Musings from the Merse
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
This week's 'Issue' in the Berwickshire News is as follows:
Is vandalism an increasing problem in your town or village?
Yes [69.2%]
No [27.7%]
Don't Know [3.1%]
It has been running for some time and unlike 'Should Berwick be part of Berwickshire' or 'Should Duns be used for the Jim Clarke Rally next year?' has not attracted much interest; one vote either way makes a one percentage change on the result.
I don't know much about the bigger settlements but apart from the odd car scratching Duns has a good record on Yobbish behaviour (Boy Racers always and dishonourably excepted)Hutton was even better-not even the mobile post office vandalised (npi)by the roving vigilantes of the Hall Committee. The only case I can remember in 10 years residence was youngsters going into the church and throwing the pew cushions around fairly harmlessly-it caused the church to be locked on occasion but is now back, like the old Windmill Theatre, to 'We never close' And quite right too.
When first in Hutton I heard that there had been a case of a bicycle stolen-recently-ie in living memory and I am grateful to the almost unknown Borders Poet Abdul Basset Mc Grahy for his valiant attempt to record the event
Neighbourhood Watch Borders Style
‘Community Alert’ they call it here.
Oxymoronic surely.
Our rural calm is soporific.
Unbroken by any suspicion
of criminal intent ever since
the village burglar was apprehended
escaping from the scene of his crime
on a stolen bicycle.
He might even have got away
had he not been walking the bike
uphill. (He had nicked the one
without gears.)
Now if you venture through the village
in its post neutron bomb like emptiness
all you get is
the occasional curtained twitch
of the neighbourhood watch
going about
your business.
Is vandalism an increasing problem in your town or village?
Yes [69.2%]
No [27.7%]
Don't Know [3.1%]
It has been running for some time and unlike 'Should Berwick be part of Berwickshire' or 'Should Duns be used for the Jim Clarke Rally next year?' has not attracted much interest; one vote either way makes a one percentage change on the result.
I don't know much about the bigger settlements but apart from the odd car scratching Duns has a good record on Yobbish behaviour (Boy Racers always and dishonourably excepted)Hutton was even better-not even the mobile post office vandalised (npi)by the roving vigilantes of the Hall Committee. The only case I can remember in 10 years residence was youngsters going into the church and throwing the pew cushions around fairly harmlessly-it caused the church to be locked on occasion but is now back, like the old Windmill Theatre, to 'We never close' And quite right too.
When first in Hutton I heard that there had been a case of a bicycle stolen-recently-ie in living memory and I am grateful to the almost unknown Borders Poet Abdul Basset Mc Grahy for his valiant attempt to record the event
Neighbourhood Watch Borders Style
‘Community Alert’ they call it here.
Oxymoronic surely.
Our rural calm is soporific.
Unbroken by any suspicion
of criminal intent ever since
the village burglar was apprehended
escaping from the scene of his crime
on a stolen bicycle.
He might even have got away
had he not been walking the bike
uphill. (He had nicked the one
without gears.)
Now if you venture through the village
in its post neutron bomb like emptiness
all you get is
the occasional curtained twitch
of the neighbourhood watch
going about
your business.
Labels: BBC. Broadcasting House. Duns, Berwickshire, Hutton, Vandalism
Comments:
Remember the time that Kimmerghame was raided by 2 very incompetent thieves who were apprehended after a chase by the local police? Heady days indeed.
# posted by 
: 1:28 AM
: 1:28 AM
Indeed. Sir John Swinton chased them out of his house having thrown his artificial leg at them!Leggy rather than heady days?
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