Alan Simpson

Scotland

Head of Print at The Herald (Scotland)

Head of print at The Herald.. Dedicated to keeping people properly informed. Occasionally tweets nonsense about other stuff. Views are quite obviously my own.

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Articles

It is high time that irresponsible campervan users are taxed off the NC500

6 days ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

Irresponsible campervan users are causing misery (Image: Getty) To some, they are the best way to travel as you basically just pack all your stuff in the back and head off into the day, only stopping when you’ve found a decent spot to pitch for the night. Certainly across the Atlantic, campervans have always been fairly popular but being the good old US of A, the vans are getting larger and many now resemble medium-sized aircraft carriers with the handling to match.
Trump is right, it is time to drill baby drill in the North Sea

1 week ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

The US President has called on the UK to continue drilling for oil in the North Sea and keep Aberdeen as ‘the hub’. He says that drilling needs to incentivised by the UK government and posted on his Truth Social platform that things need to change to help bring down energy costs. Mr Trump has been vocal about the North Sea oil industry in the past and now wants to see Scotland and the rest of the UK stop building ‘unsightly’ windfarms and focus on oil instead.
The new £144m electric rail line without enough trains

2 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

Recently. I’ve been pondering another big question, namely what can you buy for £144 million? A couple of decent midfielders for an English Premier League team would be one and I suppose you could conceivably get quite a large swathe of Perthshire too and still have a bit of change left over. However, it transpires that what you cannot guarantee with that sort of money is a better rail service.
Giving Calmac the contract is right - now give them better ships

3 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

Ferries in Oban harbour (Image: Colin Mearns) IT is probably fair to say that ferry operator has had to navigate some choppy waters of late trying to meet timetable obligations with some really duff kit handed to them by the incompetence of others. Staff and crew have battled heroically at times to get folk on and off islands with vessels that should have been replaced years ago.
Build more houses for rural Scots, not tax second home owners

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

Plockton in Wester Ross has high number of second home owners (Image: NQ) Holyrood's small but noisy band of Green MSP’s have been creating rather a lot of hot air of late, which cannot possible be good for the planet. First up we had Maggie Chapman, a list MSP for the North-East, who created waves with her rather ludicrous attack on the ‘bigots’ at the UK Supreme Court.
We're going to need a smaller boat: CalMac's large ferry dilemma

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

CalMac ferry arrives in Troon (Image: NQ) Given the current state of the ferry network, it is little wonder that islanders are getting a wee bit hacked off and who can blame them. Anything that can go wrong with the fleet, has gone wrong and ferries have to be pulled from hither and tither just to plug the gaping holes in the network.
Scotland's tourism sector needs to be listened before it's too late

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

Tyndrum from the air (Image: NQ) During the recent spell of dry weather, social media has been illuminated with scenes from across Scotland looking at its finest. The clear, blue skies brought the best out of the Highlands in particular, which was married perfectly with the white sandy beaches and turquoise water. It could almost have been the Caribbean although the temperatures didn’t quite match those of Jamaica or Barbados.
Forcing landowners to sell to locals is not best solution

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

Armadale Castle on Skye is part of the sale (Image: Getty) THE moment that hastened the demise of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was when he decreed that all white-owned farms should be violently seized and handed to black members of the population. Almost overnight, the country went from being the bread basket of Africa to an economic basket case instead as the once lush and productive farms became useless.
We thought the good times would last forever. What next for Aberdeen?

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

Union Street in Aberdeen from the Castlegate (Image: NQ) THE first time I visited New Orleans, I was struck by the fact that many of the car registration plates had the phrase “Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler” on them. In fact, the phrase was pretty much everywhere and was explained as being a translation of “let the good times roll” into Louisiana French Creole.
NatureScot threatens rare mussel it is supposed to protect

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

River Oykel is home to the freshwater pearl mussel (Image: NQ) IF you ask anyone whether or not they agree with clean, green energy being generated by onshore windfarms, the vast majority would overwhelmingly support it. What’s not to like after all and given Scotland’s capricious weather caused by being stuck in the North Atlantic then wind should certainly not be in short supply.