Patriotic Alternative Scotland

2022-06-03 11:02:07 Another article by one of our Scottish writing team Open / Comment

2022-06-03 11:02:07 Scotland: Scotland's First Patron Saint - Patriotic Alternative
https://www.patrioticalternative.org.uk/scotland_scotland_s_first_patron_saint Open / Comment

2022-06-03 10:16:54 On this day in 1863 the writer Neil Munro was born in Inveraray.

Neil Munro was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic. He is now mainly known for his humorous short stories, originally written under the pen name Hugh Foulis. The best known of these stories are about the fictional Clyde puffer the Vital Spark and her captain Para Handy, but they also include stories about the waiter and kirk beadle Erchie MacPherson and the travelling drapery salesman Jimmy Swan. They were originally published in the Glasgow Evening News, but collections were published as books. A key figure in Scottish literary circles, Munro was a friend of the writers J. M. Barrie, John Buchan, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham and Joseph Conrad, and the artists Edward A. Hornel, George Houston, Pittendrigh MacGillivray and Robert Macaulay Stevenson. He was an early promoter of the works of both Conrad and Rudyard Kipling.

He died in Craigendoran, Helensburgh, on 22 December 1930 at age 67. Open / Comment

2022-06-01 22:31:16 Falkirk appears to have become a dumping ground for asylum seekers.

The Cladhan Hotel has been used as a place to house asylum seekers by the Home Office since last November and currently there are 50 men waiting to have their applications heard. Also more than 60 more have arrived recently at the Metro Hotel at Bean Cross Farm. Falkirk is not a suitable place for well over 100 single mainly African men to be housed.

Though they are being housed in high standard hotels, given wifi access, telephone access, being fed three meals and other benefits, they do not feel they are being fairly treated and want more.

In 2019/2020 Falkirk had a total of 1165 homeless applications. We are sure that some of these indigenous homeless applicants would be quite happy to take the places of these "asylum seekers" in the hotels with all the benefits and the fast track to housing that they will receive once their claims are judged. But being part of the indigenous population they don't receive this treatment. Open / Comment

2022-06-01 11:22:56 On this day in 1679 the Battle of Drumclog was fought between Covenanters and the Royal Army.

A large conventicle was taking place at Loudoun Hill, on the boundary of Ayrshire and Lanarkshire when a force of dragoons arrived commanded by John Graham of Claverhouse.

The two sides were separated by a bog and Claverhouse couldn't press his attack. They exchanged fire across the bog but eventually the Covenanters under William Cleland decided to press their attack. Making their way around the bog they engaged the dragoons. The dragoons soon broke and fled the field leaving 36 dead behind them.

The victory was a huge success for the rebellious Covenanters, although euphoria was short lived. Just three weeks later Claverhouse, under the leadership of the Duke of Monmouth, helped to crush the rebellion at the Battle of Bothwell Brig. Open / Comment

2022-05-31 19:56:28 The SNP have frozen the budgets of local authorities for the next four years and are saying that the public sector needs to reform. All this at a time when the people of Scotland are experiencing hardship due to the ever-rising cost of living.

The public sector has many low-paid workers and it looks like they will be receiving no or minimal wage rises, something that can only cause disaster for many families as inflation heads towards double digits. Job losses may also be on the cards. Essential services such as policing and justice amongst others will in effect be receiving cuts to their budgets.

The SNP, though faced with a difficult situation, have mishandled Scotland's finances for years. Open / Comment

2022-05-30 12:02:37 Glasgow City Council has stopped providing evening meals for people in homeless accomidatiom in hotels.

Given that some of the people in these facilities are the most vulnerable in society it seems that this service was a lifeline for many. The policy of moving homeless people into hotels and providing then with three meals a day has been a success in getting rough sleeper figures down to single figures in Glasgow.

But now this service has been withdrawn . The soup kitchen at argyle Street has reported an increase in homeless people.using their service. People who struggle to obtain a evening meal either due cost or no facilities in the hotels to cook.

Meanwhile the council continues to bring ever increasing numbers of "migrants " to the city Open / Comment

2022-05-29 21:52:10 Today our Lothian Branch headed out to Berwick Law in North Berwick.
The Law is a volcanic plug that has evidence of prehistoric settlements upon it.
It has also been used as an observation post from the Napoleonic war through to WW2.
#PlayYourPart
#scotlandforthescots Open / Comment

2022-05-29 14:47:19 On this day in 1546 Cardinal David Beaton was murdered at Saint Andrews Castle.

At dawn on 29 May 1546, a number of Fife lairds, frustrated with Beaton on both personal and religious grounds, entered St Andrews Castle.

The group, led by Norman Leslie, master of Rothes, snuck into the castle disguised as masons. They executed the Cardinal and then hung his naked body in a pair of sheets from the castle walls, before throwing it into the castle’s notorious bottle dungeon.

In his ‘Historie of the Reformatioun of Scotland’, John Knox tells how Beaton’s corpse was kept in the dungeon at St Andrews Castle covered in salt to ‘keip him frome stinking’. It is not known where his remains were finally buried.

Outraged by the Cardinal’s assassination, Marie de Guise sent her troops to regain control of the castle Open / Comment

2022-05-29 14:13:19 Activists from PA Scotland took advantage of the beautiful weather to hike up the Cobbler in the Arrochar Alps.

Also known as Ben Arthur, the Cobbler attracts hikers from all over due to the challenge of "threading the needle" and scrambling to the top of its highest peak. Open / Comment