Tuesday, April 03, 2007

 
It's Time

In November 1973, Margo MacDonald - the blonde bombshell - stunned the Scottish political village and the world that focused on Westminster by winning Glasgow Govan.

In the first General Election of 1974, there were seven SNP MPs elected.

In the second General Election of 1974, 11 SNP MPs were elected - our first eleven, following the Magnificent Seven, as the Press put it at the time.

They told me it would never happen at all, let alone in my lifetime. But I always believed it would.

Some 30 years on, government has come home to Scotland; we have a Parliament again; and despite the criticism - some genuine and often welcomed - it has made a huge difference to the culture and lifestyle of the nation.

The smoking ban; health provision improvements; new prosperity for education.

On May 3, we, the people, have the opportunity - and the duty - to vote. To vote for the future of Scotland.

Labour has diminished the stature of our culture and status and led us - sometimes willingly - to the path of dependency. This can change.

It's time to stand up for Scotland.

It's time to grow up.

I
t's time - for the SNP

charles.fletcher@caledoniamedia.com

Thursday, March 15, 2007

 
Media Ethics and Credibility

This is the speech made by Charles Fletcher in Kiev at the launch of Business Ukraine, the country's first English-language weekly business magazine, on March 15 2007

It’s great to be back in Kiev – a city I’ve had the privilege to visit and work in over the past ten years.


My first connection with Ukraine came through managing a series of media development projects with the BBC World Service, then Caledonia Media.

That first programme was a series of workshops in various parts of the country; and on occasion, brought young Ukrainian journalists to London to get a feel for the media in the UK.

They were all great to work with. Their questions, their challenging questions! Their opinions and views all kept me busy as we’d leave formal classes behind, then sit and talk into the small hours of the morning about life, the universe and how we’d change the world.

Our world has changed over those years. You’ve had a revolution and a shift to democracy.
In my country, Scotland, we’ve had devolution - and after 300 years, we have our own Parliament again.


It’s an exciting time to be in Scotland.

And it’s an exciting time to be in Ukraine.

The changes and developments over these past ten years – and the past three in particular – have the potential to showcase Ukraine as the place to be to invest and develop.

But in any strong, accountable democracy, there must be an independent, responsible media.
To encourage growth and freedom, there has to be a media that is itself free – and worthy of the trust of the people.


That trust has to be earned through hard work; and retained through even harder understanding of the ethics of reporting and broadcasting.

As journalists, we have a responsibility to tell the truth.
As owners, we have a responsibility to encourage that.
As politicians, we have a responsibility to defend it.


The key to real success in the media is if you can show your audience you are trustworthy and credible.

Do that and they’ll respond warmly to you. They’ll come to rely on you; and yes, they’ll challenge you.

But that will be with a new perspective, one that is built on trust.

Surely, from a straightforward business point of view, it’s more attractive to advertisers to buy space on a trusted magazine; or air-time on a trusted radio or television station.

Telling the truth produces benefits all round: for the reader, listener and viewer; the advertiser; and the company itself.

I’m just back from working on a major project in Nepal where journalists have shown themselves to be amongst the bravest of the brave.

Their country is in a very volatile position, politically, economically and culturally.

Yet journalists across Nepal took the time to analyse and evaluate a code of ethics they believe will eventually produce a stronger, more responsible media.

It will take time – but they have established the principles they are aiming for and are enthusiastic to bring about change.

The democratic credibility of a nation can be reflected in its media. In fact, the democratic credibility of a nation can be reported in its media.

So why do we see such a lack of credibility in some of our media across Central and Eastern Europe?

In Hungary – they blame the politicians.

In Romania – they blame the owners.

In Britain it’s much easier to answer this and in fact any other question – we blame the weather for everything.

The lack of credibility is endemic where journalists and their newspapers or magazines or stations are simply not trusted by the people.

Journalists often tell me they are not free to report as they would like.

I would like them to be free to report responsibly. I would like to see a media that is responsible, free, fair, impartial and honest.

But we all know these words mean nothing if you’re a journalist that is too scared to report the truth … fearing some harm to you or your family … or that you might lose your job.


A few moments ago, Yulia Tymoshenko said that: “Violence, threats and intimidation against journalists should not be tolerated and every case should be prosecuted with the full vigour of the law.”

Absolutely.

Your comments supporting a free media are welcomed. And you have also made it very clear … that if media doesn’t start to clean up its act, then government will step in to do it for them. I hope the industry takes the hint.

If we aspire to live in a democracy, our journalism must be responsible and free. Journalists must be allowed to question and probe and hold politicians and officials accountable for their actions.

And if we are in such a democracy, politicians will have to respect and encourage such an industry.

Government departments in Ukraine are now forbidden from instructing the media how to do its job. That is good, but it needs to be strengthened; and owners need to follow the same line.
A strong, credible and reliable media is part of our social responsibility in helping to develop a healthy democracy.


Perhaps this is the moment to seize the initiative to take a lead in Europe.

This could be the opportunity to establish a set of principles; a new standard of media ethics; and to hold them up as the best industry guidelines across Europe.

When I first started working in Ukraine, I said there would be no overnight change; but change there would be. Over time … and we can see it now. There is more to be done.

Of course, getting there doesn’t come easily: we have to prove our credentials. We need to be able to show that we are being accurate and fair and honest; and admit it when we get it wrong.
It is possible to change our output; but we first need to change our outlook and be clear and convinced – and then convince others – that we can develop a fair, honest, responsible media.


Once we accept that, we need to build credibility through our practices.

It’s an ethos at the core of Business Ukraine.

A new style, a new concept; good for the media; and good for democracy.

charles.fletcher@caledoniamedia.com

© Caledonia Media 2007

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

 
Super High School Goes Ballistic, Finnie is Fantastic!

The eloquent young Scottish broadcaster, Scott Findlater, is through to the finals of a contest to win a radio show - and thousands of pounds of kit for his school!

But he needs your vote to secure his place on Scotland's Talk 107 station in Edinburgh

Voting opens on March 9 - so please go to www.talk107.co.uk/speakout and Vote for Scott Findlater's programme, Liquid News. It's a one-hour news, current affairs and music magazine

Scott says: “Politicians say they listen to us, but in fact they don’t. I am very concerned that at 17 I can get married, have children, get sent to war and kill someone – but I’m not allowed to vote for the man that sends me to war.”

Speaking on Talk 107, the Head Teacher, Robert Birch, said: “There couldn’t be a better place to spend two-thousand pounds on radio equipment, because the High School is about to become the home for Queensferry’s own 24/7 radio station, Jubilee FM.”

Jubilee FM’s station director, Charles Fletcher, says: “Scott is very talented, perhaps the best of his generation. He brings a lot to Jubilee FM. Scott has integrity, honesty and as his many friends attest, he’s also great fun to be with.”

Please vote. Thank you

charles.fletcher@caledoniamedia.com

Monday, February 12, 2007

 
Nepal Media Guidelines

Kathmandu, February 12, 2007

As Nepal prepares for fundamental constitutional change, a new set of guidelines for media professionals was unveiled here today.

The Nepal Media Guidelines are the result of a series of workshops rolled out across the country for more than 100 journalists and editors.

At the launch, the Chairman of the Nepal Press Institute, Gokul Pokharel, said the work was "a very wonderful job" for the industry in Nepal; and described the book as "the most solid contribution Charles Fletcher could have made to the media in Nepal".

The British Ambassador to Nepal, Dr Andrew Hall, said: "From their discussions (the journalists) have distilled what they believe to be the most important ethical guidelines. I hope they will be widely read by all Nepalese journalists and that they will find them a valuable practical guide."

Three regional editors brought additional local depth to the project, described by the author, Charles Fletcher, as "the most democratic set of journalistic standards" he has ever had the privilege to work on.

He added that what makes them particularly useful is that they were made possible by professionals in the Nepali media: "They were compiled 'By You, For You'," he said.

The book will now be released, free of charge, to journalists nationwide and online worldwide.

Caledonia Media is now preparing to roll out a series of workshops to help journalists cover the upcoming elections.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

 

Europe Today

Ten years ago, young Romanian journalists training at the BBC School in Bucharest dismissed guidelines on the use of violent pictures in television news. The BBC guideline calls for more sensitivity, restraint on the amount of violent images that can be screened, particularly together in one bulletin.

The BBC says “there is a balance to be struck between the demands of truth and the danger of desensitising people”. But the young Romanians insisted that “the viewers wouldn’t believe the journalists unless they could see the evidence for themselves”.

In other words, to be believed, they said they must show pictures – often close-ups – of the continuing atrocities in the Balkans War; dead and injured in accidents; and in one particularly disturbing incident in the early days of commercial television, the shocked reaction of a young woman to the news that her husband, an airline pilot, had been killed in a plane crash.

All of this was acceptable in those early days following the Romanian Revolution – or “The Event” as it was often caustically and sarcastically referred to. There was a sudden dash to embrace their version of freedom, liberation.

There was a belief, genuinely held among people in an industry that had never been taught otherwise, that with this break from the yoke of Communism and the suppression of the Securitate, they could say anything about anyone. After all, wasn’t this the so-called “Freedom of the Press” much heard about from people who had access to the West?

Well, of course it wasn’t. But trying to explain that to many of the young journalists who were also holding down two or three other jobs at the same time was challenging. It was rather like bringing up your own children when they have reached that awkward stage of asking “but why?” to everything you say.

There were some of the journalists in those early days, during the initially difficult transition from dictatorship towards democracy, who actually did understand and undertake to develop their industry into one staffed with professionals. Indeed the badge “professional” was much sought after, even more than money.

“Will I be a professional after this course?”… “Will this make me a professional?”… “Does this diploma make me a professional now?”… all genuine and serious questions raised by the young – and they were in the main in their early 20s – journalists wanting to make a career in the media.

Some of them now work in decision-making positions in Romania’s national public service radio and television, others in similar posts in commercial broadcasting. Yet others work for the BBC, Euronews, Eurosport, while one is teaching media in Paris.

In little over ten years, the Romanian economy has been transformed and the country stands on the edge of accession to the European Union, fully expectant of successful talks leading to formal entry in 2007, the next stage of proposed enlargement of Europe.

The media in Romania is unrecognisable from a decade ago, (perhaps) mostly in its television news and the picture content. Today, the journalists will tell you that they prefer not to show close-up scenes of death, violence, injury, as it is disturbing and unnecessary if they tell the story properly and professionally.

So, that all sounds perfect then. No need for further media training in Romania. All is in good shape…

Wrong. That there is considerable improvement, there is no doubt, by any measurement that the media output in radio, television and, to a certainly lesser degree, in the Press. There is always room for improvement wherever the media operates.

As in the standards of BBC news output, infamously shaken to its core by the misguided handling of the reporting of the Iraq War by the defence correspondent of BBC Radio Four’s Today Show. The subsequent mismanagement of his initial mistake served only to compound the incident rather than deflate it.

In the past month, BBC Scotland repeatedly broadcast the news that the Scottish government was about to make extensive changes to the higher education system that would wipe out the university status earlier awarded to a swathe of colleges across the country. It was wrong.

And in the UK Press, the Daily Mirror apologised unreservedly for printing fake pictures of Iraqi prisoners being beaten and tortured by British servicemen. The company admitted its mistake, sacked the editor, then robustly called on the British and US administrations to admit their mistakes in the war in Iraq.

The media is important in helping to develop and build a strong economy, a stable democracy. Undoubtedly, mistakes will be made by reporters. But genuine mistakes, as irritating (and sometimes dangerous) as they may be, are very different from the people who deliberately set out to tell falsehoods, to mislead, to lie to the people.

In the example of the Daily Mirror, it would be the easy option for the newspaper to apologise then cower in the back alleys off Fleet Street, seeking a quiet life as it licked its wounds. To do so would deny the basic tenets of democratic media: question, quiz, challenge authority. You are the watchdog for your reader. You can ask that awkward question and you must. The Daily Mirror was wrong to publish the fake pictures, but it seems to have been a genuine mistake, however misguided the decision appears to be.

It was correct to sack its editor and apologise to the readers – but it was critical that the newspaper would then raise its game and ask the awkward questions, make the demand of politicians to account for and admit their mistakes. And in turn, where appropriate, resign or be sacked.

In Scotland, as in other parts of the world, we refer to the media as “The Fourth Estate”. In an odd way, it adds a sense of gravitas to the industry, makes it seem almost part of the Establishment (a strange phenomenon when you consider that the media generally rails against anything to do with the establishment, rather seeking to knock it than join it).

Across the extended Europe, now a club of 25 nations through the continuing process of what could perhaps be well described as "Eunification", the media has arguably a far greater responsibility than it has had in the past.

As the economies develop, so must the media. It needs to be there to reflect town and country, raise issues, investigate concerns, encourage growth in business and culture and hold the nation’s leaders to account.

In Hungary, there is a continuing process of education through the media, in radio and newspapers in particular. The “big picture” of Europe was explored and reported (not as often as one would really desire or demand, but at least it developed in depth over recent years leading to accession), but perhaps more importantly, in the past three years, there have been useful reports by sensible journalists who stripped Europe down to the very basic question: what will it mean to the price of eggs?

It was in no way diminishing the overall growth and development: it was, in fact, recognising what the media can do so very well, connect directly with people. “Europe: What Does It Mean For You? How Will It Impact On Your Life?”

One group of young Hungarian journalists travelled to Belgium and Scotland to get first-hand experience and understanding of what the EU was all about. They went first to Bruxelles to see what impact the Euro was having on the economy. They met members of the great and good from the EU Parliament and institutions – and once the officialdom was concluded, they spoke to real people on the streets to get a measure of the real impact on their real lives.

By contrast, in Edinburgh they met people in a country functioning outside the Euro Zone. They similarly spoke to the great and the good of the Scottish Parliament, where they had a working lunch with elected representatives before observing a session in the chamber. As in Bruxelles, as useful as the official encounters were, it was the contact with real people in Edinburgh and Dunfermline that helped to colour in their picture of Europe and report that back to their readers and listeners in Hungary.

As nations continue through transition, the media must be encouraged to develop and it in turn must ensure that it reports responsibly.

A strong media is critical in the 21st Century. It plays a crucial role in the development of nationhood and its people. A free, responsible media is an integral part of a modern democracy and one that has to be encouraged.

In The Visegrad Guidelines, a code of media ethics written by this author and translated into seven languages, the UK politician, Michael Portillo MP, says: “Politicians will have to come to terms with the reality of a critical, unbiased media. It is a challenge for you to understand that, to welcome its development and to take it as a sign measuring your success in creating a democracy that is on its way to maturity.”

In little more than a decade much has changed in the media across Europe, and most especially in the new entrants to the EU and countries on the new eastern border like Bulgaria, Ukraine and Romania. Much also has changed in the media in Serbia, Montenegro and in Croatia, similarly aiming to enter the EU in 2007. There remains considerably more to be done.

It is no longer astonishing; rather it is pitiful, when departmental managers, company owners and donor agencies, in their rush to save money, cut costs, reduce or withdraw in entirety their support for training and development.

Rather, it is inappropriate to cut training budgets when people, the keystone to any organisation, are the very tools that can help improve output and market positioning.

Journalists in the new entrant countries to the EU are at varying (sometimes dramatically varying) levels of professional competence. Training, by organisations like the BBC and Caledonia Media, have played important parts in helping to develop the standards of the industry. Now, as funding bodies look to engage their resources in other ways in other nations, there is perhaps even more necessity to help support the media across Central and Eastern Europe, to develop all of the industry, improve its quality, build a better reputation for responsibility, reliability, quality, trust.

All of which costs money, and in some cases, will require media companies to self invest rather than rely on external funding support. In Slovakia, the general director of the national broadcaster, STV, looked outside of the country for professional support to develop the network’s news and current affairs outputs. But it funded the project internally.

In Hungary, there is ongoing restructuring at the national radio, funded internally; but at the national public television, a similar programme of development has stalled because there is no internal funding available and so far, much to the chagrin of their general director, no external financial support.

By contrast, that external support has been on the table for Belarus for a considerable period of time, yet has never come to any great realisation. Funders who want to support training and development are thwarted and left to express their grave concerns about the continuing political direction of the country and the dictatorial thumb on the throat of the media.

In contrast again, Ukraine has opened its doors, outstretched its arms (not as some cynics suggest, its palms) and is positively encouraging external support to help develop its media.

A little over ten years ago, Western professionals, people steeped in the industry as opposed to academics, pioneered media training across Central and Eastern Europe helping develop journalists, the managers and editors of today, encourage growth of, in particular, commercial radio stations and play their part in the development of democracy, and by doing so, have an input into nation-building.

There are examples of successes worldwide because of these initial interventions. In Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Baltic States, the Balkans, media training and development has secured a generation of responsible broadcasters and journalists.

Part of that success is that we now see journalists from Romania training their counterparts in Asia; journalists from Hungary training colleagues in Kosovo. They are the beneficiaries of investment in their skills and talents and they are determined to pass it on. That spend on the young Romanian talent has been paid back by the bucketload as he counts the hundreds of young broadcasters who have benefited from his experience, beginning in the classroom of the Scoala BBC at the National Film and Theatre Academy in Bucharest.

Their learning is a model to be rolled out further afield.

They can’t do it on their own. They still need support and help in training the next generation. A friend in Budapest says of trying to do his job to the high professional standards he believes in: “I still have to struggle every day, it’s better, but it’s still a struggle. I’m doing all this for my son and his son. My country will be better for them than it is for me.”

It is a measure of his determination to help build and grow Hungary that he stays there, rather than move elsewhere.

He may be a unique person, but the attitude isn’t. There are many more like him who want to do what they can to extend democracy through the media. They are all there, across Central and Eastern Europe. And they still need support. And that means recognising investment in continuing training and development. It needn’t cost a fortune. But it can accelerate the democratisation of a country. And a continent.

charles.fletcher@caledoniamedia.com


Saturday, January 27, 2007

 

The Lassies

The traditional "Toast to the Lassies" at a Burns Supper is designed to be a little cheeky about women; abuse stereotypes; but close with a cheery wish that they are God's gift and man couldn't live without them. Moments later, they deliver "The Reply" and treat the laddies similarly. This is from the South Queensferry Rotary Club's Burns Supper at the Priory Church, in January 2007

Distinguished guests; fellow Rotarians; lassies and laddies; and the wee church moose … guid evening

I am proud and not a little honoured to be invited to deliver the toast to the lassies. Well here it is (hands over slices of toast). It’s a bit cauld now, mind you

The impact you lassies have on us mere laddies begins when we’re just bairns

There we are gurgling as we lie back in our Silver Cross Perambulators … and what do we recall from that time? Sunny days? Bird song?

Well we remember one bird; and it’s our granny spitting on her hankie to wipe our face

And that’s where our relationship with the lassies gets its starting point

And even into adulthood, they treat us with contempt

I asked a bonnie wee Glasgow lassie the other day what she liked best about me. Was it my firm, trim body or my intellect? She said: "Naw, no’ that. Your sense of humour."

But do we laddies feel usurped by the fairer sex?

Aye, we do. Oh and, it’s safer to agree. We’re surrounded by them

I often worry about the different cultures when I’m travelling overseas, but find many similarities with home.

The most obvious one being that in most of the places I travel, the lassies are in charge. It’s just that the men don’t know

In some of the countries I go to, if you commit adultery you get stoned. It made me think of the Ferry where you get stoned before committing adultery

Talking of which: Robert Burns

This prolific writer lived his life bouncing between desire and genius. Love and lust fuelled his poetry

He first discovered girls when he was 15: and she was Handsome Nell; “a delicious passion”

Likewise, there has been a delicious passion to laddies across all of Scotland for more than 50 years

She’s as bonnie now as she was then, it’s true. But ye see, it’s all a plot to try to weaken us. They get together in covens to snarl at us from early age to middle age and seek to chase us into the grave

I’ll you a true story. As it unfolds, ye’ll realise it is pretty sad – sad in the modern sense of the word, not the greetin’ sense

I was looking at a picture of this lovely quinie, when one of the managers at Tesco leant over, looked at it, pointed to her, then looked up and said: “She’s fit, eh?”

Step forward: Maggie Broon

This sultry sex symbol has probably done more to break laddies’ hearts than any wee lassie has ever done

Her brother Joe once said: "You're the apple of a’body’s eye, Maggie ... aye, and Daphne's the core."

Oor Joe would have done well to have at least tried to learn the lassie lingo. You know what that is: it’s their own special vocabulary

Sometimes it’s words; sometimes it’s expressions; it’s also been known to resemble groans, but it’s been a while, so I’m no’ up to speed on that part of the dictionary

We need to understand, lads, this is simply a lassie-led conspiracy. They’re even doing it now as I speak, right here, right now

Look carefully and you’ll see a little turning of the foot under the table. Perfectly poised and with remarkable lines. In line with your shin

Learn the signs and words

When a woman says “fine” – you need to know that it’s not fine at all. In fact it’s far from “fine”

But you’ll no’ find out what it is that isn’t fine, because when you ask her what’s wrong, she’ll say “nothin’!”

Rabbie Burns was a great believer in the rights of women and held them

He held them socially and intellectually as equals

We also believe in wimmins rights

We laddies get home after a hard day at work and find the wee woman in the kitchen, wearing her pinny and cooking our tea

It’s at this moment, I feel she looks serene. Could it be she just looks comfortable in her traditional surroundings?

A match made in heaven: a lassie and a cooker

Anyway, we begin our little exchange

We tell her about our day; we don’t need any immediate response because we’ve so much to say…

Then we announce we’ve had a fantastic idea!

Listen carefully, laddies: when she replies “if that’s what you want”, then you must understand you’re in trouble

Puir Rabbie. All he wanted was to write the lassies some songs and poetry and have a little Mahatma Ghandi. But his treasured works have only helped set up their code!

He himself admitted as such: "For my part, I never had the least thought or inclination of turning poet until I got heartily in love and then rhyme and song were, in a manner, the spontaneous language of my heart."

In Tam O’Shanter Burns ponders the tendency of men to ignore the advice of their sensible wives. Thanks, mate

Less famous, but much more overtly humorous, is the poem Willie Wastle

It’s an hilarious account of a man (said to have been an acquaintance of the poet … but names were changed to protect the guilty!) who had the misfortune to be married to the ugliest woman in the world

In each new verse Burns catalogues the poor woman’s glaring imperfections in grotesque comic detail:

Then he concludes with the words:

If he’d been around today, he’d have had to think of more than buttons … especially when dragged down to Top Shop on a Saturday

The laddies are directed to and left sitting on a hard, wooden chair with the command: “stay there!”

There are many laddies on many hard, wooden chairs, under the same orders from these power-crazy lassies

And we’re all under the same fear of God – another lassie – for that moment the curtain slides back from the dressing room and the bird asks: “Whit dae ye think?”

Learn now: you should have had the courage to run away when she was in there. But ya big feartie, now you’ve got tae answer

“Ahm waitin!”

And what do you say?

You could try this: “Lovely, hen, but och! Ahm only a man, ken, ah cannae really tell. All I care about is if you’re happy.”

That tells her she looks a richt sicht, and it’s two sizes too small. You daren’t say it in those words...

But she’ll know…

Maybe try this instead: “Oh, it’s, great. I mean, tae me it is, but, I mean, ye ken mah taste is hellish.”

The gaggle of laddies perched on their seats let oot a collective gasp. Ain o’ their ain wiz aboot tae go doon

He didnae really say that, did he? Aye, he did

It helpfully brings an opporchancity to observe the raising of the right eyebrow by said wummin; the pursing of her lips getting tighter and tighter; and the eyes, oh my God those mean eyes, bulging oot their sockets like a fish on the slab at Alex Young’s

“Aye! You’re right,” she’ll say as she heads back for the changing room. “An’ so’s mah taste in men!”

“Whit’s wrong, Sadie?”

“Nothin!”

Oh clearly, the lassies can be a parcel o’ rogues and have mastered – or is it mistressed? – the art of sonic sound signalling

It’s a speciality. They’re like dolphins in stilettos

They emit audio waves that to the untrained male ear are perfectly safe. They’re laced with danger

There’s “the sigh”. Usually short and delivered to the side as they casually turn away from you. It means she’s bored but hasn’t the energy to spell it out

Then there’s “the long sigh”. This is, as the name might suggest, rather lengthy, and usually delivered straight to your face

There’s that little high-pitched noise that comes when she parts her lips whilst grinding her teeth together – you cannae hear it lads, it’s their code

It is swiftly followed by a very, very big intake of air. The mooth remains firmly shut; they widen their nostrils and inhale

This can oft be accompanied by both hands going on hips, arms bent at the elbow

This means you’re in deep trouble

Once this is indicated to you, the sonic signal may sound like: “Zattafact?”

At this moment, be very careful what you pray for

Don’t wish for a lassie with the Midas touch – because everything she touches will turn into an exhaust

Burns was not a conventional lover by our standards. He stated the limits of his fidelity:

“Let not Woman o’er complain
Fickel Man is apt to rove
We’ll be constant while we can-
We can be no more, you know”

As you know, he had numerous affairs throughout his lifetime, lucky bugger, and admitted to the feeling that:

“The sweetest hours that e'er I spent
Are spent amang the lasses, O”

Gentlemen, You should think to pledge to pay more attention to that wee cherub of your own. And given half the chance also to the lassie next door

We’d all do well perhaps to remember, as the Bard should have put it himself, in Green Grow The Rushes:

“Auld Nature swears the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O;
With apprentice hand she tried on man;
And then she made the lassies, O.”

And so together we toast the daughters of the Celts, and all the members of the fairer sex who inherit the spirit of the Celts

This be done as celebrated by Burns: “in all their beauty, dignity, strength, and, yes, in their ferocity”

Gentlemen! Be on your feet, and join me in a Toast to the Lassies!

The lassies!

charles.fletcher@caledoniamedia.com

© Charles Fletcher 2007


Tuesday, January 16, 2007

 
SeeScotland.TV is Announced

Welcome! 300 years to the day of the old Scots Parliament signing the Act of Union that created the United Kingdom, Caledonia Media announces plans to launch SeeScotland.TV

SeeScotland.TV celebrates all things Scottish from home and worldwide. SeeScotland.TV will bring you images of Scotland now and then ... and you can add to the content by uploading your family favourites

This is SeeScotland.TV - Bringing Scotland to the World

Come back soon for more news of this exciting new service, brought to you by Charles Fletcher and Tamas Barok of Caledonia Media

For details of pre-launch registration, or if you have any questions or enquiries, please contact us at the email below

charles.fletcher@caledoniamedia.com

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