Aug 222014
 

By Suzanne Kelly.

salmon box2Salmon fishing and salmon farms are under increasing pressure to supply Scottish salmon to the world.  This is not without a price to wildlife.
The salmon in farms are prone to disease, are painfully attacked by flesh-eating sea lice, and live their lives in insufferably small, crowded pens as compared to the space and freedom the species would normally enjoy.

Pollution from salmon farms and escapee salmon are causing environmental disruption. Salmon nets seem to be growing in scale and quantity year on year.

Salmon netting is on the increase; anglers report that very few animals are making their way to the rivers.

Against this backdrop, to protect the financial interests of the businesses engaged in salmon production, the government allows seal shooting when it knows that seal numbers are in decline, that non-lethal methods of protecting salmon in nets exist, and that seals that have been shot or found dead contain little salmon in their digestive tracts.  Is this a case of finance overriding ethics and environment?

Suzanne Kelly went out with George Pullar and his crew to empty USAN’s salmon nets and get Pullar’s perspective on his operations, seal culling and fish stocks. Following publication of the resulting article, Kelly talked to Sea Shepherd, Animal Concern Advice Line, Gardenstown landowner Marc Ellington, animal activists, and hunt saboteurs.

Their tales are quite at odds with many of Usan’s claims.

Some of the arguments offered by various proponents of salmon netting – and seal shooting in North East Scotland are:

“There are plenty of fish in the sea”

“Plenty of salmon for anglers and netters alike”  

“Seals attack nets and will be shot if they persist”

“Capping the number of seals that can be shot is ‘pointless’”

“The seal population has gone up 1000% in the last ten years”

“Netting is Scottish heritage”

  Unfortunately all of these arguments are either misleading or simply not true.

Background:

Scotland is exporting more and more salmon; international demand is up (barring the current Russian ban on western food imports linked to the crisis in the Ukraine). The demand is being met by both salmon farms and by increased netting activities. Netting salmon is a ‘heritable right’ which can be bought or sold.

When Usan acquired rights to operate in the Ythan estuary, this marked an increase in its operations. Usan currently has 15 vast nets in the coast south of Montrose which are emptied twice a day. Leaders funnel the salmon, other fish and jellyfish into the inescapable net traps.

Local Heroes and Villains:

June 2012 – seals are being shot in the small northerly coastal towns of Crovie and Gardenstown. Marc Ellington is the landowner; he has expressly forbidden any shooting from his land. It is understood that people involved in shooting seals also did so on RSPB owned land, and from property owned by the crown estate. (from emails between myself and John Robins  July 2012 re. Gardenstown seal shootings)

According to those in the area 16 seals were shot, 14 were pregnant. An area expert advised that NONE had traces of salmon in their digestive tracts.  My source also advised:

“The shooting seems to have taken place by these people from Montrose who have the salmon rights, but was done on land owned by the RSPB – who are said to be livid.” (IBID)”

Then a seal was shot in front of tourists in Gardenstown, a small, peaceful coastal village. They cancelled their holiday rental and promptly left. The police seemed rather uninterested in pursuing the matter. The Laird of Gardenstown and Crovie, Marc Ellington, and others tried without success to get the police to enforce the ban on shooting in the area.

Again, Ellington owns the land, and has forbidden any shooting there. Firing  a gun while on a boat is clearly dangerous (how many boats are safely stationary to allow someone to aim a gun?) and illegal. No seals should have been shot in these areas – and yet according to witnesses, seal carcasses washed ashore.

These seals had been shot.

Gardenstown and Crovie residents contacted Sea Shepherd, who arrived on the scene to stop any further seals from being shot. Despite George Pullar’s claims as to how his people behave, video footage taken at the time clearly shows Usan operatives threatening Sea Shepherd personnel. With no permission to shoot in the area – why did Usan have rifles there in the first place?

I visited the area with Marc Ellington; the locals I spoke with wanted to ensure no seals were shot; they wanted tourists to come and enjoy the area’s wildlife, rent holiday homes and patronise the local shops.

The idea of men with rifles killing seals will put tourists off and will hurt these communities’ incomes. Most people I spoke with in the area were very pleased to have Sea Shepherd present; one person has been keeping a log of when Usan personnel are operating in the area and what they’ve been doing.

The heritage argument:

Salmon netting in Scotland has been going for centuries; Pullar is right to claim it is a heritage activity. But that activity has dramatically changed over time.

Pretending that the man who stood on the shore with his nets and sold his catch to his neighbours is the same as the crew with 15 huge nets emptied twice a day, selling fish internationally is disingenuous.

Bullfighting of course is also a ‘heritage activity’ – it is also arguably a cruel, unnecessary unequal competition which has no place in a compassionate, enlightened world. Arguably bullfighting is to beef production what traditional small-scale netting is to Usan.

Salmon Numbers Game:

For 2012, the Scottish Government reported:

“The total reported rod catch (retained and released) of wild salmon for 2012 is 86,013. It is the tenth highest rod catch on record and is 95 per cent of the previous five-year average.  The proportion of the rod catch accounted for by catch and release is the highest recorded. In 2012, 91% of rod caught spring salmon was released, as was 74% of the annual rod catch.”  
http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Salmon-and-sea-trout-fishery-statistics-2012-445.aspx

The above paragraph gives no indication of how long the records cover making this the tenth highest rod catch, making the statement somewhat weak.

The government does however say that 91% of the rod caught spring salmon was released. However, not many fish are making it to the rivers these days. Increased netting just happens to coincide with the dramatic drop. If Marine Scotland and the Scottish government are concerned and are investigating, they are keeping quiet about it.

In 2013 the picture was already changing. As per records and the Salmon and Trout Association:

“The number of salmon killed in nets in 2013 was 50% higher than in 2012 according to the official Scottish Government figures (published in April 2014). The 2013 summer drought caused very low flows in most rivers and thus salmon were simply unable to access their rivers of origin, forcing them to run the gauntlet of coastal nets for weeks on end. There are no quotas set for wild salmon and consequently there is no mechanism to limit catches – whatever the strength or weakness of local populations.

“The 2013 net catch of 24,311 salmon compares with 16,230 in 2012 and 19,818 in 2011. In contrast the rod catch dropped to 66,387 in 2013 (the lowest figure since 2003) from 86,013 in 2012. 80% of the 2013 rod catch were released by anglers back into the water.”

Andrew Graham-Stewart, Director of the Salmon and Trout Association (Scotland) (S&TA(S)), commented:

“The figures for 2013 expose the absurdity of recent statements by Scottish Ministers that salmon netting in Scotland is declining.

“In the last three years dormant netting stations have re-opened and netting effort has increased substantially. The quantum leap in the netting catch in 2013 shows once again that salmon conservation is simply absent from Scottish Government’s agenda. On the contrary it is permitting much greater levels of indiscriminate killing by nets of an iconic species that is already under considerable pressure.”

When I was with Pullar, at least 50 salmon, ranging greatly in sizes were taken and packed into over 4 large plastic crates. He was quite clear that seals which ‘persistently’ go after ‘his’ fish will be shot. He tells me there are plenty of fish.

But the world’s demand for Wild Scottish Salmon is eating into the finite supply more voraciously than any indigenous wildlife ever could.

Salmon nets

one of the type of nets used by USAN; there are bars to discourage seals from entering, but it is a vast net nonetheless

Plenty of fish? Further afield, the anglers tell a different story. Angling has a long history too; and is an essential contributor to rural Scottish economies in the Speyside area for instance.

Anglers catch fish, and return them to the rivers. However,  the numbers of salmon anglers see have dramatically, measurably crashed for the anglers, if not for the Pullars.

One keen angler has spoken of his concern for the fish and the rural economy. He advises that several anglers he knows have spent up to 3 weeks seeking salmon in the rivers and coming up completely empty-handed.  He expressed concern for the local businesses which are dependent on anglers spending time on the rivers and being successful in their pursuit of their hobby.

 

Not just a Scottish Issue:

The Salmon and Trout Association are very worried about stocks; they have called the current runs of salmon ‘the worst in living memory’. In a recent article on their website, they wrote:

“The Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) Annual Assessment of Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales in 2013 estimates that only 19 of the principal 64 salmon rivers in England and Wales reached their conservation targets; compared to 42 in 2011. This is the equal lowest number since conservation targets were introduced in 1993. Overall, the number of salmon estimated to be returning to England and Wales in the last two years was amongst the lowest on record.

The report does not expect a significant improvement in stock levels. Since the 1970s there has been a 40% decline in the number of salmon returning to our rivers each year, despite the much-publicised return of salmon to previously polluted rivers such as the Tyne and Mersey.”  

Further details of their recommendations can be found here.

No Limits:

There  is absolutely no limit to the number of salmon the netters can take, despite evidence that stocks are going down, and the pleas of those involved in conservation and angling.

My contact advises that the big fish Pullar has taken are an important part of the  migration salmon make from sea to river; ‘they know what to do and where to go’. It seems possible that the increased fishing now permitted is going to disrupt important migrations, and I wonder whether the entire population could crash. Because it’s not only Pullar that is killing sea life.

Pollution is doing more to our oceans than Marine Scotland seems to be interested in.  More marine life than ever which is found dead have ingested plastic waste.

You don’t have to be a scientist to know that the 50 fish Pullar took when with me are never going to return to the rivers; they are not going to spawn. Pullar says sometimes he hardly gets any salmon. Some people (who would catch a fish and return it to the water) are getting none after weeks of effort.

Seal’s Fate Sealed:

Seals are being shot as  part and parcel of this relatively new fish farming and industrial scale netting sector. Seals are shot apparently to protect the interests of those involved in netting wild salmon, and those who operate salmon farms.  The Scottish government via Marine Scotland hands out licenses for those involved in the salmon industry (farms and netting) to destroy common and grey seals (common seals are increasingly uncommon – more on that shortly). According to an article in the Guardian by Rob Edwards from April of last year, 892 seals were reported to the government as having been shot ; half by those involved in fish farming and the other half by netsmen such as Usan.

No one is certain how many seals are actually being shot. Marine Scotland may dole out quotas for seal hunting to the industry’s players, but it seems no official verification or record keeping is done. Animal welfare groups point out that seal carcasses have been found deliberately hidden after shooting in locations such as Elephant Rock (which I passed with the Pullars).

However, experts have found that many seals that were killed (of the carcasses found) had absolutely no salmon in their systems.

An upsetting anecdote related to me of a marksman going up to a seal on a crowded public beach and shooting it in front of children has not helped the reputation of the salmon industry, nor has a video of the would-be seal shooters caught in the act of trying to intimidate Sea Shepherd operatives in Gardenstown.

Overall, our seal population is shrinking, and Scotland is home to a fair portion of some of the world’s species of seals. These animals are persecuted throughout the Scottish Highlands and Islands; a man from Shetland was fined for clubbing 21 baby seals to death in 2009. The issues are summarised by Marine Concern in an open letter to Alex Salmond.

The persecution of seals has the government’s seal of approval. The website showing the details of the 2013 ‘returns’ states as facts ‘seals are only shot as a last resort’. It is interesting to consider how the government can state this as fact of the  52 licences it granted in 2013 to kill:

“The maximum number of seals involved is 774 grey and 265 common. Table 2 below provides details. This maximum represents less than 0.7% of the grey seal population of 100,000 and slightly over 1% of the minimum common seal population of 20,500.” (IBID)

The reasons for killing seals include “Protection of Health and Welfare” and “Prevention of Serious Damage”.

The government seems to take no account of the other pressures on seal populations from pollutants, plastics, and hunters. On the one hand killing seals is only ‘a last resort’ according to the government, and yet ‘prevention of serious damage’ is a justification for killing. What precisely is in danger of being damaged? Nets? Fish?

he also advises that while he will shoot ‘persistent’ seals

The government is not clear on its website what it means by ‘last resort’.

Would moving the nets, or avoiding seal area to avoid this mysterious damage not be a first means of avoiding destroying a seal?

Despite mounting evidence that seal populations are crashing seals are shot under license – but there does not seem to be requirements about detailed reporting of such culls .

Reporting is up to those involved in the shooting, and details don’t seem to be being collected. By contrast, an Aberdeen city deer cull required those who shot the deer to make and submit written notes of location, time and date of shooting, approximate age and weight of animal destroyed, its sex and condition, etc.

George Pullar was adamant that the salmon in his nets are his; he also advises that while he will shoot ‘persistent’ seals, he is working with experts at ways to keep the salmon from the nets. Methods include sonic deterrents and barrier bars on the cages. Pullar was issued licences to kill over 100 seals; he then told the press he would bow to public pressure and not kill. Except when necessary.

The seals didn’t get the memo that they can’t eat other wildlife – but again experts report that the seals found shot do not have  much if any salmon in their guts. Seals’ nature tends to be to pursue less difficult prey.

I can’t help but think a business with several different related companies which made a five figure sum last year,  might want to improve its public persona by  ceasing any and all seal culling, donating money to wildlife charities, advertising its salmon as being non-lethal to  seals, increase its prices to cover such expenses and voluntarily lower the number of salmon it takes  I wish they would is my conclusion.

Money on all sides:

The Pullars have a heritable right to earn their living from fishing. However, wildlife tourists are already being put off visting areas.  As to angling; many rural communities depend on it.

Ian Gordon, leading salmon consultant and gillie, said:

“It is fundamentally inequitable that Scotland’s coastal netting stations, which employ no more than 50, mainly part-time, individuals, are permitted to kill as many salmon as they are able to, before the fish reach our rivers. Wild salmon are a dwindling resource and the over-riding priority must now be to protect the 2,000 plus jobs of gillies and others on our rivers that depend upon a thriving angling industry to be viable.

“Angling, with the great majority of salmon caught released safely back into the river, is essentially sustainable but, if our rivers do not hold sufficient salmon stocks, anglers will simply vote with their feet – thus jeopardising in-river employment and the economies of local communities. In these circumstances Scotland can simply no longer afford to allow unrestricted coastal netting”
http://www.salmon-trout.org/news_item.asp?news_id=321

Wildlife tourism is big business here.  According to a 2010 Government paper:

“The report found that wildlife tourism annually brings in a net economic impact of £65 million to Scotland’s economy and creates the equivalent of 2,760 full time jobs.

The report also found that 1.12 million trips were made every year to or within Scotland with the main aim of viewing wildlife.”  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/06/16110712

Summing up:

There seems to be clear evidence that too many wild salmon simply are not making it back to the rivers to spawn. Numbers are down; anglers are seeing the worst results they can remember. At the same time, additional netting rights by the Ythan were acquired by Usan subsidiary (aka the Scottish Wild Salmon Company) in March.

Some 500 seals are  in that estuary; it is a well-known, popular tourist destination.  It is hard to not see a link between these two facts.

What is hard to see is how we have skirted around the issue of Marine Protection areas for over 10 years (I was involved in some meetings meant to establish marine conservation areas years ago – and virtually nothing was accomplished; seals and birds were left out of the protection equation).

What is harder to understand is what Scottish Natural Heritage is actually for, since it doesn’t seem interesting in protecting Scotland’s natural heritage.

You could be forgiven for thinking…..

….. that seals and salmon are only pests and pound signs respectively to those charged with protecting our natural heritage for the future.

The seals are scapegoats for dwindling salmon numbers and are being shot for it. The desire to supply a finite resource to the entire world would certainly seem to be the reason for salmon decline, but we are hardly going to see an SNH censure or curtail in any way the netters; not when there is money to be made and political influence at work.

You won’t find such an admission in any SNH literature, however many euphemisms the SNH boffins use for killing animals that are perceived (wrongly in this case) to be taking salmon.

They may want to be taken seriously as scientists, but I am no longer able to see the SNH as anything but a collective of degree-holding experts for hire who inevitably favour money over the environment and wildlife. They know that shot seals have been examined and found to have no trace of salmon in their systems (seals prefer easier prey). But that does not stop the SNH calling the public’s desire to stop the culling ‘emotive’:

1.1 An overview of species conflicts in Scotland

Across Scotland, there are a number of terrestrial wildlife species that bring people into conflict. Many of the conflicts in Scotland arise from the impact of protected species on people’s livelihood or well-being. Species include many predators and scavengers such as raptors, ravens, seals, piscivorous birds, gulls, badgers and pine martens, or herbivores such as geese and deer.

“Predators may have an ecological or economic impact on prey numbers ..or even an emotional impact on observers (Burnett, 2012; MacPhee, 2012).

“1 In a number of cases, the impact of predation may be perceived rather than actual (Butler et. al., 2011). It is often the case that the true extent of the impact is unknown due to a lack of quantitative ecological or economic data (Harris et. al., 2008) which can be extremely hard to gather without expensive research.

“In some situations in which the impact is perceived to be damaging, people may breach wildlife protection laws, thus bringing them directly into conflict with statutory agencies and conservation organisations (Etheridge et. al., 1997; RSPB, 2011). Conflicts also occur where stakeholders disagree over the management of wildlife that is not necessarily protected.

“For example, stakeholders with sporting interests tend to manage deer populations with the aim of maintaining large populations. …Similarly, conflicts may arise due to growing public concern, on emotional, ethical, welfare or animal rights grounds, about the use of lethal methods of wildlife management (Animal Aid, 2012a; Barr et. al., 2002; Dandy et. al., 2011; Massei et. al., 2010).

“Such management may be carried out for legitimate exploitation (e.g. game species), or for other purposes such as population control (e.g. foxes), the removal of species that transmit diseases (e.g. badgers), or the removal of non-native species such as North American grey squirrels, or species outside their native range, such as hedgehogs in the Western Isles of Scotland (Animal Aid, 2012c; Barr et. al., 2002; Warwick et. al., 2006; Webb and Raffaelli, 2008). 

“One area of potential future conflict arises from the growth of the ecotourism and wildlife watching sectors of Scotland’s tourism industry. Scotland offers good opportunities for watching a variety of wildlife, including birds, marine mammals and deer, with associated local economic benefits (Dickie et. al., 2006; Parsons et. al., 2003; Putman, 2012a). 

“However, wildlife tourism requires visible, predictable and, in some cases, large wildlife populations which may cause conflicts with other sectors.

“For example, marine mammal tourism promotes the conservation of seals but may cause conflict with salmon interests (Butler et. al., 2008), large deer herds or geese flocks may be impressive to visitors but can have negative impacts on conservation interests or local livelihoods (DCS, 2009; Rayment et. al., 1998), and eagles, ospreys and other raptors may attract visitors (Dickie et. al., 2006) but have perceived or real impacts on agricultural and sporting interests.”

– Building an evidence base for managing species conflicts in Scotland – a Commissioned Report (no 611) – SNH

The above requires more comment than can be addressed at the moment. Some of the issues arising include questions such as: Who exactly is commissioning reports from what should be a purely scientific, rational, unbiased agency set up to protect wildlife? Who is deciding that the objections the public has to culling are merely ‘emotional’?  The SNH seems to fund various lobbying groups as well.  The Lowland Deer Management Group seems to be involved in promoting deer culling for instance; it is funded by the SNH and by extension by the taxpayer.

Who is deciding what numbers of wildlife are ‘acceptable’, and what are their affiliations?  Somehow wildlife managed to survive in Scotland before the SNH. An idealist might suppose the valid purpose of the SNH would be to protect our habitats and animals from pollution, urban sprawl, poaching and excessive overfishing. But apparently these are not goals on the SNH agenda.

The SNH has of course famously been behind the drive to limit deer to ridiculously small numbers in Scotland.

A hill in Aberdeen, once a meadow (albeit grown on a refuse dump) supported a herd of some 30 deer, give or take, for over 70 years.  Then the SNH and Forestry Commission moved in with a tree growing scheme:  these unbiased, scientific experts are planting trees on a hill with a poor soil matrix, overlooking the north sea (salt spray will be an issue) and where extremely strong winds are likely to topple any trees that are established.

To do this? The meadow and its deer population were virtully wiped out. The experts now claim that 4 to 6 deer is all the hill can support.  This flies in the face of the quantifiable past. This is also patently ridiculous: how is such a gene pool to be healthy?

How in fact can the deer continue at such a low population? Obviously, it cannot. The fact is money has changed hands in order to implement the tree scheme: money has apparently won the day over living creatures and biodiversity. But then again, the experts will say that the public is unable to understand and objectors will be written off as merely being ‘emotive’. 

John Robins of Animal Concern said:

 “There is an extreme pro-culling mentality within SNH. Whether they call it culling or wildlife management the Scottish Government, through SNH, is responsible for the killing, often largely uncontrolled killing, of hundreds of thousands of animals and birds every year. These animals include all breeds of deer and seals, grey squirrels and over twenty species of birds.

“In the past SNH have culled hedgehogs and they have supported culling of wild wallabies on an island in Loch Lomond. They allow gamekeepers to “manage” native species like stoats, weasels and just about anything which might eat the eggs of non-native pheasants.

“SNH and their political masters need to step back from mass killing and look at other ways of controlling wildlife if, indeed any sort of human interference is needed. Mother nature has done well enough on her own for millions of years.” 

This is not how environmental protection should work. No one in the SNH seems to be doing anything to stop urban sprawl. No one seems able to admit that the new deer guidelines are ridiculous – in fact they want their guidance to become law.  No one seems to care that salmon stocks are plummeting and seal populations are likewise declining.

No one in the SNH seems interested in the numbers of salmon escapees from fish farms, the farm-related pollution, or the welfare of the salmon in these farms. The SNH has, for me at any rate, absolutely no claim to impartiality, conservation, scientific method or integrity.  If there is anyone in the SNH who is concerned about these issues and is working on them, I would like to hear from them.

If this situation isn’t changed immediately, we will see a very different Scotland in a matter of a few decades – and it will not be one teaming with wildlife on or offshore.

Unless someone decides that protecting seals and salmon populations is more important than profit margins, we may wind up with no seals, no salmon and no profit margins.

With so many organisations reporting low salmon stocks and calling for quotas to be set for the netsmen, a prudent organisation would immediately spring to action. The worst that would happen is that the netters would take fewer animals, and therefore charge a higher price, and stocks might recover. But I expect no action from the SNH or Marine Scotland. And this is a great tragedy.

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Aug 152014
 
Food bank 3

The number of food banks has increased 400% in two years.

With thanks to Paul Robertson.

Better Together Aberdeenshire were chastised on Tuesday after claiming on their social media site that the presence of food banks in Scotland was “normal” and “far from being a sign of failure.” The incredible claim comes just the day after the Scottish Government announced £500,000 of funding to assist Scottish food banks in meeting rising demand.

The post was uploaded on the  ‘Better Together Aberdeenshire’ Facebook page on the evening of 11 August and was removed mid-morning of 12 August, but not before it had “gone viral on social media sites sparking an overwhelming reaction of incredulity.

https://aberdeenvoice.com/2014/07/better-together-facebook-post-11-08-14/

Ross Cassie, a Macduff-based organiser of the Yes campaign in Aberdeenshire, commented:

“Those who volunteer their time and money to run food banks deserve our unreserved thanks. However it is intolerable that food banks even exist in a country which is as wealthy as ours.”

“The most alarming statistic is that 1 in 5 who present at local food banks are actually ‘working poor’ – that is, people who have a job but whose income simply doesn’t meet all the bills.”

“In September, we have the opportunity to reject the status quo of pervasive inequality that sends working families to food banks. We have the opportunity to take Scotland’s wealth in Scotland’s hands and make it work for all of Scotland’s people.”

The Trussell Trust, which operates 40 food banks in Scotland, recently released figures estimating a 400% increase in food banks in just two years, with 70,000 people in Scotland reliant on Trussell Trust food banks alone.

Mr Cassie added:

“There is another way Scotland can become a normal European country – and that is by voting ‘Yes’ in September.”

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Jul 042014
 

Suzanne Kelly aka Old Susannah gets to grips with the news dominating the headlines this week; she’s having her cake and eating it too.
Dictionary

Another quiet week passes in the Granite City; a baton came to UTG amid light security measures, Anthony Baxter and Richard Phinney premiered their new film, and a former resident’s run off to fight a jihad.

Of the top stories rocking Scotland this week, some seem to be food related: a chef lost his prestigious Trump job because of an offensive shortbread, and a legal ruling has decreed that a snowball is a cake, not a cookie.

The Portsoy Boat Festival was a great weekend out for the hundreds who came; I was serving as a roving interviewer, which was good fun.

The festival gets larger every year – more boats, more races, more music and more visitors.  See you next time.

Anthony Baxter’s A Dangerous Game featured at the Edinburgh film festival. This new documentary features Trump at Menie, and other golf developments going on around the world; the Hollywood Reporter rightly says:-

“The film features heavyweight interviewees including Trump himself, making a comically clumsy attempt at damage limitation”

– I’ve no idea what they mean by that; Trump was every bit as shrewd, honest and on-the-ball as you’d expect.

Some Menie residents went to a screening on the 24th, and by all accounts it was an electric, emotional night. I went on the Saturday; the film again played to a full house. Baxter answered questions afterwards, and after that, a few pints were had. The movie should be in Aberdeen in early September.

Sue Edwards, who tirelessly documents the changing face of the Menie area, rightfully got a photo credit. I was humbled to see that I got a mention in the credits as well.  After the screening I met a nice man who won an award for his documentary; a film about some chap called Tony Benn. Get to see this when you can; it’s called Will and Testament.

Edinburgh is going to have to buck up its ideas about events – hundreds and hundreds of tourists flocking to the city for the festivals, and there’s hardly any uniformed security or crowd barriers in evidence. They can learn a lot about event hosting from us, but more on that later.

Here are some timely definitions for the week’s news

Shortbread: (Scottish noun) a traditional biscuit made of flour, butter and sugar, traditionally shaped into fingers, fans or rounds. Not to be shaped into willies.

Dough! Chef Scot McMillan was fired this past week; his crimes against humanity take the biscuit. Apparently his misdeeds include allowing a willy-shaped shortbread to be baked in his absence, and having photographic evidence of this crime posted on his Facebook page.

What would poor Sarah have done if faced with such a giant willy in the flesh as it were?

This offensive shortbread gave Donald the rise when it popped up on the chef’s Facebook page (note to TUT, and anyone else, teams of Trump minions just may be poring over social media now, looking for offensive biscuit posts; I think this is what people mean by food porn).

Donald didn’t sugar-coat it, the man was fired.

There is no word yet how our own Flour of Scotland/Face of Aberdeen / Mrs Damian Bates/ Sarah Malone is taking this latest news story.

I’m not laughing, and I’m sure you aren’t either. Imagine the delicate sensibilities of The Donald and poor Sarah Malone Bates when their minions, digging around the facebook pages of Trump’s 6,000 local employees (well, that’s the number we were promised) and coming face to face with a funny looking biscuit.

I can picture the scene now; a shrieking Malone-Bates, a ranting Trump, the Spanish Inquisition and teams of paid Trump internet snoops, all horrified. It would be enough to make Trump’s hair stand on end.

What would poor Sarah have done if faced with such a giant willy in the flesh as it were? Would she have eaten it? What would the poor woman have said about the size of it? The trauma of thinking about the possible permutations is too much for Old Susannah.

Alas! As proven by television chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, a chef must be polite, avoid crudeness, and be above all scandal at all times.

If Trump had kept the chef, then all those hordes of limos and arriving private jets taking golfers to Trump would slow down, destroying our economy. I’m sure there is nothing more to this story than what the papers said. At least they didn’t find photographs of any staff enjoying fish suppers.

Perhaps Trump hires Malone-Bates (who is married to dashing P&J Editor Damian Bates, lest we forget), a handful of cleaners, cooks, chefs and waiting staff, and greens people – and then hires twice as many to spy on the web pages of employees. That would account for the prosperity we’re experiencing, witnessed by Stewart Spence flogging his Marcliffe hotel off for housing.

Yes, Spence did say that business was booming because of ‘The Trump Effect’. Perhaps he’s now made so much from American golfers that he can retire to a private island, but you’d have thought such a gold mine here in golf heaven would have remained a hotel. After all, Spence said his business ‘had increased 93%’ because of Trump.

So friends – keep the city and shire safe for millionaire golfers, and report any suspicious looking food seen on Facebook at once. Old Susannah remembers seeing some photos on Facebook of a famous family; they were holding severed elephant tails, dead big cats, and other big game the family in question had destroyed for pleasure.

Let’s hope we can keep seeing more photos like those, and less photos of misshapen shortbread. It’s all a matter of priorities; let’s hope this blows over before it is blown out of all proportions.

Cake: (Modern Scottish legal term) – something that you eat that’s not a biscuit or a pasty, which the taxman can’t charge VAT on.

Wars rage; people harm others, Vodaphone evades tax, we need foodbanks. But celebratory bells will ring, children will dance in the street, and the lion will lie down with the lamb: Snowballs are cakes.

In a decision taking a mere 20 years to reach, the establishment has declared that bakeries including Tunnocks can call their snowball cakes, er, cakes. I’m as relieved about this as you are; it’s been hard to sleep at night knowing this was going on. According to the Daily Mail:

“In the end, the verdict went in favour of the two bakeries’ claim that their snowballs should be classed as cakes – and so are not subject to VAT.

“It will cost HMRC – who had classed it as a sweet and so VAT-rated – more than £2.8million to refund the taxes paid by the two firms.

“The judgment means Lees can claim back £2,057,497 in VAT from HMRC, while Tunnocks can claim back £805,956.  It also means the taxman has lost out on future VAT from snowballs to the tune of millions of pounds.

“It was also revealed in the judgement released yesterday that an informal poll of tax office staff in Dundee found a majority had disagreed with their bosses and thought the teacake was a cake.”
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-bakers-lees-tunnocks-win-3778835

There is no word yet on the classification of spotted dick.

Alas! there is no time to comment on the discrete, cost-effective security measures that accompanied the baton’s arrival in Union Terrace Gardens, but more on this, and Trump’s reaction to A Dangerous Game next week.

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Jun 102014
 

Following on from Duncan Harley’s two part article marking the 50th Anniversary of the typhoid epidemic in Aberdeen, Sandra McKay shares with Aberdeen Voice readers her childhood memories of 1964 when she and her mother survived the disease.

1024px-Typhoid_inoculation2I remember standing holding my daddy’s hand, my sister on the other side of him as we watched the ambulance disappear down to the end of our road.
I was six years old and this was the day my mummy was taken into hospital with typhoid.

I thought I would never see her again.

Everyone was talking about it. The Typhoid. Neighbours in the street, people in shops, bus conductors, even children.

Newspapers and television were advising the nation how many more people in Aberdeen had fallen victim to the disease. Families were cancelling holidays. Other towns and cities were urging Aberdonians not to visit.

Our lives over the following weeks seemed empty without our mum.

She had apparently bought cold meat from a shop in Union Street called Lows. My sister did not eat any, as she had been attending a friend’s birthday party. Mum, Dad, and myself ate the meat.

We visited my mummy at the City Hospital in Aberdeen. This was a bleak experience. We had to speak to her through huge closed windows. I found it sad as I watched other families trying to converse with their loved ones in the same way.

The long days continued to pass. I too became very unwell. Mummy was still gone. Daddy was at home looking after us. Schools were off. There seemed to be numerous doctor’s visits and lots of samples were taken.

Eventually I was taken into hospital. I do not remember anything about getting there. All I remember was looking up at lights and screens at night. The first few days must have passed in a blur as I have no memory of this time. However, as I became a little stronger I was allowed to get up and dress. Unfortunately I was given boy’s clothes to wear. This was a less than positive experience for a six-year-old girl.

How time dragged. I can still remember the layout of the ward. Where the clock was, where the ‘clothes choosing’ and dressing area was, how the windows were allowed to open, and more importantly how they had to remain tightly closed. Lockers and beds were dragged into the centre of the ward every morning at cleaning time, 10 a.m.

This movement was exciting to watch. I remember the medicine trolley with the thick brown stuff, and the milky white stuff.  Both were really horrible.

There is no memory of anyone coming in to play with us and time seemed to go on for ever

I remember our family coming to visit me every day. My mummy was with them as she had been given the ‘all clear’ after a stay in hospital of four weeks. I hadn’t been close to her for such a long time. The emotion was difficult for everyone. One day they brought my friend Susan down to visit me.

I can still remember that feeling, tears in our eyes, as young six-year-olds tried in such a grown up way, to deal with the ‘situation’ and the impossible task of interacting through granite walls and huge closed windows. It was easier when everyone just went away.

More long days and weeks passed. I did lots of colouring-in and received lots of crayons and books. I was also given by an older girl in the ward, who was given the ‘all clear’ ahead of my time, two little dollies with a few pieces of clothing. These dollies became really precious to me. Another memory I have of isolation at Ward 2 was the number of ice lollies we were given. Something to do with the fever I think.

There is no memory of anyone coming in to play with us and time seemed to go on for ever. I remember watching the jerky movement of the big minute hand on the ward clock as time passed by. I remember looking through colouring books for a page that wasn’t coloured in.  I remember changing the dollies for the millionth time. I remember not liking the food or the food smells.

Eventually the day came, when I was informed of my ‘all clear’. I was going home. Someone in authority assured me that the little dollies would be fumigated and sent to me with other belongings. This seemed OK with me.

On the day of my release from hospital, the weather was very warm. At my request our family visited the Beach park with the concrete train and rail track. We also spent time at the pony and trap rides which were at Aberdeen Beach during the sixties. I felt very peculiar, as if I didn’t fit in. I just wanted to get home to see if the dollies had arrived.

Unfortunately they never came.

Sandra McKay (Aged six, letter written aged 41, now aged 56)

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Jun 102014
 

Cindy Douglas and Tim Richards Trio. With thanks to Cindy Douglas.

This season people get the opportunity to treat taste buds, ears and eyes at a
unique cultural event organised by one of the UK’s brightest emerging jazz singing talents.

Following its successful launch at the end of 2013, Scottish jazz singer Cindy Douglas’ venture Eat to the Beat has now hit the road, with dates being planned for all around Scotland, kicking off on the 14th of June in the village of Banchory, Aberdeenshire.

Cindy says about the event:

“Jazz is normally an event either performed in a traditional setting like a concert hall or relegated as background music in a bar. I came up with the idea to create ‘pop up jazz supper clubs’ after enjoying the experience of larger city jazz clubs where people can enjoy dinner and jazz at the same time, in intimate surroundings with great atmosphere.”

The first stop on her new Eat to the Beat tour is The Guide Hut in Banchory, on Saturday the 14th of June.  Then Birnam Arts Centre in Dunkeld

on the 21st of June.  Both of which will be transformed into a sophisticated jazz club and restaurant for that night only. To add to the entertainment mix, both venues also include art exhibitions, which will be open for viewing to supper club attendants on the night; Beatrix Botanist at Birnam Arts Centre and Mel Shand’s ‘A Portrait of the River’ at Banchory.

Cindy took her inspiration for the event from more cosmopolitan venues where similar events take place.

“I think of Ronnie Scott’s in London and The Blue Note and The Village Vanguard in New York. These are places where food is part of the experience that turns going out for dinner into a full night out. The village halls and café’s my event takes place at in Scotland, may be miles away from these venues in every sense but I think we can give people in these communities a great opportunity to socialise and make their night out one to remember for all the right reasons.”

Cindy Douglas, who is based in Aberdeenshire, gigs regularly in Scotland and has developed a broad repertoire that ranges from swing to post-bop and encompasses everything in between. She has studied with some of the world’s leading jazz vocal educators, including Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton, Anita Wardell, and Liane Carroll and her singing style has been described as exuberant, mesmerising and versatile.

In 2012, Cindy released her first album, My New Jive, which was recorded in London with pianist Tim Richard’s trio to critical acclaim.

She will also be playing at this year’s Edinburgh Jazz Festival. Debuting her new show ‘Lady Day and The Prez’, paying tribute to the enduring musical legacy of Billie Holiday and Lester Young.

“Singer led jazz with a smile on it’s face.” – The Musician

“The extremely talented vocalist sings with all her heart and soul and her glamorous voice reflects that.” – Jazz Beat, Voice of America

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Jun 062014
 

Banff & Buchan MP Dr Eilidh Whiteford has praised volunteers at South Church Hall, who have helped support local families over the past year.

MP 2014 Joseph Storehouse1Dr Whiteford met with volunteers Linda and John Sorrie, and Evie Watt on Thursday, to discuss the work the food-bank is doing locally.

The South Church Hall facility operates on the basis of referrals from Home Start North East Aberdeenshire, and currently supports six local families. The need, however, is estimated to be much greater.

Volunteer Linda Sorrie said:

“I have no doubt whatsoever that many more people need a bit of help when it comes to buying shopping. However, many will be too proud to accept a food parcel.”

Dr Whiteford said afterwards:

“Linda, John and Evie deserve our admiration for the time and hard work they have put into this project. That a volunteer group can do so much good is testimony to the strength of the community in Fraserburgh, the generosity of the congregation at South Church, and the kindness of those who have donated food and money.

“The fact, however, is that in this day and age, we shouldn’t need food banks. Leaning on the generosity of volunteers should not and cannot be a substitute for a properly funded system of social protection, and we have reached this stage because of swingeing UK Government cuts, which have hit families on low incomes hardest.

“Constituents can be assured that I will continue to pursue the ConDem UK Government on their reckless austerity agenda that is hitting people on low incomes the hardest. However, the only way to banish coalition austerity for good is by bringing full control of tax and benefits to the Scottish Parliament.”

The Scottish Government has recently announced a £500,000 Emergency Food Fund, to compliment the £500,000 already committed to charity FareShare for distribution of surplus food from retailers. The new fund will be used to respond to increasing demand for food banks, as well as responding to the underlying causes of food poverty.

Grants are on offer to food aid organisations in Scotland, and interested bodies should apply by July 11, via the Scottish Government’s website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/welfarereform

The volunteers at Fraserburgh South accept donations of food and money. These can be donated through Home Start North East Aberdeenshire on 01346 518930, or dropped off at Fraserburgh South Church Hall, Seaforth Street, Fraserburgh. Anyone in need of assistance from the food bank should contact Home Start NEA for a referral.

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May 302014
 

2014 is the 50th anniversary of the terrifying outbreak of typhoid in Aberdeen City

In part two of his article Duncan Harley looks at some of the issues surrounding the episode in which the people of the beleaguered city of Aberdeen literally ate the evidence while officials from MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) seemingly connived to sell the remaining stocks of corned beef abroad.

milne report typhoid aberdeenInitially the press were largely unaware of the 1964 Aberdeen typhoid outbreak but as the numbers of hospital admissions grew it became obvious that an epidemic was in progress.

Headlines proclaimed a ‘City under siege’ and the situation was not helped by the proclamation of the then Medical Officer of Health, Dr MacQueen: 

“We’re not a leper colony! End this hysteria”. 

His subsequent advice to both Aberdonians and holidaymakers alike to avoid swimming or paddling in the sea led to a local paper headlining on ‘Beach Bombshell’ and pretty effectively killed off any short term prospect of the return of the lucrative ‘Glasgow holiday trade’ to the beach seafront area.

Described by a colleague as ‘a bulldog with the hide of a rhinoceros’ Dr MacQueen’s strategy of innovative traditionalism has been seen by some as an attempt to protect and extend his department’s services.

He was judged by some to have made excessive use of the media and to have turned the outbreak into an event approaching a national crisis. Indeed the Milne Report into the handling and course of the epidemic commented that:

“we consider that the methods used by the Medical Officer of Health” were

“not wholly justified.”

By the end of May 1964 the MOH was advising the national press that Aberdeen was now ‘a beleaguered city’ and suggesting that Aberdonians should not venture outside the city boundaries. Outsiders should ‘stay away’ he said.

Public baths, youth clubs and sports clubs closed down for the duration and even the Police Pipe Band, who would later be on hand to play for the Typhoid Queen had to cancel an appearance in Renfrew.

Even the normally sedate Sunday Times newspaper got in on the act with an exclusive which claimed that the Granite City’s image as a clean modern city was erroneous. Seemingly Aberdeen was in reality a city suffering chronic housing problems and poor sanitation. Such histrionic rubbish only served to deepen the crisis.

The news of the epidemic was reported around the globe with one Spanish periodical reporting that the streets of Aberdeen were littered with unburied rotting corpses waiting to be thrown into the sea.

Although the tourist trade was first to suffer with hotels being particularly hard hit there were significant effects felt all over the North East. Caravan sites and hotels began refusing bookings from Aberdonians, butchery and fresh produce firms saw their customers sourcing goods elsewhere rather than risk buying from a city under siege.

Typhoid Queen p and J headlineThe Elgin based wholesale fruit firm Reeve Ltd found it necessary to announce that none of their merchandise was coming from Aberdeen and a grocer in Forres told customers that it had cancelled all supplies from the city and now only sourced from firms in the South of Scotland

Alexander’s Bus Company reported a marked decrease in ticket sales with some services running virtually empty and at one stage panic ensued when a local Aberdeen butcher’s Thistle Street shop was wrongly identified as being the source of the outbreak.

Paranoia reached a peak when the catch of an Aberdeen fishing boat was seized after the skipper became ill with suspected typhoid. The matter was discussed at the daily crisis meeting in the council offices.

After some deliberation, during which it was pointed out that ‘unless the crew are in the habit of defecating in the hold, there is no scientific reason to suppose that the fish pose a health risk’, the catch was duly released for sale and public consumption.

For patients and relatives the experience was more serious however.

Placed in isolation wards and uncertain as to when or even if they would be allowed home, patients had to endure weeks of treatment separated from friends and family. Stories of visitors communicating with relatives through locked glass windows are common and as one Old Meldrum man recalls:

“I couldn’t understand why my father and mother weren’t allowed at my bedside, later when I was allowed up we would talk at the ward window, which was of course closed. This went on in my case for about 5 weeks. Luckily I have not had any long lasting effects from the illness but it must have been really hard for the younger children.”

Many others have similar stories.

Compared to the human cost of the Lanarkshire E. coli outbreak – twenty one deaths, Aberdeen’s typhoid epidemic’s total of three deaths pales into insignificance, however the after effects rumbled on for years.

government stockpiles of corned beef at the time contained further quantities of infected Rosario cans

Businesses in some cases never recovered and jobs were lost.

Tourism never really returned to previous heights and the local economy suffered until North Sea Oil finally came to the rescue.

In the wake of the outbreak there were enquiries at both local and national level, the Milne Enquiry being perhaps the most influential. In summary the Milne Report squarely places the source of the infection on infected corn beef imported from the Rosario factory in the Argentine and further stated that there was no evidence that the infected meat had come from government stockpiles.

The fact that the UK government stockpiles of corned beef at the time contained further quantities of infected Rosario cans was seemingly not an issue for Milne and his report concluded that:

“where canned meats are produced under satisfactory hygienic conditions – they will be free from any health hazard.”

It took almost 10 years for the existing emergency corned beef stocks in UK government run warehouses to be disposed of. The main method of disposal was the exporting the now suspect food to other markets abroad with a proviso that the meat should be re-processed.

Not only had the citizens of Aberdeen eaten the evidence from the initial source of the outbreak but over the years subsequent to the Milne Committee’s deliberation, the unsuspecting citizens of many other countries consumed the evidence which remained.

As a postscript, Michael Noble MP then Secretary of State for Scotland announced in September 1964 that in the light of the Aberdeen Typhoid Epidemic he would ensure that ‘additional funding’ would be made available to any local authority in Scotland ‘wishing to provide hand washing facilities within public conveniences’.  He urged that councils should take up this generous offer before the end of the financial year.

Aberdonians were of course by this time already in the habit of washing their hands at every available opportunity despite the comment by Buff Hardie and his mates that:

“we never washed wir hands unless we did the lavvie first.”

© Duncan Harley 2014

All rights reserved

see also https://aberdeenvoice.com/2013/09/food-hygiene-hand-washing-and-remembering-typhoid/

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May 232014
 

2014 is the 50th anniversary of the terrifying outbreak of typhoid in Aberdeen. In part one of a two part article Duncan Harley looks at some of the issues surrounding the episode.

Corned Beef duncan harley typhoid Headlines such as “Typhoid in Bully Tin” would put many Aberdonians and indeed consumers all around the globe off eating the product, some even to the present day.
The series of events which led to the Aberdeen Typhoid Epidemic was however global in nature and involved significant governmental failure.

Amid cheers from assembled friends and curious onlookers and with a rousing tune from the Aberdeen Police Pipe Band, a tired but relieved young woman emerged from isolation in Aberdeen’s Tor-Na-Dee Hospital clutching a bouquet and wearing a brightly coloured sash which proclaimed her the “Typhoid Queen 1964”.

The date was Friday 19th June 1964 and following a thirty day ordeal, twenty three year old assistant librarian Evelyn Gauld had become the first of over five hundred patients being treated for Typhoid to be discharged from the Granite City’s hospitals following what is still remembered worldwide as the Aberdeen Typhoid Epidemic.

This dubious title “Typhoid Queen” was a gift to the press and headlines right across the globe proclaimed her “The symbol of the city”.

After more than four weeks of headlines dedicated to the plight of the beleaguered citizens of Aberdeen an end to the epidemic was in sight and a Royal visit by HRH Queen Elizabeth, nine days later, seemed to confirm that the city which had been described as a leper colony was now safe enough for royalty to travel through, albeit in a sealed limousine.

The Aberdeen typhoid outbreak began quietly on May 16th 1964 when two university students were admitted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with a diagnosis of pyrexia of unknown origin.

They had been fevered for several days and on May 20th bacteriological results confirmed a diagnosis of typhoid fever by which time the two patients had been transferred to the City Hospital which was the fever and isolation unit at the time of the outbreak.

Further cases quickly emerged and by the end of May there were 238 suspected cases being treated at various hospitals throughout the city.

By the end of the epidemic a total of 540 cases had been admitted with suspected typhoid with 507 being confirmed as having the disease including 86 children under the age of twelve.

There were three deaths plus an additional eight linked cases treated elsewhere including one in Canada.

Indeed so called “typhoid contact” was a feature of the outbreak and statistics compiled by Dr William Walker shortly after the outbreak indicate that the 507 confirmed cases derived from a mere 309 city households out of a total of around 58,000 households in Aberdeen City.

Public Service Poster Typhoid AberdeenBy June 17th the epidemic was deemed officially over and although many patients would continue to be treated after this date, the number of fresh hospital admissions had dwindled to single figures with no new cases being diagnosed after July 31st.

There have been several such public health epidemics since 1964 with the 1996 Lanarkshire E. coli O157 food poisoning outbreak ranking as being amongst the most devastating.

A total of twenty-one people died in the Lanarkshire E. coli outbreak after eating contaminated meat supplied by a butcher’s shop in Wishaw, Lanarkshire.

In 1998, Sheriff Principal Graham Cox concluded after a two-month inquiry that the shopkeeper, John Barr, had been ignorant of food hygiene procedures and had also deceived food inspectors.

Despite subsequent denials, the William Low supermarket in Aberdeen, which was identified as being the most likely initial source of the typhoid epidemic, also suffered from poor hygiene procedures resulting in contamination of hands, utensils and surfaces and leading to contaminated products being sold for consumption by the public.

In this instance it was proven that a 6 pound can of Argentinian corned beef had been the infective source and that not only had the meat been subject to poor hygiene procedures, but it had also been stored in an un-refrigerated shop window in summer heat leading to an marked increase in the rate of bacterial growth.

Although many associate corned beef with corn, it is in fact a salt cured product treated with “corns” of salt. Used in many cultures as a means of preserving meat it has been variously called Salt Beef, Bully Beef or in India and Bangladesh as Hunter Beef.

A staple for troops at war due to its non-perishable nature, it has been produced on an industrial scale for over 200 years. Although consumption decreased markedly in the period after the Second World War there is still significant global demand for the product, much of which is manufactured in South America.

In the early 1960’s, the UK imported around 200,000 tons of beef from Argentina annually, amounting to around 14% of the nations requirements with a significant proportion being canned corned beef intended both for current consumption and for governmental stockpiling in case of nuclear war.

By 1963 typhoid, an illness caused in the main by poor food hygiene resulting in humans ingesting the bacteria through eating or drinking,  had all but been eradicated in the UK. Public health education combined with improvements to public utilities such as chlorination of water and treatment of sewage had borne fruit.

There had been outbreaks such as that at Croydon in 1937, where after investigation it was found that a sewage worker who was a carrier of typhoid had been allowed to work on the water supply during a period when the water purification plant was out of action. The resulting outbreak affected 344 of which 43 died.

Aberdeen was no stranger to the disease either. An outbreak in the city’s Woodside killed 6 of 35 cases in 1935 with the source being identified as a local shop selling cooked meats.

However the notion that Argentinian corned beef might be a source of the disease seemed to break new ground. Unless that is one takes into account the Harlow typhoid outbreak of June 1963. After extensive testing of public water and sewage supplies proved negative the source was suspected to be a local butchers shop selling imported corned beef.

government officials concerned with overseas trade were apparently not keen to publicly blame the Argentinian factories

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Food (MAFF) began to look at the source of the canned beef and attention soon spotlighted issues to do with the cooling of the cans during manufacture.

Seemingly the possibility of the bacteria surviving the high temperatures used during production was almost zero.

However, since the Argentine factories concerned with the production of British imported corned beef routinely used untreated river water in the cooling process suspicion soon focused on the possibility of contaminated water entering through burst can seams and causing bacterial contamination of the contents.

Following a further outbreak of typhoid at South Shields in June 1963, Enoch Powel Minister of Health was asked in parliament “how many of the recent outbreaks of typhoid fever had been traced to Argentine corned beef and what steps had been taken to warn the public”,  the Ministers reply was simply “None.”

Seemingly politics had intervened and public health had become secondary. The government officials concerned with overseas trade were apparently not keen to publicly blame the Argentinian factories until a diplomatic solution to the issue of untreated river water infected with raw sewage could be found.

There was no immediate action apart from a recommendation that a mere two MAFF meat inspectors should visit a total of sixteen meat producing countries including the Argentine over the following few months.

The government were quite clearly not prepared to risk upsetting a trading partner and worse still, stocks of potentially infected corned beef stored in UK warehouses would continue to be released into the UK food chain despite the possible risk to public health.

A further outbreak took place at Bedford in the October of 1963 but still officials stalled regarding measures which might have prevented further outbreaks.

The Argentine factory identified as the probable source of the infected cans had agreed to introduce chlorination of cooling water by early January 1963 but MAFF held stocks of almost 2.5 million cases of suspect corned beef produced there dating back to 1953.

Eventually, much of the suspect stock would be shipped abroad for consumption elsewhere with a recommendation that it should be re-processed. This process of disposal would take several years to complete.

The effects of the political indifference to the spectre of further typhoid outbreaks were to have far reaching consequences for the city of Aberdeen and indeed the entire North East of Scotland.

Scotland the What parodied the episode in humorous terms:

“I can mind the typhoid epidemic at its worst, we never washed wir hands unless we did the lavvie first”

For many in the North East however it was no joke.

(To be continued)

© Duncan Harley 2014 All rights reserved

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Apr 082014
 

Voice’s Old Susannah takes a look over the past week’s events in the ‘Deen and beyond. By Suzanne Kelly.

DictionaryTally Ho, Cheerio, etc.  It’s genuinely been a great week in the granite city.  I had some great new BrewDog single hop beers this week; the Amarillo on draft was heavenly (yes, I still have my 5 BrewDog shares).

I also had a great vegetarian meal in Café 52 (yes, I know them, too – funny that my weeks often involve doing things I like with people I like); congrats to them on being named one of the city’s top 10 restaurants in an article by Kirsty Ellington Langan (whose father I know – but I’d no idea she’d written this review –  which also rates Rustico and Yatai,  both of which I greatly enjoy – though I don’t know the people behind them).

There are however restaurateurs who review their own places on the Trip Advisor website and even offer incentives for good reviews. Such practices are totally against Trip Advisor rules of course (thankfully I don’t associate with anyone like that).

I’m also busy working on some paintings for a group show at Under The Hammer which will be going up next Saturday; do stop in if you’re around (wine will be had around 3pm).

Aside from that I’m busy getting my garden in shape with help from some friends. Lots of bee and butterfly friendly plants coming soon from the excellent Poyntzfield nursery on the Black Isle (don’t know them, but have used them for years). Best of all, Lord Warner (don’t know him) has a scheme which will save the NHS! Result! And that’s how the spring is starting for me.

The campaign to save and re-open Bon Accord Baths has cross-party support and thousands of supporters throughout the area. Lions and lambs are lying down together, doves are flying around with olive branches, and editorials in different local media all seem to think this great idea is a great idea. (PS I’m happy to be helping the campaign in some small measure).

A gathering place for all citizens in the centre of the city, offering affordable exercise and a social hub? What’s not to like? Could this ‘mend our broken heart’ (copyright P&J)?

It looks as if some £5 million or so will be needed to get the baths running. At present a team of volunteers with all sorts of expertise are working on it; help if you can.  No doubt some of the city’s better off multimillionaires who want to see a unifying city centre gathering place that benefits the public will be keen to get involved. Let’s see – £5 million is   4.6% of £92 million, and 7% of £140 million.  Just saying.

In case anyone’s wondering, that is. Find out how to help here.

Let’s face it; war is hell

It is understood that the officials who banned the BBC from entering the art deco baths to do a spot of filming are going to soon see sense and let the BBC film there after all.

Dangerous buildings are of course something to be taken seriously; no doubt the city’s Westburn House, a listed property at high risk, will be given some tlc.

On the dangerous structure note, things are very grim in Edinburgh. A 12 year old girl is dead after a wall in Liberton High School’s PE block fell on her. Edinburgh Council had an unfortunate recent history of managing public and private property repairs. A scandal is still unfolding wherein its repairs officials forced private home owners to undertake remedial works at hugely inflated fees – some of the work is thought to have been unnecessary.

As the BBC put it:

“Two reports which reveal how a £40m black hole emerged in Edinburgh City Council’s property repairs department have been published. Auditors from Deloitte were called in two years ago to investigate allegations of fraud and mismanagement. They found serious failings and a lack of accountability in how the department was run. The department’s head, Dave Anderson has since resigned.” 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-22314731 . (I hope Anderson got a nice golden goodbye package).

No wonder they didn’t have time to ensure the city’s own properties were well maintained. City Council teams have since “..found nine walls similar to the one which collapsed on Keane in Castlebrae Community High and Leith Academy secondary schools. A number of smaller free-standing walls were also identified in 11 primary schools.” according to Metro 4/4/14).  Let’s hope the city will get its act together soon. Perhaps Aberdeen could take some proactive measures and fix its problem properties?

Perhaps it’s time for a few definitions spawned from this week’s news reports.

Trauma training: 

Let’s face it; war is hell. Once you’ve signed up to defend your country/king/queen/economy, you may have to kill people. Mostly this can be done these days without anyone but cannon fodder leaving command central. It’s great that we’ve drones that can whiz round to search and destroy; no one’s hands ever need get dirty (well apart from the odd Afghani wedding guest and the like).

Still, if you’re going to send out the infantry now and again (for police actions, obviously not wars), best to make sure you know how to give them proper first aid.

we can’t hurt business, bad for the economy don’t you know

You might get away without giving troopers the right kit for where you fly them, but you’ll need medics; it’s good PR if nothing else. When missile are going off, a medic might well be as useful as a 747 instruction card at 30 thousand feet or ducking and covering in the face of an incoming nuclear weapon.  But it makes us look good.

Still, you’ll have to show you’ve got trained medics, and training can only mean one thing: defence contracts. Defence contracts can only mean one thing: money.

How can you possibly train medics and others how to deal with soldiers who’ve been mildly wounded by automatic weaponry, mines, chemical warfare or missiles? Why, by tying up live farm animals, shooting and stabbing them, operating on them as they suffer, and then killing them. Repeat as necessary. Stabbing and amputation is apparently a big seller on the trauma training circuit, though Old Susannah wonders whether there is really that much stabbing happening on our front lines? Not so much I suspect.

Is there a great deal of automatic weaponry created by east and west being used to turn soldiers into Swiss cheese who will be nearly impossible to save? Definitely. Are there plenty of mines out there ripping off the odd human arm and leg? Most definitely.

There are no alternatives to the tiny amount of suffering that the pigs and goats get when their limbs are hacked off by ‘trainers’. You’ve got an industry going now, and we can’t hurt business, bad for the economy don’t you know.

However, according to those pesty people at PETA,

“U.S., Canada, Norway, Denmark, the U.K., and Poland were the only six NATO countries—out of 28—that still stab, shoot, blow up, and kill animals for cruel military training drills.”

What else can we do but make money and make animals suffer? How better to prepare someone for treating a wounded troop than being able to take a bullet out of an enemy piglet? Well, while we’re busy sending troops out to make the world safe (how’s that working out for you by the way?), 36,000 victims of gunshot wounds were treated in United States Emergency rooms in 2010. According to the Los  Angeles Times:-

“The medical journal Pediatrics this week reported that, based on the most recent data from 2009, children are hospitalized for gunshot wounds at a rate of 20 a day, or one child every 72 minutes, for a total of 7,391 hospitalizations in 2009. Nine of 10 wounded kids are male, and disproportionately African American, which focuses the problem even more.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/28/news/la-ol-kids-guns-hospitals-gun-control-20140128

I don’t know why a Los Angeles paper would be interested in gun crime; perhaps it was a slow news day.

It’s gratifying that people in this kind of training work are so entrepreneurially creative

I think it’s so wonderful we’ve got doctors in the armed forces who want to save lives (doctors who nobly uphold their Hippocratic oaths by being complicit in shooting and killing animals and people). I suppose we could train the forces doctors in emergency rooms where people, not animals, were the ones who were being shot, but that’s probably not much of an income generator.

Then we come to landmines. That would be a good case for blowing live animals up, because there are only 70 landmine injuries a day every day in the world. I’m not suggesting anything ludicrous like sending troops to clean up the landmines of past wars and helping the civilians who get injured by our left behind junk; for one thing, I doubt there’s as much money in cleaning up after military actions as there is in setting them up.

Then we come to the scientific, medical, ethical and logical reasons why we need to stab pigs, sheep and goats to teach people how to treat stab wounds. I’ve no solution to that, as I can’t find any record of knife crime in the US, UK or Europe. Nope, guess we’d best stick it to the animals, literally. As usual.

It’s gratifying that people in this kind of training work are so entrepreneurially creative that they’ve come up with the wheeze of making money by torturing animals for democracy. If that’s not capitalism at its finest, then I don’t know what is.

There is one theory that briefly crossed my mind for a second; I dismissed it promptly. What if the real purpose of getting people to accept the squeals of suffering animals, and to be able to cause that suffering was not to teach how to suture up wounds, but rather to make the trainees immune to suffering, to bond them together in a bloody slaughterhouse, and to weed out anyone who would object to this ‘training’ and say ‘this is wrong’.

I guess my imagination must be in overdrive; surely the military wouldn’t engage in any psychological conditioning. The only stupider idea that came to me was to cut our military spending, and buy more bread than guns, solve conflicts peacefully by building infrastructure, and leave the animals out of trauma training.

To bring it closer to home, an Aberdeen University trained doctor hit a sticky wicket in Afghanistan after he failed to notice that detainee civilian Baha Mousa was beaten to a pulp and then to death by the UK’s peacekeeping forces. A witness reported hearing the murdered widower say:

“I am innocent. Blood! Blood! I am going to die. My children are going to become orphans.”

Did former healer Dr Keilloh act like a doctor should? Well, his pals think so. Dr Jim Rodger, medical adviser at the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, said:

 “Dr Keilloh is extremely disappointed at the decision of this Fitness to Practise Panel and he will need time to consider the implications of this erasure and his future course of action.  He would like to say how much he appreciated the wealth of support he has received from his family, patients, colleagues and friends.”

Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers, said:

“The medical profession is well rid of such a man. All those UK doctors in Iraq who also saw signs of ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees but took no action had best start to instruct lawyers.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/former-army-doctor-struck-off-over-death-of-iraq-detainee-baha-mousa-8428695.html

The NHS is saved! Thank you Lord Warner!

It would be good to know if Keilloh had undertaken trauma training. It seems he hadn’t had enough training in the first place, and he was traumatised. How dreadful for him:
Doctor who denied he saw Iraqi detainee’s injuries is struck off  BMJ

The panel acknowledged that, at the time, Keilloh was still a junior doctor who had not been given the predeployment training he was supposed to have … accepted that Keilloh’s judgment may have been clouded by the traumatic experience [I dare say Baha Mousa’s experience was probably a bit more traumatic than Keilloh’s; and the torture of the trauma training animals was probably not a great time either]

NHS “membership charge” (Modern English compound noun c. Lord Warner)  – a proposed flat £10 per week charge for using the National Health Service.

That nice Mr Nick Tesco of The Members was on Facebook this week, issuing some curious anthropomorphic swear words I hadn’t previously heard. What caused his distress? A think-tank has said we should all chip in £10 per week for the NHS. For some reason, Nick seemed unhappy.

Well, I’m sure like me you’re wondering why we didn’t just think of this sooner. The NHS is saved! Thank you Lord Warner!  Warner once worked alongside St. Anthony Blair, who of course had nothing at all to do with sweetening the NHS for privatisation or carving it up for private companies to jump in. (or in engineering wars).

Everyone has a spare ten pounds per week, don’t they? Well, let’s get with Warner’s plan, and pay it, along with our Council tax, to keep the NHS going. Clearly there is no bureaucracy in the NHS, no extraneous middle managers, no ridiculous bean-counting exercises, supply chain mismanagement, fraud, waste or pre-privatisation manoeuvring that could be got rid of.

No, it’s up to you and me to start paying our way for the NHS. Some of you may have been of the naïve opinion your taxes went to the NHS, but that seems to have eluded Warner and his co-author Jack O’Sullivan when they proposed a fair, flat tenner per week tax.

Here’s what my Lord Warner said:

“Many politicians and clinicians are scared to tell people that our much-beloved 65-year-old NHS no longer meets the country’s needs… Frankly, it is often poor value for money. The NHS now represents the greatest public spending challenge after the general election. MPs taking to the streets to preserve clinically unsustainable hospital services only damage their constituents.”

Warner, in a report he has co-authored for the think-tank Reform, says dramatic action is needed as the NHS faces an expected £30bn-a-year gap by 2020 between the demand for healthcare and its ability to respond, and needs several new funding streams to remain viable.

I’m sure we’ll all be queuing up to help the government monitor our bodies

Revenue could also come from higher, hypothecated “sin” taxes on alcohol, tobacco and gambling, and taxes on sugary foods because of rising obesity. Inheritance tax needs to be collected from more than the current 3.5% of the 500,000 people who die each year, and visitors staying overnight in hospital should pay “hotel charges”.

A £10 monthly fee would be used to fund local initiatives to improve prevention of ill-health and an annual “health MoT” for everyone of working age, say Warner and co-author Jack O’Sullivan, an expert in new thinking in health and social care.

I’m sure we’ll all be queuing up to help the government monitor our bodies – and then get even more money for its new wheeze of selling our health data to private companies. We’ll be in great shape soon! Result!

And it gets even better: Warner wants alcohol and cigarette ‘sin taxes’ for those in the herd who won’t be squeaky clean (but surely government officials will be immune).  Sin taxes on the way soon? I’ve enough trouble with my syntax as it is.  Let’s just get down to privatising the whole system, and setting up weekly blood and urine tests for the poor to boot.

Alas, reading the 191 page report when I should be painting is giving Old Susannah high blood pressure, and I’m not getting any younger.  More later, particularly on the interesting Mr Sullivan and Lord Warner. I wonder if either of them have any reason to want privatisation? Surely not.

Nicky Tesco is interested in this stinktank, and so am I.

Next week:  More definitions, if I pass the State’s health tests, and more on the police and related arresting new developments.

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Apr 072014
 

With thanks to Dave Macdermid.

NEWSLINE MEDIA LIMITED

AFC female staff with Emma Fisher (centre front). Newsline Media Limited.

Following the very successful ‘Football Fans In Training’ initiative, Aberdeen Football Club, in partnership with the SPFL Trust, has announced that it’s running a similar programme for female supporters.
The 12-week physical activity and healthy eating course, commencing on Monday 21st April, is designed to help women become fitter and lose weight, and to maintain these changes on a long term basis.

Each week will involve a level of physical training at Pittodrie. A classroom session will advise fans on how to eat more healthily, and introduce easy steps that can be taken to become fitter.

The sessions will be delivered by AFC’s Claire Garrett and Emma Fisher. Claire commented:

“We are really pleased to offer our loyal female supporters the opportunity to participate in this enjoyable programme which, to date, has only been available to males. However, it has been recognised that there is both a requirement and a demand for our female fans to be included in the initiative.”

Emma added:

“The sessions will be taken by female members of staff for female participants and will create a comfortable environment for people to discuss any issues relating to weight loss or body confidence. We would also encourage fans to bring a friend along and give FFIT Women at AFC a go!”

For further information or to register for the programme, contact scott.duncan@afc.co.uk. Participants must be aged 35 and 65 and be at least a dress size 16.