Musings from the Merse
Saturday, March 08, 2008
In the latest Berwickshire News
Under a huge front page banner headline
: CHANGE IN CULTURE NEEDED TO TACKLE DRINK AND DRUGS
there is a rather unusual picture of HRH Prince Edward aka the Duke of Wessex receiving 'a Siamese greeting' from a smartly dressed lady. Surely Prince Ed is not part of the Berwickshire Drink and Drugs scene? No it is a rather unfortunate juxtaposition of an image and the main story. The Duke was in Duns to present the Operatic Society `with the Queen's award for Voluntary Service and was not under the influence of banned substances at the time; of course if he was it would lend a new dimension to local High Society about which the paper is obviously concerned.
I could be wrong but I doubt if there is much of a drugs problem in Hutton. Drink would have to be imbibed in the discomfort of one's home as the Cross in Paxton is over two miles away and the no shops in the village include no Off Licence. You can't even buy a tube of glue for goodness sake. Rural crime around here seems to consist of the odd theft of gardening tools, once some fishing rods, and the nicking of the 'You are being Watched' sign beyond Hutton Castle Barns.Nothing to bother the Sheriff of Duns or the star reporter of the Berwickshire.
A very good reason for living here. But if you crave a bit of excitement: Duns is more likely to be your place. Me, I am no hurry to move.
Labels: crime Borders., Hutton, Prince Edward
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Dastards in Duns?
A bloggee e-mailed last night in great excitement -look at Ceefax 339-Dastardly Crime in Duns. No further details. Sadly we are in London on a grandparental visit with no access to a TV with a text facility so no satisfaction there. Google: Duns, Crime, dastardly Nothing came up to justify such excitement and indeed no crime, dastardly or otherwise recorded recently. BBC Scotland website. No mention of Duns-indeed no mention of the Borders; All lumped under Southern Scotland Then tried ITVNews Scotland -equally uninformative.
In desperation rang the bloggee-what was this crime besmirching the good name of Duns?
Break in : One Pizza and three bottles of wine stolen.
Dastardly indeed.
Would never happen in Hutton
A bloggee e-mailed last night in great excitement -look at Ceefax 339-Dastardly Crime in Duns. No further details. Sadly we are in London on a grandparental visit with no access to a TV with a text facility so no satisfaction there. Google: Duns, Crime, dastardly Nothing came up to justify such excitement and indeed no crime, dastardly or otherwise recorded recently. BBC Scotland website. No mention of Duns-indeed no mention of the Borders; All lumped under Southern Scotland Then tried ITVNews Scotland -equally uninformative.
In desperation rang the bloggee-what was this crime besmirching the good name of Duns?
Break in : One Pizza and three bottles of wine stolen.
Dastardly indeed.
Would never happen in Hutton
Labels: crime Borders., Duns
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Fishwick Special Branch is grateful to Erase for this glimpse of a novel solution to Dog poo in the Borders. Specially trained suicide dogs can go for unescorted walks and the little plastic bags they are trained to carry vaporise with them.
Room G.04 is much more interesting but for security reasons.....
Terrierist Dogs are not unknown in certain parts of the world
Room G.04 is much more interesting but for security reasons.....
Terrierist Dogs are not unknown in certain parts of the world
Labels: Border Terriers, crime Borders.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
WI launches crusade for licensed brothels
is a head line in The Times On-line-reflecting the Thunderers tabloid approach to most stories. It opens:
They are better known for making jam, selling cakes and stripping off to make calendars for charity. Now the Women’s Institute has started a campaign to license brothels to protect women who work as prostitutes.
The village of Holybourne in Hampshire is the unlikely birthplace of this crusade. Members of the WI branch there were deeply moved by the events last December when five street prostitutes were murdered in Ipswich.
The branch made licensing brothels the subject of its motion for debate at the autumn meeting of the Hampshire WI Federation, which has 6,000 members. The motion received almost unanimous backing and Hampshire WI will now go to the national organisation and mount a lobbying campaign to try to persuade local councillors and MPs to change the law.
Apart from wondering if 'crusade' is quite le mot justein this context ( 'Richard Coeur de Lion in Jerusalem Harlot Horror' to quote a 12th Century Sunne-page 2) we can only wonder if the Scottish equivalent of the WI the Women' Rural Institute will now follow suit. One, can, I suppose, speculate about brothels in the Borders but Huttonian does not want to fall into the trap sprung on a visiting CofE bishop to New York when asked for a view on the City's houses of ill repute replied, innocently: 'Oh Are there Brothels in New York?' fed the headline in a local Tabloid ' Visiting Brit Bish in search of Brothels''
No, Randy of Reston this is idle conjecture, not the start of a research programme, much less the launch of the XIth Crusade. All I do know is neither the Hutton Think Tank nor Fishwick Special Branch are 'into' local vice, as it were, nor am I aware of Sex Workers being asked to talk about their industry at meetings of local Probus, Knit and (K)Natter, Rotary, University of the Third Age, or other bodies (no pun intended) generally desperate for speakers-as Huttonian knows judging from the amount of times he has been asked to speak. Pity. Might liven up some rather dull afternoons, Knit and Knatter always excepted. Nor does prostitution seem to feature in the Duns Sheriff's court unless there is a gagging (no S or M implication) order on the cub reporter recording the cases for the Berwickshire
So we must assume that Whores and their safety is not an issue north of the Border and south of Glasga. When it is I will watch the agendas for forthcoming meetings of the Women's Guild with
Great interest.
And another thing: Members of the Women's Guild have yet to strip off for making calendars or for any other purpose-
as a group, I mean.
As far as I know, that is.
(The image of a sex worker demonstration is thought not to be from the Borders)
Labels: Borders, crime Borders., Sex Workers, Women's Guild, WRI
Friday, September 28, 2007
A bloggee has commented that now Huttonian is going to be rebranded as 'Reluctant Dinger' or something that he should take more interest in the doings of Sheriff Kevin of Duns- in his court, of course, we hasten to add.
Sadly most cases presided over by the Sheriff are mundane and frankly boring: drink driving, breach of probation, having a MOT without insurance, cooncealing of weapons of mass destruction, possession of a knife.That sort of everyday offencce Only one unusual event reported in the Berwickshire -a 'youth' who destroyed 102 containers of milk outside a Coldingham shop by kicking and throwing them around the High Street at a cost of £112- being condemned for 'mindless behaviour' by the Procurator Fiscal and being held responsible for the absence of milk in Coldingham the following morning. Or to be more accurate there was rather a lot of milk but not in appropriate containers. In mitigation it was explained that the youth in question had been camping with friends in Coldingham Bay the previous night and 'had consumed alcohol' -had he been sober would that have been alright then?
The Sheriff was not impressed and before putting on his black cap agreed that the defendant and his friends who aided and abetted the milk curdling events were 'mindless' and thugs as well. He called for reports and the 17 year old Eyemouth lad is to appear in court again next month. Presumably for sentencing. Transportation to Oz, or even to Paxton, is thought unlikely.
It is encouraging to note that none of the defendants arraigned this week came from Duns itself but from outposts of wickedness such as Eyemouth and Greenlaw.
Elsewhere in the Borders the paper reports a second offence of a motorist destroying a speed camera. In this case he was captured on camera in the act. Hopefully the Garda Siochana will be able to return him to face British Justice from the wilds of County Kerry.
Sadly most cases presided over by the Sheriff are mundane and frankly boring: drink driving, breach of probation, having a MOT without insurance, cooncealing of weapons of mass destruction, possession of a knife.That sort of everyday offencce Only one unusual event reported in the Berwickshire -a 'youth' who destroyed 102 containers of milk outside a Coldingham shop by kicking and throwing them around the High Street at a cost of £112- being condemned for 'mindless behaviour' by the Procurator Fiscal and being held responsible for the absence of milk in Coldingham the following morning. Or to be more accurate there was rather a lot of milk but not in appropriate containers. In mitigation it was explained that the youth in question had been camping with friends in Coldingham Bay the previous night and 'had consumed alcohol' -had he been sober would that have been alright then?
The Sheriff was not impressed and before putting on his black cap agreed that the defendant and his friends who aided and abetted the milk curdling events were 'mindless' and thugs as well. He called for reports and the 17 year old Eyemouth lad is to appear in court again next month. Presumably for sentencing. Transportation to Oz, or even to Paxton, is thought unlikely.
It is encouraging to note that none of the defendants arraigned this week came from Duns itself but from outposts of wickedness such as Eyemouth and Greenlaw.
Elsewhere in the Borders the paper reports a second offence of a motorist destroying a speed camera. In this case he was captured on camera in the act. Hopefully the Garda Siochana will be able to return him to face British Justice from the wilds of County Kerry.
Labels: crime Borders., Duns, Merse, Sheriff Kevin
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Borders is a safe place to live is the headline in today's electronic Berwickshire. As seen fron Norn Iron where crime has increased since the end of the 'Troubles' this seems self evident. Just compare the offences dealt with by Sheriff Kevin of Duns with the wide range of really serious crime reported in the County Down press which carry several pages of offences including in this week's Mourne Observer a Samurai sword wielding guy running amok in a local pub. In this case the assailant was so intoxicated that he could not make any sense until the following day. Being value conscious Norn Iron he may well have been complaining about being overcharged for his two pints of Guinness and a packet of fags. A crime passionelle by local standards
THE Scottish Borders had one of the lowest recorded number of housebreakings in Scotland in the past year, a Scottish Government report has revealed.
The region saw only 14 break-ins per 10,000 of the population, with only the Shetland Islands, Western Isles and Orkney Islands seeing fewer properties being illegally entered for 2006/2007.
The national average for Scotland was 40 per 10,000, with Aberdeen witnessing the highest number of reported cases of housebreaking, with 82 per 10,000.
The Scottish Borders was also below the national average for other crimes. Four serious assault's per 10,000 of the population took place compared to a Scottish average of 13, while incidents of carrying an offensive weapon were at 11, nine below the medium.
Cases of vandalism were recorded at 173 within the area, with a typical Scottish region recording 238.
A number of other crimes recorded - such as sexual crimes of violence and crimes of dishonesty - were also less likely to occur in the Borders than the majority of other Scottish district's.
Lothian and Borders Police Divisional Commander Charles Common said: "This is a good news story for the Borders. It confirms that this is one of the safest parts of the country to live in.
"Figures reflect both the support we receive from the public and the hard work of my staff."
Fishwick Special Branch are considering either voluntary liquidiation or going over to traffic duties
THE Scottish Borders had one of the lowest recorded number of housebreakings in Scotland in the past year, a Scottish Government report has revealed.
The region saw only 14 break-ins per 10,000 of the population, with only the Shetland Islands, Western Isles and Orkney Islands seeing fewer properties being illegally entered for 2006/2007.
The national average for Scotland was 40 per 10,000, with Aberdeen witnessing the highest number of reported cases of housebreaking, with 82 per 10,000.
The Scottish Borders was also below the national average for other crimes. Four serious assault's per 10,000 of the population took place compared to a Scottish average of 13, while incidents of carrying an offensive weapon were at 11, nine below the medium.
Cases of vandalism were recorded at 173 within the area, with a typical Scottish region recording 238.
A number of other crimes recorded - such as sexual crimes of violence and crimes of dishonesty - were also less likely to occur in the Borders than the majority of other Scottish district's.
Lothian and Borders Police Divisional Commander Charles Common said: "This is a good news story for the Borders. It confirms that this is one of the safest parts of the country to live in.
"Figures reflect both the support we receive from the public and the hard work of my staff."
Fishwick Special Branch are considering either voluntary liquidiation or going over to traffic duties
Labels: crime Borders., Fishwick Special Branch, Norn Iron
