Collection of renowned Leith-born interior designer Derek Parker and partner Peter Morris up for auction
An auction devoted entirely to an eclectic collection of items amassed over 60 years by renowned interior designers Derek Parker and Peter Wynne Morris will feature as part of Woolley & Wallis’s series of furniture, collections and works of arts sales this month.
Parker & Morris, The Art of Decorating, comprises 342 lots which represent a snapshot of the glamourous lives of the couple, their various homes in Scotland, England, France, Monte Carlo, Australia and the United States and their passion for collecting and antique dealing.
Presented in conjunction with Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, one of today’s most famous firms of interior decorators that had a long and close association with Parker & Morris, the auction on Wednesday, April 17 will feature such diverse lots as a collection of rare Manus Island green tree snail shells, found only on the island in Papua New Guinea, porcelain figures and bowls, art works, furniture and furnishings and books.
In association with the auction, on April 10th, Hampshire interior designer, Charlotte Stuart, who has a long-standing association with Colefax and Fowler will give the 8th Tim Woolley Memorial Lecture, covering the firm’s history and its association with the collection of Parker & Morris.
Derek and Peter who spent their later years in Salisbury, were good friends with Tim Woolley and clients of Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury for many years.
Roger Jones, a director at Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler, met Derek and John when he joined the company in 1994 and said they were regular visitors to the showrooms whenever they were in London:
“They had a business connection with the company as well, as for a number of years they ran the Australian Colefax and Fowler showroom.
“The influence of Colefax and Fowler is evident in the way they decorated their various houses in the 1970s and 1980s, a sort of ‘full’ Colefax and Fowler look; busier and more exuberant than the way in which we work today. There are many pieces in the sale which historically relate to Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler.”
Born in Leith, Derek Parker first met Melbourne-born Peter Morris in 1959, the beginning of a professional and personal relationship which would last for the rest of their lives.
In his early years as an interior designer, Derek worked on some of the great houses of Scotland, including Lennoxlove in East Lothian, home of the Duke of Hamilton, Lennel in Berwickshire where he designed and decorated the ballroom and Eden Hall, home of the Earl and Countess of Dalkeith.
He also worked for the Queen and designed some of the cushions at Holyrood House.
One of their own homes was Yester House in East Lothian, former residence of the Marquess of Tweedale and family seat of the Hay family for many years.
In London, where they opened a showroom, they lived in Winston Churchill’s bachelors pad and were dubbed the “best dressed men in Mayfair” but their interior design business took them around the world.
One-time residents of Monte Carlo, they bought an apartment beneath Shirley Bassey’s and drove around in a powder blue convertible Rolls Royce, the same car as Princess Grace. They also bought a house in Roquebrune in France and leased Netherhampton House in Wiltshire, once home to Siegfried Sassoon. Many of the items in the auction were displayed at Netherhampton House.
They wintered in Australia and spent summer in Europe and wherever they lived and travelled they indulged in their passion for collecting unique and interesting pieces, furniture and works of art, decorating each of their homes, in what Derek described as “appropriate to the style of the house”.
“Interiors are governed greatly by what people own to what they aspire. Houses should, after all, be an expression of one’s personality and lifestyle,” he said.
The proceeds of the auction will be donated to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, which already owns Peter’s collection of French 18th century white porcelain.
All ticket sales from the Tim Woolley memorial lecture will be donated to Salisbury Hospice.
Full details of the auction and lecture can be viewed at:
Sheep sculptures featured in national ‘Flock to the Show’ public art trail raffled off in 2 weeks
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There are less than two weeks to go until the Royal Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) raffles off their colourful ‘Flock to the Show’ sheep sculptures, which featured in a popular national public art trail earlier this year.
There are 500 raffle tickets available for each sheep, at a cost of £25 each. The funds raised will support the Royal Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland Bicentennial Fund, which supports projects dedicated to sustainability in the rural sector.
The popular ‘Doddie’s Sheep’ will see a minimum of £20 from the sale of each ticket donated to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation – this sheep was decorated by Megan Reilly in the distinctive bright blue and yellow Doddie’5 tartan.
The 38 fibreglass sculptures were decorated by local artists from across the UK in a range of striking designs and travelled around Scotland earlier this year, before flocking home to the Royal Highland Show in June.
The campaign celebrated the return of the Golden Shears World Sheep Shearing & Woolhandling Championships to the Royal Highland Show. Some of the sheep have already been purchased outright so won’t be available in the raffle, but the majority still need to find their forever homes.
RHASS Chairman, Jim Warnock, commented:“The Flock to the Show campaign was a resounding success, bringing joy to people across the length and breadth of Scotland and at the Royal Highland Show.
“We are delighted that our flock raised awareness of important issues in the agri sector and they will continue to do good by being raffled off to raise funds for the RHASS Bicentennial Fund and the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.”
Flock to the Show campaign celebrated the return of the world sheep shearing championships to the Royal Highland Show in June
The Royal Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) has launched a raffle for their ‘Flock to the Show’ sheep sculptures, which featured in a popular public art trail earlier this year.
There will be 500 raffle tickets available for each sheep, at a cost of £25 each. The funds raised will support the Royal Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland Bicentennial Fund, which supports projects dedicated to sustainability in the rural sector.
The popular ‘Doddie’s Sheep’ will see a minimum of £20 from the sale of each ticket donated to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation – this sheep was decorated by Megan Reilly in the distinctive bright blue and yellow Doddie’5 tartan.
The 38 fibreglass sculptures were decorated by local artists from across the UK in a range of striking designs and travelled around Scotland earlier this year, before flocking home to the Royal Highland Show in June.
The campaign celebrated the return of the Golden Shears World Sheep Shearing & Woolhandling Championships to the Royal Highland Show. Some of the sheep have already been purchased outright so won’t be available in the raffle, but the majority still need to find their forever homes.
RHASS Chairman, Jim Warnock, commented:“The Flock to the Show campaign was a resounding success, bringing joy to people across the length and breadth of Scotland and at the Royal Highland Show.
“We are delighted that our flock raised awareness of important issues in the agri sector and they will continue to do good by being raffled off to raise funds for the RHASS Bicentennial Fund and the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.”
Harry Styles, Rihanna and Adele all have one – and now you have the chance to snap up one of Bambi’s works for yourself. The London street artist is joining several other famous artists in this year’s ‘anonymous heART project’.
Bambi’s identity remains a closely guarded secret and her contemporary art is loved by many and can be spotted across London. She first came up on the art scene in 2010, when her tag appeared by a stencil portrait of Amy Winehouse in a doorway in Camden.
Now you can buy one of her works for yourself, possibly for a bargain price!
The artist, who often uses social commentary in her art, will take part in Heart Research UK’s annual ‘anonymous heART project’, where artworks created on A5 postcards are auctioned off with all money raised going to the charity.
How is it anonymous? Though the list of artists will be available to all bidders, the artist of each individual piece will be kept anonymous, only being revealed once the auction is over.
This year, Bambi joins Heart Research UK patrons Paul Insect and Robert Smith, as well as Ralph Steadman and LUAP in providing pieces of art.
The artist known as LUAP is famous for his paintings and photographs of a giant pink bear. The bear suit follows him to remote locations across the world where he photographs himself in the suit, tackling themes like the climate crisis, mental health and isolation.
Heart disease is something that has been prevalent in LUAP’s family.
LUAP said: “My Grandad was in his late 40’s when he had his first heart attack and retired by his 50’s due to having had several more.
“My Mum’s partner died at 43 with a heart attack whilst riding his bike – this was a huge shock as he was very fit and active so came as a total surprise.
“Home is where the heart is, and that’s where my connection to the disease starts as I am sure it is with many other families. The heart is a symbol of life and of love, and I would do all I can do to help with that.”
The project is entering its fifth year, which will see hundreds of anonymous artworks go under eBay’s virtual hammer and has so far raised over £200,000 for the charity’s pioneering research.
Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive at Heart Research UK, said: “Everyone at Heart Research UK is so thrilled to be back with the anonymous heART project for the fifth year in a row. We can’t wait for the auction to open and for people to be able to start bidding.
“As always, we’re incredibly grateful to all the artists who have contributed and sent us such amazing pieces, and we’d like to send a special thank you to our patrons Robert Smith and Paul Insect for their continued support.
“This project really is both a fun and vital part of our fundraising, with all the money raised being invested in the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease.”
Law firm Walker Morris is back as sponsors for the project, after successful partnerships in 2018 and 2021. This year’s auction will be live on eBay from the 4th – 13th November and you can bid on your favourite piece here:
Auction to take place at 5pm on Monday August 15th at The Stand Comedy Club
“We’re keeping our iconic cowboy, but it’s time for him to lay down his gun.” – Mike Jones, Managing Director
The cowboy is going nowhere, but after a quarter-century, he’s earned the right to lower his arms.
A piece of comedy history, it’s only right that the famous stage backdrop gets its own show: An unprecedented Stand auction slap-bang in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Hosted by The Stand’s very own Fred MacAulay, legendary Scottish comedian and one of the company directors, the auction will be a chance for the highest bidder to walk away with the dismounted backdrop* and do a whole lot of good in the process.
It will start at 5pm at The Stand Comedy Club, 5 York Place. It is free to attend and we will be encouraging bids in-room, online and over the phone.
Replacing our cowboy will be, well, the cowboy. A new painting by its original painter (more on that below) will be installed before the start of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with the trademark image, just without the gun.. New backdrops will also be completed in our Glasgow & Newcastle clubs.
Proceeds from the sale of the York Place venue’s iconic backdrop will go to an exciting new initiative as The Stand works with local primary schools to encourage young people to write and perform comedy and get a chance to perform on our stage.
The project will be led by long-time resident comedian Jay Lafferty (Breaking the News, Scot Squad) and follows a recent trial event with Carnock Primary School from Dunfermline.
About the cowboy:
Its painter, Thomas ‘Mac’ Macgregor, was involved in setting up the club and his work has been permanently on display in the Edinburgh venue since 1998. A recent finalist on Sky Arts’s Portrait Artist of the Year, old family photos of his younger brother Dave in costume as a cowboy served as the inspiration for his oil paintings which featured in his BA degree show at Edinburgh College of Art some 25 years ago.
Says Mac: “The first was a small 1ft square with the face blanked out and some cigarettes (Johnny Vegas bought that one) Then I made a series of paintings with me and the cowboy. [The backdrop] was lurking in the back of the club for a few months before Jane and Tommy asked if it could be used for publicity. Dave and his dimple probably deserve more of the credit. “ Timelapse process video here.
*The backdrop is 9 feet high x 8 feet wide , oil painted on two and a half full size panels that will be dismounted and repaired with bespoke touch-ups from the original artist. Transport will have to be organised by the buyer.
About the initiative:
We want to work with young people from schools and community groups to encourage them to develop their comedy writing and performance skills. As well as developing creative skills and self confidence for all those involved, we want to open young people’s eyes to comedy, whatever their background.
Who knows, we might even discover the next Kevin Bridges or Daniel Sloss.
In June 2022 we worked with Carnock Primary School, Dunfermline in which their P6 & P7 students took to the stage for the first time. It was a resounding success. Here’s what they said:
From the school:
Vicky McCauley, Class Teacher, P6/7: “The children have grown so much from the start of the year. They embraced the comedy writing block of work and I think they really surprised themselves that by the end they were performing in a real comedy club in front of an audience.
“The parents are still raving about the show. We are all so impressed with the professionalism and quality of The Stand.”
From the students:
Angus, age 11: “I think that it was the best experience that I have had at school and I would go again. The Stand was awesome. I was shocked about how many famous comedians have been there. I will remember this experience forever.”
Junior, age 10: “It was really scary doing comedy writing. I found it hard to write the script as I’m dyslexic but I enjoyed performing it. My teacher helped me with the script and my parents listened when I practised at home. The Stand was an experience I will remember because its not something we would usually do.”
Elizabeth, student, age 10: “Doing comedy in the class was really fun. Writing my own comedy set was the best homework. I love making people laugh! I got a new life skill out of it, and it will look good on my CV. Performing at The Stand was the bees knees. Thank you for letting our class come.”
From the parents:
Ben Cook: “Seeing my 10-year-old daughter performing on the stage, the morning after Frankie Boyle had been on it was brilliant. It was interesting to see [it] filled with loads of laughing children and their parents. Watching my daughter overcome all her nerves to deliver a performance to be proud of is something I’ll never forget.
“The confidence she gained from presenting in front of quite a large group of people will do her a world of good in the future and to be able to say that she has taken the stage at Edinburgh’s premier comedy club is something special.”
All of the money raised by the auction will be put towards setting up a new charity which will deliver this exciting new project. We will also be applying for funding in order to be able to cover the project costs.
An auction of books left in a legacy has raised over £1,000 to help fight meningitis.
The money will be used to support charity Meningitis Now’s work to defeat meningitis in the UK within a generation.
Trevor Reid, the charity’s Director of Fundraising and Communications, said: “There was nothing particularly remarkable about this collection of books – it was just the random selection each and every one of us might have on our bookshelves at home.
“It is a powerful reminder though that even those who might not be able to support our lifesaving and life-changing work with a cash legacy gift, particularly in these cash straitened times, can still make a difference to our work fighting meningitis.
“A gift of household items, be it books, a painting, ceramics, or other everyday objects, can be just as significant.
“As the many antique programmes we enjoy on our television screens every week demonstrate time and again, any of these may have greater value than is at first realised.”
Trevor continued: “It’s lovely to be able to celebrate gifts to our charity, large and small, and there’s always a story behind every donation.
“And all these gifts mount up and can help us to be here not just today but for future generations affected by meningitis.”
Although most of the books put up for auction raised a small amount, one lot, a collection of JRR Tolkien books, including old editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, raised nearly £500.
Trevor added: “They were in far from pristine condition and nor were they first editions, but they clearly had more than just sentimental value to the person who kindly left them to us, as well as the person who bid generously to buy them at auction.”
Gifts in Wills from supporters are a vital way to help Meningitis Now fulfil its vision of a future where no-one in the UK loses their life to meningitis and everyone affected gets the support they need to rebuild their lives.
Crown Estate Scotland has announced the outcome of its application process for ScotWind Leasing, the first Scottish offshore wind leasing round in over a decade and the first ever since the management of offshore wind rights were devolved to Scotland.
The results coming just months after Glasgow hosted the global COP26 climate conference show the huge opportunity that Scotland has to transform its energy market and move towards a net zero economy.
Highlights include:
17 projects have been selected out of a total of 74 applications, and have now been offered option agreements which reserve the rights to specific areas of seabed
A total of just under £700m will be paid by the successful applicants in option fees and passed to the Scottish Government for public spending
The area of seabed covered by the 17 projects is just over 7,000km2 (a maximum of 8,600km2 was made available through the Scottish Government’s Sectoral Marine Plan)
Initial indications suggest a multi-billion pound supply chain investment in Scotland
The potential power generated will provide for the expanding electrification of the Scottish economy as we move to net zero.
The details of the 17 applicants who have been offered option agreements can be found below and in the downloads section.
Map reference
Lead applicant
Option Fees
Technology
Total capacity (MW)
1
BP Alternative Energy Investments
£85,900,000
Fixed
2,907
2
SSE Renewables
£85,900,000
Floating
2,610
3
Falck Renewables
£28,000,000
Floating
1,200
4
Shell New Energies
£86,000,000
Floating
2,000
5
Vattenfall
£20,000,000
Floating
798
6
DEME
£18,700,000
Fixed
1,008
7
DEME
£20,000,000
Floating
1,008
8
Falck Renewables
£25,600,000
Floating
1,000
9
Ocean Winds
£42,900,000
Fixed
1,000
10
Falck Renewables
£13,400,000
Floating
500
11
Scottish Power Renewables
£68,400,000
Floating
3,000
12
BayWa
£33,000,000
Floating
960
13
Offshore Wind Power
£65,700,000
Fixed
2,000
14
Northland Power
£3,900,000
Floating
1,500
15
Magnora
£10,300,000
Mixed
495
16
Northland Power
£16,100,000
Fixed
840
17
Scottish Power Renewables
£75,400,000
Fixed
2,000
Totals
£699,200,000
24,826
Simon Hodge, Chief Executive of Crown Estate Scotland, said: “Today’s results are a fantastic vote of confidence in Scotland’s ability to transform our energy sector. Just a couple of months after hosting COP26, we’ve now taken a major step towards powering our future economy with renewable electricity.
“In addition to the environmental benefits, this also represents a major investment in the Scottish economy, with around £700m being delivered straight into the public finances and billions of pounds worth of supply chain commitments.
“The variety and scale of the projects that will progress onto the next stages shows both the remarkable progress of the offshore wind sector, and a clear sign that Scotland is set to be a major hub for the further development of this technology in the years to come.”
Should any application not progress to signing a full agreement, the next highest scoring application will instead be offered an option.
Once these agreements are officially signed, the details of the supply chain commitments made by the applicants as part of their Supply Chain Development Statements will be published.
This is just the first stage of the long process these projects will have to go through before we see turbines going into the water, as the projects evolve through consenting, financing, and planning stages.
Responsibility for these stages does not sit with Crown Estate Scotland, and projects will only progress to a full seabed lease once all these various planning stages have been completed.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has welcomed the “truly historic” opportunity for Scotland’s net zero economy, as the winners of the ScotWind offshore wind leasing auction were announced by Crown Estate Scotland yesterday.
17 projects, with a combined potential generating capacity of 25GW, have been offered the rights to specific areas of the seabed for the development of offshore wind power – with developers giving commitments to invest in the Scottish supply chain, providing opportunities for high quality green jobs for decades to come.
The projects are expected to secure at least £1bn in supply chain investment for every 1GW of capacity proposed. They will also generate around £700 million in revenue for the Scottish Government and represent the world’s first commercial scale opportunity for floating offshore wind.
As well as helping complete Scotland’s own journey to net zero, creating thousands of jobs in the process, our offshore wind resource also has the potential to position Scotland as a major exporter of renewable energy, including green hydrogen.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: ““The scale of opportunity here is truly historic. ScotWind puts Scotland at the forefront of the global development of offshore wind, represents a massive step forward in our transition to net zero, and will help deliver the supply chain investments and high quality jobs that will make the climate transition a fair one.
“It allows us to make huge progress in decarbonising our energy supply – vital if we are to reduce Scotland’s emissions – while securing investment in the Scottish supply chain of at least £1 billion for every gigawatt of power.
This will be transformational. And because Scotland’s workers are superbly placed with transferable skills to capitalise on the transition to new energy sources, we have every reason to be optimistic about the number of jobs that can be created.
“That means, for example, that people working right now in the oil and gas sector in the North East of Scotland can be confident of opportunities for their future. The spread of projects across our waters promises economic benefits for communities the length and breadth of the country, ensuring Scotland benefits directly from the revolution in energy generation that is coming.
“The scale of opportunity represented in today’s announcement exceeds our current planning assumption of 10GW of offshore wind – which is a massive vote of confidence in Scotland. So we will now embark on the rigorous consenting process required to make sure we can maximise the potential that clearly exists in offshore wind while also ensuring that the impacts of large scale development – including on other marine users and the wider natural environment – are properly understood and addressed.
“While it is not yet possible to say with certainty what the scale of development will ultimately be, there is no doubt that the scale of this opportunity is transformational – both for our environment and the economy.”
The Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy partnership taking part in the current ScotWind offshore wind leasing round is celebrating the success of three of its bids to secure seabed leases for sites which lend themselves to the deployment of large-scale floating wind technology in Scotland.
Two of the partnership’s proposed projects – a site east of Aberdeen in Plan Option E1 and a site north of Fraserburgh in Plan Option NE6 have been granted leases from Crown Estate Scotland – along with a proposed site east of Caithness in Plan Option NE3 which will be developed by a consortium of Falck Renewables, BlueFloat Energy and Ørsted.
The three areas could accommodate a total of approximately 3.0 GW of offshore wind capacity with the projects scheduled to be operational by the end of the decade, subject to securing consent, commercial arrangements and grid connections.
The successful bids combined BlueFloat Energy’s knowledge and experience in developing, financing and executing offshore wind projects with Falck Renewables’ strong track record of global project development and over 15 years of community engagement in Scotland.
Carlos Martin, CEO of BlueFloat Energy, said: “The Scottish coastline is ideal for developing offshore wind projects and our team is thrilled to be given the opportunity to deploy our expertise to deliver these projects in Scotland.
“The potential for boosting the economy and reinforcing Scotland’s position at the forefront of the energy transition is huge. We have already carried out extensive work on mapping out the Scottish supply chain and now look forward to ensuring we work with as many local companies as possible.”
Toni Volpe, CEO of Falck Renewables, said: “We are delighted that our applications have won the support of Crown Estate Scotland and that our offshore wind projects will be making a considerable contribution to providing Scotland with clean energy.
“Falck Renewables has a worldwide renewables portfolio and with our growth strategy we are on track to facilitate the global transition to a low carbon future.”
Richard Dibley, Managing Director of Falck Renewables Wind Ltd, said: “We are hugely excited about the positive impact these projects will have on the whole of Scotland in terms of creating jobs, economic benefit and helping to achieve a net zero future.
“Over the past 15 years we have seen communities empowered with the help of the financial support they have received from our onshore wind farms and we look forward to sharing the benefits of offshore wind with local communities.”
The Falck Renewables, BlueFloat Energy, Ørsted consortium has already begun work with community ownership experts Energy4All on a new framework which will allow residents of Scotland and Scottish communities to share the financial benefits of the offshore wind energy projects the consortium plans to build in the future.
As part of the preparatory work to deliver the offshore wind projects the consortium will collaborate with Energy Skills Partnership Scotland (ESP) to help train up a skilled workforce in time for construction to begin.
Research will also be carried out with the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) to investigate the potential effects of floating offshore wind developments on the marine environment. Projects under discussion will examine how fishing interests and offshore wind can work together and study the interaction of fish, marine mammals and seabirds with floating offshore wind farms.
Energy4All is a non-profit distributing co-operative social enterprise formed by the Baywind Energy Co-operative in 2002 to enable more communities to own and operate renewable energy projects.
Marna McMillin, Chief Executive of Energy4All, said: “Climate breakdown is the key environmental challenge facing our society. If we are to successfully decarbonize our economy, we must rapidly replace polluting fossil fuels with clean power. This requires us to generate much more zero carbon electricity to heat our homes and power our vehicles.
“We need the public to support those changes, and we believe one of the best ways of ensuring that support is to allow individuals to have a share in those projects.
“Falck Renewables has a 15-year track record of working with Energy4All having successfully set up seven co-operatives at its Scottish onshore wind farms, enabling thousands of people to buy a stake in their local wind farm.
“We think partnerships of this sort could be a model for other offshore projects in both the UK and the rest of Europe.”
Reacting to the outcome of the application process for ScotWind leasing by Crown Estate Scotland, the ALBA Party Depute Leader and MP for East Lothian Kenny MacAskill MP said:“This offshore wind giveaway is selling the family silver cheap while Scots families face crippling energy bills this April.
“Those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. It looks like the Scottish Government have surrendered vast chunks of the North Sea wind resource for a relative pittance just as Westminster gave away Scotland’s oil in the 1970s.
“Instead of a one off payment of under £700 million there should be annual payments. Instead of Scottish resources being just handed over to international investment companies there should be a public stake in every single field.
“One has to question the basic competence of Crown Estate Scotland. They think they have auctioned away 10-12 GW of power. Informed industry estimates are the real capacity from this round alone is double that.
“Offshore wind is fast becoming the most lucrative major power source on the planet. Scotland has one quarter of the resource of Europe. It will be cold comfort to Scottish pensioners shivering in their homes facing vast fuel bills to know that the Scottish Government have given away so much of the green power of the future for so little in return.”
The STUC says that the announcement must mark the end of broken promises to Scottish workers and presage the start of a long overdue renewables jobs revolution.
Oil giants Shell and BP, alongside Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Power Renewables, and a number of multinational companies have all won leases to develop offshore wind farms off Scotland’s coast.
Following campaigns from trade unions in the wake of failures to secure meaningful fabrication contracts at BiFab, the ScotWind leasing round included requirements on companies to make supply chain commitments, with many bidders making public statements promising major investments in job creation. However, these statements have not yet been published and in any case they do not require a specific proportion of work to be undertaken locally.
The STUC continues to be concerned that so few successful bids are from domestic companies, with previous experience showing that multinational companies regularly offshore work to Europe and the Far East.
The STUC is calling for the Scottish Government to call a summit of successful developers to secure ongoing commitments to cooperate on delivery and work with unions and government to make the green jobs revolution a reality.
STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said: “Over the past six months the public relations teams of the prospective bidders have been in overdrive, promising the long overdue renewables jobs revolution. Now we need to make that happen.
“The First Minister says that we have every reason to be optimistic about the number of jobs that can be created, but our skills workers in oil and gas need more than words given the experience over the past decade tells us that jobs in offshore wind are consistently offshored overseas.
“With over 1000 massive turbines to become operational over the next decade, it would be nothing short of economic vandalism if we fail to build a thriving supply chain in Scotland. Fundamental to that is building the infrastructure to enable large scale fabrication in Scottish yards, requiring local content from developers, and addressing questions of ownership through the development of a Scottish National Infrastructure company.
“Unions will work proactively and positively with employers and business to deliver the Fair Work future our workers deserve, but we will also campaign vigorously to ensure that promises are kept.”
The limited-edition single cask whisky was laid down 26 years ago in 1995, when the first COP climate summit took place in Berlin
100 bottles will be available from 22nd November for a charity auction with Royal Mile Whiskies, raising funds to tackle climate change
This follows Glenfiddich’s sustainable transport initiative, launched earlier this year
Glenfiddich, the world’s most awarded single malt whisky, has created a limited-edition 26 Year Old whisky – in partnership with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland – to commemorate the climate change summit, COP26, in Glasgow..
The partnership enables Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and Glenfiddich to raise awareness of the active steps Scotland is taking to tackle climate change.
These include the brand’s recently launched, pioneering ‘closed loop’ sustainable transport initiative, ‘Fuelled By Glenfiddich’. This involves converting production wastes and residues into Ultra-Clean Low Carbon fuel that is starting to be introduced to some of its transport fleet.
World leaders and COP26 conference attendees will have already had a chance to taste the one-off Glenfiddich 26 Year Old whisky at a series of COP26 events during the summit with Mark Thomson, the Glenfiddich Ambassador to Scotland, leading guests through exclusive tastings.
Whisky enthusiasts and sustainability supporters alike will have the chance to bid on a true collector’s item, one of 100 bottles, via a charity auction through Royal Mile Whiskies.
The auction is raising money for Stop Climate Chaos Scotlandand will be live from Monday 22nd November, concluding on Monday 29th November 2021.
Claudia Falcone, Glenfiddich’s global brand director, commented:“Glenfiddich is a brand that encourages us to individually and collectively push boundaries and always consider the next step.
“It has taken more than a decade for Glenfiddich to become the first global spirits brand to process its production wastes and residues into biogas fuel to power some of its trucks. We’re honoured to support the wider sustainability agenda.
“By releasing the 26 Year Old in partnership with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, we hope to bring attention and inspiration to continued climate change progress through our one-off auction of the limited-edition commemoration bottle.”
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland is a diverse coalition of over 60 civil society organisations in Scotland campaigning together on climate change.
Alistair Dutton, Board member of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland added:“We’re pleased to be working with Glenfiddich and hope this incredible whisky will raise funds to tackle the climate emergency.
“The proceeds from the Royal Mile Whiskies auction will help Stop Climate Chaos Scotland members in their work to create a greener future for Scotland.”
Scotland has set an ambitious target to cut emissions by 75% by 2030, and to become Net Zero by 2045. With whisky forming such a large part of Scotland’s identity, the Scotch Whisky Association has outlined its ambitious and impressive vision for the future with a focus on four main areas for industry action:
· Tackling climate change by having net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040;
· Moving to a circular economy by making all packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025;
· Hitting responsible water use targets by 2025; and
· Caring for the land through the active conservation and restoration of Scotland’s peatland by 2035.
The Glenfiddich 26 Year Old whisky will be available to bid on from Monday 22nd to Monday 29th November via Royal Mile Whiskies at:
North Edinburgh Arts raised an impressive £4,500 at their fundraising and celebration event at the Hub on Castlehill on 4th November.
With the sale of further art work and the North Edinburgh Arts calendar (below), the local organisation hopes to have a final figure of over £5,000. This will be invested in an Artist studio within North Edinburgh Arts.
Details of the expenditure will be available in the New Year.
NEA calendars are available to purchase at reception – get yours NOW!
