Good News Scotland: Our positive stories from June 2025
TRUTH be told, I only got back yesterday from an over two-week break from the daily news grind.
In theory, at least.
I was at Glastonbury last week, including at the West Holts stage for Bob Vylan and Kneecap's now famous (and under police investigation) sets. So, I wasn't exactly too far from the headlines.
I was also there for Lewis Capaldi's heartwarming return to the limelight. You could feel the crowd – tens of thousands of them at the Pyramid stage – egging him on at his not-so-secret set, two years after a performance at the festival saw him struggle to manage his Tourette symptoms.
For the very many of us who have felt overwhelmed by our mental health at times, his return was a win. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear.
During the festival, I also spotted that the First Minister John Swinney finally apologised to Gypsy Travellers for what was known as the tinker experiment.
A programme supported by the UK Government (who should also apologise), the Church of Scotland and Scottish councils from 1940 to 1980, it looked to 'integrate' Gypsy Travellers into so-called mainstream society by threatening to remove their children into care.
I wrote an in-depth long read on the topic in January 2024, speaking with the likes of Shamus McPhee who still lives a stones throw away from the dilapidated hut his family was forced to live in.
I also spoke with campaigner Lynne Tammi, whose grandfather's three sisters were forcibly removed and trafficked to Canada.
The Gypsy Traveller community deserves so much more than an apology for both past and ongoing discrimination. But it is a start.
In positive environmental news, a record number of peatlands have been restored in a bid to help reduce carbon emissions and restore biodiversity, the Scottish Government announced in June.
More than 14,000 hectares of degraded peatlands were restored across Scotland in the past year – which will help reduce emissions and boost biodiversity.
Edinburgh is on the up! The Scottish capital was hailed as Scotland's financial 'powerhouse' as its economy has surpassed London's for the first time, new data showed in June.
The value of goods and services produced in Edinburgh per head of population has surpassed London's for the first time, according to economic data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Onto a young Scot absolutely smashing it, we have talented young filmmaker Edward Ryan (below) who has won a top prize at a star-studded award ceremony for his short film, which draws on his own experiences of being autistic.
The 14-year-old, from Sanquhar, Dumfries and Galloway, scooped the publicly voted Audience Award at the Into Films Awards in London last month and was presented with his prize by actor Andy Serkis and presenter Edith Bowman.
His short film More Than One Way To Go Home was also nominated for Best Story at the awards and was inspired by the filmmaker's own personal experiences.
The film follows a young autistic girl who has to find her own way home when her brother leaves her to fend for herself and aims to convey some of the difficulties that autistic people can face and demonstrates how the right support can be key to overcoming those challenges.
Well done Edward!
Amid closures, of which we inevitably report on a lot, I do love to see a new opening.
In this case, it's the first new distillery to open in Inverclyde for more than a century. Following eight years of development, planning, and construction, Ardgowan Distillery was officially opened in a ribbon-cutting ceremony last month. Slàinte mhath!
If there's anything you think should be included, please don't hesitate to ping me an email: james.walker@newsquest.co.uk
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Spectator
37 minutes ago
- Spectator
Why is Bob Vylan free but Lucy Connolly in prison?
So now we know. Now we know that Bob Vylan's sick chant at Glastonbury was not a colourfully worded call for the 'dismantling' of a military force, as the band's leftish apologists claimed. No, it appears that this punk act really does want the soldiers of the Jewish nation to die. A new clip shows the lead singer saying 'Death to every single IDF soldier out there'. There it is, as clear as it is vile: they want the hundreds of thousands of men and women who serve in the Israeli Defence Forces to perish, to be wiped out without mercy. No sooner had Bob Vylan whipped the sozzled white kids of Glasto into a frenzy of death-chanting than chin-stroking leftists were offering up pained justifications. 'Death, death to the IDF', the punks and the mob chanted. But they didn't really mean 'death', said those who know better. They don't actually want anyone to die, you muppets! No, this was just an expression of 'fierce support for Palestinians', apparently. It was a cry for the deconstruction of a 'military machine', we were told. How dumb these excuse-makers now look. How red-faced must they be, these fools that rushed in to give moral cover to a medieval chant for the death of Jewish soldiers. For a new clip has emerged, filmed at Alexandra Palace in May, before Glastonbury, showing Bob Vylan's frontman hollering for the 'death' of 'every single IDF soldier out there'. There's no dolling that up. It is plainly a hateful dream of death for all the soldiers of Zion, for every young person in Israel who by law must serve in the IDF. The imbecility of Bob Vylan's premature defenders is best summed up in the squirming visage of Owen Jones. He was on Piers Morgan's show on Thursday night repeating the bourgeois left's canard about Bob Vylan being pro-Palestine, not pro-death-for-Israelis. Then Morgan informed him of the new clip. Jones writhed and seethed like someone…well, like someone who's just been caught out rationalising a mob chant for the death of the mostly Jewish youths who serve in the army of the Jewish nation. We were subjected to so much gaslighting over that grim chant at Glastonbury. Those of us who said it had the pungent whiff of anti-Semitism to it, that it smacked of a fascistic yearning for the death of the Jews' protectors, were branded silly and shrill. But we were right. Whatever that high crowd at Glasto thought they were doing as they slavishly joined the mob clamour for the death of the Jewish State's soldiers, it's clear what Bob Vylan intended to say: that 'every single' soldier of Israel should ideally die. It is galling in the extreme to see self-styled anti-racists make excuses for such a brazenly anti-Jewish chant. Most of the IDF's soldiers are Jews. Their singular task is to defend the Jewish homeland from the armies of anti-Semites that surround it. When you chant 'Death to the IDF', when you openly dream of the demise of 'every single' IDF soldier, you are calling for the Jews of Israel to be left to the mercy of neo-fascist militias that long to murder them. If that isn't anti-Semitic, what the hell is? It's pretty clear now that Bob Vylan's chants, so enthusiastically echoed by their fans, are worse than what Lucy Connolly said. She is currently languishing in a jail cell for that disgusting tweet she posted during the Southport riots. 'Set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care', she said of the hotels housing migrants. It was genuinely repellent. And yet now we have Bob Vylan openly calling for the deaths of greater numbers of people, most of them Jews. 'Every single IDF soldier out there' – presumably that includes the hundreds of British-born Jews who have served or are currently serving in the IDF? And the IDF's 465,000 reserve personnel as well as its 170,000 active personnel? And the IDF old guard who are sometimes invited to give speeches on campuses in the UK? Would any Jew who has served in the armed forces of their beloved ancient homeland be safe under this grotesque regime of 'Death to the IDF' that Bob Vylan and the left seem so rabidly keen to institute? Look, I'm on the same page as Toby Young: I don't want anyone to be punished and certainly not jailed for speech 'crimes'. And yet some are and some are not. Lucy Connolly rots in jail for a violent-minded comment about migrants while Bob Vylan and thousands of others roam free, despite making violent-minded comments about the mostly Jewish defenders of the State of Israel. Fairness dictates that either both get banged up, or neither do. My preference is very firmly for the latter. I guess we're about to find out whether Keir Starmer's Britain is institutionally anti-Semitic.
Edinburgh Live
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Edinburgh Oasis gigs to see around 80,000 bucket hats worth of beer poured
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Leader Live
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Alternative pop star Lorde's new record Virgin reached number one on the album chart after she performed all 11 tracks at a secret set at the Woodsies stage on Saturday. Scottish singer Capaldi also made an emotional return to the Somerset festival last weekend, performing his new song Survive which has since gone to number one on the singles chart. Capaldi performed a 35-minute set at the Pyramid stage, two years after struggling to manage his Tourette syndrome symptoms while singing on the same stage. Speaking to Official Charts, Capaldi thanked fans who had streamed and downloaded Survive, saying it 'really means the world'. 'I've been away for a little while, and to come back to this outpouring of love and support has been absolutely incredible. 'I can't thank everybody enough for all the kind words since Glastonbury – and now this. 'It's been the best week of my life,' he said. Speaking to the festival crowd on Saturday, he said: 'It's so good to be back. I'm not going to say much up here today, because if I do, I think I will probably start crying. 'But it's just amazing to be here with you all, and I can't thank you all enough for coming out and coming and seeing me. 'Second time's a charm on this one, everybody. 'It's just a short set today, but I just wanted to come and kind of finish what I couldn't finish the first time round.' Introducing Survive at the festival, Capaldi became visibly emotional as he said: 'The last two years haven't been the best for me, it's been difficult at times. 'This has been my f****** goal, to get back here,' he added. He ended his performance with Somebody You Loved, the track that Glastonbury crowds helped him to sing when he struggled with his Tourette symptoms in 2023. The condition causes you to make sudden, repetitive sounds or movements and while there is no cure, treatment can help manage the tics, according to the NHS website. Virgin is Lorde's fourth studio album, and her previous three, Pure Heroine (2013), Melodrama (2017) and Solar Power (2021) all reached the top 10 of the UK albums chart. Lorde, 28, whose real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor, took to the Woodsies stage at Glastonbury on Saturday to perform the album in full to the packed tent and a crowd gathered outside. The New Zealand-born singer pulled her top off to finish with a double hit of Ribs from her debut album Pure Heroine, which she said was first played at Glastonbury in 2017, and Melodrama's Green Light, during which the lasers turned from blue to green. The final song prompted a football terrace-style singalong that almost drowned out Lorde herself. She is best known for songs such as Homemade Dynamite, Solar Power and her second single Royals, which reached number one in the UK singles chart.
