Latest news with #BenBirchall


Scotsman
a day ago
- Business
- Scotsman
Why troubled Borders region is pinning its hopes on 'game-changer' Center Parcs
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When I left the Borders in 1985, there was no Borders Railway, no wind farms, no Scottish Parliament. The world-famous textile industry was the biggest private sector employer, but was struggling to find its way in an increasingly globalised economy. The few textile businesses that remain are at the top of the world for quality and innovation. High skills, high quality and the highest reputation. Forty years ago, the magnificent Tapestry of Scotland didn't exist, nor its fine home in the centre of Galashiels (it is now in my top ten Scottish visitor attractions). Nor were there food banks. I saw these in Galashiels, Hawick and Chirnside when I visited in mid-June. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Borders suffers the same core problem today as 40 years ago. There are not enough people and its population is ageing. It is one of the least densely populated parts of Western Europe, with a land mass of 1,827 square miles and a population of 115,270. Edinburgh has 4,730 people per square mile. The Borders figure is 63. Staff members test out the 'Adventure Nets' at Center Parcs in Longleat Forest, Wiltshire (Picture: Ben Birchall) | PA Energy market needs reform Trevor Jackson chairs the Scottish Borders Chamber of Commerce. He estimates the region needs a population boost of 20,000 to 30,000 people to keep services viable. Jackson is a farmer, property developer and renewable energy champion who pioneered a biogas facility that now produces enough methane from locally grown crops to power more than 4,000 homes. A serial entrepreneur, Jackson says he's almost always had to head to London to raise risk capital. He wants to see big change and argues there's a strong case for a work visa scheme that can help ease some critical skills shortages. He views the British energy marketplace as ripe for reform, including decoupling electricity prices from global gas prices and dramatically lowering National Grid connection charges. 'Those moves would benefit household energy bills and be a great incentive for business to invest, including in rural areas like the Borders,' he says. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I ask about the food banks I'd spotted in Border towns. Jackson sees a world of haves and have nots as indefensible and destabilising. The Brexit vote in 2016, he argues, represented a cry of pain from parts of the British population that not only felt their towns were being left behind but that they were, as individuals and families. growing poorer, 'but Westminster didn't hear their pain'. Jackson struck me as a man with an ethos I have long associated with Borderers: work hard, face the world's challenges head on, contribute to society and do it so that everyone has opportunities and sufficient income from honest work to live with dignity. It doesn't seem much to ask, though it is proving to be one of the greatest political challenges of our time. Public crave leadership When I meet Euan Jardine, the Conservative leader of the Scottish Borders Council, for lunch, he is in no doubt that economic inequality is a clear and present danger to stable and effective local government. He's only too conscious of Reform's success in wiping out the Conservative party on Kent County Council in the May elections in England. 'I can feel Farage and Reform. I get it on the doorsteps.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Jardine says that today's Church of Scotland, of which he's a member, is a great analogy for mainstream politics in general and the Tory party in particular. 'You don't see bibles on Church of Scotland pews anymore. It doesn't know what it is for. In Scotland, we were so focussed on the Union that we ignored everything else. People crave something to believe in. They crave leadership.' Jardine senses in Farage and Reform a revolution that would effectively destroy local government services and see functions like health, schooling and social care wholly privatised. The council leader talks about a coordinated local programme to embed robotics skills across the local economy. 'In five years, every home will have a robot. In ten, there'll be as many robots as humans,' he says. Center Parcs' potential What most excites Jardine is the planned development by the specialist leisure operator Center Parcs. It aims to build a £400 million holiday village between Hawick and Selkirk, employing some 1,200 people when complete. The company already runs five holiday villages in England and one in Ireland. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'This is a game-changer,' says Jardine. He draws a comparison between the high-end clothmakers who took the name of Hawick across the globe and the culture of the Center Parcs business, which lays great store on delivering a quality product, customer service, staff training and skills development. 'Center Parcs will bring all-year, well-paid jobs. It can help revive Hawick and create stronger local markets in housing and retail. In every location the company has opened a holiday village, the wider economy of the surrounding locality has benefited,' he says. Center Parcs undoubtedly has the potential to be the catalyst for something of a Hawick and Borders renaissance. And its contribution to stimulating new enterprises and reducing poverty could be significantly multiplied if there was cheaper energy and cheaper connections to the National Grid, in return for pylons and turbines on the landscape. Those changes, in common with the need for locally available risk capital, are credible and achievable. What's currently missing is UK and Scottish political imagination, will and vision. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Domestic and industrial robots will bring a new economic and social revolution. But robots can't vote, and the voters will surely punish those who don't act now to look after the humans.


The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Monarchy set to receive £132m for second year in a row in 2026-27
The Sovereign Grant, which pays for the royal family's official duties and the upkeep of royal palaces, is met from public funds in exchange for the King's surrender of the revenue from the Crown Estate, two years in arrears. Members of the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day (Ben Birchall/PA) The monarchy is already receiving an increase in the current 2025-26 financial year, with around £132 million in Sovereign Grant funding – £45.7 million more than the £86.3 million in 2024-25, thanks to £1.1 billion Crown Estate profits in 2023-24. This puts the total extra over the next two years (2025-26 and 2026-27) at £91.4 million. But Crown Estate profits are set to drop back sharply in the future as the short-term boost from offshore wind farms fades. The 'temporary uplift' to the Sovereign Grant will be used to help fund the remaining £100 million of the £369 million refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, but also for an enhanced programme of works at other occupied royal palaces after the Covid pandemic halted progress. James Chalmers, the King's new Keeper of the Privy Purse, said: 'The temporary uplift in the grant will also help repay the shortfalls from the years during which the Sovereign Grant remained fixed at £86 million, and to finance, among other projects, an enhanced programme of works to protect and preserve heritage buildings across the Occupied Royal Palaces. The East Wing of Buckingham Palace opened to visitors last year as part of the next phase of reservicing (Jonathan Brady/PA) 'Many of these works fell out of scope of the reservicing programme and had to be paused as a consequence of the Covid impact and budgetary constraints. 'In funding their completion, the Royal Household is able to invest in the protection and preservation of properties held in trust for the nation, while supporting skilled jobs in conservation and traditional crafts across the UK.' The Sovereign funding was reduced from 25% to 12% of the Crown Estate's net profit in 2023, in a review of royal finances by Royal Trustees, to take account of huge profits from offshore wind farm deals. The King asked for the extra profits to be used for the wider public good, but he will still receive more than £90 million extra. Predictions in the 2023 review had set the expected Crown Estate profits in 2023-24 as £1.04 billion and 2024-25 as £1.05 billion. The total Sovereign Grant for 2024/25, relating to Crown Estate profits in 2022/23, remained flat at £86.3 million because of a caveat which means it cannot fall below current levels. The Crown Estate is a multibillion-pound property, land and rights portfolio which includes Regent Street in London's West End and Ascot Racecourse.

Western Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Western Telegraph
Monarchy set to receive £132m for second year in a row in 2026-27
Record offshore wind farm profits mean the Crown Estate net profits for the last financial year have again hit £1.1 billion. The Sovereign Grant, which pays for the royal family's official duties and the upkeep of royal palaces, is met from public funds in exchange for the King's surrender of the revenue from the Crown Estate, two years in arrears. Members of the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day (Ben Birchall/PA) The monarchy is already receiving an increase in the current 2025-26 financial year, with around £132 million in Sovereign Grant funding – £45.7 million more than the £86.3 million in 2024-25, thanks to £1.1 billion Crown Estate profits in 2023-24. This puts the total extra over the next two years (2025-26 and 2026-27) at £91.4 million. But Crown Estate profits are set to drop back sharply in the future as the short-term boost from offshore wind farms fades. The 'temporary uplift' to the Sovereign Grant will be used to help fund the remaining £100 million of the £369 million refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, but also for an enhanced programme of works at other occupied royal palaces after the Covid pandemic halted progress. James Chalmers, the King's new Keeper of the Privy Purse, said: 'The temporary uplift in the grant will also help repay the shortfalls from the years during which the Sovereign Grant remained fixed at £86 million, and to finance, among other projects, an enhanced programme of works to protect and preserve heritage buildings across the Occupied Royal Palaces. The East Wing of Buckingham Palace opened to visitors last year as part of the next phase of reservicing (Jonathan Brady/PA) 'Many of these works fell out of scope of the reservicing programme and had to be paused as a consequence of the Covid impact and budgetary constraints. 'In funding their completion, the Royal Household is able to invest in the protection and preservation of properties held in trust for the nation, while supporting skilled jobs in conservation and traditional crafts across the UK.' The Sovereign funding was reduced from 25% to 12% of the Crown Estate's net profit in 2023, in a review of royal finances by Royal Trustees, to take account of huge profits from offshore wind farm deals. The King asked for the extra profits to be used for the wider public good, but he will still receive more than £90 million extra. Predictions in the 2023 review had set the expected Crown Estate profits in 2023-24 as £1.04 billion and 2024-25 as £1.05 billion. The total Sovereign Grant for 2024/25, relating to Crown Estate profits in 2022/23, remained flat at £86.3 million because of a caveat which means it cannot fall below current levels. The Crown Estate is a multibillion-pound property, land and rights portfolio which includes Regent Street in London's West End and Ascot Racecourse.


Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Police launch criminal investigation into Kneecap and Bob Vylan's Glastonbury performances
Police in the UK have formally opened a criminal investigation into comments made by rap groups Bob Vylan and Kneecap at Glastonbury after reviewing video and audio footage of their performances at the festival. Avon and Somerset police said the force had decided the performances have been recorded as a 'public order incident at this time'. The force said that while enquiries are at an early stage, the investigation will 'consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes'. Bob Vylan performing on the West Holts Stage, during the Glastonbury Festival (Ben Birchall/PA) A senior detective has been appointed to lead the investigation. "We have received a large amount of contact in relation to these events from people across the world and recognise the strength of public feeling," the force said in a statement on Monday. "There is absolutely no place in society for hate." In issuing a statement on the matter, the force said was seeking to reassure the public on "how seriously we are treating Saturday's events". "We politely ask the public refrain from continuing to report this matter to us because an investigation is already taking place," Avon and Somerset police added. Earlier, it was confirmed that Bob Vylan have been banned from the US ahead of a tour later this year because of 'their hateful tirade at Glastonbury'. According to the US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau said, the decision to revoke the pair's US visas came after one half of the duo, rapper Bobby Vylan chanted 'death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)' at the Glastonbury festival. The BBC has since expressed its regret at not pulling the live stream of the act's performance during Glastonbury on Saturday, saying the 'antisemitic sentiments' expressed by the group were 'utterly unacceptable'. Bob Vylan played at Coachella in Calfornia earlier this year but will be unable to return to the US when they were set to perform in Chicago, Brooklyn and Philadelphia in the autumn. The duo, formed in Ipswich in 2017, have released four albums addressing issues to do with racism, masculinity and class. More to follow . . .


Glasgow Times
2 days ago
- Climate
- Glasgow Times
In Pictures: Sunny start to Wimbledon as England enjoys one of hottest June days
The sweltering heat means Monday is set to be one of the hottest June days ever, with UK temperatures for the month only surpassing 34C in only three years since 1960. Rowers on the water near Maidenhead enjoyed a warm start to the day (Jonathan Brady/PA) Residents of Peterborough wasted no time as they headed for the Lido to cool off (Joe Giddens/PA) The sunshine drew out all kinds of creatures, with animatronic dinosaurs on show ahead of the opening of Avon Valley Adventure & Wildlife Park's Summertopia season (Ben Birchall/PA) Sports fans basked in the sunshine as Wimbledon got under way, with it hottest opening day ever. A temperature of 29.7C was recorded at the nearby Kew Gardens, setting a provisional record for the hottest start to the championships. A spectator shelters from the sun under an umbrella on day one of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships (Jordan Pettitt/PA) Rufus the Harris's Hawk is used to keep pigeons away from the courts at Wimbledon (Jordan Pettitt/PA) Dressing for the occasion, some spectators donned their finest strawberry hats for the opening matches (John Walton/PA) Cameron Norrie played a match against Roberto Bautista Agut under blue skies on day one of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Adam Davy/PA) At Worthy Farm in Somerset, the clean-up operation got under way following the Glastonbury Festival. As the final festivalgoers departed with their belongings, volunteers arrived on site to begin clearing away litter and leftover items. The clean-up operation begins at the end of the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset (Ben Birchall/PA) A field covered in litter at the end of the Glastonbury Festival (Ben Birchall/PA) Festivalgoers begin their journeys home at the end of the Glastonbury Festival (Ben Birchall/PA) However, scientists have warned that heatwaves are becoming more frequent with climate change – and hot spells earlier in the summer are particularly dangerous.