LEGIONELLA bacteria are water-loving bacteria that uncommonly cause infections in humans. Between 1995 and 2011, they were identified in between 15 and 44 Scottish cases each year.

Around two-thirds of cases are identified in people who have acquired their infection while abroad. People of any age can be affected, but the majority of cases are in those over the age of 50, and men are between two and three times more likely to have the infection than women. Cases peak each summer.

The infection cannot be passed from person to person, but is contracted after someone breathes in an aerosol/vapour containing the bacteria.

Sources include vapour/aerosols from industrial cooling towers, air-conditioning units, humidifiers, whirlpool spas, fountains and contaminated household showerhead units.

You are more likely to develop symptoms if you are in a group at increased risk (eg, if you have a chronic breathing or heart problem, or have a problem with your immune system), are over 50, are male, a smoker and if you drink to excess.

Initial symptoms include muscle aches and pain and headache, then high fever (greater than 40C), breathlessness and a dry cough. Three in every ten cases also have diarrhoea, vomiting, or are off their food. Around half become confused. If you are worried, contact your GP or NHS 24 straight away.

• Jim McMenamin is consultant epidemiologist at Health Protection Scotland.

SCOTLAND’s leading bacteria expert has told how the outbreak should not have happened in a modern city like Edinburgh.

Professor Hugh Pennington said the scale of the outbreak was “most unusual”.

He said: “The most likely source seems to be the cooling towers. Businesses, no matter what size, know what is needed to maintain these towers and ensure they are safe.

“It is not rocket science to test and maintain them and does not take too much time or money.

“It is most unusual in a modern city like Edinburgh to have an issue like this, as it is really basic procedure keeping these towers safe. Towers should not be getting rusty and not being tested,” he said. “Any company which fails to do so really is being neglectful and are, in a nutshell, putting people’s lives at risk, which it obviously totally unacceptable, and they’d need to be held accountable.”

Prof Pennington said: “This is not an act of God, this is a failure of maintenance by someone and simply should not happen.”

He said he would be surprised if any of the towers found to have spread the bacteria belonged to a multi-national firm, such as a major distiller or brewer.

They would have microbiologists on site who would regularly carry out checks and ensure safety.

He said: “In my opinion, this is far more likely to have come from a smaller operation where routine maintenance has slipped by the wayside or been overlooked.”

The expert said people did not have to live or work in the area to become ill; just walking past one of the towers when the bacteria were in the air would be enough to infect someone.

He said: “It is a matter of bad luck, you could walk past with the air blowing in your direction and breathe in as normal, and that could be enough.”

Prof Pennington told how once the towers were deeply cleaned they should no longer be able to spread the bug.

He said it would be “over the top” to ask the public to stay away from the suspected source areas, as the worst was likely to be already past.

The microbiologist added: “All being well, the towers are disinfected now and safe.

“That does not mean no more cases, it would just mean no-one could acquire the disease now. But it takes up to two weeks for symptoms to show, so there could be more cases this week but, hopefully, that will be it.”

Prof Pennington said it was the biggest outbreak Scotland had seen to date.

THE actual number of cases of Legionnaires’ disease across the UK is likely to be higher than the total reported cases.

This is because not everyone who has suffered from pneumonia will have been tested for the disease, particularly those with milder symptoms. This means these cases will not have been reported to health authorities.

Between 30 and 40 cases of the disease are reported each year in Scotland. The latest figures from Health Protection Scotland show there were 501 cases of the disease between 1995 and 2010, and 43 deaths. The most fatalities were in 1985, when six people died.

In 2009, there were 345 reported cases of Legionnaires’ disease in England and Wales.

Britain’s worst outbreak of the disease was at Stafford District General Hospital in 1985, which claimed 39 lives – the largest recorded total in a single outbreak. A further 175 cases were reported. The source was traced to an air-conditioning tower on the roof. Previously, the largest outbreak worldwide had been in 1976, in the US city of Philadelphia, when 34 people died.

In 1999, 32 people died from the disease at Bovenkarspel in the Netherlands. It is believed the death toll could be higher but that some victims were buried before the disease was identified. The bacteria was traced to a hot tub.

In 1984, one person died in Glasgow and there were 33 confirmed cases – 26 of those who became ill lived in the Dennistoun area of the city, downwind from a cooling tower. In 1994, one person died and nine people were infected in south-west Edinburgh. Cooling towers were suspected of being the cause.

In 2002, six women and one man died from the disease after a faulty air-conditioning system released the deadly legionnella bacteria into the air at an arts centre in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. There were 172 confirmed cases. Barrow Borough Council became the first public body in the UK to be charged with corporate manslaughter, but was later cleared. However, it was fined for health and safety breaches.

Basildon University Hospital in Essex has seen two confirmed deaths from the disease since 2002. In 2002 it was fined £25,000 over the death of a man from the disease. In 2010 there was a second Legionnaires’ death at the hospital, while two other patients were treated with antibiotics. A further two patients died last year. In one case Legionnaires’ was a contributing factor. Cause of death on the fourth case is yet to be confirmed.

The hospital said that since the first case of Legionnaires’ disease in 2002, it had spent £2 million on remedial works to its plumbing infrastructure.

In 2010, two people in South Wales died and another 22 became ill. The source was believed to be cooling towers.

In May last year, three people died of the disease in the west of Scotland, in separate incidents.

There were also seven confirmed cases in the Greater Glasgow and Lanarkshire areas.

The House of Lords’ Standards Commissioner launched a formal investigation into Cabinet minister Baroness Warsi’s expenses claims yesterday.

Former police chief Paul Kernaghan decided to investigate after being asked to look into the claims by Lady Warsi. She is facing allegations that she claimed for accommodation expenses while staying at a friend ’s house rent-free.

Scotland Yard said it had decided not to investigate Lady Warsi’s expenses and had passed the matter back to the House of Lords.

Labour had called for a criminal inquiry into the Tory peer’s expenses.

Lady Warsi, the Conservative Party co-chairman, has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that she had acted within the rules at all times.

SO THE lead singer of The View is big into musicals and Abba. Really? Fiona Shepherd meets the Dundee band ahead of their appearance at this weekend’s RockNess Festival and finds there’s more to them than their popular image as a gang of high-spirited lads enjoying the rock lifestyle to the full.

Kyle Falconer has a confession or three to make. It’s not that he’s had the same jeans on for four days now. Or anything to do with that time on magic mushrooms when he had the MOR epiphany which would ultimately lead to his description of The View’s new album as “Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours done by The Clash”. It’s far more surprising than that.

“I’ve been to see Jersey Boys seven times now. And I went to see Wicked the other day as well.”

So the leader of The View wrecking crew is big into musicals. Certain musicals, he is keen to clarify, not the girly ones. West Side Story is cool, Jesus Christ Superstar even more so. Falconer loves the Lloyd Webber/Rice prototype rock opera so much that he even auditioned (unsuccessfully) for the part of Judas in a production about 18 months ago. This seems like a revelation too far but Falconer looks to be in deadly earnest. And that’s not all. “I like Abba. And I took my niece to see Backstreet Boys versus New Kids on the Block the other week.”

His bass-playing, co-songwriting partner-in-crime Kieren Webster is not inclined to follow this with any specific disclosures of his own but what he will say is “you’d be surprised at some of the stuff we listen to”. I already am.

There is clearly more to The View, who play RockNess this weekend, than their popular image as a gang of high-spirited lads enjoying the extracurricular perks of the rock star lifestyle might suggest. Scratch that hard-partying surface and there has always been a seam of urban lyricism to their music, a talent for capturing the characters they meet and expressing the affection and disaffection they feel for their environment, be it Dundee, where they all grew up, or their subsequent stomping grounds of London and Liverpool. And for all the untrammelled energy of their live shows, the pop craft which has been there from the beginning has become more pronounced with successive releases. Last year’s Bread And Circuses produced a couple of their most unashamedly mainstream moments to date.

Their forthcoming fourth album looks set to shift the goalposts a little bit more. On the one hand, it is called Cheeky For A Reason, which does seem to play into the prevailing mischievous troublemaker image. On the other, it features at least one sterling song, The Clock Has No Sympathy, which flirts with soft rock, allows guitarist Peter Reilly to unleash his best Lindsey Buckingham-style playing and features Falconer’s most accomplished vocal to date. The song has been kicking about for a few years but came to completion when Falconer and Webster collaborated with Kings of Leon co-writer/producer Angelo Petraglia. This was their first experience of allowing a third party into their songwriting marriage and Petraglia’s business-like approach was in marked contrast to their usual take-it-as-it-comes modus operandi.

“We like to do things in our own time,” says Falconer. “There’s only been a couple of occasions where we’ve phoned each other up and said, ‘Want to come up and write a tune?’ We usually get heavily smashed, get the creative juices flowing and then you start telling each other you are geniuses: ‘This is brilliant, get the recorder out.’ But this was about turning up at 11 o’clock in the morning and sitting in a circle and he would say [adopts American accent] ‘OK, what you got guys? Let’s throw some shit around.’ We were just pleased to be there, but I wouldn’t have minded a couple of tequilas first…”

It must have worked out okay in the end, as three songs from those sessions have made the cut for the album. Falconer is particularly proud of The Clock Has No Sympathy, explaining its odd title as meaning that “there’s nae time to piss about, you only live once kind of thing. It’s a selfish way of looking at the clock because the clock’s not yours, it’s everyone else’s as well. It’s about self-obsessing.”

“Kyle thinks he’s getting old cos he’s 24,” says Webster. Accordingly, on this album there is a certain mellowing of the frenetic pace which characterises their earlier material.

“There’s less guitar,” concedes Falconer, “so you can hear what’s going on. It’s more about focusing on the lyrics. It’s not as mental, eh?”

“It’s more dynamically mixed,” says Webster, “but the bits that are supposed to be ferocious are.”

Fleetwood Mac might be a new point of reference but the other part of Falconer’s astute album analogy have always been a crucial influence on the band. He quite happily likens hearing The Clash for the first time to “when you get your first boner – honestly! We couldn’t believe it. I thought you stopped being obsessed about stuff around the age of 15. At 18 you think you’re more mature, but I swear walking about Brixton I could smell Mick Jones…”

While The View maintain their priapic passion for their musical heroes, they have calmed down in other respects. “We’re trying not to be big spenders,” says Falconer. “We used to not give a shit about spending money.”

“We’d go out every night and never put our hand in our pocket,” says Webster. “We would be getting two taxis a day each to the airport and stuff. We were never told how much these things cost. It just spirals into chaos and we would end up owing the record company about half a million. We only discovered that after we’d made the second album.”

Falconer assumes a mock-tragic tone: “Why didn’t we listen?”

So is this the advent of the new mature and responsible View? “No’ really,” says Webster, to the probable relief of their mad-fer-it fans. “It’s just that we’ve all got our own houses and you’ve got to start thinking about things, eh? I’d rather get a new guitar then spend £50 on a taxi again. It’s not really the money, it’s about being more productive about releasing songs.”

• Cheeky For A Reason is released by Cooking Vinyl on 9 July. The View play RockNess on Saturday, O2 Academy, Glasgow, on 12 July and Wickerman on 21 July

Chancellor George Osborne has come under pressure to ease the tax burden on owners of empty commercial properties in England after his party north of the Border criticised plans to cut the relief available in Scotland.

The SNP is planning to reduce the business rate discount given to empty shops and offices, from 50 per cent to 10 per cent, in a move it says will encourage higher rates of occupancy.

Scottish Conservatives said the plans were “straight out the Walter Mitty school of economic regeneration policy”.

This is despite the fact that, since taking power in Westminster, the coalition government has itself cut relief by removing an exemption from empty rates that had been granted to buildings with a low rateable value.

Osborne has asked a working group of MPs to produce proposals for how the empty rates regime could be changed, and Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said the Chancellor needed to consider the impact the current regime is having on small businesses.

She said: “We are pleased to see that the Scottish Conservative Party recognises how damaging empty rates are to both the property industry and the wider economy, and would urge the UK government to consider the concerns that they raise.

“There is no evidence to suggest that this tax hike will bring buildings back into use. Our experience in England is that instead it will lead to the demolition of perfectly usable buildings and choke off the development of new business space – particularly for SMEs, who rely on a steady supply of vacant property in which to grow.”

IT’S always worrying when government ministers boast how good they are at disclosing information that we are entitled to know.

And when Brian Adam MSP, in announcing the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill, tells us how good the Scottish Government is getting in disclosing information, campaigners feel the news is being managed.

Ironically, it is what he hasn’t said, and what isn’t in the bill that is the problem. Increasing the range and number of organisations covered by FoI in Scotland is key to any legal reform.

However, arm’s length organisations (ALOs), housing associations, voluntary organisations and private sector bodies that deliver public services are just some of the categories missing from the newly published bill.

We are urging the Scottish Parliament to amend the bill to ensure people retain a strong right to information and can access the kind of information they want rather than creating fortresses for some bodies. There is also a public gain in individuals exercising their right as FoI has been proven to improve the design, funding and delivery of public services.

Despite three consultations, the clear view of the Scottish Information Commissioner, the opinion of the public and now with an absolute majority in parliament, this government has failed to extend the law’s coverage.

That is not the action of a government committed to transparency. And neither is the proposal to hide communications with the monarch or her heirs behind an absolute exemption– an amendment copied from Westminster.

This means, for example, that it will no longer be possible to seek information on royal attempts to influence policy. Or to investigate any communications between governments and the monarchy over, say, the award of honours.

Despite the publicity that the bill will “strengthen and improve” the legislation in Scotland, we believe it must be significantly amended so that the focus remains on the public’s right to know. The bill has welcome elements, such as a reduction of the 30-year rule, but amounts to a wasted opportunity for progressive reform.

• Carole Ewart is co-convener of Campaign for Freedom of Information Scotland.

PARTNERSHIP between Germany and the UK is vital for the EU and at a devolved level could be fruitful for both nations, says David McAllister

Germany has been influenced by the United Kingdom more strongly than might be first thought. After 1945, the British played a key role in setting up democratic structures in Germany. Soldiers belonging to the previous occupying force, or later the British Forces Germany, found good friends and many married local women. Recently, the BBC called their children: “The British Germans the war left behind”. I am one of them, a German with Scottish roots, born in 1971. This is why I attach special importance to the relationship between the UK and Germany, as well as between Scotland and Lower Saxony.

In my opinion, we Germans are well advised to remember how much Britain did for us. And I am also keen to point this out to the few people in Germany who deliver one-sided sermons to our British partners when it comes to current European policy.

This is not the only reason why I would like to advocate closer partnership at a European level between the UK and Germany. We will only be able to strengthen the European Union if our two countries can align their positions – which often differ for good reason.

We will not achieve our goals if we force Europeans to take steps towards integration if they do not want to. We need to join forces to find a way out of the fiscal dilemma. Anyone attempting to sweep aside the interests of one country will be isolated eventually.

The past few months have put the EU to the test. It is not just about the stability of the euro, but also about the stability of the EU.

The German government is often criticised for imposing too severe austerity measures. The fact is that in 2008 and 2009 EU member states launched a European Recovery Plan worth around €600 billion to combat the financial and banking crisis. Loans were drawn on to finance the package. Therefore, the majority of the member states could not comply with the 3 per cent deficit rule.

At the time, public opinion in Europe was unanimous that the member states would not be able to fund such a package a second time.

I am strongly in favour of consistent budget consolidation and creating sustainable stimuli for growth and employment. Instruments exist and they should be used, such as the EU 2020 Strategy, the EU Structural Funds and the European Investment Bank. We can extend these tools, but we should not reinvent the wheel every time a crisis occurs.

All EU member states need further structural reforms to encourage growth, and I believe David Cameron’s and Angela Merkel’s governments are on the right path.

Germany and the UK do not always agree on how to react to the current fiscal challenges. Both countries have had different experiences and developed different philosophies on how to handle economic and monetary crises.

In Germany, monetary stability is of prime importance, or in other words keeping the inflation rate below 2 per cent. In order to prevent hyperinflation, stringent budget management enjoys top priority. Hyperinflation and currency reform are firmly anchored in the collective psyche of the German people. Inflation provokes fear.

In the Anglo-Saxon world inflation may be considered an aspect that is controllable. Consequently, it is easier during a crisis like this one to flood domestic markets with money. Politicians may see this approach as an opportunity to kick-start economic growth and business activities, as well as consolidate the country’s revenues by receiving higher taxes.

However, this is not about irreconcilable, opposing concepts. No universal panacea exists to solve the crisis. Therefore, Europe needs to send out one message to the globalised world: we are united in combating the crisis and we will demonstrate our ability to act together.

I am currently visiting Edinburgh and Aberdeen. My objective is to build on a partnership between Scotland and Lower Saxony. I believe there are good opportunities, especially regarding renewable energies. Apart from health, the environment and transport, energy production will be one of the major issues in tomorrow’s world.

An OECD analysis shows that in 2050 global energy consumption will be about 80 per cent higher than today’s level, unless radical measures are taken. Probably 85 per cent of consumption will be based on fossil fuels, while just 10 per cent will be drawn from renewable energies. The biggest energy consumers are likely to be Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa.

We will not be able to demand that they cut consumption of fossil fuels in the interest of the climate. These nations will not understand that they should renounce their own growth and wealth due to the threatening climate catastrophe.

Consequently, our natural resources will continue to deplete and lead to destabilising changes in the climate. We can no longer halt this development, but we can limit the impact of climate change, above all by increasing the use of renewable energies.

Energy policy today is caught in the conflict between economic and ecological objectives. Bearing in mind the global rise in energy demand, we will have to find a way – both at a national and a European level – of maintaining energy supplies at affordable and competitive prices in the long term, while achieving environmental and climate protection goals at the same time.

Recently, my government presented its own energy concept. Our objective is to source 25 per cent of the energy in Lower Saxony from renewable energies by 2020. By accelerating the expansion of renewable energies, we also aim to create the basis for replacing nuclear power in 2022 permanently.

Scotland also has ambitious aims for renewables, with 100 per cent of Scottish electricity to be produced from renewable energy by 2020. What could be more appropriate than boosting each other’s strengths in these areas to mutual benefit, particularly in science and research? I am convinced that we can accomplish more by joining forces. And if our businesses should compete with each other on the global market, let us view this as friendly competition. Competition is always good for business.

We will also agree on stronger partnership on other areas too. Perhaps we can make good use of the fact that we have a prime minister in Hanover who is a German with Scottish roots.

• David McAllister is prime minister of Lower Saxony.

THE Scotsman’s arts critics give us their pick of events over the next week.

THEATRE

THE TEMPEST

DUNDEE REP, UNTIL 23 JUNE

THE women of the Dundee Rep ensemble have always been a formidable group of actors, and now their new joint artistic director Jemima Levick puts them centre-stage, in a controversial and exciting new version of Shakespeare’s Tempest. In a rare piece of cross-casting, Irene Macdougall stars as Prospero, the deposed ruler exiled with her daughter Miranda to an island where she develops profound magical powers. Ann Louise Ross appears as her dark shadow and servant Caliban, bent on wrecking Prospero’s plans.

• Tel: 01382 223530

JOYCE MCMILLAN

FILM

BLANK CITY

CAMEO, EDINBURGH, TOMORROW

Young French filmmaker Céline Danhier makes an intriguing debut with this documentary exploring the hitherto untold story of how the late 1970s New York punk scene spawned a rise in underground experimental movie-making. Dubbed “No Wave Cinema”, its punky anti-authoritarian stance gave rise to the likes of Jim Jarmusch and actors Steve Buscemi and Vincent Gallo, as well as showcasing bands such as Sonic Youth.

• Tel: 0871 902 5723

ALISTAIR HARKNESS

VISUAL ART

RED CHALK: RAPHAEL TO RAMSAY

SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY, EDINBURGH, UNTIL 10 JUNE

It IS YOUR last chance to see Red Chalk: Raphael to Ramsay at the National Gallery. Red chalk is a beautiful medium, especially for the figure and this show includes 35 works from the national collection by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Salvator Rosa, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher and David Allan. It also includes a number of drawings exhibited for the first time.

• Tel: 0131-624 6200

DUNCAN MACMILLAN

CLASSICAL

OPERA NORTH: RUDDIGORE

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE, TODAY UNTIL 9 JUNE

John Davies’ highly-acclaimed production of Ruddigore for Opera North, which has been successfully doing the rounds south of the Border since last year, updates this Gilbert and Sullivan satire from dark Victorian times to the even darker aftermath of the First World War, giving a whole new perspective on its satirical target – the criminality of the powerful. There are even more modern references to MP’s expenses, moats and duck houses, from the whimsical pen of Richard Stilgoe. All of which sound very Gilbert and Sullivan in spirit.

• Tel: 0131-529 6000

KENNETH WALTON

POP

AMY MACDONALD

THE LEMON TREE, ABERDEEN; DUKE’S CORNER, DUNDEE; THE TOLBOOTH, STIRLING; THE CAVES, EDINBURGH; SWG3, GLASGOW, 12 JUNE

To MARK the release of her third album, Life In A Beautiful Light, and to raise money for the STV Appeal 2012 to lift children and young people out of poverty, Bishopbriggs songwriter Amy MacDonald, below, undertakes Five a Day for the Kids, a gigging marathon involving an acoustic set in five venues around Scotland over the course of a single day. She starts early next Tuesday at 8.30am in Aberdeen, before heading on to Dundee for 12.30pm, reaching Stirling by 4pm, moving on to Edinburgh by 8pm and finishing up in Glasgow at 11pm. Doors open for each gig half an hour before the performance time and there will be an after-party in Glasgow.

• www.ticketsoup.com

FIONA SHEPHERD

ANYONE with an interest in Scotland’s arts scene will surely have noticed that Creative Scotland, the main source of funding for this country’s artists, has faced a bit of flak recently.

“Mutton-headed bureaucrats,” was Joyce McMillan’s verdict in The Scotsman a couple of weeks ago. Leading playwright David Greig and jazz musician Tommy Smith have also been critical, Greig in an open letter to the media that talked of “a sector-wide loss of trust”. Other artists and commentators have been posting even more damning write-ups via blogs and social networks.

What is the problem? It’s complicated, but it is not – as Greig’s intervention made clear – just about a few companies complaining that their budgets have been cut, even though the criticism was kickstarted by news that 49 companies are to have flexible funding replaced by project funding.

Numerous damaging claims have since been made about Creative Scotland – that there is a lack of transparency in its decision-making, that it talks in impenetrable jargon, that it is trying to dictate what kind of work artists make.

What does Creative Scotland say to all this? “We welcome constructive debate,” wrote its chair Sir Sandie Crombie – in a response to an open letter to The Scotsman from Greig and five other playwrights. “We recognise that with change comes uncertainty and, in some cases, insecurity.” Note the choice of words. Not all the recent criticism of Creative Scotland has been constructive – some has been pretty personal. But, as one commentator pointed out, the recent funding row has certainly brought some widely held concerns into the open. Which, if dialogue is possible, is surely a good thing.

WANTED: about 100 naked people, in Marchmont, Edinburgh, on Wednesdays between 7pm and 10pm – though not all at once.

The professional portrait photographer Gavin Evans’s (clothed) subjects in the past have included David Bowie, Björk, Sir Ian McKellen and Daniel Craig, and for five years he’s been pursuing his Touch project from the Institute Gallery on Roseneath Street, where he shows and curates.

“[Touch] came about from me purchasing a small digital pocket camera,” he says. “I wondered what I could use it for, and I have been playing with the notion of personal space. I started including my hand in the photographs, and I asked all the participants to take my hand and place it in the photograph with them.”

He has produced perhaps a thousand images for the project, all with his arm and hand stuck in. Subjects have included 85 Big Issue vendors in Glasgow, whom he noted almost always kept his hand at arm’s length. He has also photographed the Argentinian artists in the show Fuerzabruta, which came to the “black tent” at the Fringe a few years back. About half, he noted, put his hand in their mouths.

For his Fringe 2012 exhibition, Evans is going one step beyond. “It has always been in the back of my mind to ask the further question, which would be for people to reveal themselves and remove the last vestige of protection of their personal space, which is clothing.”

He’s putting out a call for 100; he’s done 15 nudes already, and calls them “the best results I’ve ever had”. He’s keen to bank the images before the Fringe, though may continue during the festival, where nudity, as we know, is frequent in comedy and serious theatre alike. He asks those interested to e-mail touch@theinstitutegallery.com. No jokes about keeping your hands to yourself.

Another Dean gallery

Nearly 20 years ago the Glasgow artist Douglas Gordon unveiled 24 Hour Psycho, an art installation that became synonymous with the artist’s work. It involved Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho slowed down to run at about two frames a second, over 24 hours. Gordon won the Turner Prize in 1996. This month, as part of Basel 2012, the contemporary art fair that is a giant date in the European art calendar, the Gagosian Gallery is showing a 2011 work drawn from 1955’s Rebel without a Cause.

Henry Rebel: Drawing and Burning was made in collaboration with James Franco, the American actor best-known for his role as Harry Osborn in the Spider-Man films, and actor Henry Hopper, whose father Dennis Hopper had one of his first roles in the original film alongside James Dean.

In Gordon’s film, Henry Hopper enacts two scenarios cut from the film’s original screenplay. In the first, he gives a performance as a young man burning alive from the inside. In the second, he repeatedly draws on his own body with a red marker, in what’s seen as a metaphor for trying to obliterate his own identity.

Appealing design

Last November this column detailed architect Richard Murphy’s designs for a “stealth Broch”, a generous new-build five-bedroom home, cunningly concealed within a circular stone wall in historic landscape near Earlston, in the Borders.

It won the blessing of Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud, owner of a 15th-century farmhouse in Somerset, who wrote it up as “a beautiful example of landscape and architecture fully integrated”, saying it deserved to get built.

Historic Scotland’s Dr Iona Murray, who apparently deals with scheduled historic monuments, also described it as a “sensitive and carefully considered development”, though the agency’s approach to development has been under a bit of scrutiny of late.

None of this washed with Scottish Borders Council, who turned down the planning application for “Knock Knowe”. The design team, including landscape architects Urban Wilderness, have relodged the application, with an appeal hearing on Monday. They claim it will restore a planned late 18th-century landscape, and may seek to get some of the estimated £360,000 cost of the landscape restoration from the National Lottery. The BBC, they say, has been filming the project as a case study for a documentary on the Scottish planning system to air in January 2013.

FTSE 100 CLOSE 5384.11 +123.92

Bank shares surged on Wednesday amid a wider market rally as hopes of fresh money printing on both sides of the Atlantic stoked investor confidence.

Britain’s benchmark FTSE 100 index leapt 123.92 points, or almost 2.4 per cent, to close at 5,384.11 as UK equities played catch-up with the rest of Europe after the four-day jubilee weekend.

There were gains of 2.1 per cent and 2.4 per cent for Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac, respectively.

Hopes grew that Spain will be given a cash injection to stabilise its wobbling banking sector, despite officials playing down reports it has asked for a bail-out.

There was also mounting speculation that the Bank of England will move to increase its quantitative easing programme today, while the US Federal Reserve may also signal more money printing is on the cards after weak jobs figures came out last week.

Financial and mining stocks enjoyed a strong run after taking a battering last week, with Barclays adding 8 per cent, or 14.3p to 187.8p, Man Group ahead 5.4p at 80.9p, and Vedanta Resources 80p higher at 963.5p.

Investors may have been thrown by Royal Bank of Scotland’s share price, which shot up from just under 20p on Friday to 213.2p as a result of a share consolidation authorised by the bank’s annual meeting last week. Shareholders will be handed one new share for every ten they own, which pushed the bank’s share price up to a value not seen since September 2008.

In real terms, the shares were 6.7 per cent higher on the day.

Diageo featured on the risers’ board after it unveiled plans to invest £1 billion in Scotch whisky production over the next five years.

Shares were 4 per cent higher, gaining 64.5p to 1,581p.

Vodafone was the biggest top-flight faller, sliding 3 per cent or 4.7p to 169p, as it confirmed it was in talks with Telstra to buy its New Zealand subsidiary, TelstraClear.

Wall Street closed higher on word of moves to rescue Spanish banks and the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book summary, which reported that US economic growth picked up over the two prior months and staff hiring showed signs of a modest increase.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the session up 286.84 points at 12,414.79.

Reader Curtis Welsh from Melrose took this picture of a heavy horse dragging a log during the Borders Festival of the Horse at WooplawWoods in Galashiels at the end of last month

{http://www.facebook.com/#!/scotsmanonline|View more images of Scotland on our Facebook page|View more images of Scotland on our Facebook page}

• To submit your picture for publication online or in The Scotsman email {mailto:readersgallery@scotsman.com|readersgallery@scotsman.com|readersgallery@scotsman.com}

Our cartoonist pokes fun at the bankers in today’s effort.

Illustration by Iain Green

SCOTLAND’S largest whisky maker yesterday named three sites for two new distilleries as it unveiled a £1 billion investment to keep up with the thirst for Scotch in emerging markets.

Diageo – owner of Bell’s, J&B and Johnnie Walker – is running the rule over locations at Glendullan, near Dufftown, Inchgower, at Buckie, and Teaninich, near Alness, for the pair of giant distilleries, each of which will equal the size of the £40 million Roseisle plant opened two years ago.

Chief executive Paul Walsh said he expected the firm to announce further investments as Diageo keeps up with growing demand from Brazil, China and other fast-growing markets.

Scotch exports grew by 23 per cent in 2011 to £4.2bn, with the Brazilian market leaping 48 per cent, and Singapore, which acts as a distribution hub for much of Asia, rising 44 per cent. Johnnie Walker, the world’s best-selling blended whisky, grew sales by 15 per cent.

Walsh said he will increase production at the firm’s existing 28 malt whisky distilleries by 50 per cent – with growth mainly focused on the Speyside region – and will build nearly 50 warehouses, including up to nine at its existing site at Blackgrange, near Alloa, and the remainder at a virgin site at Begg Farm, near Kirkcaldy in Fife.

He added: “Scotch is at the heart of the Diageo business and accounts for about one-third of our total sales in the spirits category. This investment is a sign of how confident we are in the growth in demand for Scotch in the decades ahead.”

Walsh added that “consumers from Boston to Beijing” had developed a taste and hailed the growth as “a pivotal moment in the development of Scotch whisky”.

He expects to create 100 jobs within the firm with the five-year investment programme and a further 500 indirectly in the wider economy, including about 250 construction roles. Diageo also aims to hire about 100 apprentices.

About £500m of the investment will be made in casks, distilleries and warehousing, with the remaining £500m being spent on the production and maturation of the Scotch itself.

Bryan Donaghey, managing director of Diageo Scotland, added that some of the cash would also be spent on developing renewable energy projects on the sites, similar to the bio-energy plant opened next to Roseisle. Diageo courted controversy in 2009 by closing its historic Johnnie Walker bottling plant and a grain distillery in Glasgow, with the loss of 900 jobs. The company shifted bottling to its site at Leven, in Fife, creating 400 roles.

Donaghey said the firm will open a bottling line for its high-end brands – which include its King George V and John Walker bottlings – over the summer at Leven, in Fife.

French drinks giant Pernod Ricard – owner of Diageo’s arch rival, Chivas Brothers– last week unveiled plans to open a similar “premium” bottling line in Paisley. It also rolled out plans to expand its Scotch production by 25 per cent by reopening its Glen Keith distillery in the spring and boosting output from four of its other distilleries.

THE future of the United Kingdom is “too important” to be debated only in Scotland, Ed Miliband will declare in a speech in London today, as he insists that people in England should have their say ahead of the independence referendum.

The Labour leader will argue that his own party has been guilty of burying English identity for fear of retreating into a “narrow nationalism”.

England, he says, has been neglected by Labour which has instead focused on delivering devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, something he says “does not make sense”.

Now, with the referendum on independence for Scotland likely to take place in 2014, Mr Miliband will insist that “more than ever, as we make the case for the UK throughout the UK, we must talk about England”. He criticises public figures in England, such as BBC presenter Jeremy Clarkson who, he says, “shrug their shoulders at the prospect of the break-up of the Union”.

And drawing on his own experience as the son of Jewish immigrants who settled in London, he argues that Britain is “a country where it is always possible to have more than one identity”, whether English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish.

However, Mr Miliband is not expected to back calls for an English parliament or assembly.

The speech follows a series of lectures by First Minister Alex Salmond in England in recent months in which he argued that Scotland and England would both benefit by going their own way, ensuring there were no Scottish MPs “poking their noses into English business”.

Mr Miliband will say that the Diamond Jubilee and the forthcoming London Olympics have brought to the surface the mixed identities across the United Kingdom. The “multiple allegiances” across the country have, he says, raised “serious questions” about the country.

The neglected issue of England must be answered, he will say. “For too long people have believed that to express English identity is to undermine the Union.

“At the same time, we have rightly helped express Scottish identity within the Union. This does not make sense.”

He adds: “In Scotland, the narrow nationalists of the SNP pose a false choice. They ask: are you Scottish or British? I say you can be both. And here in England there are people like Jeremy Clarkson who shrug their shoulders at the prospect of the break-up of the Union.

“To me, Britain is a country where it is always possible to have more than one identity. More than one place in mind when you talk of home,” he says.

“A narrow view of identity would mean concern for the young unemployed in Scotland does not reach Newcastle or that we in England would care less for the pensioner in Edinburgh. What a deeply pessimistic vision. It’s a mistake wherever you find it.

“Having to say: ‘Scottish or British, Welsh or British, English or British.’ I don’t accept any of that. It’s always a false choice.”

On his own identity, he notes: “I am the son of a Jewish refugee. A Leeds supporter, from north London. A baseball fan. I am proud to lead the Labour Party.

“I am proud to represent the people of Doncaster North. I am proud to be English. And I am proud to be British too.”

However, SNP MSP Humza Yousaf criticised Mr Miliband’s claims, accusing the Labour leader of being “out of touch”. He added: “Independence is the broad, inclusive and positive option for Scotland, in which the wide range of identities we have in our modern nation – Scottish, British, Pakistani, Chinese, Polish, Irish and many, many more – can all be reflected and celebrated.”

SCOTLAND is a wee country with the best rocks in the world. Surprisingly Scotsman readers may not appreciate this as it is the basis of Scotland’s Geodiversity Charter launched this week. Does what we walk on matter?

Unst is the most northerly island in Scotland. It has rock structures to dream about if you are a geologist which is why successive years of university students camped in wild places through the summer holidays to study them. A student taking geology is tomorrow’s oil and gas company executive making decisions about rock strata 3,000 metres under the North Sea. As Total’s recent Elgin Franklin episode showed the importance of brilliant scientists interpreting complex data using incredibly intelligent real-time 3D models was at the heart of stopping leaking gas. If shale gas is to be extracted in the UK as trials have been run near Blackpool then geologists will be at the heart of the scientific assessment. In other words, geodiversity is about the economy and jobs.

But it is a whole lot more than that. Staffa’s Fingal’s Cave is an extraordinary feature of the west coast. The fossil remains of dinosaur footprints at Trotternish in Skye are now a major tourist attraction. People walk and climb to be somewhere inaccessible and remote. There is little to compare with either the Cuillin of Skye or the Cairngorm massif. As with Arthur’s Seat in the Capital, these rocks are some of the oldest in Europe.

Consider too the location of many of Scotland’s most iconic castles. They were placed on rocky outcrops or dramatic promontories for many good military reasons. Today they sell and in many ways define why Scotland is such an attractive country to visit. But Edinburgh, Stirling or Eilean Donan are all the more dramatic because of where they are and what they are built on.

This week, Angus Miller the driving force behind the Scottish Geodiversity Charter presented a chunk of Shetland granite to Stewart Stevenson, the minister responsible for rocks, at its launch.

The Scottish Government, Scottish Natural Heritage and many other bodies are right to be promoting the nation’s geodiversity. This charter is about encouraging the public sector to work with the private sector to integrate geodiversity into policy, decision making and guidance to deliver sustainable management of land and water across Scotland.

Back at home in Shetland we are a Geopark. There are three across Scotland, modelled on the great work being done in France and other European countries. This status can be good for jobs, tourism and above all local people. Soon there is to be an App. Your smart phone will direct you to 40 sites across Shetland alone with a geological theme. This is outdoors, healthy and about the land and sea we live around. Get on board. This is fun even if the mobile phone signal does fail.

• Tavish Scott is the Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland

WELCOME to scotsman.com’s Scottish Business Briefing. Every morning we bring you a comprehensive round-up of all news affecting business in Scotland today.

ENERGY & UTILITIES

Aggreko’s global reach extended by African deals

TEMPORARY power specialist Aggreko has secured a ground-breaking $250 million (£162m) deal to set up a plant supplying both South Africa and Mozambique, helping to plug electricity shortages in both countries ({http://www.scotsman.com/business/energy-and-utilities/aggreko-s-global-reach-extended-by-african-deals-1-2341305|Scotsman|Scotsman}).

Chillwind is close to deal with partner

Renewable energy firm Dulas yesterday said it was in advanced talks to purchase Highlands-based Chillwind, which specialises in meteorological masts (http://www.scotsman.com/business/energy-and-utilities/chillwind-is-close-to-deal-with-partner-1-2341308|Scotsman|Scotsman}).

Pay revolt threat to Melrose executives

MELROSE Resources faces a revolt on executive pay at its annual general meeting today in the latest expression of investor unease about boardroom pay levels, dubbed the shareholder spring ({http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/company-news/pay-revolt-threat-to-melrose-executives.17798086|Herald|Herald}).

Trump’s hated wind farm could ‘help save £45bn’

AN OFFSHORE wind farm opposed by US tycoon Donald Trump could help cut the cost of renewable energy production by £45 billion, MSPs have been told. Swedish electricity firm Vattenfall is facing strong opposition from Mr Trump over its proposed European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) off the coast of Aberdeen ({http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/donald-trump-s-hated-wind-farm-could-help-save-45bn-1-2340118|Scotsman|Scotsman}).

{http://www.scotsman.com/business/energy-and-utilities|Read all today’s energy and utilities news from scotsman.com|Read all today’s energy and utilities news from scotsman.com}

MANAGEMENT

Blackadders continues trend for consolidation

TAYSIDE law firm Blackadders is to swoop into the Edinburgh market with the takeover of McKay Norwell, continuing a run of consolidation in Scotland’s legal sector ({http://www.scotsman.com/business/management/blackadders-continues-trend-for-consolidation-1-2341432|Scotsman|Scotsman}).

{http://www.scotsman.com/business/management|Read all today’s management news from scotsman.com|Read all today’s management news from scotsman.com}

MEDIA & LEISURE

Firm steers right course

Cruise Loch Ness said yesterday it had expanded its fleet to five with the purchase of the Caledonian Spirit cruise boat ({http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2800835|P&J|P&J}).

{http://www.scotsman.com/business/media-and-leisure|Read all today’s media and leisure news from scotsman.com|Read all today’s media and leisure news from scotsman.com}

Frank Taylor wiggles the index finger of his left hand vigorously.

It is the only one of his fingers he can still move.

The rest have been stilled forever, paralysed by the fatal degenerative condition Motor Neurone Disease.

But with that one finger, Frank has found a way to express the frustrations and the anger that come with the disease that is slowly killing him – and a way to celebrate the things he loves: his wife, his children and grandchildren, and the joy of a life well lived.

Frank, 60, is a poet – though he modestly denies that, referring to himself as “just a rhymer”, or on his tongue-in-cheek business cards as “An Erse in Verse”.

The MND has all but paralysed his upper body, but his legs still work, and he stands at his computer keyboard at home in Dalkeith, tapping out poetry with his one good finger.

It is moving, entertaining and brutally honest Scots verse, and as well as providing an outlet for his thoughts and feelings, has been published in a pamphlet to raise money and awareness for the charity MND Scotland. His work has also inspired the charity to issue a call for other MND sufferers, their families and carers to write poems and submit them for publication on their website.

Frank’s life changed with just one word, spoken at the end of an unpleasant medical test.

The former HGV driver recalls that day at the Western General: “They stick long electrodes into your muscles and listen to the signals. At the end of half an hour when they’re done, the guy that did the test said ‘sorry . . .’.

“By that time I knew enough about MND to realise that basically I was getting a death sentence.”

Five years on, Frank has lived twice as long after diagnosis as most MND sufferers. Wife Jeanie has given up her job at a sheltered housing unit to care for him, washing, dressing and feeding him, even helping him to clear his throat when his weakened muscles mean he cannot cough properly and starts to choke.

He suffered minor symptoms of MND for several years before he was diagnosed, but hadn’t registered that anything was seriously wrong.

It was only when he found himself struggling to recover from shoulder surgery that he was referred to a neurology consultant at the Western and underwent testing.

He says: “Over a period of ten years before I was diagnosed I had symptoms but didn’t know what they were.

“Pens used to fly out of my hand for no reason whatsoever, I used to get a twitch on the right side of my nose. I simply never really paid any attention to them before.

“I’d heard of MND, but like a lot of other people I hadn’t a clue what it was.”

After the test revealed his diagnosis, he sat down with a consultant to talk about the future: “We had a long chat about how it would progress – in my case slowly.

“I was told two and a half years from diagnosis to death is average. I have a slow version and over the last five years I’ve lost, I would say, 80 per cent or 85 per cent of my upper body strength and mobility.

“Some people it affects their legs first, other people it’s very quick, some people like myself it’s very slow.

“I started to lose power in my right hand straight away. It’s spread now into my left arm, my back, my shoulders, my chest.”

He uses a ventilator at night to help him breathe, and every day drinks two high-nutrition drinks in addition to his normal diet, because his difficulty swallowing means he has lost weight.

The disease has not only taken its toll physically, but inevitably puts pressure on his relationship with Jeanie.

The couple obviously get on like a house on fire and are devoted to one another – she is the subject of many of his poems – but they both admit the change in circumstances has been difficult.

Frank says: “It puts a strain on us. My wife is now my 24/7 carer and she has to wash me, dress me, feed me, get me a drink. Basically without my wife I would be in a care home.

“I can still walk, not far – but that’s to do with breathing, because MND affects your breathing as well.

“It’s extremely frustrating and it causes you a great deal of stress as it progresses,” Frank says.

“The less I can do for myself, the more I expect from my wife. A case in point being I have my keyboard there, which is remote, and the battery ran out. I couldn’t change the battery and my wife had to do it. It caused a bit of frustration, I was going ‘change the bloody battery woman’.

“I don’t always expect to have things done instantly, but if the carer is caught up doing something else and I’m having to wait – I stand up to type with my finger, and when my thought process carries on and there’s nobody there to actually do what I want to do, that becomes extremely frustrating and that’s when I get angry.”

Jeanie, sitting beside him, says: “We don’t look ahead six months down the line, we just take each day as it comes. If you were to think about what’s ahead, you’d never get up in the morning.”

She finds solace and distraction in gardening and decorating. For her husband, the computer and his poetry have been “a life saver”, she says.

He began writing ten years ago during a period of unemployment but stopped for ten years when he was working again. Then, after being diagnosed with MND and retiring, he joined a writing group and took along the poems he’d written a decade earlier.

His first poem about MND was a scathing, angry, piece called The End, in which he railed against death with anger and expletives, making it clear that he intended to fight death – until a time of his choosing: “The MND thing came about through anger at Terry Pratchett being diagnosed [with dementia] and him saying that he would choose his time to die, which I agreed with. The public reaction to him saying that was terrible, that he should choose to die – and that made me angry. The first thing I wrote was called The End, which goes along these lines.”

But his writing was not all angry: “After I’d written that I thought ‘it’s not all bad news, there are people in the world that are worse off than me’ and started writing about other things.”

He has penned his memoirs in verse, and lighter episodes, such as his recollections of admiring the backsides of women on the beach in Majorca.

He says: “I wouldn’t say I was a poet. I’m a rhymer. I found myself in a more comfortable zone when I started writing in everyday Scots language, the same way that I speak. I found it was less of a strain and I could say what I wanted to say.”

He takes great pride in having helped MND Scotland, raising £200 so far with sales of the booklet.

Writing has also helped him keep his mind active and creative, rather than sinking into depression, he says: “It keeps the thought process going, you can lose yourself in it and it’s a way of getting rid of some of the frustration. People normally can talk about what they see, what they do, their work, kids etc and if they’re normal, and busy, it passes by. Whereas I’m no longer normal and I’m certainly not busy, but I can form all the thoughts in my head and then type them out put them into rhymes and just basically get rid of my frustration.”

Gorebridge Creative Writers Group is organising a fundraising event for MND Scotland at Woodburn Club on August 10. For more details e-mail {mailto:penmightierthansword@hotmail.co.uk|penmightierthansword@hotmail.co.uk| penmightierthansword@hotmail.co.uk}.

Bad Day

Ye wake up… ye’r tired

Ye’r have’n a bad day

Ye’r body’s?… no wired

Head fur the stair

Ane step at a time

Move slowly forrit

Until ye get there

Will ye use the stairlift?

Or will you walk?

Ye’r hae’n a bad day

It’ll be hard to talk

When ye get tae the bottom

Ye’v ran oot’y braith

Aye it’s a bad day

Ye’r grey . . . like a wraith

Still ye made it

Ye kin hae a wee smile

Feels like a marathon

It took a wee while

Ye’r huv’n a bad day

Ye shoogle ye’r tea

Huv tae get up now

Ye’r need’n a pee

Get’n dressed

Get’n claithes oan

It’s no really fun

Get ye’r self ootside

Hae a sait in the sun

Feel its warmth oan ye’r face

Cuddle ye’r wife

It might be a bad day

But a guid bloody life

Trap Oil, the Aim-quoted explorer that bought Banchory-based Reach Oil & Gas last year for £30 million, has raised £4.3m through a share placing.

Cash raised through the placing will be used to fund the proposed acquisition of a stake in the Trent East licence, applications for the UK government’s 27th exploration licence round and other drilling opportunities.

The company refused to name the investors with which the shares had been placed, but said that the placing had been conducted by FirstEnergy and Mirabaud.

Mark Groves Gidney, chief executive at Trap Oil, said: “We are pleased with the interest and support received from both existing and new investors in Trapoil in very difficult market conditions.

“The net proceeds from this conditional fundraising, which has been restricted to the amount for which approval was received at the recent AGM, will allow the company to pursue opportunities where we can become an operator but also to grow and enhance our exploration portfolio via potential investment in new licence awards from the 27th round, with results currently expected to be announced by the Department of Energy & Climate Change later this year.”

In March, Trap bought a 15 per cent stake in the Athena development from Dyas for £34.5m. Athena is operated by Ithaca Energy.