The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
New boss for Horsecross Arts selected
Anew boss has been appointed at Horsecross Arts in a bid to strengthen the organisation as it moves toward leaving lockdown.
Dr Colin Hood has been appointed as the new chairman of the board of Horsecross Arts, the creative charity behind Perth Theatre and Perth Concert Hall.
Formerly the deputy chief executive of Perthbased energy giant SSE, Colin has previously served as chairman of Scotia Gas Networks and Southern Water.
It comes after a period of troubles for Horsecross and mass resignations from the board in late 2019, including former chairman Magnus Linklater.
The walk-out followed an audit report which raised “serious concerns” over financial management.
Chief accountant Scott Walker was parachuted in to provide emergency financial management in August, after a series of miscalculations led £74,000 shortfall.
Last year some 40 staff were made redundant due to a loss of income during lockdown.
New chairman Colin, who also served on the board of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, succeeds interim chairman and director of communications with Stagecoach Group, Steven Stewart, who has spent the past year guiding the charity through the Covid-19 crisis. to
He joins two further new trustees, Vanessa Rawlings-jackson and Peter Fotheringham.
New vice-chairwoman Vanessa was previously general manager at Perth Theatre and Peter is deputy director of finance for Dundee University.
Chief executive Nick Williams said: “I’m delighted to welcome the three new trustees, who
between them bring a wealth of experience and extensive skills to strengthen the Horsecross Arts Board.
“Colin brings experience at national and international level and we look forward to benefitting from his skills as we embark on our objective to build a sustainable postcovid-19 future for the performing arts in Perth.”
How will we all cope? What will become of us? I hear – can it be true? – that serial bolter and allround political party pooper Nigel Farage has just resigned again. This time, it would seem, he is leaving the Reform Party (who they?) to “get his life back”, while simultaneously adding the weight of his vast experience and knowledge to “opposing the woke agenda”. The mind boggles . . .
Those woke folk must surely be shaking in their environmentally-friendly, ethicallysourced vegan shoes.
How will they bring themselves to stay awake long enough, never mind woke, to face the ferocity of Farage? Me, I wouldn’t bother. It’s the original version of this mangled word I have trouble with.
My woke agenda is based around cocking a sleepy snook at those smug beggars who, especially since the advent of lockdown, still insist there is something innately superior or morally worthy about getting up early. I’m just tired of it.
It is, of course, genuinely a bad sign of deeper problems if you can’t bring yourself to get out of bed in the morning. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the fact that there are those of us who function better if we allow the hands of the clock to tick onwards to double figures before we try anything radical like walking and talking, separately or (whisper it) together.
The Significant Other is very definitely a lark. Vaughan Williams’s musical bird, which takes so long to ascend it must be glued to the ground, has nothing on him. But he has learned much of great usefulness in our three decades of acquaintance, including letting sleeping wives lie.
Yes, I could get up with the lark and I do, when there is a reason for doing it. Like going on holiday. But otherwise, instead of leaping with a glad cry into the first inviting jobs and activities of a new day, my circadian rhythms are such that I would spend the first couple of hours coming to and achieving damn all apart from a finely honed impersonation of a cast member from Plague Of The Zombies. I would therefore, be much better to stay put, get the sleep I need (and love) and get up when my brain and body are actually ready, willing and able to get stuff done. This does not make me a bad person. Like Brexit (or maybe that’s a bad analogy in this context), things get done.
And lest Mr Farage (yawn) should be looking for a target against which to direct his obviously still-plentifui store of bile, you and he can rest assured that I will never be woke.
I’ll be sleeping it off...
Royal ructions
It’s hard to know what else can be said about the Oprah Winfrey interview with those pesky Sussexes. Not being a royalist, it’s all been difficult to thole, to be quite honest, but I can understand that those who support the institution at the head of our still, if only just, United Kingdom are everything from concerned to spitting tacks.
Team Sussex or Team Windsor? A plague o’ both your houses, as someone exasperated in Romeo And Juliet exclaimed at the fallout of a family feud. Or, as my grandfather used to put it in rather less Shakespearean terms: “If ane’s as bad as the ither, they’re baith the same!”
Mind you, even for a hard-hearted old republican like me, it did jar somewhat only a week or two ago to hear statements about the nature of public service levelled against a young man who, undeservedly privileged or not, actually served his country and, theoretically, a greater good in Afghanistan. And who seems to be held in generally high regard by the military organisations with which his connections have now been severed.
Without going into the finer points of truth, lies or varied recollections (other recollections are, obviously, available), I will also admit to noticing that there was a pretty immediate public response by the palace to the investigation of bullying accusations against the Duchess of Sussex, while her calling out of allegedly racist behaviour will be “dealt with privately”.
Racism accusations aside, parallels are inevitably being drawn with the situation faced by Diana, Princess of Wales in terms of controversial interviews, mental health issues, awarding and removal of royal titles and provision of security. For an institution steeped in history, it seems ironic that the royal family never seems to learn much from it, especially when it is threatening to repeat itself.
But whether you believe her or not, the Duchess of Sussex has, at least, the great personal advantage of being married to a man who loves her and is prepared to support and speak up for her. Which is more than her late mother-in-law ever had.
All I would suggest is, given that the fall of the monarchy any time soon is pretty unlikely, that any event leading to the departure of Piers Morgan from public view can only be a very good thing. Until he inevitably turns up again, sitting at the right hand of Andrew Neil...
For an institution steeped in history, the royals never seem to learn much from it