The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Royal family ‘not racist’, says duke after Harry and Meghan interview
The Duke of Cambridge has defended the monarchy against accusations of racism made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, saying, “We’re very much not a racist family”.
William made the comment during his first public appearance since highly damaging claims of bigotry and a lack of support were levelled at the royal family by Harry and Meghan in their interview with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey.
He and the Duchess of Cambridge toured School21 in Stratford, east London, to mark the return of children to classes this week and the rollout to secondary schools of a mental health project Kate launched in primary schools in 2018.
As William left, a reporter asked him: “Is the royal family a racist family, sir?”
The duke, duchess by with the his side,
replied: “We’re very much not a racist family.”
The reporter asked whether there has been any communication between the royal brothers, whose relationship is known to have been troubled in the past. He asked William: “Sir, have you spoken to your brother since the interview?”, and the duke
replied: “No, I haven’t spoken to him yet, but I will do.”
William’s comments are the first public statement by a member of the royal family about the allegations made by the Sussexes which have severely damaged the reputation of the monarchy.
Film lovers will be able to hire out cinema screens for private viewings at Perth Playhouse once the coronavirus restrictions are eased.
The playhouse will be offering three of its screens for private hire once it reopens for people who want to visit the cinema, but don’t want to mix with people who are not in their bubble.
Perth Playhouse’s smallest screen (screen two) and its two newly refurbished screens (screens three and four) will be available to book for private people.
Mike Wiles, operations manager at Perth Playhouse, said: “We know a lot of people are concerned about coming back into public spaces.
“They are nervous about coming back and mixing with other people, but offering private screenings is an ideal way to get people back to the cinema.
“We are going to use our smallest screen and our two newly-refurbished screens with the leather seats because they are the best to offer out for private hire. hire for up to 24
“We have already had a massive amount of positivity for the idea and people have come forward saying it is perfect because they want to go to the cinema, but they don’t feel safe.
“You could even hire it out and plug in an Xbox or a PlayStation and have a mini gaming tournament with the kids, it doesn’t have to be a film.”
Mike added that coronavirus has been the “worst thing that has ever happened” to the cinema industry.
“I am desperate for everyone to get back to the cinema because there are an awful lot of films due to come out soon,” he said.
“We have Black Widow, Peter Rabbit 2 for the kids, and the new James Bond film, although that is not coming out until September so there will be a long wait for that.”
Once Perth Playhouse reopens, private hire will cost £149 for up to 10 people, and £249 for up to 24 people, which is the maximum number of people allowed in with social distancing.
The cinema will start taking provisional bookings later in March.
“We know a lot of people are concerned about coming back into public spaces
Perth Racecourse has cancelled all of its planned meetings until the end of June, blaming ongoing “uncertainty” about lockdown restrictions.
Bosses have pulled the plug on five fixtures in April and May, and have offered vouchers and refunds to ticket holders.
The announcement came as the organisers of the Cateran Yomp – an annual charity trek through east Perthshire hills – revealed that the 10th anniversary event has been pushed back until later in the year.
A spokeswoman for Perth Racecourse said the decision to cancel meetings was made with “great regret and sadness”.
She said: “With less than seven weeks until the start of our season it is clear that there is still too high a degree of uncertainty about crowds being permitted to racecourses in Scotland.
“Whilst there is light at the end of the tunnel in terms of vaccines, and plenty of speculation about a phased return of limited attendances in the coming months, we do not feel there is enough certainty regarding our first fixtures in April and May, and to be fair to everyone we need to make a call now.”
The spokeswoman added: “We will tackle the season in front of us in phases, and remain hopeful the picture may change from June onwards.”
Bosses have now written to ticket holders offering them racecourse vouchers of the same value of their tickets.
“If for any reason a customer does not wish to accept the Perth Racecourse voucher, they may of course request a refund in full,” she said.
“We look forward to welcoming racegoers back to Perth very soon, and thank everyone once again for their continuing support during such a difficult year.”
The Cateran Yomp, which was due to take place on June 5-6, will now be held on September 11-12.
Since its launch in 2010, the gruelling challenge has raised more than £3.8 million for thousands of veterans, serving soldiers and their families through ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.
More than 1,000 people took part in the 2019 event.
Steve Oatley, head of national events at ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, said: “After much thought and discussion we have taken the difficult but sensible decision to postpone the Cateran Yomp until September.
“We appreciate this is disappointing for many but, as well as providing much-needed clarity, postponing the event will allow participants more time to train over the spring and summer months and, crucially, travel out of their immediate areas to really maximise that training.”
He said: “It will also allow more people to consider the Yomp as their fundraising challenge for 2021, sign up and work towards it with a clear goal and timeline.”
Mr Oatley added: “We would like to thank the multiple landowners, suppliers, sponsors and volunteers who have continued to support us through this difficult time and, in the meantime, remain focused on planning the best event possible.”
“It will allow more people to consider the Yomp as their fundraising challenge
ADundee secondary school has transformed its gym hall into a large classroom to overcome setbacks created by physical distancing.
Harris Academy’s back to school preparations have proven to be an enormous task and head teacher Barry Millar said the school is now on version seven of its timetable.
Keeping people safely apart has been the biggest challenge in their plans and they can fit only around a third of a class into a room at each time.
But staff have been creative in utilising the vast space available in the building and have turned the sports hall and dance studio into classrooms in the hope of offering pupils more school time.
As the gym remained unused because of
Covid-19, Dundee Indoor Bowling Club loaned the school carpets to turn it into a spacious classroom that can easily accommodate up to 30 pupils.
Classrooms in maths, English and modern languages departments also have collapsible walls to expand the areas.
Pupils in S1-S3 will be in school for two afternoons per week until Easter, while seniors will be allocated additional time to complete coursework.
Mr Millar said: “The overall message from me is that this is great news, this is our young people getting back into the building.
“Yes in a slow and gradual fashion and it’s not going to be a lot of time, particularly for our young people, but it’s a step in the right direction.
“Staff can’t wait to get the young people their classrooms.
“It’s a real positive and I’m glad because the amount of work it’s taken to get it to that point is then worthwhile.”
The school is hoping to strike a balance between seniors working towards national qualifications and giving junior pupils a “quality experience”.
He added: “They’re not just coming into the building to be there in a tokenistic way. It’s with their own teacher in classes that are in their timetable.
“It has to be in a twometre physical distanced capacity, which is one of the major blocks for us – and I’m talking from a school which is a state-ofthe-art building with phenomenally wide corridors and massive open spaces that we can use creatively.” back into
It’s a simple question but one which the current first minister is having great difficulty with. Should any government minister found to have broken the ministerial code be required to resign? It’s black and white, yes or no, with not much room for shades of grey.
Nicola Sturgeon’s reluctance to answer is based primarily on the fact that her actions on a number of issues are being investigated by James Hamilton, a former head of the prosecution service in Ireland. He is due to deliver his verdict on her conduct very soon.
So, in response to this question from opposition MSPs, the first minister has simply replied, “Let’s wait and see what Mr Hamilton comes up with”.
With an election looming on May 6 to choose who will govern Scotland for the next five years, is that answer good enough? I do not believe it is.
The people of Scotland have a right to expect that those who would govern in their name are above reproach and if they do get things badly wrong are prepared to face the consequences of their actions.
My own experience of this goes back to 1999 in the first months of the then new Scottish Parliament.
At that time there was a huge weight of expectation on not only the Labour/ Liberal Democrat coalition government but also every one of the 129 new MSPs. How would things be different from Westminster? That was the question.
The new administration’s biggest headache was the spiralling costs associated with the new Parliament building. At one stage there was a real fear the project could be cancelled.
In one big debate, then First Minister Donald Dewar revealed that the new anticipated cost had risen to £109 million. The trouble was that this was not the correct figure – a fact not immediately discovered.
The officials responsible for the project had not included the sum set aside for contingencies, around £80m from memory, on the grounds this money was unlikely to be needed.
It’s fair to say that when Donald Dewar discovered what had happened, he was extremely upset as he felt that by presenting the lower figure in such a key debate with the fate of the whole project on the line, he, to use his own words, had “misled Parliament”.
To a politician such as Donald, there was no greater crime. He took his ministerial responsibilities very seriously.
A meeting was convened with the then head of the Scottish civil service, Sir Muir Russell, to decide what should be done. Donald certainly felt this was so serious he would have to resign.
The ministerial code states that “ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation to the first minister”.
It was pointed out to Donald that the mistake was not his. He had not knowingly misled Parliament as he had not known about the sum set aside for contingency spending and had truthfully reported the current estimate at the time.
The matter was resolved by sending a letter of apology to the then leader of the SNP, one Alex Salmond, and Mr Dewar also corrected the Official Record so that the true figure was recorded.
The Fraser Inquiry into the costs of the Parliament building subsequently cleared Mr Dewar of any misconduct but that came four years after his death.
It’s also worth noting the then head of the civil service, Sir John Elvidge, apologised for what had happened, something the current holder of that post
should be considering this current fiasco.
There’s no doubt in my mind if Donald had felt he was to blame and that he’d broken the code, he would have resigned.
Compare that to the actions of the current first minister. On several occasions she told Parliament the first she heard of allegations of sexual harassment by her predecessor, Alex Salmond, was on April 2 2018.
She then had to admit she’d “forgotten” about another meeting four days earlier when this was discussed. Bluntly, the first minister misled Parliament about when she first heard the allegations against Mr Salmond.
Then there’s the issue of her meetings with Mr Salmond to discuss the complaints made against him by two female civil servants.
The first minister
over says
that meeting comes under the umbrella of party business as she thought Mr Salmond was going to quit the SNP.
However, as soon as Mr Salmond produced the letter from the permanent secretary detailing the allegations against him, it became a government matter and the subsequent conversation should have been recorded and a note
given to secretary.
This was not done, nor were notes taken at three subsequent meetings.
Elsewhere in the ministerial code, it says “basic facts of government meetings with external individuals should be recorded, including a list of those present, and the reasons for the meeting”.
That didn’t happen and the permanent
is also a breach ministerial code.
The rules of conduct also apply to special advisers, they are bound by the civil service code.
I’m in no doubt if I’d leaked the name of a complainant to someone close to the alleged perpetrator, my feet would not have touched the floor on the way out.
Why does this matter? It matters because the Scottish Parliament was created to do things better, to do things differently, to give the people living in Scotland confidence that those governing them would be above reproach.
Should ministers who breach the ministerial code be required to resign? There should be no debate, the answer is yes.
● David Whitton is a former Labour MSP who served as a media adviser to former first minister Donald Dewar.
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