Obama’s dreadful
error about the
‘Polish death camps’
Lockerbie:
An overview
Maid of the Seas, Pan Am 103, left the gate at Heathrow Airport on time at 18.07 on the evening of 21 December 1988, taking off at 18.25…She fell out of the sky at 19.03 over southern Scotland, with the fuel-laden wings causing carnage in the small town of Lockerbie when they landed on occupied houses.
But what happened next? And next? And next?
The Scottish Review asked the Justice for Megrahi Committee to unpick the many strands of the case and present, for the first time, a concise written statement justifying its argument that the Lockerbie trial resulted in a colossal miscarriage of justice.
The resulting document is published in full, exclusively in this weekend’s Scottish Review. Whatever your views on Lockerbie, it is worth reading and thinking about…
Islay’s Scotland
Alternative city (1)
Paisley
Alternative city (2)
Falkirk
Alternative city (3)
Greenock
Unlike many publications SR doesn’t have an online comment facility – we prefer a more considered approach. The Cafe is our readers’ forum. If you would like to contribute to it, please email islay@scottishreview.net
Today’s banner
Creel, Isle of Mull
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
Kenneth Roy
Earlier this year on a visit to Perth, whose restoration of city status was announced yesterday, I was checked into the Salutation Hotel by a man who knew too much about my past.
‘You’ll remember the cheery barmaid,’ he said – cheerily enough.
‘The cheery barmaid,’ I repeated dumbly.
‘Yes, the one you met here,’ he continued in the same disconcerting fashion.
Perth – the Salutation Hotel – a barmaid – my mind was racing.
‘The Rotary Club was meeting that day,’ he added helpfully.
‘Oh, that day,’ I lied.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘she doesn’t work here any more.’
‘She doesn’t?’
‘No, we don’t have any cheery barmaids in the hotel now.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because,’ he replied, ‘we’ve got cheery barmen instead.’
Feeling slightly dazed, I picked up the room key and wandered through to the bar. It occurred to me that Charles Edward Stuart stayed in this hotel, in the olden days when the Salutation ran to cheery barmaids. Perhaps that hopeless character had been distracted by one of them; it might explain a lot.
Sure enough it was a man who was serving the drinks. Only he wasn’t cheery, not a bit. He had the look of a fellow who had just received some extremely bad news – the Rangers result, maybe. I ordered a glass of dry white wine, the first of several that evening, to fortify myself for the ordeal.
Oh, I’ve missed a bit. Before I left reception, the other man – the manager type – had solved the mystery of the cheery barmaid.
In 1987 – yes, they have long memories in Perth – there are people still alive in the town – sorry, city – who remember giving Bonnie Prince Charlie an enouraging wave as he arrived at the Salutation off his sturdy mare – it seems that in 1987 I did a chapter on Perth for a book of miscellaneous travels.
Here is the passage in question:
I gave my lunchtime custom to the Salutation, which advertises itself as the oldest established hotel in Scotland (1699). Upstairs, the Rotary Club of Perth was preparing to meet in a room next to the bar. An official sat at a table just inside the door, ticking off names of Members Attending.
I asked the barmaid [25 years later she would be immortalised as the cheery barmaid] for directions to St John’s Church.
‘St John’s Kirk,’ she corrected me. ‘We aye call it Kirk.’
‘Kirk it is, then.’
‘My daughter’s gettin’ married there next year. For weddings, you pay somebody a fiver and they’ll ring the bells. Lovely when they ring the bells.’
‘I’m sure…’
She laughed. ‘Easy pleased, I am!’
I explained that I was going to St John’s Kirk for the opening event of the Perth Festival. The barmaid said the festival was great, and getting better every year. But when I remarked on the flags [there were a lot of flags hanging around that day] she said she doubted if they were connected with the festival. More likely, she thought, the flags were for the opening of the new shopping centre.
Personally, she didn’t want the new shopping centre. It would only take trade away from the High Street. Already, two chainstores had decided to quit and relocate in the St John’s Centre. What would happen to their old premises? What would happen to the High Street generally?
Which town in Scotland do you think should have been granted
city status, if not Perth? Send your nomination, with reasons, to islay@scottishreview.net no later than Monday at 12 noon. There will be a Scottish Review pen – one that actually works – for the
best entry
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