Here are this week's letters:

Issue distilled?

The application by Diageo to turn its Glenkinchie site into a venue for gigs, yoga, cycling and running events will inevitably raise questions from local residents.
Although we have almost certainly passed the peak of a ‘golden age’ for Scotch whisky, distillery tourism remains an important element of Scotland’s economic development. Even for non-drinkers, the relevance and history of the nation’s best-known product is hard to dismiss.
To what extent gigs, bike races and yoga contribute to any of this is something that will feel rather opaque.
In terms of ‘Scotch heritage’, it is quite hard to build even a tenuous link. A cycle race might seem harmless enough but it seems unlikely that it was ever envisaged by the Rate brothers or their successors who built the distillery. If that’s true of cycling, the link with yoga is even less obvious.
In terms of the economic impact, the really big questions relate to whether these events will actually increase economic activity in the county, or simply peel it away from locations that have infrastructure which is better designed to cope with it. How many secure jobs will these events create for the residents of Glenkinchie?
Then there’s the impact on Glenkinchie itself, a tiny hamlet in which the only narrow road already has to cope with the large vehicles without which a modern distillery is unable to operate, particularly one which outsources so many services like malting, maturation and bottling, to the extent and environmental cost that Glenkinchie does.
Cycling is, by most measures, an environmentally friendly activity that can reduce car traffic and improve health outcomes. Broadly, the same might be said of running, and certainly walking.
Conversely, cycle racing is an activity that requires the support of a significant number of motorised vehicles. It creates litter, noise, road closures and carbon emissions. To some extent, the same can be said of running. The imposition of such burdens, and inconvenience, in a very small residential setting, with limited infrastructure to support it, would give many people pause for consideration, especially if you look for solid community benefits to mitigate those impacts.
Some of those arguments also apply to hosting regular gigs, which will potentially create noise and disruption. Again, the level of direct community benefit is something that should weigh heavily in any consideration.
One might expect that a proposal of this nature includes some element of investment in the local community: perhaps some much-needed improvement to the local road infrastructure, maybe a jobs development plan, or how about joining East Lothian Council and Eve Coaches in making a financial contribution to assure the future of the embryonic bus service, even extending it to evenings and Sundays?
Whilst I can’t put a figure on the cost of these ideas it’s a rather small number, the benefits of which would be very significant. It would certainly be a gesture to demonstrate that Diageo values its East Lothian location or, as it calls it, ‘The Lowland Home of Johnnie Walker’.
Name and address supplied


Help required

I wonder if any Courier readers would be able to help me to connect with the sister of my old friend Robert Foster, who worked for many years at BBC Sport?
A private man, Robert died recently in the USA after a long illness. His many former work colleagues and friends are keen to trace the family to offer their condolences, as very little is known of his final few months.
Although he was brought up in Glasgow and went to Aberdeen University, Robert maintained close connections with East Lothian. This was not only via his sister Susan, who moved to the county with her family, but his parents, who bought a house on the coast near North Berwick. Indeed, we believe Robert’s ashes were scattered on the Bass alongside his parents recently.
If you are able to provide me with any information, please get in touch with me on the address below or email charles@charlesruncie.co.uk
Charles Runcie
17 Pirbright Road
Southfields
London
SW18 5NB


Workers’ rights

There is a vast difference of perception of the first 100 days of the capitalist Labour Government of the highly paid Junior Minister and the lowly paid working class of East Lothian/Scotland (Lothian East MP’s Courier Column).
Starmer’s Labour Party had a +6 net favourability rating upon taking office; 90 days in, that was down to -20 and, based on what people are telling us on Socialist Party Scotland campaign stalls on high streets up and down the country, that comes as no surprise; and it is not “teething problems”.
Since taking office, Starmer’s Government has cut pensioners’ winter fuel payments while increasing the price cap on our heating bills and kept the two-child benefit cap. 
Starmer has continued to excuse the Israeli state forces’ brutal slaughter and bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon, over 45,000 killed to date; along with Tata Steel bosses being allowed to slash 2,500 jobs at the Port Talbot steelworks, at the same time as receiving a £500 million grant from the Government.
On the 97th day of the Labour Government, they introduced the Employment Rights Bill to Parliament. This removes the voting thresholds imposed by the Tories’ anti-union 2016 Trade Union Act. However, it doesn’t remove 45 years of Tory anti-union laws. 
There would be nothing to stop the Government using emergency legislation to make the changes now, rather than wait for the laborious months and years-long parliamentary toing and froing in Westminster to reach its conclusion.
Labour’s plans have not been implemented in full by the Employment Rights Bill. The original ‘Labour’s New Deal for Working People’ was launched by Angela Rayner and Labour-affiliated trade unions at the 2021 Labour conference. Since then, sections of the Labour leadership have taken chunks out of it on behalf of big businesses – all of which the Lothian East Labour MP will support because of his business rather than working-class orientated ideology, as shown by his enthusiasm for the neo-liberal European Union.
The trade unions have to prepare to mobilise union members to fight industrially and by taking steps to establish their own political voice – a new mass workers’ party with a socialist programme.
Jimmy Haddow
Socialist Party Scotland
Carlaverock Avenue
Tranent

Thanks to all

In the year that marks the 20th anniversary of my younger brother’s suicide, I would like to use the pages of the Courier to extend my sincere gratitude to everyone who supported two fundraising initiatives in memory of Johnny Galloway.
All moneys raised – currently amounting to just over £3,000 – will be used to augment one-to-one support for young people in the North Berwick Coastal area.
For their help with the August golf fundraiser, I would particularly like to thank Teena, Ali, Martin and all at the Glen Golf Club.
For the September ‘Jamming for Good’ musical event, I extend thanks and admiration to Keith, Gail, Lisa, Ross in Sweden, Auld Hat, the Biphonix, Stuart Smith and all who donated raffle prizes in connection with the event.
Should people still wish to donate to either event, they can find details at NBYP Justgiving.
The chaotic golf brought back memories, the music brings us closer, and the funds might just prevent future ill health and combat current poor mental health among our young people.
They are our present and future and we owe it to them.
Alex Galloway
Lochbridge Road
North Berwick

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