DOCSLIB.ORG

Lord Mackay Clashfern

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Lord Mackay Clashfern SignetJuly 2012 - Issue 03 magazine The magazine of The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet SUMMER BALL 2012 SCOTland’S BANKS IAN FRASER and JEREMY PEAT p. 6 PLUS LORD MACKAY The Monarch of and the Writers CLASHFERN p. 22 p. 14 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW The Scottish Sale August 2012 Edinburgh Part I We are delighted to announce the dates of our annual Monday 20 August Scottish Sale. In 2011 Bonhams Scotland were market leaders Scottish Paintings in Scottish Art, achieving outstanding results for Colourist pictures, Jewellery, Whisky and many other fields of Scottish Part II interest. Wednesday 29 & Thursday 30 August Furniture, Clocks, Works of Art, Books, Maps, Arms and 0131 225 2266 Armour, Jewellery, Silver, Ceramics, Glass and Whisky. [email protected] John Duncan Fergusson, RBA (British, 1874-1961) Head with White Rose £15,000 - £20,000 International Auctioneers and Valuers - bonhams.com/edinburgh SignetJuly 2012 - Issue 03 magazine The magazine of Contents The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet Summer Ball 2012 / 4 Deputy Keeper’s Letter / 5 Caroline Docherty EDITOR Robert Pirrie SCOTLAND’S BANKS PRODUCTION AND MARKETING Loss of trust / 6 Claudia Marshall Ian Fraser CONTRIBUTORS Karen Baston, Stewart Inside the rise and fall of RBS / 11 Brymer, Caroline Docherty, Ian Fraser, Randy Gordon, David Halliday, James Jeremy Peat Mure QC, Jeremy Peat, Robert Pirrie LORD MACKAY OF CLASHFERN ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From the Highlands to High Office / Lord Mackay of Clashfern KT, 14 Lord Cullen of Whitekirk KT Interview by Robert Pirrie DESIGN The WS Society In camera / 20 PRINTING Minuteman Press PUBLISHER The WS Society Her Majesty’s Signet / 22 Karen Baston LETTER FROM AMERICA / 24 Randy Gordon THE SOCIETY OF WRITERS CELEBRATING WILLIAM ROUGHEAD WS TO HER MAJESTY’S SIGNET Roughead’s friends / 26 Oscar Slater: what happened... / Deputy Keeper of the Signet 28 CAROLINE DOCHERTY WS Karen Baston Office Bearers LEGAL PRACTICE SIR ANDREW CUBIE CBE WS Transfer of property / 30 JAMES RUST WS Professor Stewart Brymer WS RODERICK BRUCE WS BRUCE BEVERIDGE WS Modern construction of contracts / 32 AMANDA LAURIE WS James Mure QC Chief Executive Signet Accreditation / 34 ROBERT PIRRIE WS David Halliday Director, Professional Services SOCIETY ANNA BENNETT WS McVey Napier WS / 36 Director, Business Services Karen Baston CLAUDIA MARSHALL Keeper of the Signet THE RIGHT HON LORD MACKAY OF CLASHFERN KT Signet Magazine / 3 WS SUMMER BALL Members and guests danced the night away at the WS Society’s Summer Ball in May. After dinner, Callanish played both contemporary and Scottish country dance music which kept the dance floor full all night long. The atmosphere was relaxed, with a touch of glamour. 4 / Signet Magazine Deputy Keeper’s Letter expect that most members The next opportunity will be when will have been as fascinated the Pommery Champagne Café Bar as I was by the excellent is once again in the Lower Library BBC documentary RBS: for the duration of the Edinburgh Inside the Bank That Ran Festival Fringe. And, of course, by Out of Money, though I had next year we hope that there will a particular interest, as be a more permanent opportunity my late father, a chartered for members to bring guests to the banker of the old school Library for coffee or a light lunch, as and latterly a senior the space once again becomes a centre manager, had spent all his working life for meeting and working in a way that with RBS. I doubt anyone could have suits the practices of the 21st century, Ibeen more proud of that institution, while respecting the past. but before his death in 2008 he had begun to express doubts about the I spoke in the January edition of leadership of “Fred the Shred” who the magazine about the role of DKS was “not a banker”, and the board not being all dinners and champagne, that ought to have been reining in and here we are again, with evidence his more obvious excesses. I know on these pages that might lead you to that you will enjoy the articles in this think otherwise. Pride has obviously edition by Ian Fraser, lead consultant developed as the theme of this letter, on, and Jeremy Peat, contributor to, and proud as I am of my membership that documentary. That I write this of the Society and role in it, that is as as the LIBOR rate-fixing scandal nothing compared to my pride at the unfolds just adds piquancy to the story. proficiency in Scottish country dancing being shown by my husband, Neil, in On the topic of pride, I have the photograph on the opposite page. mentioned before the important role it Little did we both think, as we were plays in membership of the WS Society. put through our paces in the run up Our research in the development to the “Quali Dance” as Prom Night of the Vision and Strategy document was called back then, that our primary showed that there are two sides to the school pas de bas training would come membership equation: the heart and in so handy! the head. On the heart side sits pride. We continue to build into our strategy the development of opportunities Caroline Docherty to exhibit that; for our members to Deputy Keeper of the Signet showcase the Society, what it stands for, and our magnificent building. The Deputy Keeper of the Signet is the most The “revamped” Summer Ball, held in senior membership representative of the WS May, is a good example of that, as the Society. photographs show. Many members contacted me after the event to say how much their guests had enjoyed the evening, and the splendour of the setting. Signet Magazine / 5 SCOTLAND’S BANKS Loss of trust Scottish banking was once renowned for prudential management. Today the association is rather different. Respected financial journalist IAN FRASER gives his view of events behind the collapse of RBS and HBOS and calls for a Leveson-style enquiry. 6 / Signet Magazine RBS former Chief Executive Fred Goodwin became the face of the UK’s banking meltdown. Scottish banking was once renowned for prudential management. Today the association is rather different. Respected financial journalist IAN FRASER gives his view of events behind the collapse of RBS and HBOS and calls for a Leveson-style enquiry. Signet Magazine / 7 few weeks after with banks’ balance sheets, pursuing By 2005, investors were becoming a the bailouts of quixotic yardsticks like return on little concerned that Goodwin might Royal Bank equity – and by extension enhancing have his priorities wrong. After one of Scotland their own earning-power and status – investment analyst accused him of and HBOS they clean forgot the fundamentals of being “a megalomaniac” who was more in October banking. Alarm bells ought to have interested in scale than shareholder 2008, Prime sounded long before the October 2008 value, the RBS board commissioned Minister implosions. For example when RBS PR firm Brunswick to check whether Gordon splashed out $10.5 billion on Charter this view was widely shared. It turned Brown told One in May 2004, RBS did not seem out it was. But the board shied away BBC News that: “What has happened to mind that the Ohio-based bank’s from sacking Goodwin, opting instead is we have had a banking crisis which balance sheet was stuffed with a form of to hobble him by banning further Astarted in America… This is an subprime lending. By December 2007, acquisitions. international crisis that has not been Charter One had $9.3bn of “home generated in Britain”. Brown was not equity lines of credit” (HELOCs) and o escape from the only politician to be in denial $11bn of mortgages secured by second M&A “cold turkey”, about the causes of the UK banking liens on its books. Goodwin dashed crisis. headlong into areas But unlike HSBC with its $15bn he did not really In an interview the previous month, Household Finance Corporation deal, understand, sowing as HBOS was being acquired by Lloyds Goodwin refused to acknowledge he the seeds of the TSB, Scotland’s First Minister Alex had been sold a pup. Even once the bank’s collapse two Salmond accused “a bunch of short- credit crisis was in full swing he failed years later. He gave RBS’s investment selling spivs and speculators in the to admit or accept that any of Charter Tbanking arm, led by Johnny Cameron financial markets” for causing the One’s loans were impaired. and Brian Crowe, its head. The unit Edinburgh-based bank’s narrowly went hell for leather into the US averted collapse. With the benefit of “So where is RBS on all this?” asked structured finance market, as well as hindsight, such claims were clearly John Hempton of Bronte Capital the leveraged-buyout and commercial ludicrous. For RBS and HBOS were Management in May 2008. “Answer: property markets in the UK and not laid low by short-sellers or events delusional. They have taken no charges Europe, but at the worst possible point beyond their control in the United and all the goodwill from the Charter of the cycle. States (although these may have One acquisition, which remains on played a part in tipping them over RBS’s balance sheet unimpaired”. RBS Greenwich Capital, the the edge); they failed because of the bank’s Connecticut-based structured stupidity, hubris and greed of their Hubris was already starting to get finance arm, became one of the management. the better of Goodwin. He splashed leading players in collateralized debt ONE ANALYST ACCUSED GOODWIN OF BEING A “MEGLOMANIAC”. In a report published last out £18m on a private jet, £6m on obligations (CDOs) (which basically December, even the FSA blamed the the conversion of a St Andrew Square meant it “structured” or “engineered” Edinburgh-based bank’s collapse town house, £350m on a campus- teetering debt built on a foundation on factors including the “significant style headquarters at Gogarburn and layer of subprime loans issued to US weaknesses in RBS’s capital position”, $400m on a US headquarters with the consumers with little propensity to pay “over-reliance on risky short-term world’s largest trading floor.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Divided We Stand POLITEIA
    Peter Fraser Divided We Stand Scotland a Nation Once Again? POLITEIA A FORUM FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC THINKING POLITEIA A Forum for Social and Economic Thinking Politeia commissions and publishes discussions by specialists about social and economic ideas and policies. It aims to encourage public discussion on the relationship between the state and the people. Its aim is not to influence people to support any given political party, candidates for election, or position in a referendum, but to inform public discussion of policy. The forum is independently funded, and the publications do not express a corporate opinion, but the views of their individual authors. www.politeia.co.uk Divided We Stand Scotland a Nation Once Again? Peter Fraser POLITEIA 2012 First published in 2012 by Politeia 33 Catherine Place London SW1E 6DY Tel. 0207 799 5034 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.politeia.co.uk © Politeia 2012 Essay Series ISBN 978-0-9571872-0-7 Cover design by John Marenbon Printed in Great Britain by: Plan – IT Reprographics Atlas House Cambridge Place Hills Road Cambridge CB2 1NS THE AUTHOR Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Angus South (1979-83) and Angus East (1983-87) and served as Solicitor General for Scotland from 1982-88. He became a peer in 1989 and served as Lord Advocate (1989-92), Minister of State at the Scottish Office (1992-95) and the Department of Trade and Industry (1995-97). He was Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 1997-98. His publications include The Holyrood Inquiry, a 2004 report on the Holyrood building project.
    [Show full text]
  • General Register House National Records of Scotland General Register House
    GENERAL REGISTER HOUSE NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND GENERAL REGISTER HOUSE ‘A PROPER REPOSITORY’ General Register House was begun in 1774 to the designs of Robert Adam (1728-1792), a Scot who was one of Britain’s greatest architects. It is not only one of his finest public buildings, but also the first purpose-built public record repository in the British Isles. In fact it may be the oldest archive building in the world that is still being used for its original function. A proper home for Scotland’s public records was first proposed in 1722, after the Treaty of Union of 1707 guaranteed that the national records would remain in Scotland. However, for much of the eighteenth century Scotland’s national archives were housed in unsuitable accommodation in Parliament House and other nearby buildings. Eventually, in 1765 a government grant of £12,000 was made available from the forfeited Jacobite estates for the building of ‘a proper repository’. The Register House Trustees only reached agreement on a site when the City gifted the necessary land at the north end of the new North Bridge in 1769. NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND ADAM’S DESIGN Largely through the influence of Lord Frederick Campbell, the Lord Clerk Register, Robert Adam and his younger brother James, were appointed architects of Register House in 1772. The Adam brothers believed that you could judge a society by the quality and grandeur of its public buildings, and this commission provided an opportunity to put their beliefs into practice. While the building’s design went through several stages, the main elements of the principal façade and the centralised plan, consisting of a domed rotunda within a quadrangle, were present from the beginning.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    520 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, MAY 9, 1904. IV. AN ACCOUN E ABERAOH-MACKATH F TO Y BANNER EXHIBITEW NO , D E NATIONATH N I L MUSEUM REVY B .. MACKAY.A , WESTERDALE MANSE, HALKIKK. The earliest reference to the Aberach-Mackay Banner of which we have any knowledge, meantime, is in the article on Tongue parish in e Firstth Statistical Account, written abou e tEev th 179 . y b 2Wm . Mackenzie, and is as follows :— " There is a cave in tlie rock upon which the Castle [Varrich, near Tongue] is built called Leabuidh Evin Abaruich, i.e. John of Lochaber's bed, whither he is said to have retired in times of danger. A family of Mackays is descended fro mreportee ar him d an , d stil havo t l thein ei r possessio s bannernhi , with the motto wrought in golden letters, Biodh treun—Biodh treun, i.e. Be valiant." The writer of this article was inducted minister of Tongue in 1769, and laboure n thai d t parish s deattilhi l n 1834i h t beforbu ;s hi e settlement at Tongue he was minister at Achness on Strathnaver from 1766 to 1769, as we are informed by his descendant, James Macdonald, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh s lond intimatHi gan . e acquaintance wite th h Mackays both on Strathnaver—where he had a daughter married and settled—and at Tongue, Lord Reay's seat, coupled with his taste for family lore, as we gather from Sage's Memorabilia Domestica, give considerable weight to his passing reference to the Aberach-Mackay banner.
    [Show full text]
  • Scotland and the UK Constitution
    Scotland and the UK Constitution The 1998 devolution acts brought about the most significant change in the constitution of the United Kingdom since at least the passage of the 1972 European Communities Act. Under those statutes devolved legislatures and administrations were created in Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. The documents below have been selected to give an overview of the constitutional settlement established by the devolution acts and by the Courts. Scotland has been chosen as a case study for this examination, both because the Scottish Parliament has been granted the most extensive range of powers and legislative competences of the three devolved areas, but also because the ongoing debate on Scottish independence means that the powers and competencies of the Scottish Parliament are very much live questions. The devolution of certain legislative and political powers to Scotland was effected by the Scotland Act 1998. That statute, enacted by the Westminster Parliament, creates the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive (now the “Scottish Government”), and establishes the limits on the Parliament’s legislative competence. Schedule 5 of the Act, interpolated by Section 30(1), lists those powers which are reserved to the Westminster Parliament, and delegates all other matters to the devolved organs. Thus, while constitutional matters, foreign affairs, and national defence are explicitly reserved to Westminster, all matters not listed— including the education system, the health service, the legal system, environmental
    [Show full text]
  • Obituary Notices
    OBITUARY NOTICES Lord Reay FKOM the public point of view the career of Lord Reay, whose death took place on August 1, has been commemorated with due appreciation in the Times and other organs of the Press ; and many more tributes from institutions and societies which had benefited by his wise and moderate counsels, his states- manly instinct, his accomplishments and experience, and his distinguished and courtly presence will, no doubt, be placed on record. The Royal Asiatic Society, of which he had been President since 1892, may claim to have enjoyed a full share in his regard. He seldom failed to be in the chair at its public gatherings or at the meetings of its Council. He was always in close touch with the work of the honorary and permanent officials ; all important proceedings were dis- cussed with him, and, even when the course actually followed had not his entire concurrence, it generally bore the impress of his advice. From the admirable obituary notice in the Times, we are permitted to quote the following summary account of his lordship's ancestry and early career, as well as to extract some other particulars :— " The Scottish peerage of Reay was created in favour of Donald Mackay of Far, chief of the clan Mackay, in 1628. This restless soldier was one of the many Scots who during the long peace which followed the accession of James VI to the English crown sought fame and reward in the Continental wars. He was succeeded in the title by his son John, who remained loyal to the Stuarts during the Common- wealth.
    [Show full text]
  • Letter to the Convener of 10 November 2020
    Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Crown Office, 25 Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LA RNID Typetalk prefix: 18001 Linda Fabiani MSP c/o Clerk to the Committee DX: 540310 Edinburgh 38 Room T1.03 The Scottish Parliament Your ref: Edinburgh Our ref: KD/GS/ ED19004183 EH99 1SP 10 November 2020 Dear Ms Fabiani Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints Request for information from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service I refer to your letter dated 5 November 2020 to the Lord Advocate in your capacity as Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Committee on Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints. In your letter you advise that the Committee considers that there may be material held by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in the context of the criminal investigation and prosecution of Alex Salmond which is relevant to the Committee’s remit and request that all such information held by COPFS is provided to the Committee. Neither the Lord Advocate nor the Solicitor General for Scotland has had any personal involvement in the criminal investigation of, or the criminal proceedings against, Alex Salmond. The Lord Advocate has accordingly asked me to reply to your letter on his behalf. The material that COPFS holds in relation to the criminal investigation and prosecution of Alex Salmond, as in any case, was obtained and is held for that sole purpose. As a data controller, any processing or disclosure of that material must be lawful, which means that there must be a legal basis for that processing. If COPFS were to process data without such a legal basis, it would be in breach of both its responsibilities as data controller and the legal rights of those who own the data which the Service holds for that purpose.
    [Show full text]
  • The Scottish Bar: the Evolution of the Faculty of Advocates in Its Historical Setting, 28 La
    Louisiana Law Review Volume 28 | Number 2 February 1968 The cottS ish Bar: The volutE ion of the Faculty of Advocates in Its Historical Setting Nan Wilson Repository Citation Nan Wilson, The Scottish Bar: The Evolution of the Faculty of Advocates in Its Historical Setting, 28 La. L. Rev. (1968) Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol28/iss2/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SCOTTISH BAR: THE EVOLUTION OF THE FACULTY OF ADVOCATES IN ITS HISTORICAL SOCIAL SETTING Nan Wilson* Although the expression "advocate" is used in early Scottish statutes such as the Act of 1424, c. 45, which provided for legal aid to the indigent, the Faculty of Advocates as such dates from 1532 when the Court of Session was constituted as a College of Justice. Before this time, though friends of litigants could appear as unpaid amateurs, there had, of course, been professional lawyers, lay and ecclesiastical, variously described as "fore- speakers," procurators and prolocutors. The functions of advo- cate and solicitor had not yet been differentiated, though the notary had been for historical reasons. The law teacher was then essentially an ecclesiastic. As early as 1455, a distinctive costume (a green tabard) for pleaders was prescribed by Act of Parliament.' Between 1496 and 1501, at least a dozen pleaders can be identified as in extensive practice before the highest courts, and procurators appeared regularly in the Sheriff Courts.2 The position of notary also flourished in Scotland as on the Continent, though from 1469 the King asserted the exclusive right to appoint candidates for that branch of legal practice.
    [Show full text]
  • Supplementary Case for the Lord Advocate
    UKSC 2018/0080 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE MATTER OF A REFERENCE BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND THE ADVOCATE GENERAL FOR SCOTLAND UNDER SECTION 33(1) OF THE SCOTLAND ACT 1998 IN RELATION TO THE UK WITHDRAWAL FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION (LEGAL CONTINUITY) (SCOTLAND) BILL WRITTEN CASE FOR THE LORD ADVOCATE Introduction 1. This is the written case for the Lord Advocate in the Reference by the Attorney General and the Advocate General for Scotland (the “UK Law Officers”) under section 33(1) of the Scotland Act 1998 (“SA 1998”) regarding the legislative competence of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill (SP Bill 28B) (the “Scottish Bill”). The Scottish Parliament passed the Scottish Bill on 21 March 2018. For the reasons set out in 1 this Case, the Lord Advocate invites the Court to answer the questions set out in §66 of the Reference in the negative. 2. On 29 March 2017, the Prime Minister notified the European Council, in accordance with Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (“TEU”), of the UK’s intention to withdraw from the EU. She thereby initiated a process which is expected, by operation of law, to result in the UK leaving the EU on 29 March 2019. As the Policy Memorandum relating to the Scottish Bill explains, the preparations for withdrawal from the EU must include: “… maintaining a functioning system of devolved laws on UK withdrawal by providing, where possible, for continuity of law on exit day and ensuring that laws operate effectively once the UK has left the EU” 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Minimum Alcohol Pricing in Scotch Whisky Association V Lord Advocate
    Minimum Alcohol Pricing in Scotch Whisky Association v Lord Advocate Angus MacCulloch* The Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 empowers the Scottish Ministers, by Order, to set a Minimum Price per Unit of alcohol (MPU). A draft Order setting the MPU at £0.501 was immediately challenged by the Scotch Whisky Association2 on the basis that it would be contrary to EU law as a restriction on the free movement of goods. The Scottish Government justified the measure as being designed to protect public health. In this piece I will highlight some of the key free movement issues raised by the case. A. THE JUDGMENT OF THE OUTER HOUSE The judgment focuses on whether the MPU can be justified. It spends no time discussing how the MPU Order falls within the terms of the prohibition of quantitative restrictions on trade in Art 34 TFEU. Both parties agreed that the MPU Order was a ‘measure having equivalent effect’ to a quantitative restriction. This followed an EU Commission Opinion on the compatibility of the draft Order with EU law after its notification under the Technical Standards Directive.3 The Commission notes that the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has ruled that measures which fix retail prices fall within the prohibition of quantitative restrictions on imports if they are set at such a level that imported products are placed at a disadvantage when compared to identical domestic products.4 The Commission argues that minimum prices do not take into account the costs of production, and therefore disadvantage imported products that have lower production costs than their domestic rivals.5 The Commission also argues the measure would have greater impact on new entrants to the market.
    [Show full text]
  • First Division, Inner House, Court of Session
    FIRST DIVISION, INNER HOUSE, COURT OF SESSION [2021] CSIH 25 A76/20 Lord President Lord Menzies Lord Doherty OPINION OF THE COURT delivered by LORD CARLOWAY, the LORD PRESIDENT in the Reclaiming Motion by MARTIN JAMES KEATINGS Pursuer and Reclaimer against (First) THE ADVOCATE GENERAL; and (Second) THE LORD ADVOCATE Defenders and Respondents ______________ Pursuer and Reclaimer: O’Neill QC, Welsh; Balfour & Manson LLP First Defender and Respondent: Webster QC, Pirie; Office of the Advocate General Second Defender and Respondent: Mure QC, C O’Neill QC (sol adv); Scottish Government Legal Directorate 30 April 2021 Introduction [1] The pursuer is a campaigner for Scottish independence. He is a voter in the upcoming election for the Scottish Parliament. He seeks two declarators. The first is that the Scottish Parliament has power under the Scotland Act 1998 to legislate for a referendum on whether Scotland should be independent, without requiring the consent of the United 2 Kingdom Government. The second is that the Scottish Government’s “proposed Act” concerning an independence referendum contains no provisions which would be outside the Parliament’s legislative competence. [2] Although called as third defenders, the Scottish Ministers withdrew their defences. The action was also intimated to the Parliamentary Corporate Body, but they elected not to intervene. The first and second defenders plead inter alia that: the pursuer has no title, interest or standing to sue; the action is academic, hypothetical, premature and thus incompetent; and the declarators are inconsistent with the structure of the 1998 Act. The pursuer responds with a plea that the defences are irrelevant and decree should be pronounced de plano.
    [Show full text]
  • Tartan Ball Guest of Honour: the Honourable Doctor Kirsty Duncan MP
    THE TORONTO ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER ~ February 2016 www.DanceScottish.ca Tartan Ball Guest of Honour: From the Chair… TheHonourableDoctor Kirsty Duncan MP he demo pool We have a wonderful Guest of Tdancers had a very Honour, Dr Kirsty Duncan, our busy January, partici- new Minister of Science. She was pating in numerous invited, not for that high office, but dance events. Thank previously, for her remarkable you to everyone for your time and dedi- accomplishments and connections cation, and to Stella to Scottish culture and dance, Henderson, who does particularly her long-standing tie Deirdre MacCuish Bark an excellent job of to Scottish country dancing through overall organization. Georgina Finlay’s legendary youth The Celtic festival of Imbolc (February 1) marks group going back some 25 years or the beginning of Spring in the old Celtic calendar. more. Kirsty danced Highland for It occurs halfway through the dark time of the year and coincides with our North American Georgina and, when needed, she Groundhog Day, on February 2, which in turn danced Scottish country as well. may owe its existence to the Irish St Brigid’s Day, Professionally, Kirsty is a medical when traditionally it was believed that Brigid’s geographer. In 1992, with a new doctorate from Edinburgh University, she refected on the snake emerged from the earth to test the weather. devastation caused by the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. She perceived the need to acquire Let’s hope for an overcast day and an early Spring. a sample of the virus that killed many people, so she planned, got fund- In the Celtic nations, hospitality was considered ing, assembled a team, and in 1998 led an expedition to the arctic island very important.
    [Show full text]
  • Register of Lords' Interests
    REGISTER OF LORDS’ INTERESTS _________________ The following Members of the House of Lords have registered relevant interests under the code of conduct: ABERDARE, LORD Category 8: Gifts, benefits and hospitality Attended with wife, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 25 July 2014, as guests of Welsh Government Category 10: Non-financial interests (a) Director, F.C.M. Limited (recording rights) Category 10: Non-financial interests (c) Trustee, Berlioz Society Trustee, St John Cymru-Wales Trustee, National Library of Wales Category 10: Non-financial interests (e) Trustee, West Wycombe Charitable Trust ADAMS OF CRAIGIELEA, BARONESS Nil No registrable interests ADDINGTON, LORD Category 1: Directorships Chairman, Microlink PC (UK) Ltd (computing and software) Category 10: Non-financial interests (d) Vice President, British Dyslexia Association Category 10: Non-financial interests (e) Vice President, UK Sports Association Vice President, Lakenham Hewitt Rugby Club ADEBOWALE, LORD Category 1: Directorships Director, Leadership in Mind Ltd (business activities; certain income from services provided personally by the Member is or will be paid to this company or to TomahawkPro Ltd; see category 4(a)) Non-executive Director, Three Sixty Action Ltd (holding company; community development, media and IT) (see category 4(a)) Non-executive Director, TomahawkPro Ltd (a subsidiary of Three Sixty Action Ltd; collaborative software & IT innovation; no income from this post is received at present; certain income from services provided personally by the Member
    [Show full text]