East Lothian Courier Column: June 9th!

Many congratulations to the organisers of the Ladies Glitterball for raising £3,600 for charity at their recent ball at Eskmills Function Suite. This is a fantastic achievement and I know the two recipients of these donations, Cancer Research UK and Alzheimer Scotland, will be both be extremely grateful for all the effort that was put in and also to those who donated. Cancer and dementia are diseases that touch most of us in some way or another over the course of our lives, and as such these charities do outstanding work. I hope everyone who attended the ball had a great evening!

I was pleased to have the opportunity last week to visit the Army Cadets who are based at Goose Green Place, and I have to say I was extremely impressed by the whole organisation. The young cadets are quite clearly a capable and intelligent group; this is in no small measure due to the excellent training they’re given and qualifications they work towards. I’m hoping to meet both Musselburgh’s Sea Cadets and Air Training Cadets in the near future and I have no doubt they will be equally impressive.

Last week’s survey of the oil industry by the Aberdeen and Grampian Chambers of Commerce proved interesting reading. We now see 18% of firms believing that independence would be positive for the sector, while 38% stated that it would not make any real difference. This is despite the Better Together campaign’s assurances that we could see real problems in the oil industry post-independence – well, the majority of the companies involved don’t seem to think so.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party have finally announced their proposals for further Scottish powers, but it’s difficult to take these seriously when they – and their Liberal Democrat partners – shamefacedly write reports for the UN claiming their benefit cuts are going to help children out of poverty. To make matters worse the Scottish Government’s objections to welfare cuts were not included, despite a specific request from Aileen Campbell, the Children’s Minister. Is this what they mean when we’re told we’re better together?