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“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.” Albert Einstein

“I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”

“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”

"Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think.

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world."

“Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says. The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me."

"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”

"A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

"Our separation from each other is an optical illusion."

“When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected. The greatest tragedy of human existence is the illusion of separateness.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.”

“When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.”

“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.”

“The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten.”

“The more I learn of physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics.”

“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike. We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.”

“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.”

"The common idea that I am an atheist is based on a big mistake. Anyone who interprets my scientific theories this way, did not understand them."

"Everything is determined, every beginning and ending, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."

“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It will transcend a personal God and avoid dogma and theology.”

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you can not help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

"I am happy because I want nothing from anyone. I do not care about money. Decorations, titles or distinctions mean nothing to me. I do not crave praise. I claim credit for nothing. A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future."

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See thoughts on energy “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

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Live Borders Objects

The Company’s objects are to provide or assist primarily for the benefit of the community and visitors of all ages to the administrative area of the Scottish Borders and any surrounding areas each of the following: 

(a) the advancement of: 

(i) the arts, heritage, culture and science; 

(ii) health through helping people improve or maintain their health 

(iii) education through the wide variety of facilities, services, programmes, training courses and cultural, arts, heritage and science events, activities, collections and exhibitions which are provided by or organised through Live Borders; 

(iv) community development and rural regeneration; and 

(b) the provision of facilities and services areas for recreational, sporting or other leisure time occupation in the interests of social welfare, such facilities being provided to the public at large save that special facilities may be provided for persons who by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disability, poverty or social or economic circumstances may have need of special facilities and services. 

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End of Union

In​ 2019, Boris Johnson became prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In 2020, he shrank into being prime minister of England. For the second time in less than seven years, the union is in trouble. But this time the problem needs a new question. Forget: ‘Should Scotland be independent?’ The Scots will take care of that. Ask instead: ‘Who in the rest of Britain needs this union with Scotland? And why?’ Through the long Covid months, it was only England that Boris spoke for, and spoke to, at those teatime briefings from Downing Street. Meanwhile, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did their own devolved things. Drivers crossing the Severn into Wales faced courteous police questions. Nicola Sturgeon declined to rule out controls on the Scottish border if there were a fresh surge of infection ‘down south’. All three devolved governments had divergent policies over quarantine for incoming travellers, while England – finding its own voice – did something different again. Time after time, Westminster failed to consult or warn the leaders of the ‘home nations’ about abrupt U-turns in English pandemic strategy. The United Kingdom was growing disunited not only in word but in deed. It wasn’t only independence-minded Scots who noticed that their country was handling its own coronavirus crisis confidently and – after some horrible early mistakes, principally to do with care homes – more effectively than England. Mark Drakeford, first minister of Wales, confirmed the growing recognition that decisions made in England were made for England, and that ‘home nations’ could and should stand on their own feet (‘we now have a three-nation approach from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’). Meanwhile, back in London, nobody tried to claim: ‘We are all in this together’ – the slogan used in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and defaced by the monstrous unfairnesses of ‘austerity’. This moment will pass. Covid-19 will gradually disappear from newspaper front pages, and Johnson will return to being a ‘British’ prime minister. And yet the union will never be the same again. A saucy genie of empowerment has escaped from the bottle. As John Curtice wrote in the Herald in July, ‘all the lives of everyone in Scotland have been affected by the devolved government in a way they’ve frankly not been in the previous 21 years of devolution.’ The Anglo-Scottish union was under new strain anyway. We can see now that devolution made sense only in the context of EU membership. The Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh governments lent some of their powers to Brussels, but now London is proposing to take those powers – industrial subsidies, agriculture, fishing – for itself rather than let them revert to Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh. The Scottish government is preparing to fight this tooth and nail, now that the Internal Market Bill has been published. The machinery of devolution itself has also rusted. Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh complain that their civil servants are increasingly left in the dark by Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, while the Joint Ministerial Council meetings seem to have shrivelled into a formality. The Dunlop Review, which considered the ways in which the UK government ‘through its institutional arrangements’ might meet ‘the challenge of strengthening and sustaining the union’, was handed in before Christmas; leaks suggest it proposed many urgent reforms, but apparently it may never be published. Instead, Whitehall departments are planning to set up and loudly publicise their own ‘British’ spending programmes, running parallel to the operations of Scottish and Welsh ministries. That was the real motive for the sudden additional funding for the Northern and Western Isles announced during Johnson’s one-day visit to Scotland in July – a reminder of who really calls the shots in the UK. Rhetoric about ‘strengthening’ the union really means centralising

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The quotation above appears on a number of websites where it is designed to portray Winston Churchill as a racist. I have found one reference which appears to attribute the majority of the quote to remarks at an enquiry into the Palestine situation. they are not remarks which would be considered acceptable today but clearly were acceptable in 1937. While not suggesting there is any justification for the views expressed we damage our understanding of history if we measure such comments by today’s standards. We are also facing demands to remove any statuary and even to change street names to make a statement that we no longer agree with the views or actions of their subjects. Demonstrators yesterday were allowed to violate regulations in place for the greater good in recognition of the strength of feeling behind the proposed events. there was no need to attempt to burn a flag on the Cenotaph and the dispatch of a statue into Bristol harbour will simply and up as a charge on the public purse.

Violent action and criminal behaviour are never acceptable as a way of achieving change. Gandhi demonstrated quite effectively how change could be achieved peacefully.

The idea of changing street names is complete nonsense. Should we remove all Union Street signs because they offend Nationalists? Will we remove all statuary of royalty if we become a republic? Should we change the names of our great cities because they remind us of Roman occupation? We do need to shine a spotlight on the less comfortable aspects of our history and recognise the injustices which have been done in the past. We need to have that balanced view of people and their actions which helped shape that history but how can we achieve that if we hide the uncomfortable bits from view? 

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Well, it’s logical. If you are more than two metres away from somebody you are very, very unlikely to pick up Covid-19 droplets from them. Indeed, government consider you have made a contact only if you remain within this distance of a single person for fifteen minutes or more. Any bus trip outside Hawick could, therefore place you at risk or if you are one of those people who stopo for aged in supermarket aisles for a blether! Government advice says quite clearly that wearing a mask will not prevent you from inhaling droplets so don’t consider them any form of protection! They may, if you are carrying the Covid-19  virus prevent yourself from spraying infected droplets and thus offer some degree of protection to other people. Masks will be mandatory for public transport in England because lobbying from London has forced the decision on a weak government! Curiously, they remain optional for use in supermarkets. When you consider the risk from picking up droplets from food packaging, unpackaged fruit and veg, trolley handles and baskets, the pin keypad on the checkout and door handles the idea of face masks in supermarkets (unless you are a professional blether) is nonsensical unless there is mandatory cleaning of all the above after every handling. You can see the sign already- please do not pick up the avocados unless you intend to buy! And the futility of trolley cleaning stations placed inside the supermarket!  Next week watch for te government announcement that all supermarkets will be required to provide click and collect facilities and no access will be allowed to the isles!

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https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16094836.ruth-davidson-urged-to-sack-law-breaking-shadow-minister-hit-with-50k-fine/

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The shop where a files as purchased to do the feed close forever not many years ago. The coin used to buy the role still nailed to the counter.

On September 7th  1736, Captain Porteous was dragged from prison and lynched by an angry mob in Edinburgh.

I love when I can connect posts from previous days, if you remember this Thursdays post on Robert Fergusson birth date, in his poem The Daft Days, he mentions the  ‘Black Banditti’ oh and the Aqua Vitae, is of course whisky! And thou, great god of Aqua Vitae! Wha sways the empire of this city, When fou we’re sometimes capernoity, Be thou prepar’d To hedge us frae that black banditti, The City Guard. Captain John Porteous, was a Scottish soldier and Captain of the Edinburgh City or Town Guard, the old “police” force of auld reekie. The story of the unfortunate Porteous starts in January 1736 when three men, Andrew Wilson, William Hall and George Robertson, were charged with smuggling and attempting to rob Collector of Excise, James Stark at the Pittenween Inn, Fife. All three men were initially faced with the Grassmarket gallows, though William Hall had his sentence revoked for returning King’s Evidence against his fellow conspirators. Judgment day for Andrew Wilson and George Robertson was set for 14 April. A few days before the execution date Robertson managed to escape his fate, leaving Wilson alone to face the hangman’s noose. The following is from Edinburgh Poet, Allan Ramsay, (who I also mention on Thursday as Fergussons “muse”) for a first hand account of the events……..“ A true and faithfull account of the Hobleshaw [riot] that happened in Edinburgh, Wednesday, the 14th of Aprile 1736 at the hanging of Wilson, housebreaker. On the Sunday preceeding viz the 11th, the two condemn’d criminalls Wilson and Robertson were taken as usual by four sogers [soldiers] out of prison to hear their last sermon and were but a few minutes in their station in the Kirk when Wilson who was a very strong fellow took Robertson by the head band of his breeks and threw him out of the seat, held a soger fast in each hand and one of them with his teeth, while Robertson got over and throw the pews, push’d o'er the elder and plate at the door, made his escape throw the Parliament Close down the back staire, got out of the Poteraw [Potterrow] Port before it was shut, the mob making way and assisting him, got friends, money and a swift horse and fairly got off nae mair to be heard of or seen. This made them take a closer care of Wilson who had the best character of them all (til his foly made him seek reprisals at his own hand), which had gaind him so much pity as to raise a report that a great mob would rise on his execution day to relieve him, which noise put our Magistrates on their guard and maybe made some of them unco flayd [unusually afraid] as was evidenced by their inviting in 150 of the Regement that lys [lies] in Cannongate, who were all drawn up in the Lawn Market, while the criminal was conducted to the tree by Captain Porteous and a strong party of the City Guard. All was hush, Psalms sung, prayers put up for a long hour and upwards and the man hang’d with all decency & quietnes. After he was cut down and the guard drawing up to go off, some unlucky boys threw a stone or two at the hangman, which is very common, on which the brutal Porteous (who it seems had ordered his party to load their guns with ball) let drive first himself amongst the inocent mob and commanded his men to folow his example which quickly cleansed the street but left three men, a boy and a woman dead upon the spot, besides several others wounded, some of whom are dead since. After this first fire he took it in his head when half up the Bow to order annother voly & kill’d a taylor in a window three storys high, a young gentleman & a son of Mr Matheson the minister’s and several more were dangerously wounded and all this from no more provocation than what I told you before, the throwing of a stone or two that hurt no body. Believe this to be true, for I was ane eye witness and within a yard or two of being shot as I sat with some gentlemen in a stabler’s window oposite to the Galows. After this the crazy brute march’d with his ragamuffins to the Guard, as if he had done nothing worth noticing but was not long there till the hue and cry rose from them that had lost friends & servants, demanding justice. He was taken before the Councill, where there were aboundance of witnesses to fix the guilt upon him. The uproar of a mob encreased with the loudest din that ever was heard and would have torn him, Council and Guard all in pices [pieces], if the Magistrates had not sent him to the Tolbooth by a strong party and told them he should be tried for his life, which gave them some sattisfaction and sent them quietly home. I could have acted more discreetly had I been in Porteous’s place.” A total of 9 were reported to have been killed and at least 20 wounded by the City Guard. Porteous was arrested the same afternoon and charged with murder. He was tried at the High Court of Justiciary on 5 July 1736. There was no shortage of enthusiastic witnesses to testify against Porteous’ actions. The jury, no doubt spurred on by the mob gathered outside, did not hesitate in finding him guilty, and he was sentenced to hang on September 8th. When the news reached London, Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole managed to secure Porteous a Royal Pardon. Porteous was still being held at the Tolbooth, the history is a bit vague about why, I surmise it may have been for his own safety, as there is mention of the guards being increased at the old gaol leading up to the day in question. A 4,000 ­strong mob took to the streets of Edinburgh. A total lock­down was ordered by the City Guard and all gates, including the Netherbow Port were closed – shutting out many troops stationed outside of the town. The enraged mob made their way to the prison and set the doors ablaze, Porteous attempted to flee but was eventually grabbed by force and dragged up the Lawnmarket, then down along the West Bow towards the Grassmarket where Andrew Wilson had met his end. Porteous was strung up on a dyer’s pole and brutally lynched until he ceased to move. The government would later declare a reward of £200 for any information of those responsible for Captain Porteous’ murder, but none of those guilty would ever be found. Sir Walter Scott’s famous novel The Heart of Midlothian written in 1818 would later recall the events in great detail. If visiting Edinburgh and you find yourself in Greyfriars Kirkyard you can find Captain Porteous’s grave is towards the west wall, once a year the re-enactors of the Town Guard pay “respects” to the man there. You can find a contemporary account of the Porteous affair here from the excellent Newgate Calendar https://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng187.htm

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Treachery

Edinburgh, castle, toon and tow'r

God grant ye sink frae sin

E’en for the Black dinner

Earl Douglas gat therein.

                                        Traditional Ryme

It seems Scottish Borders Council are reacting properly to complaints about Hawick Common Riding Committee’s apparent reticence to fully engage with a twenty first century view of inclusion. They appear to be attempting for the second year in a row to apply their very clear equality policy. A policy set out clearly by a judge over two decades ago. Not a reaction to recent legislation not some knee-jerk reaction to a tiny unreasonable minority but recognition that our community really does welcome all comers.

Abuse of people fulfilling their public duty, disrespect to others on grounds of gender or birthplace, inappropriate racist humour, exclusion and simple bad taste are all completely unacceptable to Teries by birth or adoption.

The attack by one ill-informed correspondent in a local paper on people expressing a legitimate concern misses the point. Public money must be spent wisely and in line with public policy. Some might also question whether there should be any grant to a body whose accounts show clearly it is not needed.

As for defence of tradition - when will the community have it explained exactly which traditions are being defended? Most so-called traditions would be hard to trace beyond Victorian times.

Next year Hawick Common Riding Committee will have to compete with worthwhile causes for scarce grant money. Instead of bleating about bad incomers and nasty underhand people with secret agendas start running the show properly. Reduce the alcoholic hospitality, refocus on families rather than horses and spend the income on the Common Riding.

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Buildings at risk are assets which are a cost to the community. They produce no economic activity and waste energy by eating up public service resources which should be focused elsewhere. Despite the grandstanding by local councillor Watson MacAteer last year the old cottage hospital still lies derelict. A target for vandals it is another blog on Hawick's landscape.

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Once there was The Tower, The Crown, Kirklands and other small hotels supplying accommodation for businessmen and leisure visitors. The demise of the mills was instrumental in removing much of Hawick's hospitality sector. It can be rebuilt. Create reasons for people being in Hawick and hotels will soon follow.

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Most recently the site behind the red stone wall was Wilton South and St Margaret's parish church. Demolished about twenty years ago by @scotborders at huge cost to the council tax payer. Since then the site has been poorly maintained. The community needs to do something about this gross dereliction of duty.

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‘Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye,

Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye

The Black Douglas shall not get ye’

Traditional Rhyme

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It was a spectacle back then. As the toffs in their fine clothes riding the marches. The ordinary folk following on Shankses pony.

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August 4th Battle of 1327 saw The Battle of Stanhope Park. 

This little known battle during The First Wars of Scottish Independence could have had serious repercussions. 

It took place during the night of 4th August 1327 but some sources say the 3rd.  The Scots led a raid into Weardale, and the newly crowned Edward III led an army to drive them back. At the front of the Scots was The Good Sir James Douglas, the bogey man the English had nightmares about, they called him, The Black Douglas. 

The Scots had taken up a strong defensive position by the River Wear. The position was too strong for the English to attack but they attempted to get the Scots to fight by drawing up their army on level ground and inviting the Scots to fight and by skirmishing with men-at-arms and archers. Douglas sent them the message that they would stay where they were as long as they liked. This standoff lasted for three days.

On the day in question, Douglas led, among other ambushes, an attack into the English camp, with 500 cavalry, and almost captured the king. Douglas reached Edward III’s tent which was collapsed with him inside and nearly captured the English king. Several hundred English were killed. The English were forced to keep constant improved watch after this. On the night of 6–7 August, the Scottish army quietly broke camp and headed back toward Scotland. The English did not pursue. The English children could sleep easy that night while their mothers whispered in their ears……

‘Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye, Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye The Black Douglas shall not get ye’

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This is about oor Willie's son Jamie. He fought back and revenged Flodden Field! His wee skirmish in Weardale actually happened. Not like yon prank at Hornshole where some o'the bairnies frae the toon, daft young loons egged o on by the lassies, pinched a wee bit flag when the Hexham Abbey band camped on their way home frae visitin anither hoose.

August 4th Battle of 1327 saw The Battle of Stanhope Park. 

This little known battle during The First Wars of Scottish Independence could have had serious repercussions. 

It took place during the night of 4th August 1327 but some sources say the 3rd.  The Scots led a raid into Weardale, and the newly crowned Edward III led an army to drive them back. At the front of the Scots was The Good Sir James Douglas, the bogey man the English had nightmares about, they called him, The Black Douglas. 

The Scots had taken up a strong defensive position by the River Wear. The position was too strong for the English to attack but they attempted to get the Scots to fight by drawing up their army on level ground and inviting the Scots to fight and by skirmishing with men-at-arms and archers. Douglas sent them the message that they would stay where they were as long as they liked. This standoff lasted for three days.

On the day in question, Douglas led, among other ambushes, an attack into the English camp, with 500 cavalry, and almost captured the king. Douglas reached Edward III’s tent which was collapsed with him inside and nearly captured the English king. Several hundred English were killed. The English were forced to keep constant improved watch after this. On the night of 6–7 August, the Scottish army quietly broke camp and headed back toward Scotland. The English did not pursue. The English children could sleep easy that night while their mothers whispered in their ears……

‘Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye, Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye The Black Douglas shall not get ye’