The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Running a book on Hate Crime Bill
Sir, – The Hate Crime Bill has been passed in spite of serious misgivings, in particular its potential for state intrusion into the family home and the exclusion of misogyny as a hate crime.
It reminds me of another bill championed by the SNP, the Offensive Behaviour At Football Act (OFBAF).
I am thinking of running a book on whether the Hate Crime act will last as long as, or longer than, the OFBAF act.
It was the law from January 2012 to its repeal in April 2018, six years and three months. Jill Stephenson. Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh.
The photograph on the right was supplied by Kenneth Baxter who says: “This image shows the Queen with Professor David Rutherford Dow at Queen’s College, Dundee, on June 28 1955, during her visit to Dundee.
“Professor Dow, who was master of Queen’s College, can be seen preparing the college visitors’ book for the Queen to sign.
“Queen’s College had come into existence the previous year, as the successor to University College, Dundee, following a reorganisation of the University of St Andrews. It would exist until 1967 when it became independent as the University of Dundee.
“While any royal visit is always a significant occasion, one event made this a particularly memorable one.
“The visit took place on a wet day and puddles had formed between the entrance to the college and the royal car.
“Deciding to emulate the famous story of Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth I of England, medical students John Anderson, Neil Buist, Leslie Burgess and Michael Illingworth laid their gowns down over the wet ground.
“The smiling Queen acknowledged their chivalrous actions and walked over the gowns as she left the college. The story of these modern Raleighs was widely reported with approval in newspapers across Britain in the following days.”
Childhood days
Bankfoot reader Thomas Brown has sent in the photograph, bottom right, and says: “The photograph shows my childhood days in the village when I was six years old in 1952 and living in a prefab on Bankfoot’s Prieston Road.
“The picture is of me climbing up the clothes pole as a wee lad, and all around me you can see the prefabs built during the war. There is not a TV aerial to be seen. We were one of the first in the village to have a television. I remember having many of my pals around me. This was the immediate post-war era and signs of war were still visible.
“Like many people do, I look at the photograph now and ask myself how all these years can have flown by so fast. Happy days!”
I liked my career
“How interested I was in the recent article from William Duff about he and his father working in Valentines,” says Kirriemuir reader Lillias Smith. “I was employed as manageress with Industrial Catering Ltd,
serving employees of Valentines, after I moved from Glasgow to Dundee in 1955.
“I enjoyed my work there, serving at least 160 meals a day, until I left to marry in 1961. I had happy days there – the customers were always pleasant and I had a hard-working staff. My recompense was £8 a week.
“Some of the Valentines staff asked me why I didn’t come to work in the firm, printing Christmas cards, because wages were good and there was a bonus scheme, but I liked my career and work with Industrial Catering. My boss was Mr Scott and my supervisor was Miss Mcfarlane.
“Sorry, Mr Duff, I don’t recognise any of the fire watchers – being an octogenarian, my memory is poor.”
Book suggestions
A reader asked about books on the Caledon Shipyard in Dundee. Another reader has replied with two suggestions. “I was fortunate to be present at the book launches of David Middleton’s volume at the former Borders bookstore and later on the Unicorn when Jack Reilly launched his. Both are profusely illustrated and often referred to.”
Lost and found
A Craigie reader would like to thank the person who found and handed in a grey purse to the management of the Wellgate Centre in Dundee recently.
Episode 75
Elspeth Cameron finishes her spritzer with a sigh. “You’re right, of course. But I can’t help thinking it’s not going to be good news. “He’s a...” She hesitates, searching for the right description and finding something unexpectedly poetic. “He’s a vortex of negativity that man.”
Then she splutters with laugher. “God, will you listen to me?” “William?”
“Yes, of course. Not Cal. Cal’s an angel by comparison. Well, perhaps not an angel, but he wouldn’t do you a bad turn. William could start a fight at a meeting of Quakers. And it’s worse than that. He can be incredibly charming when it suits him. But he also rubs people up the wrong way.
“He has this unerring instinct for their weak spots. He makes it seem all harmless and coincidental, but afterwards you realise he meant it, meant to be rude. Unless he thinks he can get something out of you.
“It’s calculated to make you feel small and insignificant. And he does that to Fiona all the time.”
“I went out with somebody like that once. Just for a couple of months. Found myself thinking I was in the wrong all the time but I couldn’t figure out what I’d done. I kept finding myself apologising to him and then for him as well. He was rude to all my friends.”
“Exactly.”
“My dad told me to kick him into touch and after I stopped being angry I could see that he was right.”
Sting in the tail
“Even when he stays here, there will be complaints. He’ll say nice things and then there will be a sting in the tail. The only person I’ve ever known get the better of him was Donal, one time anyway. Donal from Ardachy.
“William said something quite unpleasant about his wife’s jewellery, damning it with faint praise, you know, and Donal spoke to him in Gaelic.
“He has some of the language. From his father, Iain. It was Iain’s mother tongue. I think William didn’t know whether it was an insult or a curse but suspected it was a curse, and it unsettled him.
“He always likes to be in control, that one.”
Now she’s intrigued. “I was going to go down and see Cal later on. Take Hector down to say hello. Do you think that would be a good idea? I don’t want to walk in on a row of any kind.”
“Yes. Maybe you could do that. Galbraith is booked in for an early dinner at six o’clock. He said he didn’t want any lunch so he’d eat dinner early. You could go down then. That way you’d be sure of missing him.”
“I was going to take some stuff to the charity shop at Keill anyway. So it would be fine. I’ll have a cup of tea if there’s a café or a pub there and wait till almost six.”
“There’s a pub. The Ferryman’s. They’ll do you some tea.”
“But I still don’t quite understand the problem.”
“I can’t explain. I’ve just got a bad feeling about all this and I don’t know why. But I’ll feel a whole lot better if somebody goes down to make sure that everything’s OK.
“Cal loves the bones of that dog. You and Hector ought to go down and make sure he’s all right.”
Mrs Cameron leaves Daisy alone to finish her sandwich in peace. Before she sets off to drive to Keill with the charity shop donations, she puts Hector in the car and heads indoors to the lavatory.
Handsom face
She’s passing through reception when she almost bumps into a tall man who looks vaguely familiar. She realises it’s only because there’s the faintest resemblance to Cal.
He’s in his sixties, tall, very slender, with floppy grey hair receding at the temples. Unlike Cal, though, he has pale grey eyes. He has a handsome, hawkish face: lined, distinguished, full of a certain confidence, the kind of man who always walks with his head held high, ignoring anyone he deems to be unworthy of his attention.
But perhaps she’s been too easily swayed by Elspeth’s prejudices. Maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Sorry,” she says, smiling at him. Why do women apologise all the time when there’s nothing to be sorry for? Should she introduce herself ?
He doesn’t give her the chance.
“Oh, excuse me!” he says, with a brief, chilly glance at her. She’s nobody of note. Keys in hand, he’s heading for his beautiful car, the most expensive in the car park. Her muddy Polo seems remarkably shoddy by comparison.
He seems intent on something and very much in a hurry, in his smart leather jacket, a man bag over his shoulder, shiny brown brogues on his feet.
Epitome of success
There’s an atmosphere of money and sophistication about him that she suspects his son will never quite possess, or even want to possess, no matter how apparently successful he becomes. Cal is good-looking and charming, but charmingly ordinary.
This man, striding along with his head in the air, has an elegance about him that seems the epitome of success. Doors will slide open for him. Life will be easy on him. And even if it isn’t easy, he won’t care.
He won’t even notice the hurdles, because he’ll walk straight over them, mowing them down in the process, as well as anyone who has the misfortune to get in his way.
The door to the car park is open, and she sees and hears Hector making a racket as William passes her car. He is up at the window of the car, barking but wagging his tail at the same time.
William casts a look of immense irritation and perhaps puzzled recognition in the dog’s direction.
It’s only when he’s gone, folding his long limbs gracefully into the sleek car, that she realises something else about him.
Where Cal is all warmth and energy, with a certain vulnerability, there is nothing remotely warm about his father at all.
As soon as he has gone, Elspeth Cameron emerges from the office at the back of the desk, to hiss, “See what I mean?” “He’s a bit...”
“He’s absolutely full of himself. You go and see Cal. Find out what’s going on. Lend him some moral support.
“Because nobody else will. Or nobody who can make a difference, anyway.”
He has a hawkish face: lined, distinguished, full of a certain confidence, the kind of man who walks with his head held high
Abertay University and the INGAME research and development hub are backing Dundee’s next generation of video games start-ups with a £20,000 competition.
Abertay’s annual video games design competition Dare Academy will return this summer in an online format, after being postponed due to the pandemic last year.
The contest is designed to reproduce an industry environment and has a long track record of producing start-up companies, many of which have gone on to achieve significant commercial success.
This year the winning studio will receive a cash injection of £5,000 in addition to £15,000 worth of support and services from INGAME.
The support includes organisational design and commercialisation support, priority access to INGAME facilities and testbeds, access to senior industry figures, and assistance to access future investment opportunities.
Over the summer the studios will design prototype games under the stewardship of mentors from the games industry, before a judging panel declares the winner in September.
Sean Taylor, project director of INGAME, said: “We’re thrilled to be backing Dare Academy this year and we are really excited to lend support to the winning team.
“INGAME is all about driving products, service and experience innovation across the Dundee games sector and beyond, and Dare Academy never fails to produce a range of creative new ideas.”