Newsbleat

See here for details of Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousins’ latest film festival.

They’ve requisitioned the Screen Machine cinema truck to tour the Highlands next month screening some absolute gems of movies.

Let’s hope it has the same barmy and beautiful atmosphere and attitude as last year’s Cinema of Dreams at the Ballerina Ballroom in Nairn.

That’s Nairn, ‘on Moray Firth’, as the Guardian puts it here. (We quite like this - rather like Grantown-on-Spey or Dunny-on-the-Wold. Anyone else fancy changing the roadsigns to read ‘Nairn-on-Moray-Firth’?)

Anyway, before we’d properly looked at the Pilgrimage film fest programme we saw the venues and started to think about appropriate films: Kurosawa’s take on Macbeth would be great at Cawdor, and at Culloden they could screen that weird black and white re-enactment/documentary/news report.

And hey, that’s exactly what they’re doing!

Maybe next year Tilda could tour red phone boxes in Scottish coastal villages using a portable DVD player to show Local Hero to audiences of just one...

Sunny skies over Elgin the other day but there are dark financial clouds on the horizon for Moray Council.

Full coverage here of the extent to which the local authority must trim its spending.

We can’t help wondering if a more efficient way of protecting public services would be doing away with a lot of the duplication caused by Scotland having 32 councils ranging from the massive populations of Glasgow City and massive geography of Highland to the tiny populations and geography of Moray and Clackmannanshire.

Newsbleat does have a soft spot for old county names like Banffshire and Nairnshire but it’s crazy that we have dozens of local authorities each with their own masses of backroom staff doing similar admin work - why not just three or four regional admin hubs doing all the form filling, expenses and payroll processing for Scotland?

Moray should at least explore pooling its admin with Highland or Aberdeenshire to head off drastic cuts.

Or is it OK to waste council tax staffing superfluous jobs?

Well done to Tanya McLaren, long-time reporter at the Forres Gazette, upon her promotion to the editor’s chair of one of the brightest local newspapers in the north.

Read the full story here.

What the article doesn’t mention is that the editor will in fact be Mike Collins, who’s already in charge of the Northern Scot in Elgin.

Both papers are owned by the same company, SPP, which also owns the likes of the Inverness Courier.

Last year SPP hired some web journalists who now seem to have been credit crunched.

And of course their Lochaber News and North Star are put together in Inverness with only a few pages of difference from the Razzle of the North, the Highland News.

We’re sure Tanya and the various Forres and Findhorn correspondents will continue to keep the Gazette looking good but it’s a sad sign when local media cut their cloth.

Maybe the web and blogs are to blame?

Ahem!

We’re tickled by this.

It’s a project by someone who clearly has too much spare time and needs to get out more.

But all the same, spotting a giant capital I in a field in the Highlands using Google is kind of cool.

Writing about it on a blog, however, is just sad.

Breaking news this evening from Invergordon (click here) about illness on board the latest massive cruise ship to dock there.

Newsbleat was in the Easter Ross town just the other day and snapped the big beast you see on the right.

As usual the town was full of liner passengers looking slightly lost.

While Invergordon has really spruced itself up in recent years with clever artwork (see below) and tubs of flowers it still seems to lack anything for the discerning holidaymaker with cash to splash.

And the cruise liner business is booming, as this story shows.

It’s a shame to see visitors whisked straight away on coaches to soak up the sights of Loch Ness, Culloden Battlefield and so on.

You’d think by now some enterprising soul would have set up a shop in Invergordon selling the classiest Highlands gear.

These seagoing visitors could go away with a Tain Pottery teapot, an Anta tartan throw, some Moniack wine, a piece of Connage cheese and a John Byrne print rather than a see you Jimmy hat and some turkey twizzlers from Farmfoods.

While we were in Invergordon we noticed Patience the bakers has closed, due to ill health.

Mr & Mrs Patience: we salute you.

Of all the bakeries and cafes in the Highlands yours served the best black pudding and tattie scone roll by far.

Newsbleat is impressed to see the UHI Millennium Institute (project to create a University of the Highlands and Islands by getting the region’s various colleges to deliver degree courses) getting down with the kids.

Oh yes, UHI is hip and happening.

They’ve created an advert that is airing on Channel 4.

Watch it here.

It must have cost a fortune - isn’t that jogger Iggy Pop?

Seriously, £6million and they still managed to miss a bit.

If there’s one street that could have benefited from being re-paved, it was Inverness High Street.

Mind you, we only wish that because a load of drilling and construction would have been a blessed relief from the relentless clipboard-wielding charity muggers.

We love charity but are not so keen on harassment.

We wonder if these characters have ever had to pop into WH Smith for a replacement biro only to be badgered into buying half price Haribos and Dairy Milk?

Anyway, click here for details of the Streetscape completion ceremony, held, er, before the thing is actually completed.

We’re sure it’ll all look fabulous and we can’t wait for the almost inevitable Courier/Highland News story about how the city’s seriously scary seagulls are attacking more people now that we’re all enjoying our lattes and paninis outdoors.

And is it just us, or is there always a load of smokers at the next table whenever you try to take an outdoor seat?

We’d be interested to know if any Inverness cafes/pubs/restaurants have ‘no smoking’ outdoor seated areas.

Or are we doomed to cough our lungs up while enjoying the view of the buses going by?

We’re tickled by the latest idea concocted by weirdy beardy Rob Ellen, a true gem of the Highland music scene.

Without Rob’s enthusiasm for soul and roots the Highlands would be a poorer place - he’s one of the reasons we have the Tartan Heart Festival at Belladrum.

We even recall a sublime gig he put on many years ago in the Invernairne Hotel featuring Colin Vearncombe who used to be ’Black’. (Remember ’Wonderful Life’?)

Anyway, his latest wheeze involves people providing soundtracks for silent movies.

Who needs Hollywood when we’ve got Strathpeffer…

Newsbleat likes the sound of the latest wind farm application in the Highlands.

Cawdor Estate is proposing 17 turbines at Tom Nan Clach.

Read more here.

For once, a ‘lord’ who seems in touch with the real world.

The wind farm will boost the economy and will provide energy for Nairnshire and beyond.

But we bet there are some NIMBYs waiting in the wings to object.

We reckon as well as the environmental benefits of renewable energy generation, the wind farm would prove quite an attraction for that remote part of Nairnshire.

We often see people taking photos from lay-bys of wind farms - there’s an impressive one right next to the A9 near Thurso and (above) one we spotted recently near Dallas in Moray.

A wind farm could attract visitors into the hills above Cawdor for a walk or a cycle or just a drive to marvel at these great pieces of engineering, and of course the view back down to the Moray Firth.

The idea of ‘Homecoming Scotland’ fascinates Newsbleat.

Apparently 2009 is the official year.

We’re half way through so the event must be reaching fever pitch by now.

Er…

They’re putting up a noticeboard of what’s ons in Lochaber College - jings!

Pictures of Rabbie Burns are appearing on bottles of Coke - crivvens!

A piper is busking in New York (although he’s not really anything to do with Homecoming) - help ma boab!

And a town in Canada is organising a Miss Homecoming Pageant.

With shortbread.

How will we cope when this dizzying high of a year is over?

Big organisations often get accused of living in ivory towers - often unfairly - but it seems HIE is operating in another world.

Is their HQ, Cowan House on the Inverness Retail Park, a gateway to another dimension?

It certainly seems to hard to relate their activities to the real world.

They describe themselves as an ‘economic and community development agency’ but of course the SNP government moved the business advice side of things to the councils to deliver and it set up a new Skills Agency for Scotland.

So what exactly does HIE do?

Well, they gave work to a company run by their chairman.

Until someone suggested they’d copied stuff.

So the chairman resigns from the company but stays on at HIE.

Then a top economist points out that the enterprise company gives vast swathes of work to consultants who used to be employees.

Still, HIE must be doing some good, surely?

Well, they’ve paid a research company to work out there are lots of people working in retail and fashion in the Highlands (click here for the full revelation)…

Gasp! HIE organises a discussion on Gaelic (more here)…

But the cherry on the enterprise cake is surely the fact that HIE is the official repository of flag facts… (click here - go on, you know you want to)

Newsbleat has a soft spot for Aviemore.

It seems to be shaking off its image of a horrid 1960s ski resort and is shaping itself as a classier destination.

It’s in a spectacular location at the foot of the Cairngorms, on the banks of the Spey and handy for Inverness by train.

But supermarket juggernaut Tesco is powering ahead with its plans to triple the size of its supermarket in the village - moving to the northern outskirts from its current central site.

Read more here in the Strathy.

MP Danny Alexander makes a good point that the community must get some benefit from the development.

Regular readers will know Newsbleat isn’t a fan of supermarkets.

However, a number of experiences in Aviemore haven’t left us entirely sympathetic of local businesses.

Maybe the village deserves its Tesco takeover fate.

At least when you get bad service in a supermarket it doesn’t take you by surprise and you know any boycott/refund isn’t going to dent their pockets.

On one occasion a Bleater tried buying local meat in the butcher’s opposite Tesco but when offering a £20 note was told no sale unless small change was produced.

Needless to say bangers were bought elsewhere.

After a long drive up the A9 another Bleater pulled in at Aviemore and made a bee-line for Café Mambo thanks to its signs advertising food and free wi-fi only to be told the whole place was shut that night for a private function.

And recently a Bleater on a bike trip pedalled up to the big Macdonald Hotel but couldn’t find anywhere to store or padlock a bicycle out of the rain.

Even the hotel staff were at a loss.

Nowhere for a bike?

In a part of the country where it rains a fair bit and that markets itself as a destination for mountain bikers and cyclists?

The takeover of Tesco is symbolic of how lazy we can be in the Highlands.

On the plus side we heartily recommend the Mountain Café opposite the police station.

Enormous cakes and great service.

It even has a bike rack.

Newsbleat is concerned to hear that the wonderful wee Cromarty-Nigg ferry might sail no more.

Scotland’s smallest ferry is a superb link, especially for cyclists and summer visitors.

But maintenance costs are getting a bit much.

Let’s hope someone with a bit of cash pushes the boat out.

Ever heard of Ness FM?

We thought not.

A group successfully bid several years ago for a licence to run a not-for-profit community radio station in Inverness, hoping to scoop up listeners disillusioned with MFR’s love of the bland.

But according to the allmediascotland website, the group has handed back the licence claiming lack of funders.

We don’t recall any fundraising campaign - do you?

What a missed opportunity.

Maybe we could have had Newsbleat - The Audio Blog!

Excuse us if we don’t hold our breath.

Plans designed to cut traffic queues on the Kessock Bridge are to be unveiled later this year.

Transport Scotland, the agency responsible for trunk roads, says it expects to complete initial designs for a solution within months.

The obvious answer would be an underpass/flyover to get the traffic flowing, along with improved bus and train services and incentives to get people to use public transport between Inverness and the north.

But we bet it’ll be traffic lights on the roundabout.

Genius.

We’re chuffed to see the companion for the forthcoming series of Doctor Who will be twenty-one year old Karen Gillan from Inverness.

The former Charleston pupil will star alongside new Time Lord, strange-faced Matt Smith whose hair has its own dimension, when the show returns next spring.

More info here.

Of course, the Doctor is no stranger to the Highlands.

Back in Patrick Troughton’s day there was a four-part story called the Highlanders featuring Frazer Hines as Jamie the 18^th century bagpiper, who went on to become the Doctor‘s longest-serving companion.

Newsbleat hopes Karen’s Highland roots have an influence on forthcoming adventures…

The Rain of Terror (set in Fort William)

The Drakies Master Plan

K9 on the A9

Time And Relative Dimension In Speyside

The Doctor Upgrades His Sonic Screwdriver (at Farm & Household on Millburn Road)

Does anyone understand why we have so many different boundaries when it comes to politicians’ seats?

It’s so complicated it makes the expenses system look like a doddle.

Latest proposals from the Boundary Commission see a revision of Highland seats in the Scottish Parliament, putting the Black Isle together with Ardnamurchan and Aviemore while Grantown and Nairn are lumped in with Inverness.

Do these boundaries match the MP seats at Westminster?

Er, not quite.

Or the Highland Council operational areas?

Um, no.

But altogether they surely match the Highland seat at the European Parliament? (Remember, it’s election day this Thursday.)

Ah, well you see, Newsbleat had to tell some pretty switched on chums recently that the Highlands isn’t a constituency in Europe anymore - for some time now there have been seven MEPs for all of Scotland, reducing to six at this election for some reason.

Add on to that the loss of councillors for individual areas - instead we have three or four covering larger ‘wards’, list MSPs (what do they do?) and the ongoing snouts-in-the-trough Telegraph saga, is it any wonder people can’t be bothered with politics?

Can you name your three/four local councillors, constituency MSP, seven regional list MSPs, MP and seven MEPs?

If we’re looking for ways to ease the burden on the taxpayer during these tough economic times, dare we suggest streamlining the corridors of power?

So, the Speaker’s gone and MPs look set to have their pay and expenses worked out by an independent body rather than by, erm, themselves.

Who would have thought using taxpayers’ money to buy flat screen TVs would have caused such a fuss?

Newsbleat particularly enjoyed the claims made by Moray MP Angus Robertson.

£20 for a corkscrew?

We think the public is entitled to wine (ho ho) about that one.

Caithness MP John Thurso has helped confound the expectation that men with moustaches are shifty.

He only claimed £1,400 a month for a flat in London - a bargain by all accounts - and didn‘t claim for furniture or bedding.

New kid on the block Inverness’ Danny Alexander has been publishing his expenses on-line for some time now - click here to see.

But our favourite quote of the whole saga is from Chat Show Charlie.

Mr Kennedy, former Libdem leader and MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, said: "The media have to be responsible as well. If you detail everything honestly then they can choose to knock you for, say, chocolate biscuits. But if a constituent drops in for a chat at the Dingwall office and is offered tea, coffee and a biscuit, nobody thinks anything of it. So one wee plea — let's keep a sense of proportion."

So, people of Ross-shire, next time you feel like writing to your MP, visit him in person and make sure you get a cuppa and a biccie!

You paid for it.

A farmers’ markets selling food from the Highlands could be held in the car park of the massive Tesco at Inverness Retail Park.

How ironic.

Out of town shopping malls are killing off independent local traders and supermarkets are notorious for squeezing producers of every last penny.

(Click here to read about a recent protest at the Scottish Parliament.)

(And click here to read an excellent article in the Sunday Herald recently by food writer Joanna Blythman about the rise in the price of veg.)

Nairn-based ScottishJerky.com have apparently had positive discussion with Tesco about setting up stalls in a corner of their enormous car park.

Let’s hope the farmers get the space for free.

If councils are hell-bent on encouraging out-of-town retail parks they should at least include space for initiatives such as farmers’ markets to encourage people to cut their food miles and support their local businesses.

And while we’re at it, why doesn’t Nairn have a farmers’ market?

Think about it: surrounded by farms, including the award-winning Really Garlicky Company and Connage Dairy, bustling with visitors in the summer and home to one of the most famous Agricultural Shows in Scotland.

At the very least it would be a bit of variety for the deluded moaners who’re bored with the Co-op and Somerfield and think an out-of-town supermarket would be wonderful.

“This won't be an old man's drinking pub or a sports bar.”

“It's going to be something families can come into during the day when it is more food orientated. At the moment I don't think there is anything for people over the age of 25 who have maybe gone out for a nice meal. We will be offering a bar which is a bit quieter, where there won't be hen parties or stag nights."

Wow.

This wouldn’t be a revelation in any other UK city but for Inverness it’s quite a venture.

The developer of the Moray Bar at the top of Academy Street has been speaking to the Courier.

It sounds promising to us.

‘Bar One’ should be open mid-July.

Good luck to them.

Inverness councillors and the Civic Trust got worked up recently about proposals for an £8million hotel by the River Ness on the site of the old cinema/bingo hall.

Now the developers have amended their plans so the building is more in keeping with neighbouring properties - it features red brick and has been reduced in height.

Newsbleat can’t quite understand why you’d want to have a new building ‘blend in’ with the others along that side of the river.

Maybe we’re missing something but we don’t quite get the architectural majesty of the British Legion club, the STV office and the enormous Inland Revenue building round the corner.

Anyway, even if we end up with a slightly bland hotel by the river - surely a welcome boost for the tourist economy - it doesn’t explain why Inverness doesn’t make more of its situation on the Ness.

You’d think at least one side of the river could be closed to traffic and made into a superb walkway with grass, flowers and benches, and cafes allowed to place more seating outside.

But instead we have to make do with fast traffic on one side and loads of parking spaces on the other.

How dull.