Category: Dumbarton

SNP LET DOWN HOMELESS AT EVERY LEVEL

Fiona McPhail, principal solicitor for Shelter Scotland, said the case is about “one of the most fundamental rights homeless people have in Scotland”. “When in the crisis of homelessness, our laws say that temporary accommodation should be provided. Too often Glasgow has failed in that most basic duty,” she added.
A petition with around 10,000 signatures, including Annie Lennox, Robert Carlyle, KT Tunstall and Val McDermid, calling for a law to secure a legal right to a home, will be presented to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.

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BOOKS: WAVES ON THE SHORE REVIEW

When the island was inhabited, it didn’t have a church or public house and then the school closed. There was no electricity until 2003 to serve the population, which the census recorded was at one time as high as 128.
Some of the islanders who left return from time to time to attend to farming chores, and several of their houses have been purchased as holiday homes by people from Ireland and other European countries. The author, Bernadette Conroy, who quit once but returned later to her post as Inishturk shed the last members of its indigenous population, deserves great praise for her work and for the skilful way she has drawn together the fascinating material for this new book. The Clifden Festival’s Artistic Director, Dr Brendan Flynn, is to be congratulated for having the commendable good sense to promote this book.
• Waves on the Shore is available from The Clifden Bookshop, other good bookshops such as Kenny’s Bookshop and Charlie O’Beirne’s in Galway, and on-line from the usual outlets.

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FERRET INVESTIGATION ON RAPE CRIMES

Nearly 10,000 calls to a helpline for rape victims went unanswered last year due to a lack of resources, according to Rape Crisis Scotland. A new report by the charity, which runs the helpline, also says that 1,150 people seeking help had attempted to take their own lives after a sexual attack. Such was the demand for help that rape crisis centres struggled to cope, with some even forced to close their waiting lists at times.

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WILDLIFE SUFFER FROM SNP DECADE OF AUSTERITY

Scottish Government funding for major environment bodies has been slashed by 40 per cent over the last decade putting nature and the climate at risk, according to a new expert analysis, according to The Ferret investigative bureau. Scottish Environment Link, a coalition of more than 35 wildlife, countryside and campaign groups, estimates that almost £100 million has been cut from the budgets of public agencies in Scotland between 2010-11 and 2019-20. Amongst those who’ve been hit are Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), Scotland’s Rural College, the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and environmental research institutes.

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