In a Scottish Borders forest, a cafe and bike shop is set to close.
What of it?
The Hub in Glentress is a bit unusual.
It’s an award-winning venture set up ten years ago by Emma Guy from Penicuik and Tracey Brunger from Kent -- young professional mountain bike champions.
That’s a bit unusual already.
Continue reading "Forest of rules that stops people building a future" »
News that more German students might be heading to Scotland has mercifully failed to produce the usual crop of weary war jokes. The impending end of conscription and shorter mandatory schooling in Germany will produce more potential students than German university places this year – so some may try to come here.
Education Minister Mike Russell is trying to close the funding loophole that makes Scottish higher education free to EU students --but there’s another important issue. What makes Germans so confident they can complete a degree-level course in a language that’s not their Mither Tongue?
That should be the jaw-dropper in the German students story. Young Germans speak a foreign language so well that the world is their oyster. Scots do not. The latest figures show one in five Scottish secondary schools doesn’t offer Higher German and one in 10 doesn’t offer Higher French. In a recent European Commission survey of non-mother-tongue skills, Britain came last out of 28 countries.
Continue reading "Disdain for learning foreign languages and desire for everyone to speak English is holding the UK back" »
Gail – don’t do it.
It’s not yet clear if Gail Sheridan will stand as a Solidarity candidate in the forthcoming Holyrood elections – the world must wait until Tommy is sentenced for perjury.
Continue reading "Don't sell yourself short Mrs Sheridan" »
