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Daisy Carnegie, Edinburgh's Carnegie library cat on the payroll in the 1950s (featured in 'Lum Hats in Paradise')
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
At last some good news for Mavisbank House, and Scotland's built heritage!
xitter.cf/AnnaLandmark/status/17…
Thrilled to have a chance to talk about the new @landmarktrust-led project to save #Mavisbank on @SkyNews just now. It really does come down to whether we collectively care about such places enough. #itsonus
'Midlothian Council @midgov launched a Compulsory Purchase Order on Mavisbank House, near Loanhead, after decades of campaigning to save it from ruin.'
Future of Mavisbank House secured theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2… via @EdinReporter
At last some good news for Mavisbank House, and Scotland's built heritage!
xitter.cf/AnnaLandmark/status/17…
Thrilled to have a chance to talk about the new @landmarktrust-led project to save #Mavisbank on @SkyNews just now. It really does come down to whether we collectively care about such places enough. #itsonus
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
Release of non-native animals is a criminal offence under S14(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Pheasants and red-legged partridges are not native here. Let's have our say shall we?
#Defra call for evidence
We encourage anyone with an interest in shooting, either directly involved or supporting the sector through hospitality, to take part.
Submit comments & copy in your local MP here:
Email: [email protected]
Subject line: Call for Evidence
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bookish_cats_aye retweeted
EXC: Edinburgh councillors could ask Audit Scotland to investigate the Scottish Government’s decision to cancel a regulatory check helping councils to levy road congestion charges.
@heraldscotland
heraldscotland.com/news/2666…
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
Another day of Orca-watching for us here in Shetland with the six individuals seen yesterday off Burra and Trondra moving north to Tresta Voe in the west Mainland. Torrential rain all day made viewing 'interesting' but enjoy this brief snippet of footage during a five minute weather window this afternoon.
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
Breaking: Coul Links golf course REFUSED by Scottish ministers after latest three-year battle ift.tt/FYs3uhp
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
Good news! The London Fire Brigade is returning home to its purpose-built 1930s riverside HQ🔥
The scheme is a major improvement on the 2 tower blocks proposed for the site - successfully resisted by local community groups, with support from SAVE in 2020 bit.ly/4BheUaX
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
Pecunia non olet: There a wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecuni…
EMPTY words from a local councillor @Edinburgh_CC, or relevant statements based on real leverage?
Summerhall developers must “guarantee” the retention of a prominent arts space and agree “long-term affordable arrangements” with current tenants at the culture hub, an Edinburgh councillor has said.
@heraldscotland
heraldscotland.com/news/2665…
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
Environmental charity Open Seas says fisheries enforcement can already arrive days after reports of illegal activity, raising questions about the effectiveness of Scotland's marine surveillance system
theferret.scot/p/bcadd4c5-b1…
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
Replying to @archpng
Please do tag us in these posts. Thanks
✍️SAVE has written to Manchester City Council seeking clarity on the decision-making process that allowed the demolition of the listed All Souls Church, Ancoats. savebritainsheritage.org/new…
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
The former Reid Memorial Church in Edinburgh could be purchased from the Church of Scotland in a community buyout.
A local group has been set up to explore the possibility of buying the Category A-listed building on West Savile Terrace.
@heraldscotland
heraldscotland.com/news/2665…
"‘Misleading’ information in the Briefing Note...claims engineering inspections...in line with standards laid out in the Design Manual for Bridges and Structures when, allegedly, they were not. The promised ‘principal’ inspection has not been carried out."
#PowderhallFootbridge
POWDERHALL FOOTBRIDGE.—Local frustration at Council closure and subsequent handling of vital active-travel link. Report on yesterday's meeting and joint response by Leith Central and Broughton & New Town Community Councils: broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news…
#Edinburgh #hyperlocal #news
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
🔴 NEW: The Scottish Government is selling surveillance planes to save money and says drones will be used to prevent illegal fishing. But critics argue that losing experienced pilots could mean criminality goes unchecked.
Our latest: theferret.scot/p/bcadd4c5-b1…
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
Almost 70% of licensed short-term lets in Edinburgh are operating without planning permissions, new figures reveal.
@heraldscotland
heraldscotland.com/news/2665…
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
🏆Liverpool Street ranked best train station in Britain.
@trainpal_go gave it 96.4 / 100 for ‘station experience’.
😕Strange that we're told the station needs a £1bn rebuild that would destroy the roof and plonk a 19-storey skyscraper on top.
timeout.com/london/news/live…
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
But it’s true. Scotland is almost certainly the most centralised country in Europe.
bookish_cats_aye retweeted
The man who found out what happened to the Franklin expedition was a Scottish doctor who walked 6,500 miles across the Arctic on foot, lived off what he shot, and never lost a man. The Royal Navy never forgave him for it.
John Rae was born in Orkney in 1813 and went to the Hudson's Bay Company as a surgeon. He learned to hunt, to snowshoe, to build a snow house and to sleep in it, from the Cree and the Inuit, and he saw no reason to carry a year of salt pork when the country was full of food. On his first survey he took 12 men 1,200 miles with provisions for 4 months and fed them for 15 on caribou, fish and seal.
The Admiralty's expeditions went the other way. Franklin sailed in 1845 with 129 men, 2 ships, a library, silver cutlery and 8,000 tins of meat and soup, and died with every one of them. In 1854 Rae met Inuit on the Boothia Peninsula who had seen the last of the sailors, 40 men dragging a boat south, starving, and who had found the bodies after. Some had been eaten by the others.
Rae reported it as he was told it. London was outraged. Charles Dickens wrote that no Englishman would do such a thing and that the natives were lying. Lady Franklin saw to it that Rae never received the knighthood every other Arctic explorer of his rank was given, and the memorial in Westminster Abbey names Franklin as the discoverer of the passage Rae had actually found.
He died in 1893 at 79, still fit, still walking.
The Navy's men had the best provisions in Europe and died of scurvy in a land full of game. The Orkneyman ate what the Inuit ate, walked further than any of them, and was punished for coming home with the truth.

























