold-plated SUV with diamond-inlaid wheel trims, but one might just possibly be better than the other).

GDP growth is, however, constantly touted as a proxy for societal success – most often by those with money and power, because they seem to be profiting very nicely from the status quo, thanks very much.

In fact, growth-focused neoliberal economic policies are strongly linked to Scotland’s poor health, poverty and mortality indicators over the past 30 years, earning it the title of “the sick man of Europe”.

These indicators have worsened due to the ‘austerity agenda’ of reduced public spending, tax rises, and the privatisation of public services and/or the responsibility for care being transferred to individuals that has been UK government policy since 2010, and which continues to this day.

The CNR is derisory to Scotland, equating English city Mayor’s – the combined budget of which is just over £2b with Scotland’s elected FM with a budget of £60b. But it’s not really about numbers is it? It’s comparing apples and pears and deliberately equating a region with a nation which is insulting. As Dr WE Bulmer puts it:

"The ‘Council of Nations and Regions’ has one Scottish and one Welsh representative out of 18. This shows the ridiculousness of any scheme that treats the nations of Scotland and Wales on a par, not with England, but with individual English city-regions.”

But it’s worse than that. Because Labour are on the one hand undermining the devolution settlement they themselves created, while on the other hand presenting the bogus version of devolution they have created in England.

The CNR has no real powers, no legal basis and no autonomy.

OP:@[email protected]

By Bernie Bell

Through this year’s final dig at The Ness of Brodgar, one of the Artists in Residence - Jeanne Bouza-Rose - has been doing sketches of the people as well as the structures. These quick impressions appealed to me as they ‘catch’ the people, and the moment. With Jeanne’s permission, I’ve copied a couple of them from her Newsletter

Late #Scotstober word 05 Clype. I went to a #school  where the desks still had inkwells and slates were still in the store cupboard. Happy days. And you could get the belt.  

https://stooryduster.co.uk/scottish-word/clype/

When the new Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced without warning that it was axing the funding for this benefit, the Scottish government said it could not make up the difference out of its fixed budget which has already been allocated. 

This highlights the limits of devolution because Scotland is very rich in renewable energy - but because it is part of the UK, Scots are made to pay an artificially high tariff for electricity. That is the real root of the problem which is forcing 39% of Scots pensioners into fuel poverty.

Unlike similar energy-rich countries like Sweden and Iceland, Scots pensioners pay the highest energy bills in Europe. But the Scottish government has no control over how energy is regulated or priced, or the way its energy infrastructure is being used.

New super highway - but Scots still have to pay an artificially high tariff

Labour has greenlit plans for a new energy superhighway to transmit power from Scotland to the south of England - but Scotland won’t benefit from that in the way it would as an independent country. Of course, if Scotland were independent like Scandinavian countries this would be a lucrative transaction that could allow Scotland to reduce the electricity tariff. That is what other energy-rich countries like Sweden, Denmark and Iceland do. The north of Sweden is experiencing a boom as businesses set up shop there to harness cheap energy.

Let's end on a comment that is even more relevant today than it was last week “A country which serves humanity - an end to war and the promotion of peace, safety and humanity for all."

80% of the motivation for the independence movement is driven by equality and fairness, a wish for greater, more transparent democracy, the values of shared wellbeing in terms of prosperity and the environment and internationalism for a better future for our young folk.

However, it seems that 80% of our conversations about independence are arguments amongst ourselves around political differences within the movement and occasional tribalistic policy fights with unionists. My advice is let's get away from divisive politics, speak to the undecided but speak from the heart and then independence will form the beating heart of our nation and nothing will stop us.

Site Name: Cinn Trolla Alternative Name: Kintradwell

Country: Scotland County: Sutherland Type: Broch or Nuraghe

Nearest Town: Loth

Map Ref: NC92930807

Latitude: 58.048774N  Longitude: 3.815623W

Condition: 3 Ambience: no data Access: no data Accuracy: 5

OP: @[email protected]

Here's  yer Scotstober prompts! Have at it, an a that.

The Picts? Think of the confederation of tribes that came together to oppose the Romans, then occupied the central and eastern parts of Scotland north of the Forth-Clyde line for several hundred years after the Romans' departure. They were converted to Christianity in the century following a visit by St Columba in 565.

After about 850 the Picts were slowly incorporated into the Scots Kingdom of Alba under King Kenneth MacAlpin, and over time their separate identity was lost to that of the Scots. Find out more from our Historical Timeline.

We know most about the Picts from the carvings they left from the period between the completion of their conversion in about 650 to their eventual assimilation into Alba. These can be seen dotted spectacularly across much of the eastern side of Scotland north of the River Forth.

One of the largest collections of Pictish carved stones in Scotland is gathered together in the museum in the old schoolhouse in the village of Meigle, in Perthshire.

Seacliff is a little known corner of East Lothian five miles east of North Berwick and immediately to the south-east of Tantallon Castle, of which it offers some of the finest views available. It comprises an estate including the sad ruin of a once great house; a beautiful beach looking north towards Bass Rock; a remarkable, tiny harbour; and the almost hidden ruins of a castle. Truly a wonderful slice of Undiscovered Scotland!

This is an expanded version of a piece I wrote for The National a few days ago. I’m reposting it here with some additions in the light of Marr’s apology for his insulting and ignorant comments about the Gaelic language and its place in Scottish culture.

Wait until he finds out that Waverley station is named in Gaelic too. Gaelic for Waverley is Waverley.

The Aberdeen University professor has worked tirelessly to promote and encourage a revival in Doric and is proud of the results.

Tom McKean tells the story of how he once approached the BBC in Aberdeen, offering to provide a news bulletin in Doric on a daily basis.

As the director of the Elphinstone Institute, which was set up in the city in 1995 to celebrate, research and promote the traditions of the north-east and north of Scotland, he believed it would be another positive way of preserving the region’s rich language.

Whatever critics might argue, matters have changed for the better since the grim days of the 1950s when school pupils were threatened with the belt if they used the same vocabulary in the classroom which was part and parcel of their lives at home.

How To Spin Yarn Using A Drop Spindle

The musical Lifeline tells the story of Sir Alexander Fleming’s discovery of antibiotics, as these revolutionary drugs continue to lose their efficacy

The medications that doctors use to treat bacterial, fungal and other microbial infections are becoming less and less effective around the world as microbes evolve to survive exposure to the drugs. In 2021 antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections killed 1.14 million people and played a role in the deaths of an estimated 3.57 million others. The best estimates, released just this month, show that 39 million people will die of such infections between 2025 and 2050.

Today’s dire situation is the result of the overuse or improper use of these microbe-killing compounds in both medicine and in agriculture. As Lifeline dramatizes, Fleming saw this coming as far back as 1945, the year he shared a Nobel Prize for the discovery. “The greatest possibility of evil ... is the use of too-small doses, so that, instead of clearing up the infection, the microbes are educated to resist penicillin,”

In 2016 Meghan Perry, an infectious diseases clinician at the University of Edinburgh, had an idea: to teach kids about antibiotic resistance with a musical. So she suggested it to composer and theater company co-founder Robin Hiley, the spouse of one of her colleagues.

“I was initially perhaps a bit skeptical about this being a good topic for a musical,” Hiley says. “But she was persistent, as clinician scientists are.” The earliest iteration of the musical was a children’s play called The Mould That Changed the World, with students playing singing and dancing bacteria and telling the story of Fleming’s discovery of penicillin.

Over time, Hiley, the show’s composer and lyricist, found himself drawn to Fleming’s life story. The Scottish physician treated soldiers during World War I, when the frontline treatment for infected wounds were harsh antiseptics that often did more harm than good. His discovery of bacteria-killing compounds later turned the once-shy scientist into an international celebrity.

Vatersay has been the most southerly inhabited island in the Western Isles since 1912, when Mingulay was abandoned. Man has lived here for thousands of years, but Vatersay only really began to feature on the map as a result of land reform. By 1906 the island had been owned for many years by Lady Gordon Cathcart, who had visited it just once during the period. Her tenants farmed the whole island as a single holding.

Pressure on land throughout the Western Isles led one man to sail to the island and invoke an ancient right by erecting a thatched dwelling and lighting a fire within a single day. He was followed by others, who together became known as the Vatersay Raiders. Some were rewarded with imprisonment, but in 1909 the Government responded more positively by buying the island and divided it up into 58 crofts. Amongst the new residents was a very young Nan MacKinnon, who would late help preserve a vast wealth of traditional songs and folklore about Vatersay and Mingulay.

Oil and gas companies are regularly breaching their legal produced water permit allowances, Oceana’s report claims. Yet, in line with official government reporting requirements, these breaches are not registered as accidental oil spills. Indeed, Sea Slick counts a total of 723 permit breaching incidents in the last three-and-a-half years – that’s equivalent to 17 oil or chemical spills each month.

Currently these permit breaches aren’t counted as accidents. They’re not really counted as anything – other than permit breaches. If these unaccounted-for permit breaches are factored into official government data for accidental oil spills, Oceana estimates that the volume of oil spilling into UK seas increases by at least 43%.

The oil and gas sector are keen to reassure the public that chronic oil pollution can be quickly dispersed and poses a low risk to marine life or human health. Certainly, if incidents were rare, this might be a more persuasive argument. But they aren’t.

Getting serious about sanctions

Oceana’s research highlights that oil and gas companies have only been fined on two occasions in the last five years. One was for just £7,000.

The UK government has found more money for development costs for a nuclear power plant. Ironically, after claiming the cupboard was bare and they had to withdraw winter fuel allowance from pensioners who were expecting the money to help them get through this winter, they have decided to invest much more in nuclear power - which will increase the cost of energy bills not decrease them.

Here are three questions answered

In Orkney, out of all those aged 16+ years (18,448), 11,268 people are economically active - this number excludes students who may also be in employment. The information from Scotland's Census 2022 also records that 6,840 people are economically inactive. This means that they are not in paid employment. Of those who have retired, there are 5,001 who are economically inactive. ​

OP : @[email protected]

The oil and gas industry has been using the basin as a free disposal site for decades.

Working at that time for the environmental group Greenpeace, Marco Kaltofen was racing after a stunning realisation: that in many offshore oil and gas settings, oilfield waste is simply being dumped right into the ocean.

Fast-forward almost four decades, and an analysis by DeSmog shows that companies have been legally dumping toxic and radioactive oilfield waste into the North Sea — Europe’s arm of the North Atlantic — for decades, with largely unknown consequences for a sensitive and beloved marine environment. 

Modern oil and gas development involves the use of many toxic and potentially toxic chemicals: biocides and scale inhibitors, meant to kill bacteria and other lifeforms that can clog a well; corrosion inhibitors, which keep oilfield pipes from corroding; and a class of chemicals known as emulsion breakers or demulsifiers, whose purpose is often to break apart mineral material and lubricate fluids to keep product flowing through the piping of an oil or gas well.

Drilling also creates a particular type of toxic waste: produced water,  a naturally salty fluid laden with carcinogens, heavy metals, and naturally occurring radioactive elements, that surges to the surface during drilling. (Many wells generate more produced water than they do oil or gas).

A Stunning Amount of Waste

In 2022, the last year for which reporting is complete, oil and gas companies operating in the territorial waters of Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and the UK have dumped 244.4 million cubic metres of produced water into the North Sea —  discharged from just over 200 of the region’s 614 oil and gas installations. That’s enough to fill the Roman Colosseum 185 times over with oilfield waste, or flood the entire city of Amsterdam waist-high each year.

The juxtaposition between Labour’s bid to ‘crack down’ on benefit cheats and the new revelations that Sir Keir Starmer accepted accommodation worth £20,000 to help his 16-year-old son study for his GCSE exams, is brutal....

Dr Jay Watts commented: “The idea that we should be suspicious of benefits claimants for ‘fleecing the system’ has been erroneously sold as fact for the past decades, with devastating effects on hearts, bodies, and minds. Ideas of moral worth get inside us. Starmer’s words are violent and dangerous.”

She’s absolutely right. Starmer has commandeered the narrative of the tabloid right.

Britain has become a country with such a narrow bandwidth of politics that the main political parties are virtually indistinguishable in policy terms and the public discourse of social policy is simply grotesque, shaped as it has been for decades by the right-wing press to the extent that this has been inculcated and normalised for millions of people.

The silence from Labour on the rise of fascism in the summer and the misdirection about the way to make real savings and strengthen the economy is a giveaway about a party hollowed-out, purged and totally captivated by their wealthy corporate supporters. Labour is as far away from its roots and origins as its ever been.

Conclusion: towards a history of the multilingual city

Early modern London was multilingual. In fact, it was much more multilingual than this article has been able to show. Not far from where Philipine Seneschal and her mother-in-law insulted each other in French and English, two men named Manteo and Wanchese were teaching their Algonquian language to Thomas Hariot. 

London's migrants spoke Welsh and Scots and Portuguese as well as French and Dutch.

One commentator described the city as England's ‘third universitie’, where you could learn Chaldean, Syriac and Arabic, as well as Polish, Persian and Russian, among ‘divers other Languages fit for Embassadors and Orators, and Agents for Marchants, and for Travaylors, and necessarie for all Commerce or Negotiation whatsoever’.

The stranger churches’ records testify to the presence in London of Turks and Swedes, Spaniards, Germans and Greeks. The voices of the city's small but growing African population no doubt brought new languages to London's streets, even if we lack the detailed and linguistically rich archives of their experiences which we are lucky to have for other groups of strangers.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transactions-of-the-royal-historical-society/article/migrant-voices-in-multilingual-london-15601600/FD8DBD9E4236084E7386FF9A7124CF47

An autocratic wave has crept up on us in the U.S. and over the world in the last decade. Democracy and autocracy were once seen as two separate and distant worlds with little in common, and that the triumph of one weakened the other. Now, however, autocrats across the globe, in poor and wealthy nations, in established and nascent democracies, and from the right and left, are using the same tactics to dismantle democracies from within.

To answer these questions, we first need to identify how the new breed of autocrats attains and retains power: their hallmark strategy is deception. How does a roll call of modern autocrats, and wannabe autocrats, like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro implement this modus operandi for the latest model of autocracy? They twist information and create confusion within a façade of democracy as they seize power. They do not overthrow democracy through military coups d'état but by undoing core democratic principles, weakening the rule of law, and eliminating checks and balances between branches of government.