Latest news with #JamesCowan
Scotsman
11-07-2025
- General
- Scotsman
Tree of the Year: Why Glasgow's Argyle Street Ash is a beautiful symbol of hope
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... In his 1935 book, From Glasgow's Treasure Chest, James Cowan wrote that it was 'quite the most graceful ash I have seen'. Ninety years later, that same tree remains standing strong – despite the devastating ash dieback disease – hard up against a tenement on the city's Argyle Street. And it is still attracting admirers, like consultant arborist David Treanor. He entered it into the Woodland Trust's Tree of the Year competition, where it's competing against a cedar climbed by The Beatles, a lime representing peace in Northern Ireland and others in a public vote. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad An overhead drone photograph of the ash tree on Glasgow's Argyle Street | Douglas Crawford/Tree Wise Tree Surgeons Writing eloquently in The Scotsman, Treanor said: 'In an era of mounting ecological strain, the symbolism of this lone ash is hard to ignore. It's a survivor. And survival, especially under pressure, matters.' The first modern humans are sometimes said to have been those who 'descended from the trees'. But we've never really left them behind. Studies have suggested woodlands can have a beneficial effect on our mood and perhaps even our health.
Scotsman
11-07-2025
- General
- Scotsman
Tree of the Year: Why Glasgow's Argyle Street Ash is a beautiful symbol of hope
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... In his 1935 book, From Glasgow's Treasure Chest, James Cowan wrote that it was 'quite the most graceful ash I have seen'. Ninety years later, that same tree remains standing strong – despite the devastating ash dieback disease – hard up against a tenement on the city's Argyle Street. And it is still attracting admirers, like consultant arborist David Treanor. He entered it into the Woodland Trust's Tree of the Year competition, where it's competing against a cedar climbed by The Beatles, a lime representing peace in Northern Ireland and others in a public vote. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad An overhead drone photograph of the ash tree on Glasgow's Argyle Street | Douglas Crawford/Tree Wise Tree Surgeons Writing eloquently in The Scotsman, Treanor said: 'In an era of mounting ecological strain, the symbolism of this lone ash is hard to ignore. It's a survivor. And survival, especially under pressure, matters.' The first modern humans are sometimes said to have been those who 'descended from the trees'. But we've never really left them behind. Studies have suggested woodlands can have a beneficial effect on our mood and perhaps even our health.
The National
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
See the Glasgow tree shortlisted for UK Tree of the Year
Known as the Argyle Street Ash, the Glasgow tree was nominated by local resident David Treanor, who noted its description in James Cowan's 1935 book From Glasgow's Treasure Chest as "quite the most graceful ash I have seen". This year's competition theme, 'Rooted in Culture,' seeks to spotlight trees that have inspired artistic expression or have become embedded in local heritage. A total of 10 trees from across the UK have been shortlisted. READ MORE: Scotland's volcanic landscape mystery solved by scientists with 'extraordinary' find Voting for the award opens on Friday, July 11, with the winner to be announced on September 26. The chosen tree will go on to represent the UK in the European Tree of the Year contest. Other contenders include a cedar tree in Chiswick famously climbed by The Beatles in a 1966 music video, a yew grove in Cumbria celebrated in a poem by William Wordsworth, and the Tree of Peace and Unity in County Antrim, a lime formed from two trees which became symbolic during the Good Friday Agreement. Also among the finalists are the King of Limbs oak in Wiltshire, which inspired the title of a Radiohead album, the so-called Lollipop Tree featured in the final scene of 1917, and the Knole Park Oak in Kent, thought to be the tallest in Britain and linked to Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando. Dame Judi Dench, patron of the Woodland Trust, has encouraged public participation in the vote. 'Our oldest trees hold more stories than Shakespeare,' she said. READ MORE: Historic Scottish hotel to be transformed following major hotelier purchase 'They are as much a part of our heritage as any literature. I hope you will join me in voting.' The competition, supported by the People's Postcode Lottery, aims to raise awareness of the importance of ancient, rare, and culturally significant trees. Laura Chow, head of charities at the lottery, said the shortlisted trees have 'witnessed key moments in history' and continue to inspire reflection and creativity. Public voting remains open until September 19 via the Woodland Trust's website.
RNZ News
08-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Working from home: 'Flexibility regret' vs long-term arrangements
Photo: RNZ Employees with casual agreements to work from home may still have a case for not coming into the office, despite a recent employment ruling on the issue, but employers are also showing signs of "flexibility regret". The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) recently ruled against a worker who took a constructive dismissal case against their employer where they were ordered back into the office three days a week, when they had been working from home four out of five days. The authority found the worker was not unjustifiably disadvantaged or constructively dismissed because there was no permanent arrangement, so there was no duty to continue it. Meanwhile the PSA is still waiting for an ERA hearing over the government's directive that work from home for public servants is not a right and should not compromise performance. But James Cowan, an employment lawyer at Anderson Lloyd, told Checkpoint that workers with a casual arrangement to work from home should not be particularly worried about the recent ERA ruling. "If it is something they want to get formalised, then I would suggest that they might be wanting to speak to their employers to get it put into writing or at least more formally agreed. "Where it has been discretionary or perhaps more informally agreed, then many times in that situation an employer is just going to be able to say 'actually, we would like you to come back to the office now, and either we're giving you a direction to do so or we're going to talk to you about agreeing how many days you'll be back in the office each week'." He said employers who have had a casual agreement for years could still argue their arrangement had been formalised through custom and practice. "By the time it has become an arrangement, the employee there would have a good argument that this has gone beyond being something informal, it has actually ben formalised by that time period." If it needed to be put in writing, Cowan said it would be safest for employees to be as specific as possible. "If employees and employers sit down and say lets agree a framework, lets agree how many days you'll be in the office, how many days you're at home. "It doesn't necessarily have to be the set days of the week, but you would want to get a level of detail there so that both parties knew what was happening." But Cowan did warn workers that his firm was fielding more inquiries from employers over whether they could direct their employes to work from the office. "I think some of that might be called 'flexibility regret' where some flexibility on working from home has been agreed, particularly post-Covid, and maybe some employers feel the dial has shifted too far." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
08-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Work from home arrangements under microscope
The Employment Relations Authority has found a worker wasn't unjustifiably disadvantaged or constructively dismissed after he was ordered back into the office three days a week, when he'd been working from home four out of five days. The Employment Relations Authority said there was no permanent arrangement so no duty to continue it. Meanwhile the PSA is still waiting for an Employment Relations Authority hearing over the government's directive that work from home for public servants is not a right and should not compromise performance. Employment Lawyer at Anderson Lloyd, James Cowan spoke to Lisa Owen. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
