BBC Scotland and BBC One Scotland and BBC Two Scotland sketch show from Robert Florence and Iain Connell. 22 episodes 2009 – 2019.
Robert Florence and Iain Connell write and perform this sketch show set in a fictional Scottish location that somehow seems eerily familiar. Burnistoun has its own newspaper, furniture store, gym, pub and all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant, radio station and even an ice-cream van.
Characters include Uncle Willie the man who insists on having his own funeral before he dies, wannabe girl-band singer Jackie McGlade who can make any tune sexy except football songs, and John and Terry two pub pals who insist they do not fantasize about each other sexually.
Other Burnistoun characters include disgruntled serial killer The Burnistoun Butcher, and snippy siblings, Paul and Walter, who share high drama inside their ice cream van.
The financial relief is aimed at helping the country’s tourism and leisure industries hurt by the economic downturn from the pandemic.
By Willem Marx and Adela Suliman
AYR, Scotland — Scottish golf courses owned by President Donald Trump’s businesses stand to benefit from more than a million dollars of taxpayer money, as part of a coronavirus relief program run by the Scottish government, according to government officials and an executive at one of Trump’s companies.
The financial relief is aimed at helping the country’s tourism and leisure industries hurt by the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Trump Organization owns a 45-hole golf resort in Turnberry, a famed course on Scotland’s windy west coast, and a smaller course and hotel north of Aberdeenshire, called Trump International Scotland.
Restrictions prompted by the coronavirus have forced stores and sports facilities to close across Scotland and the rest of Britain. The Scottish government has offered financial aid to affected businesses in the form of tax relief aimed at boosting the tourism and the hospitality sectors.
Kenny Ross, a spokesperson for the South Ayrshire Council, one of the two
Stunning photographs show a rare white starling standing out in a murmuration.
The bird’s white feathers are caused by a lack of melanin – a pigment responsible for black and grey colouring in the feathers.
Often birds with a different colouring can be ‘kicked out’ of the group for drawing unwanted attention from prey.
Caroline Legg, 59, was stunned when she spotted the white starling – and managed to snap photos twice.
Starlings are at risk from predators, but it appeared the unusual creature had been accepted despite its appearance.
Wildlife lover Caroline was walking in a field near her home in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, when she spotted the starling – and saw it perched in a tree three days later.
Gran-of-six Caroline said: “It’s rare to see the birds fully white, this is the first I have ever seen.
“I was walking near a field which had a big flock of starlings in it.
“I thought I saw one that was part white, and then when the group took off in the air and were flying overhead I noticed it was fully white.
“It was the same size as a normal starling and it was with a large group of the birds both times I saw it.
“The group could have kicked it out because it’s a different colour.
“Starlings are prone to be taken by predators, and because it’s white it’s more likely to get picked up.
“But it looks like the crowd has accepted it.
“It could be sticking with the group for protection.
“Two days later I was walking in the same area and saw it again.”
The mum-of-two, who is retired, added: “It had landed on a crabapple tree we were walking past so I think it was meant to be.”
In all three of these sad, searing songs, singer Elena Tonra showcases a remarkable gift for coolly but approachably dishing out weary words that resonate and devastate.
A look at the Scottish music scene’s coronavirus response, with Honeyblood’s Stina Tweeddale, Sneaky Pete’s owner Nick Stewart and SMIA’s Robert Kilpatrick
A feeling a lot like Doomsday fell about town last weekend. Up until then it had felt like business as usual, but while Boris Johnson told the public that schools would stay open and sporting events could go ahead, Nicola Sturgeon seemed to confirm on Thursday afternoon what Scottish promoters had feared for weeks – that large gatherings of more than 500 people would be banned in Scotland, starting Monday.
Events that were scheduled that weekend could still go ahead, and at Wee Dub Festival the room was full. That’s not to say there weren’t lingering signs of the coronavirus pandemic – events colleagues opted for the more hygienic elbow bump over hugs, and MC Natty Campbell shared on the mic how nervewracking passing through Edinburgh Airport had been. “It’s scary out there,” he said, “but tonight is about the music.”
“The show must go on” seems to be the operating mantra amongst promoters, though with each passing day that is becoming an ever more daunting task. In Edinburgh, the lack of large venues initially felt like a benefit. Smaller clubs, like the 100-capacity Sneaky Pete’s, could technically still keep their doors open, while nights like Church Edinburgh said that they would cap numbers for their night in the Liquid Rooms (now cancelled) to stay under the 500 limit.
But come Monday, it materialised that Sturgeon’s message was not an outright ban, just strongly-worded advice. In his first daily briefing to the public, Johnson avoided ordering a ban, in favour of discouraging people from communing in clubs, pubs and restaurants, and said that emergency services would no longer be in attendance at large gatherings. It is left to the musicians, promoters, and venues, then, to decide whether to press forward with their events.
Whether these individuals ethically feel that they can keep bringing people together is one thing. On Saturday, EH-FM resident DJ Andrea Montalto announced that a night he was supposed to play in The Jago in Dalston was cancelled. “Due to the lack of measures taken by the British government it’s very important to take responsibility and act in any way to protect the weakest,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “What is happening at the moment in Italy is a warning that we can’t avoid looking at.”
‘Closing venues for a few weeks could be a disaster’
But many who have staked their careers on live music have little other choice. A lot of these events are built by an army of freelancers, who must all now rely on the generosity of their clients to pay for work that might not go ahead. This line of work is already famously hand-to-mouth, and with a rapidly emptying calendar many have found themselves cut off.
