Graham and Co. in the news:

What is Permaculture?

Article appeared in the SEDA Magazine on Permaculture (pdf attached) – January 2008

Thursday 20 September 2007

Following appeared in Edinburgh Evening News;

TEN QUESTIONS

1 What is your earliest memory of Edinburgh?

I recall driving up Princes Street on my way to holiday at Loch Awe when that was still part of the A1. It was 1960 and I remember stopping to gaze at the Scott Monument. The moment is recorded in author Kate Atkinson’s book Behind the Scenes at the Museum. She was our next door neighbour in York.

2 What are your memories of school?

I went to Richmond School in North Yorkshire where I enjoyed learning but didn’t enjoy being bullied.

3 Where is your favourite place in Edinburgh and why?

I love any place where you can see it all – so the top floor of The Point Hotel, the Castle Esplanade and Napier University’s restaurant are all great spots.

4 What are the best things about Edinburgh?

Eating out, the arts and the city’s vibrant businesses.

5 What would you change about the city?

I’d lose the bit that says you have to argue about everything and replace it with a Mayor Rudy Giuliani-style mantra of: “We love our city and will fight for it tooth and nail.”

6 Describe a perfect Edinburgh day/night out.

I would have breakfast at the EICC at one of its fantastic events before taking a boat to Inchcolm Island for a walk. Lunch would be enjoyed at Malmaison and then be followed by a stroll up Arthur’s Seat. I would spend the afternoon in the Museum of Scotland before heading to Prestonfield House for a romantic dinner at the Rhubarb restaurant with my wife. We’d then have a nightcap at Sandy Bells bar.

7 Which sports interest you?

I enjoy rugby, am passionate about cricket, enthusiastic about athletics and watch just enough football to keep up in conversation.

8 What was your most embarrassing moment?

I have a life full of embarrassing moments but the worst are when I let someone else down.

9 What is your greatest achievement?

Helping 500 young people to start their own businesses through the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust.

10 Sum up Edinburgh in three words.

No better city.

Wednesday 15 August 2007

Scotsman Diary used my comment back on potatoes….

Someone had claimed that the King Edward was the only potato that is named after a Scottish village (! well there are some wags out there).  Pointed out that Edzell Blue encompasses ‘as fine a Scottish village and tattie as ye’ll ever find’.  What a way to seek fame.

Tuesday 14 August 2007

Full page in Scotsman on behalf of clients, Business Scotland (p36 if you want to look it up).  pdf attached.

Friday 3 August 2007

Get caught up in Borders Tourist Board Story.
To be honest I think a lot of what VisitScotland do is good.  I like to see them funded to the same level as Failte Ireland, who do a great job.  And I think small businesses suffer from failing to grasp the ‘how to’ of contemporary tourism.  e.g. Went to stay in Hexham (Northumberland) recently.  Yup they had a website.  But then you had to ring up and send a deposit cheque.  Not exactly with it, eh?
On the other hand it’s an accepted fact in business that competition is good.  So I’m happy to support the Borders Tourist Board intiative.  Personally you understand.  And nothing to do with any Chamber of Commerce.

Monday 23 July 2007

Opinion piece in the Scotsman on biofuels and the need for caution.  The rush to this seemingly desirable ecological solution to the carbon issue is highly debatable, as carbon exchange is not as simple as it first seems and it’s pushing up world food prices at a terrible rate whilst destroying indigenous food production capacity for cash crops…

Tuesday 17 July 2007

Ten minutes on the lunchtime session on Radio Scotland on Corporate Manslaughter legislation.  Nice to have the trade union lawyer agreeing with me that the current Westminster Bill is a heap of tosh.

Friday 6 July 2007
Five minutes on Radio Scotland this morning on Interest Rates, Weather and Retail.  Think they kept me on after I pointed out umbrella sales have gone up 300%.

Saturday 9 June 2007
The long awaited Permaculture article appeared in Reforesting Scotland.  An excellent publication I have to say.  Streets better than in times gone by, this issue (Spring Summer 2007) bursting with information on the theme of ‘Reclaiming our food supply’.  Well done to a largely volunteer workforce.

Thursday 29 March 2007

In house Association magazine Permaculture Works picked up on this website.

The article reads:

“Graham Bell Online

Renowned permaculture author and designer Graham Bell has launched a new website at www.grahambell.org.  We recommend the introduction to forest gardens at http://grahambell.org/project/6.  Also, if you’re looking for an excellent, thorough, thoughtful and valuable discussion on “What is Permaculture”, you can download Graham’s article (originally written for Reforesting Scotland) from his Links page – the URL is :
http://grahambell.org/UserFiles/Permaculture%20reforesting%20Scotland.doc.  We also recommend joining the mycelium network.”

Friday March 16 2007
THE SCOTSMAN

One of the easiest commutes in the world?
Cheaper housing and quality of life away from cities make long trips to work worth bearing writes Julia Horton. As train strikes, floods and signal failures continue to cause chaos on the railways, the claim that people in Scotland enjoy one of the shortest, easiest commutes in the world might ring a little hollow.

Few of the 92,000 commuters travelling in or out of the capital alone can have been thinking how great their journey to work has been recently, with services delayed, restricted or cancelled completely. Losing time and money, while gaining stress is not good for workers or their employers.
And although further threatened strike action in the ongoing pay dispute between signalling staff and Network Rail has been suspended following new talks, there will inevitably be more disruption for one reason or another somewhere down the line.
Yet thousands of workers continue to commute across the country every day. Perhaps because, recent troubles aside, Scotland’s workers are said to have an average commute of just 20 minutes each way.
And while commuters might disagree with the boast by Scottish Enterprise that it is the nation’s “excellent” network of roads, railways and bus links that gives them a better deal than commuters in England or the United States, it appears that they do feel the pros outweigh the cons.
As a freelance policy and PR consultant for organisations including the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, travelling around Scotland for his Borders home in Coldstream, Graham Bell knows only too well the good and the bad side of commuting north of the Border.
Bell, 53, who has journeyed by train, bus and car for almost a decade, says: “It can be a nightmare and sometimes everybody is ready to kill by the time you get there. My wife commutes too and one day [during the recent strikes] it took her an hour just to get from Waverley to Dunbar on the train.
“On a good day my journey takes an hour, on a bad day it can take two. It’s not just about the time either, it’s the quality of the commute too – if there are four coaches on a train instead of six and you can’t get a seat [for example].
“There was also a period when trains were a nightmare after Hatfield [the rail disaster south of the Border]. I remember one day I was supposed to get the 6:30pm train home but it wasn’t going, then there was the 9pm, and eventually we were taken by bus and I had to direct the driver because he didn’t know where he was going.
“I got home at midnight that night.
“But those are the nightmare scenarios. I think you have to offset any problems against what you get in the way of quality of life.
“My wife and I had spent many years investing in our house and garden in the Borders when the business project I was working on finished and I started a new job in Edinburgh.
“Our children, who are now 16 and 18, were happy in their schools, which were better than you could expect to find in Edinburgh. We were comfortable.
“The cost of commuting is not significant compared with the savings that you make living here. I have a quarter-acre garden and five-bedroom house with a few living rooms, an office, teenage space and workshop. “In Edinburgh this property would cost £2 million, here it is worth £250,000.”
After three years doing an hour-long commute morning and night by car and train from his house near Kinross to Edinburgh, young father Neil Campbell, 31, is so convinced that the benefits make it worthwhile that he is about to increase his commute by an extra half hour each way by moving his family to the Dundee area.
One of his main reasons for commuting is to enjoy both the better wages from an Edinburgh-based job while taking advantage of cheaper housing and better quality of life in the countryside with his pharmacist wife Claire, also 31, and their 20-month-old daughter.
He admits there are downsides however, including missing out on the social side of his work, as a recruitment managing consultant with Change CRS, and also on family life.
He says: “It is quite restricting if you want to go for a pint after work. Five years ago I would have said that bothered me but it doesn’t now.
“Not seeing so much of my daughter does get to me sometimes, but because we live in a rural area we can go for walks together as a family at the weekends.”
Neither Bell nor Campbell are alone in their commitment to commuting. It is such a way of life now in Scotland that it has spawned a new breed of working people in Scotland with so-called WIGLIEs – Work in Glasgow, Live in Edinburgh – and even WILLIEs – Work in London, Live in Edinburgh.
At Talentscotland.com, a website information service run by Scottish Enterprise to promote Scotland to prospective workers, the joy of commuting is stressed in no uncertain terms.
The website states that “east of commuting” is a key factor in people staying in Scotland to enjoy “less stress, shorter working days, different family routines and free time in which to pursue other interests and activities”.
Fiona Buchanan, a marketing executive for Talentscotland.com, admits that the disruption caused by recent industrial action on the trains is not consistent with that picture, but says overall it is accurate.
She says: “Ease of commuting is a big attraction for people coming to Scotland to work, especially compared with England.
“Obviously the rail strike has been unfortunate but generally you can get to most places within an hour.”
Meanwhile, statistics show just how ingrained commuting is in the daily working lives of Scots.
A survey last year by researchers working on behalf of the Scottish Executive highlighted the fact that approximately one in four Scottish workers are long distance commuters, defined as travelling more than 15km each way to get to work and back.
Of those, four out of five travelled by car, with a further 8 per cent taking the bus and 7 per cent going by train.
Most long distance commuters were based in Aberdeenshire, East Ayrshire and East Lothian and travelling to Aberdeen, South Ayrshire, West Lothian and Stirling.
The survey also showed that if it was possible to take away all long-distance car commuters from key roads such as the M8, M9 and the Forth Road Bridge during morning rush hour it would cut pollution from vehicle emissions significantly, with a 21 per cent drop in carbon dioxide alone.
The environmental impact of travelling is an issue that concerns some commuters. Campbell says: “I am quite big on environmental issues but you have to balance it against other factors such as cost [of housing] and quality of life, like being able to go for walks in the country with my family.”
Meanwhile Bell stresses that existing public transport is often not a viable alternative to driving and needs to be improved.
He says: “To take the bus from Coldstream to Berwick on Tweed [the nearest train station] would add two hours to my working day.
“If I have five appointments across Edinburgh, I have to drive. A few years ago I was on a bus on Princess Street and we waited for 18 changes of lights to get through because the car drivers were coming out of Charlotte Square and stopping in the box junctions.”
But overall he believes that Scotland is, as the TalentScotland.com website claims, far better for commuting than other countries.
He says: “People here have not got a clue. I used to commute in London and it’s about 10 per cent as stressful commuting in Scotland.”
Even Passenger Focus, the railways consumer watchdog, believes that, in general, commuters have it pretty good in Scotland.
Robert Samson, passenger link manager at Passenger Focus, says “Obviously they have not been enjoying the strike, it’s a massive inconvenience for them.
“But in our latest passenger survey most people said they were satisfied with punctuality and reliability, they just want to be better informed about what is happening when there is a problem.”

Tuesday February 20 2007
Gave a talk on Getting Your Business in the Media at Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce with Deputy Chief Executive Graham Birse (himself a trained journalist) – full house and twice oversubscribed!

Had this very interesting response afterwards from Jamie Clague, IT Manager, Terinea Limited.  The link is well worth following, because apart from summarising the evening he gives interesting observations about the changing nature of media in the digital age.

Thank you for your talk on Publicity Matters on Tuesday.

We briefly spoke at the begin of the night (EPoS company).

After the talk I felt compelled to write a small article following up on a couple of things mentioned that night about approaching on-line media (an attendee question), blogs (Graham Birse) and commenting on web site articles such as the Scotsman and the BBC (Yourself). Click here to see article.

I would love to hear what you think. Regards, Jamie.

Sunday January 28 2007
In the first week after launch this website makes ‘Barfly’ The Scotland on Sunday Business Section Gossip Column

to check out Scotsman Group publications click here