‘Creative Scotland’ to be a part of 2014 Commonwealth Games
Ahead of 2014 Commonwealth Games, a programme to exhibit Scotland creativity has been created by the Arts development agency Creative Scotland. A multimillion-pound plan, the designing of the programme that costs £6.5m will be taken from the National Lottery cash. With the purpose of showcasing Scotland’s creativity to the whole world, this three year plan has a series of programmes. ‘Creative places awards’ is one among them, which is meant to celebrate the various communities that has a track record of organising rich cultural events.
Relying on the goodwill of this programme which is sure to increase international and domestic tourism, the organisers hold a view that it could develop new partnerships between the cultural, tourism and heritage sectors. It will be seen that the cultural showcase will begin next year and continue into 2014. With creativity on show, 2012 will be a year of nationwide display of Creative Scotland’s cultural assets and outstanding new work.
Known to have a rich culture and heritage, Scotland is increasingly recognised for its contemporary and creative cutting edge. This new programme will set the eyes of the world on UK during 2012 and 2014.
Sir Walter Scott’s home to be transformed into a tourist attraction
Scotland is about to get a major tourist attraction soon with the transformation of the home of ‘Sir Walter Scott‘, in the Borders. The ‘Abbotsford House’ will get a makeover with the grant of £4.8m by the Heritage lottery fund. This project has seen lot of support and appreciation from all corners, Lord Sanderson, chairman of Abbotsford Trust said that, this project will create a legacy for one of the Scotland’s important son.
Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish historical novelist and poet, he was also the first English language author to get an international career in his life.
It was learnt that a new visitor centre, learning suite and exhibition area will also be constructed along with other repair works. This project will be one of the major tourist attractions with Sir Walter Scott being the person who lifted the Scottish identity at the global platform with his literary works.
This project will also draw lot of revenue for the Scotland tourism board being a world class tourist attraction.
Source : BBC News
Scottish capital attracting Indian filmmakers
Being a noted tourist destination, Scotland has always been a place to be visited anytime round the year. With Edinburgh, its capital city, Scotland remains a top pic among Filmmakers to shoot their films here. It has been seen that, Indian filmmakers have shown massive interest in filming their movies amidst the charming backdrop of Scotland. Home to a historic past and cultural mix, Scotland offers a perfect setting for all movie makers. Meanwhile, Edinburgh has been a top favourite place for many filmmakers. And this time the city was once again playing the backdrop of a Bollywood flick “Mausam”, staring Shahid Kapoor.
The shoot took place in the historic Grassmarket which offers the perfect backdrop of the historic market of Edinburgh. The production was delayed for few days due to the disruption of the volcanic ash disturbing the shoot. Scotland’s unspoilt charm and heritage has attracted many Indian directors to shoot for their movies here, with around 19 films have been shot in Scotland over the years.
Its really a positive sign for the Scottish tourism to witness such a drive among the filmmakers and tourists expressing their keen interest in the history and cultural heritage of Scotland. The castles, old town, historic monuments, townships and scenic outdoors continues to draw visitors from far stretch to this lovely place.
Conference on cancer in St Andrews
A conference of leading scientists will be held in St Andrews, marking the 30th anniversary of the association for International Cancer Researcher (AICR). The latest advances in cancer research will be discussed in this conference, which will be attended by over 200 researchers from 28 different countries. Among the other delegates includes, the Nobel prize winner Sir ‘Tim Hunt’ and cancer survivor ‘Dave Cook’.
This conference will be a massive event which will target the study and research done in cancer and its treatments. Even this conference will highlight the studies being conducted in laboratory based cancer research and it also aim to explore new ventures to find out new ways for a better treatment. The AICR based in St Andrews even awards grants to cancer scientists around the world for further study and prevention of this disease.
It is also found that, cancer claims many lives in Scotland every year, with breast cancer being the major cause for death.
Travelers left high and dry as British Airways cabin crew vote to strike
Once again the British Airways cabin crew strike is in the news for the wrong reasons. Millions of passengers will be forced to put up with the travel woes in the coming days as the British Airways cabin crew voted to strike, for the second time after the December strike call, which was put on hold after the intervention of the court. The BA workers voted 4-1 in favour of a strike to express their dissatisfaction over various issues including pay cuts and job losses. The resentment among the BA crew, which culminated in the strike call was the fall out of the BA’s plan to hire cabin crew at lower pay scales. BA had also suspended several staff for allegedly posting “inappropriate comments” about potential strike-breakers on a social networking site.
Over 12,000 stewards would strike work by next week and though the union leaders have promised not to time the strike during the Easter holidays, the BA passengers are skeptical. While the Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey opined that the 78 percent vote turnout in the strike call ballot a clear sign of anger and frustration towards the management, BA described the ballot result as unjustified. The union hope that these ballots would give the management enough time to consider the grievances even as the talks between the management and the employee unions were progressing.
BA opined that pay cuts were necessary to make up for the losses of the company and a spokesman added that the airline would do whatever they can to minimise the impact of the strike on passengers and will protect the interests of their customers. The ballot result came as Lufthansa had to ground hundreds of flights due to a four-day strike by pilots. Many travel operators have termed that the strike will be a blow for both the passengers and the BA as the BA traffic continues to nose dive, which has hit a 19 percent fall since the first strike ballot.
Picture Source: dailymail.co.uk