Scotsman re-posts censored letter

Bruce's press watchdog, Buzz

Nice to see that after a stiff email to the Press Complaints Commission and the Scotsman’s Readers’ Editor Ian Stewart, the letter referred to below has now been re-instated on the Scotsman website for the publication date, 1 June.

The Scotsman gags anti-bridge campaigner

THE SCOTSMAN has landed another blow for press freedom – by proving it has the freedom to ignore and suppress those views it doesn’t like. After publishing my letter criticising plans for a new Forth road bridge in the paper on Monday 1 June, editors at the increasingly tabloid rag took umbrage at my opinion and decided to censor it by dumping the entire letters page!

My Peckham barber story in Guardian

See my piece in the paper here; last item

Even more France…

FETA in confusion over cable drying

CONFUSION HAS arisen over the dehumidification work being carried out on the Forth road bridge, following a public meeting in South Queensferry attended by four MSPs and around 60 local residents. The SNP Lothians MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville told the audience that thebridge’s chief engineer Barry Colford had denied saying he was ever “highly confident” that dehumidification would arrest the corrosion which is affecting the cables. But at the same meeting, Queensferry community council chair Tom Martin claimed that the press officer for the bridge, Chris Waite, had told him there was “a high degree of confidence” that the cable-drying technique would succeed in arresting corrosion, although it was impossible to be absolutely certain.

Remember Exxon Valdez? The oil didn’t go away…

“Gail, Please! Stick your hand in it!”

 The petite Eskimo-Chugach woman gave me that you-dumb-ass-white-boy look.

 ”Gail, Gail. STICK YOUR DAMN HAND IN IT!”

She stuck it in, under the gravel of the beach at Sleepy Bay, her village’s fishing ground. Gail’s hand came up dripping with black, sickening goo. It could make you vomit. Oil from the Exxon Valdez. Read more…

Scottish Aid reaches Gaza

by BRUCE WHITEHEAD

EIGHTEEN SCOTTISH volunteers have successfully delivered 25 tonnes of medicines to Gaza after a marathon 3,700-mile drive through Europe. The aid was donated by multi-faith groups including churches and mosques across Scotland. Despite setting off a week after the George Galloway convoy, the 17 Muslims from Glasgow, Preston and Bolton mosques, joined by this journalist, managed to beat the much larger group by nearly two days, arriving at the Rafah checkpoint last Saturday. Abdul Aziz, who helped organise the shipment, said the drivers had confirmed the trust placed in them by thousands of Scottish and English donors.

Jewish lady hijacks Gaza convoy

The Guardian Diary today relates my story of how a lady motorist managed to pull over the Scottish Gaza medicine convoy in Germany; unfortunately the Guardian got confused and thought we were the George Galloway convoy… now where would we get Havana cigars like his? Read the story here (second par)

Forth road bridge contractor also makes nuclear weapons

 

 

The Guardian Diary today publishes my story about how the Scottish government, which wants Trident gone, is letting Jacobs Engineering, which makes nuclear bombs, build the new Forth bridge. Read the Guardian piece here (5th paragraph) and the full story, including the split in Scottish CND, below.

CND damns government over nuclear firm

 

EXCLUSIVE: 

  AND  MADE BY

 

 

CND brands Forth bridge contract “disgraceful”

By Bruce Whitehead 

SCOTTISH CND has attacked the government for having double standards after it emerged that the contractor building the new Forth crossing is now also a manufacturer of nuclear weapons, which the SNP strongly opposes. CND Scotland’s treasurer Jim Taggart said the government’s determination to continue the contract with Jacobs Engineering, which bought part of the Aldermaston nuclear weapons establishment last month, was disgraceful.