Month: March 2014

Dean’s gonna be an Edinburgh baton bearer!

Lucky nominees from across Edinburgh found out today that they have been chosen to be a baton bearer on 14 June when the Queen’s Baton Relay reaches the city on the first day of its Commonwealth Games journey around Scotland – and among Edinburgh’s representatives will be Dean Reill, champion fundraiser of Leith’s MS Therapy Centre.

Up to 4,000 batonbearers from all 32 local authorities in Scotland were notified by email this morning that they will join the relay in more than 400 Scottish communities for 40 days.

Community baton bearers were selected by independent panels, who have considered people’s achievements against the odds, their mentoring of younger people, contributions to community and youth sport, and those who make a difference through volunteering and community support.

For the first time in the history of any Queen’s Baton Relay, all 545 secondary schools in Scotland were invited to nominate a pupil to participate as a batonbearer.

Cllr Steve Cardownie, Edinburgh’s Festivals & Events Champion, said: “We are thoroughly looking forward to welcoming the baton to Edinburgh – and to Scotland – on 14 June. We have over 100 baton bearers, including a pupil from every secondary school, each of whom will play an important part in the celebrations taking place throughout the day.

“We’ve worked very hard with the organisers to send the baton to as many parts of the city as possible and to allow baton bearers to run through their own communities, cheered on by their friends and family. I was fortunate enough to be on the selection committee for Edinburgh and was hugely impressed with the standard of nominations. I have no doubt our baton bearers will do themselves and their city proud.”

Among the Edinburgh citizens receiving the happy news today was MS Therapy Champion Dean Reilly.

dean

Dean (pictured above) was diagnosed with MS in October 2012, after losing the sight in one eye. Since then, he has raised awareness of MS and championed the services offered at the MS Therapy Centre which supports Edinburgh and the Lothians. He has taken up boxing, completed 4 10k runs, the Mighty Deer Stalker and the Edinburgh marathon, raising over £5,000 for the centre. He also writes a blog, raising awareness of MS, and has remained incredibly positive and pro-active since being diagnosed – and he’s just fought Steve ‘Celtic Warrior’ Collins in a fundraising charity boxing match!

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Also selected today was Lynne McNicoll (pictured above) , who has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for children affected by cancer in the Edinburgh area with her charity, It’s Good 2 Give. Her dedication for raising money for others is 24/7, 365 days a year. Lynne volunteers every minute, takes no pay and is a pillar of the Edinburgh community. She said: “I’m really delighted to be chosen to be a baton bearer. Welcoming the Baton to Scotland will an amazing opportunity and I just can’t wait. I’m currently in training for a five kilometer race which will hopefully help me get fit in time for the Queen’s Baton Relay!”

News of more local baton bearers will follow, but in the meantime you can follow the build up to to the Edinburgh leg of the Queen’s Baton Relay on social media using the hashtag #EdinBatonRelay.

To follow the baton visit www.glasgow2014.com/batonrelay

 

Millennium Centre on target to break visitor record

dancers & students 4 - 2nd best

Muirhouse Millennium Centre is on track to break it’s annual attendance record, set last year.

MMC’s Jim McGinty said: “With the increasing popularity of this Centre comes the best figures for attendances. In the first six months of this year we have welcomed 8722 visitors through our doors. This means we are once again on stream to break through the figures of last year”.

Great news for the Muirhouse community – for further updates on everything that’s going on there go to www.muirhousecommunitycentre.co.uk

Support MYDG as they swim … the Commonwealth!

mydg

Please please support the 24 hour Swimathon which is being held on behalf of MYDG this Thursday (3 April) from 9am. Money raised will support field trips, outdoor activities and MYDG’s commonwealth summer sports programme. The target is to swim the 11,421 miles from Glasgow to all 70 commonwealth countries participating in Glasgow 2014. Please note each length will represent one mile.

You can pick up a sponsor form from MYDG’s office in Craigroyston Community High School or the Community Shop on Pennywell Road.

Alternatively, you can make a donation online at our justgiving site which is

www.justgiving.com/mydg.

Or using your phone by:

Texting SWIM14 followed by the amount: £1, £3, £5, £10 to the number 70070
Your code —- SWIM14
With the amount —- £1
Text this to——— 70070
70070

You can also come along and swim, volunteer with the running of the event!

Please forward this to family, friends and colleagues so we can make this event the success it should and can be!

 

Dean Shanks

Muirhouse Youth Development Group (MYDG)

Tea hee! Mad hatters raise a cup to toast MSTC

MSTC fundraisers Louise and Chris Liddell
MSTC fundraisers Louise and Chris Liddell

The Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre in Edinburgh celebrates its 30th anniversary today with a city-wide Mad Hatters’ Tea Party. The fundraiser sees friends and supporters of the Centre baking cakes and wearing silly hats all to raise money for a very good cause.

With nearly 2,500 people in the Lothians living with the debilitating condition of multiple sclerosis, the MS Therapy Centre provides a life-line for many. Based in Swanfield in Leith, the Centre provides practical and emotional support and only exists because of the generosity of others.

Nancy Campbell the operations manager at the Centre said: “We want everyone to dig out their hats and teapots and host a mad hatters’ tea party for the MS Therapy Centre. It’s meant to be lots of fun and there’s plenty of opportunity to be creative – from cake decoration through to competitions. We just ask that everyone who attends a tea party makes a donation to our Centre.”

The MS Therapy Centre is a charity providing help and practical therapies such as physiotherapy, complementary therapies and oxygen therapy as well as emotional support and advice.

For further info visit www.mstc-lothian.org.uk

Budget: ‘government is leaving retirement to chance’

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‘Pensions ‘fiddle’ proves government is leaving retirement to chance‘

Britain’s biggest pensioners’ organisation The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) say pension changes in the recent Budget will simply store up bigger problems for later. The group adds that the private pensions industry might ‘make a killing’ but changes proposed by the Chancellor do not address the underlying problems of funding an adequate income in retirement.

The NPC’s main objective is to promote the welfare and interests of all pensioners, as a way of securing dignity, respect and financial security in retirement, and the organisation believes that the Chancellor’s real intention is to place further responsibility for retirement onto individuals and the market, rather than seeing it as a role for the government. The campaigning group adds that welfare caps, pensioner bonds and changes to pensions prove government ‘is leaving retirement to chance’.

Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “Pensioners will be concerned that benefits such as the winter fuel allowance, cold weather payments and the Christmas Bonus have all been placed into the welfare cap, which could lead to cuts in the future, at a time when fuel bills in particular are continuing to rise. The announcements regarding a new Pensioner Bond and changes to ISAs were also rather rose-tinted. 55 per cent of all pensioners receive less than £10 from their savings and 29 per cent of older couples have less than £1500 put aside.

“The idea that older people therefore have huge amounts of money to invest is rather optimistic, but the most serious change was related to defined contribution pensions. These reveal that more has to be done to improve the prospects for future pensioners. The state pension is one of the worst in Europe and the high water mark of decent company pensions has long gone.”

She went on: “However, allowing people to take all their pension pot doesn’t make the pot any bigger and belies the fact that the average worker will have a pension pot of little more than £30,000 to cover all of their retirement. Enabling people to take their pensions from aged 55 also shows the chancellor has realised there is a huge problem coming down the line which has to be funded. His plans to raise the state pension age to 68 will create an army of older workers, who if lose their jobs in their late fifties will be unable to find work. The only way they will have to fund this period of limbo until they reach retirement age will be to use their pensions – which might solve the problem in the short-term but will store up bigger problems later on when their money starts to run out.

“Once again it’s a pensions’ fiddle and those left to carry the burden will be some of the lowest paid workers.

“The reality is money purchase defined contribution pension schemes are simply not the answer to funding a decent income in retirement. The private pensions industry might make a killing from the schemes but most workers end up with much less than they thought.”

For further information about the National Pensioners Convention visit www.npcuk.org or email npc.scotland@yahoo.co.uk

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Johnstone calls for Citizens Income to address poverty divide

CHILD POVERTY: JOHNSTONE HIGHLIGHTS CITIZENS INCOME IDEA

AlisonJohnstoneMSP

Green MSP for Lothian Alison Johnstone has urged the Scottish Parliament to consider new ideas – including a basic income for all citizens – to tackle poverty.

Speaking in a debate on child poverty yesterday Ms Johnstone, a member of Holyrood’s economy committee, highlighted a range of research including:

  • A paper by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which says the single biggest risk to progress is benefit cuts and growing use of sanctions.
  • Research by the Fawcett Society which says a fifth of British women’s income comes from benefits, while for men the figure is one-tenth; therefore the loss of benefits and services hits women hardest.
  • The Jimmy Reid Foundation report ‘In Place of Anxiety’. The authors Willie Sullivan and the late Ailsa McKay focused on tackling the poverty wages that create in-work poverty.

Ms Johnstone said: “We live in a wealthy nation yet inequality is increasing, and the austerity agenda has a particular impact on women and children. Families struggling have not chosen to be in poverty, and are bearing the brunt of the UK cuts making the situation worse.

“One idea we would do well to explore is the citizen’s or basic income. This would replace our incredibly complex welfare system and end the stigma that many people face.

“It’s essential we measure our economic success on how we close the gap between rich and poor and how we create a fairer society for children.”

ChildPoverty

Students offer flash mobbing lessons!

Edinburgh College - PASS - Image 2

Students offer an education in flash mobbing at Edinburgh College

A group of performing arts students from Edinburgh College is teaching clubbers how to flash mob ahead of their silent disco club event tomorrow.

In the run up to the college’s BodyPhonics: Silent Disco –  a club event that will take place at Summerhall on Saturday 29 March – the Performing Arts Studio Scotland (PASS) students have created YouTube videos to teach dance enthusiasts how to flash mob and dance like the professionals. The instructional step-by-step videos include everything from how to do the moonwalk and the sprinkler to the classic running man and the freestyle robot.

With a variety of dance, sound production and theatre costume students organising the event, BodyPhonics: Silent Disco showcases a broad array of talent from the performing arts arm of Edinburgh College. The students have worked together to create a night of funk-laden, diva-warbling, glitterball disco music with exciting costumes, dances and the occasional flash mob going on throughout the event.

Jo Turbitt, performing arts lecturer at Edinburgh College, said: “It has been an epic project for the students and it’s been great to watch the event take shape. Students from dance and theatre costume have worked in close collaboration to inject life and energy into the event to produce something that is really outstanding. It’ll be a spectacular event where the audience can choose the DJ they want to listen to, choose if they want to join in and boogie or simply stand back and watch. I’m really excited to see it unfurl on Saturday.”

BodyPhonics: Silent Disco will feature songs from the past decade and from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s together with bursts of dance performances and surprises. To book tickets and to learn the routines click here.

Edinburgh College - PASS - Image 1

War of words over Scottish economy (Part 28)

money

 Swinney: ‘Stark reality of UK budget cuts revealed’

Alexander: ‘being part of the United Kingdom brings true benefits’  

Westminster and Holyrood finance spokesmen yesterday offered very different views on what last week’s Budget will mean for Scotland:

Speaking ahead of yesterday’s Conservative finance debate, Finance Secretary John Swinney expressed concern over the impact the UK Government’s Budget changes are having on the most vulnerable in society.

Mr Swinney said: “Treasury analysis shows that as a result of Westminster’s tax rises and benefit and public service cuts, the poorest 20% of households will be on average the equivalent of £814 worse off in 2015-16.

“Analysis of the current UK Government’s Budget changes to date, including Budget 2014, also shows that on average households will be worse off by the equivalent of £757 a year in 2015-16 as a result of changes to taxation, benefits and public services brought in by Westminster, while, when it comes to changes made to taxes, tax credit and benefits alone, those in the bottom 10% of income distribution are expected to see some of the largest losses as a percentage of their income.

“These figures are extremely concerning and impact on the most vulnerable in our society. Such drastic cuts to incomes and to services put the progress that has been made in tackling poverty at risk. As the Child Poverty Action Group has warned, these cuts coming from Westminster risk pushing a further 100,000 children into poverty by 2020.

“Those arguing for the status quo should consider the harm being done to households across the country as a result of Westminster budgets.

“The Scottish Government is committed to mitigating the harmful effects of Westminster welfare reforms and our social wage helps households during difficult times. However to respond to the key challenges of building a sustainable and secure economy, creating jobs and growing the working population, protecting public services, maintaining a decent social security system and closing the gap between rich and poor we need the powers of independence.”

Money_and_economy_pack

With fewer than 200 days to go until the Scottish referendum, the UK Government yesterday produced the latest edition in a series of information packs – focussing on money and the economy in the context of the independence debate.

Visit the Scottish referendum page for more information

Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “As part of the UK the Scottish economy is growing, inflation is down and more people are in work. By remaining part of the UK, Scottish industry and jobs will be protected by the generous freeze on duties on spirits and the £3bn tax break for oil and gas industries we announced at the Budget, as well as the big cuts in income tax helping 2 million Scottish workers.

“This new pack sets out some key facts people in Scotland need to know before the referendum in September. I urge everyone to read up on the facts and understand the true benefits being part of the United Kingdom brings to Scotland.” 

The UK Government Money & Economy pack highlights the following key facts, demonstrating that a United Kingdom makes for a stronger economy benefitting us all:

  1. United means shared economic success. Following the financial crisis both the UK and Scottish economies are growing again and employment is at its highest ever level.
  2. United means we benefit from a single, domestic market, and a truly borderless economy. This means people and businesses in Scotland can buy and sell goods and services freely with the rest of the UK. Creating a border would reduce trade and cost jobs.
  3. United means we pool resources and share risks, which helps us prosper. Being part of the UK’s broader tax base means the peaks and troughs in oil and gas receipts are evened out so public spending remains stable.
  4. United means our finances are more secure. During the financial crisis, the banking system received extraordinary support, which was only possible due to the scale of the UK. If Scotland were an independent country, its banking sector would over 12 times the size of its economy. Not even the Icelandic, Irish or Cypriot banking sectors were that big at the height of the financial crisis.
  5. Going it alone could be costly: The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has assessed that Scottish interest rates could be up to 1.7% higher than the continuing UK, which could cost homeowners in Scotland an extra £1,700 to an annual mortgage payment.
  6. Spending matters: Last year Scotland received around £1,300 more public spending per person than the UK average.

For more information and to access the material go to: www.gov.uk/scottishreferendum 

The Money & Economy Pack is the second in a series of packs produced b the UK Government highlighting the benefits of Scotland remaining in the UK. The aim is to provide voters with clear and accurate information to help them make an informed decision ahead of the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014. 

The material comes in a factsheet-style format and complements the more detailed Scotland Analysis series, which contains in-depth analysis of the benefits of a United Kingdom.

 

Food, glorious food … be prepared for a treat!

Neil Forbes chef

Love food? Granton Campus Hub is the place to be this afternoon when Edinburgh College holds treat, a fabulous Food and Drink Festival from 4 – 8pm.

As well as showcasing the skills of College Hospitality students and promoting course programmes, the free Treat event also offers an opportunity to raise funds for St Columba’s Hospice, the College’s chosen charity of the year.

Among the highlights on offer are live coking demonstrations from top chefs, mouth-watering produce from local stallholders, free samples, prize draws and much, much more.

Carol Fyfe, Head of the Tourism and  Hospitality Academy at Edinburgh College, said: “treat not only offers an excellent learning opportunity for our students but also offers visitors and food enthusiasts top food tips and tasting opportunities from some of the best chefs in the country. All money raised will go to our charity of the year, St Columba’s Hospice, which is another fantastic reason to come along to our food and drink festival”.

Top chef Neil Forbes, of Edinburgh’s Cafe Saint Honore, (pictured above) will headline at today’s event. He said: “I’m delighted to be taking part in the treat festival at Edinburgh College. At a young age I was inspired to get behind the stove because of my granny’s soup! These early experiences of family cooking have influenced me throughout my career and I hope my demo at treat will inspire others to create their own food memories”.

Top tips? Free food? Go on, treat yourself!

treat textOUTLINES

 

Admission to treat is FREE although a charitable donation of £2 will be gratefully accepted!