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Lies, damned lies and government statements

LIFE can be strange sometimes – wouldn’t you agree? There’s a lot been happening in my own lately, but I’ll keep that for another time.

Being out of the frontline media world for a time doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching what’s been going on around me, especially in the increasingly fractious world of politics.

Westminster especially has displayed itself beyond any doubt as having all the appeal of a no-mark banana republic; a government whose support for its friends knows no bounds and whose disdain for millions of those who are less fortunate has further widened the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.

I’m sure most of us have never seen an administration so packed with avaricious, compulsive liars, crooks, spivs and snake oil salesmen.

Lies about Downing Street parties during the Covid pandemic, lies about the effects of Brexit – every time they open their mouths, more lies come out.

Although this link is titled “Boris Johnson Lies” https://boris-johnson-lies.com/ it also contains a litany of howlers from his former cabinet cronies, including the current PM.

You might think that the Scottish government would use the opportunity of the Tories lagging in the polls to make some headway with whatever their current policies are, but they’ve been quiet of late, apart from Humza sticking his head above the parapet over the current Gaza conflict – which involved his in-laws, who are thankfully safe now.

If the Scotgov had any sense they would be working hard to mitigate the legislation the Tory government is tailoring to fit its “immigration bad” narrative, despite the fact that public services – including the NHS – are collapsing because of it.

I have witnessed the strife and heartache migrants have to endure to get into this country, even when their families ae already here, and it’s far from pleasant.

On one particular occasion (on a Saturday) the Home Office accused me of getting a front-page story completely wrong, which led to a couple of hours of arguments and shouting only for them to back down and admit they were wrong – and had in fact lied in their response to me.

I’ve sat in on government briefings with some loathsome individuals, such as Michael Gove, and come away wondering how they got where they are.

Yet still we are governed by them?

Methinks it’s long past time to get out of this unequal, undemocratic union.

Pip pip.

We’re still here … even as the world appears to be crumbling around us all

IT has been a long time, but it’s late and I can’t sleep. However, I find myself wondering just where to start.

Every time you look at the news it gets worse — the horrors of Gaza with thousands of Palestinians, including children and the elderly, slaughtered as the obdurate Netanyahu pounds the region with firepower, paying only lip service to the fate of Israeli hostages as he tries to rid the world of Hamas.

The war shows little sign of ending any time soon and, if that weren’t bad enough, we have witnessed world leaders sitting on their hands instead of supporting calls for a ceasefire.

Rishi Sunak, for instance, standing on his tiptoes amongst world leaders looking like a startled schoolboy, when the best he can do is sack Tories who have the impertinence to demand a truce.

I’m no great fan of the SNP, but I did feel for our FM Humza Yousaf, with his in-laws stuck in what is an occupied territory. Thankfully they returned home safe.

Yousaf handled his family crisis with dignity while his party was crashing and burning around him as the chickens came home to roost.

I’ve watched hours of news programmes about the Gaza crisis but the BBC seem to be quite in Jerusalem judging by the output of their correspondents. Compare their output with that of ITV News or Al Jazeera.

Israel’s PR machine is well oiled, slick and you can usually work out where the Israeli Defence Force media folk have been leading the journos, who are fed a constant diet of interviewees and pic opportunities with Israeli victims of Hamas. I’m not denying that there are casualties of the war on both sides, but the IDF media operation knows that news organisations don’t want to see their people hurt and takes every opportunity to make their lives easier.

However, we are so consumed with the war in Gaza that we are in danger of forgetting about the continuing horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Have we become so inured to such examples of inhuman atrocities that we consider them a fact of our daily lives?

I don’t know — I’m merely posing the question because that’s what it looks like.

Returning to domestic politics, I’m delighted to see the SNP given some comeuppance after years of failing to properly address the question of Scottish independence.

Ash Regan was always a favourite to jump ship to Alba after her failed bid for the SNP leadership, and it doesn’t matter that she’s  their sole MSP — and therefore group leader — she will have the right to question the First Minister at FMQs. That will soon become required watching.

Still on the defection front and SNP MP Lisa Cameron has jumped to the Tories for some strange reason, followed by Chris Cullen, a councillor who’s joined Alba — all despite SNP attempts (particularly from MP Pete Wishart) to rubbish the new party and its main figures.

Keep shouting into the void Pete!

Pip pip.

Sunak makes Del Boy and Dodgy Dave look like saints … and farewell to a broadcasting legend

WE put up with Boris Johnson’s ineptitude, lying and his dodgy rewards for his posh pals, and we stood by as the stupidity of Liz Truss sent the economy into freefall. But how corrupt does a British PM have to be before people take a stand and tell them: “Enough is enough.”

I was aghast when Sunak decided on a day trip to Scotland announced hundreds of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea (the same North Sea that was ‘running dry’ ahead of the 2014 referendum).

At a time when global warming is becoming an horrific reality with weather extremes around the world and with governments trying to do something to mitigate its effects, we wondered if Sunak was losing his mind.

The answer lies in an Indian IT company called Infosys – which is said to be owned by Sunak’s wife’s family and which signed a billion-dollar deal with oil giant BP just a couple of months before Sunak’s shock announcement. Sunak is doing a Trump, insisting that his family’s ownership of Infosys is of “no legitimate public interest”.

So that’s OK … nothing to see here, move along please.

Until we look at what else Infosys is involved in – £172 million worth of UK public sector contracts.

Are we supposed to believe that Sunak’s decision to open up these North Sea licences is simply convenient?

Another major Infosys client is Shell, whose CEO Wael Sawan is a recent addition to Sunak’s new business council who has promised a “candid collaboration” with the government.

How collaborative? Well, in an interview with the BBC last month he refused to rule out moving his company’s headquarters and stock market listing from the UK to the US.

In the same interview, Sawan said it would be “irresponsible” to cut oil and gas production when the world economy is still dependent on fossil fuels.

He said: “The reality is, the energy system of today continues to desperately need oil and gas. And before we are able to let go of that, we need to make sure that we have developed the energy systems of the future — and we are not yet, collectively, moving at the pace (required for) that to happen.”

Burning fossil fuels is the biggest source of the carbon emissions blamed for global warming, and Sawan’s comments conflict with climate scientists’ recommendations and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has called on the fossil fuel industry to “drive, not obstruct” the transition to renewable energy.

Sunak even had the gall to insist that granting new oil and gas licences was “entirely consistent” with the UK commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

“If we’re going to need it, far better to have it here at home rather than shipping it here from half way around the world with two, three, four times, the amount of carbon emissions versus the oil and gas we have here at home. So, it is entirely consistent with our plans to get to net zero.”

There was international condemnation of Sunak’s move, with one billionaire global investor saying he would pull his major investment from the UK if the PM pursued “clickbait” fossil fuel policies.

Andrew Forrest, an Australian mining entrepreneur who also runs a philanthropic foundation, told Bloomberg News: “I am a major investor here. If I see this country steering itself over a cliff backing fossil fuel, I am going to start pulling out. I will push my investments over to North America … I must invest where I know I have proper leadership, not leadership which is on a clickbait cycle.”

Nuff said.

On another note I’ve just heard of the passing of Robbie Shepherd, a broadcasting legend, MBE, and an old friend from my days at the BBC in Aberdeen, from where he presented his Take the Floor programme. Many a night Robbie kept us entertained at the Beechgrove club after work, and he was on great form every time we met over the years since then.

His death is a great loss for the world of traditional Scottish music and the Doric tongue – he’ll be sadly missed.

The former refugee who took on the Home Office … AND WON!

A FORMER Syrian refugee in Scotland has won her battle to be reunited with her father after succeeding in an appeal against the Home Office’s refusal under family union rules.

Violet Hejazi, who has been in Scotland for a decade, last year pleaded with the department  to allow her seriously ill father to be reunited with her and Simone, her sister, in Scotland before it is too late.

Continuing civil war forced the family to flee their home in northern Syria in 2013 after their village was ravaged by terrorist militia. She lost contact with her father, Ali, and stepmother as she became settled in Scotland. Her father is in his seventies and has suffered a series of strokes.

Violet’s own initial five-year visa expired in 2018 and she has indefinite leave to reman (ILR), which means she is no longer a refugee and could not apply to bring her parents here through the family reunion route.

However, she has a Legal Services HND from Glasgow College and is studying law at Glasgow University and it was through her studies that she found a ruling from the President of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) which said that minors could start family reunion proceedings.

That inspired her to pursue her own case, and she had been expecting a refusal in March last year. Now, 16 months on, the First-Tier Tribunal has found in her favour and she can bring her parents to Scotland.

Violet said it had been a long battle, but she was relieved that it was over: “I didn’t know what to say. I received the news over the phone and it was unreal. It actually took me a few days to digest the fact that we had won and there’s nothing more we need to prepare, in terms of legal arguments.

“I’m actually quite proud of myself because if I had not paid attention to the details, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

“It could take up to three weeks for my father’s visa to be implemented and from that day we have 30 days to travel. So it will be maybe two or three months before they’re in Scotland.”

She said there are no direct flights from Kurdistan Iraq, where her parents have been living, and there are more hurdles to jump regarding passports, visas and her father’s ill health, but she has managed to give him the news.

I’m just a little bit worried about the timescale and how fast we can get things done.

“On the day [of the ruling] I shared the news. We got that on the 14th of June and the 15th was my 10th anniversary in Scotland, so it was a very special week.

“I phoned him and he was very overwhelmed. I shared the news with my stepmother and she was happy but told me my father’s been very unwell for two days. He’s having fever attacks, which has been happening for the past year and there’s no doctor who can find out why.”

Violet did manage to speak to her father a few days later, and once he was convinced that he hadn’t been dreaming in the earlier call, he was delighted.

“He can barely move and can only speak for five minutes and then he’s tired. But that day, they actually went to a nearby park to go out for some fresh air and have a wee celebration. They were over the moon.”

Violet’s own lawyer, Usman Aslam, a senior associate at Mukhtar & Co Solicitors in Glasgow, said the family reunion process is there for refugees who have fled their home countries and been separated from their families, and this ruling extends its reach.

“Whilst the rules generally only allow spouses and children, we all know that family also means parents, it also means siblings, grandparents, or anyone that you consider family.

“Violet and her parents have had to suffer around two years unnecessarily, going through a bureaucratic nightmare, at a time when the Tory Government are trying to sell to the public that family reunion is a safe route.

“Why is that the applications are usually refused then having to cost the taxpayers a fortune for court appeals?  What is more concerning is that the Home Office had more than one opportunity to review matters, instead, we were advised that the case was without merit.

“The public, and more importantly the court has clearly taken the opposite view to the Home Office.”

He said the system was in need of a complete overhaul, and urged to Home Office to engage with layers.

“Violet is a symbol of what refugees can achieve.  She fled war, then learned the language when she came to Scotland, won several awards at college, now on route to becoming a solicitor.

“All she asked was to see her parents again. We are delighted with the result and welcome the judge’s decision and we will continue the fight for those facing oppressive immigration rules.”

Brain family ‘finally free of the Home Office’ … after a 12-year battle

AN Australian family living in the Highlands were celebrating last night after they were finally given leave to remain in their Scotland – after a 12-year battle with the Home Office.

The story of Gregg and Kathryn Brain and their then two-year-old son Lachlan made worldwide headlines after  the Home Office scrapped the post-study work visa the family arrived here with, and tried to apply the new rules retrospectively.

They settled in Dingwall, from where their determination pitted them against more belligerent immigration ministers and home secretaries than many politicians have had to face – among them James Brokenshire,  Caroline Nokes, Theresa May and Amber Rudd.

Throughout their fight they won direct support from MPs Ian Blackford, Drew Hendry and their SNP colleague Kate Forbes, as well as the SNP contingents at Westminster and the Scottish Parliament.

Their case went to Holyrood in 2016, when The National arranged a meeting between the family and then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in her private office, at which we were the only media outlet attending.

However, their arrival in Holyrood’s foyer turned into a media scrum, as Gregg recalled last night: “We said to Lachlan ‘we’ve got to say goodbye to Nicola’, then of course seven-year-old Lachlan was saying goodbye to everyone, and just rushed up to Nicola and gave her a hug.

“Somebody [a photographer] caught the first time he did it, and there was this look of surprised delight on Nicola’s face in the first photo.

“And then of course all the photographers turned around saw it happening just as he let go, and they shouted ‘do it again, do it again’.

“So the second time for the photographers it looked nice, but it was awkward. I remember finding that one photo and we saved a copy of it somewhere.”

I was the only journalist allowed to sit in on the meeting in the FM’s private office as she sympathised with how they had been treated, and told them she would do what she could to help.

Eight years later and after a surfeit of changes to immigrations rules – including many brought about by Brexit – the Brains had to sit their Life in the UK test. They took it ahead of their application for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), which was submitted in April.

Kathryn and Lachlan were told last month that they had passed the test and their ILR had been approved.

Gregg wouldn’t speculate on why his decision was delayed, but yesterday – two weeks later – he breathed a sigh of relief as he told us: “Hi Greg – that’s three of us with our Indefinite Leave to Remain applications approved. We’re now officially free of the Home Office!”

In a Facebook post, the family said it was time to celebrate, and added: “We’ll be stopping by our immigration solicitor’s office on our way back north as we got the news from Andrew that he now has all three Indefinite Leave to Remain approvals through from the Home Office.”

Lachlan has grown up in Scotland and is now a teenaged pupil at Dingwall Academy, who is fluent in Gaelic, plays clarsach and has performed at the Mod.

After arriving in Scotland as an infant, he now towers over Kathryn, and at around 6ft, is as tall as his father.

Gregg is highly critical of the whole UK immigration system, including the Life in the UK test, which he says is self-defeating: “They actually sell you a textbook to study from. It’s not a test of your cultural assimilation at all; it’s just a measure of your ability to produce a result in accordance with western education norms.

“In other words, can you memorise information, and regurgitate it on demand?

“And having passed, they don’t even tell you what your score was, let alone which question/s you might have got wrong, so you can improve your cultural knowledge.

‘It’s as though they don’t even care about improving your cultural assimilation, but just want to place an extra obstacle in your path.  Oh wait …”

And he says he was always wary about the outcome of his application: “There were legal reasons to consider that the Home Office could come up with a logical legal argument for a refusal.

“It was it was absolutely watertight, but there were logical ways they could come up with a refusal. One of the things that we also considered is that the person who is looking at our case isn’t just considering a legal application. There is a political dimension to it as well.

“And so we’re putting in this application in the fervent hope that everyone can avoid the international PR disaster that occurred in 2016 [their meeting with Nicola Sturgeon] and hope that they were thinking much the same thing.

“But their sensitivity to accountability seems to have increased dramatically over the last few years.”

When they arrived in Scotland in 2011 after 27 hours on a plane with a two-and-a-half year old child, they did not notice that while Kathryn’s and Lachlan’s passports were stamped, while Gregg’s was not.

That came back to haunt him during the years of waiting, when he says he became convinced he was being targeted by the Home Office as they were returning to Scotland after travelling elsewhere.

In April 2012 they were in Venice and had no visa trouble on their return. However, the following month they went to Australia to catch up with some relatives, and when they returned, Gregg was detained after being asked why he did not come into the UK with his family the previous year.

“I told them I had, but when we looked at my passport there was no stamp. I told them I came in 2011 and ‘if you guys didn’t do that, that’s an internal administrative issue for you’ … but of course that’s always visited upon the applicant. They came back 20 minutes later and said ‘you’re fine, we found you on the passenger manifest’.”

They refused to retroactively stamp his passport with the proper entry date, which Gregg says has resulted in him having to provide extra documentation – utility bills, leases and so on – every time he returns to Scotland.

“I suspect they’re finding themselves, in order to chase boats, having to appeal to a demographic that’s further and further out along the edge of the bell curve.”

Blackford told The National he was delighted that the Brains’ 12-year battle was over, and added: “But my goodness, what the family have had to endure over that period has been quite extraordinary – a lot of pain, a lot of tears, a lot of heartache along the way.

“And let’s not forget that the root of this was them arriving here with the promise of being able to benefit from the post study work visa and that was taken away from them whilst they were in transit to Scotland.

“There’s been a breach of faith and trust that’s been shown to them right at the beginning of this process, and there are times I have to admit that I thought the family would be looking at being deported.

“But I think the fact that so many people rallied round, through the resilience of all of them, that at the end they’ve been able to follow their dreams, their hopes and aspirations, and build a life for all of them in Scotland.

“They’re an integral part of our community, they add to Scotland’s story and I’m delighted that for them, at long last, the journey has reached its end.”

Documentary should shed further light on Annie’s mysterious death

I WAS glad to see Rogan Productions’ documentary for the BBC on the strange case of Anne Borjesson in the media this week having spoken to the team after writing about the death of the young Swede during my years at The National.

The 30-year-old worked in Edinburgh, spoke six languages and was described by friends as “chatty and lively”.

In December 2005, she told friends and family she was planning to return to Sweden for the festive season. On Saturday, December 3, she left her Edinburgh flat ­– for which she had paid rent in advance – with a travel bag and her passport, books to be returned to a library in Sweden, and had even booked a hair appointment in her home country.

CCTV at Prestwick Airport picked up Annie entering the terminal, but five minutes later she left the same way she came.

Her body was found the next day, face down on Prestwick beach. Police maintained her death was suicide or an accident, but family and friends have over the years demanded a further investigation.

My notes from conversations I had a decade ago with police, Maria Jansson – Annie’s close friend ­– a former justice secretary at Holyrood, are unfortunately long gone, but I will always remember the varying attitudes of those interviewees.

Maria was adamant that Annie would not have taken her own life – she had everything to live for.

I remember a retired, senior police officer of my acquaintance poo-pooing the idea that her death was anything other than a suicide, as did the then justice secretary.

I spoke to the makers of a Sky podcast series and expressed my doubts that those in authority were too hasty in their judgement.

One well-known Scots lawyer agreed with me during a conversation that all did not appear to be right with the case.

In 2019, I wrote:

POLICE did not apply to typical crime scene procedures when they investigated the controversial death of a Swedish woman in Scotland 14 years ago, according to a prominent Home Office pathologist.
In 2015, The National exclusively tried to shed light on the death of Annie Börjesson on Prestwick beach on 2005 after lawyer Aamer Anwar called for the cold case to be reopened. We later received a deeply moving letter of thanks from her family and friends.
Now, new claims have emerged in the final episode of a six-part Sky News podcast documentary – What happened to Annie? – which investigates the bizarre circumstances surrounding the 30-year-old’s death.
The documentary, released today, has led to a commitment from the Swedish Government to consider granting access to files related to the case.
In a statement to Sky News, Police Scotland Detective Sergeant Paul Livingstone, from the Specialist Crime Division, said the case was fully investigated at the time and had since been subject to review.

From what I’ve read about the latest documentary, it appears to raise even more questions about Annie’s death and I’m looking forward to watching it.

I hope it leads to the investigation being reopened and at the very least a fatal accident inquiry – and answers some of her family’s questions.

That is the very least they deserve.

Why do the SNP refuse to engage with the Yes movement?

ISN’T is strange that when you express a view on Scottish independence that doesn’t adhere to the SNP line (whatever it may be) that some diehard party members immediately launch a torrent of criticism, accusing you of being disloyal, not a ‘true’ indy supporter, a troll, or worse?

I’d have thought that after recent events in the party (on which I needn’t go into detail) they’d be slightly more circumspect and willing to welcome people into what should a broad church.

But no – if you’re not an SNP supporter you’re an outcast, which is a great shame.

I was working at the post-referendum SNP conference in Perth and had a lengthy chat with the late Gordon Wilson, my former MP and the party leader from 1979-1990.

During our conversation Gordon reflected on the huge upsurge in SNP membership following the indyref, but warned that party leaders would have to manage their expectations, as well as those of the wider body of Yes supporters who were not SNP members.

The party seemed to agree – at least off the record – but their statements proved to be weasel words. They never intended to give voice to people who were not members; they didn’t (still don’t) want to encourage debate on the way forward for an indy Scotland; and they want (and still do) govern by diktat.

In the years since, nothing has changed in the party. At the weekend, while Humza Yousaf was extolling the virtues of his latest plan for indy – that an SNP majority of Scottish MPs at the next general election would be a mandate for it – over 5000 Yes supporters walked through the streets of Stirling to Bannockburn in a call for action now.

Yousaf’s pledge is no different from any of the previous electoral mandates the SNP have had and have squandered.

To have any chance of living up to what their party stands for (Scottish independence) they must embrace the entire Yes movement – and yes that includes Alba, however distasteful the SNP hierarchy view the prospect.

With Labour expected to have a decent shot at re-establishing at least some of their previous standing in Scotland, the alternative to real action from the SNP will be electoral oblivion.

Why should we pay this clown’s £245,000 Partygate bill?

SO, the weasel’s legal costs for the Partygate probe are around £245,000 which Boris Johnson expects taxpayers to pay, while the inquiry itself comes in at £460,000 – and for what?

To prove to a committee of MPs that this apology for a human being (and PM) is a liar?

Everybody and their auntie knows as much, but still we have to go through this expensive charade.

In case you’ve not seen the report, here’s a snippet from the end of the summary:

“17. The question which the House asked the Committee is whether the House had been misled by Mr Johnson and, if so, whether that conduct amounted to contempt. It is for the House to decide whether it agrees with the Committee. The House as a whole makes that decision. Motions arising from reports from this Committee are debatable and amendable. The Committee had provisionally concluded that Mr Johnson deliberately misled the House and should be sanctioned for it by being suspended for a period that would trigger the provisions of the Recall of MPs Act 2015. In light of Mr Johnson’s conduct in committing a further contempt on 9 June 2023, the Committee now considers that if Mr Johnson were still a Member he should be suspended from the service of the House for 90 days for repeated contempts and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process, by:

1a) Deliberately misleading the House

1b) Deliberately misleading the Committee

1c) Breaching confidence

1d) Impugning the Committee and thereby undermining the democratic process of the House

1e) Being complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the Committee.

We recommend that he should not be entitled to a former Member’s pass.”

The committee made its intentions clear, but Johnson, ever the escape artist, quit as an MP before he could be removed.

And he expects us to pay the bill for his abhorrent behaviour?

Millions of people behaved sensibly during the pandemic, abiding by all the restrictions on social  gatherings; and tens of thousands could only visit dying relatives and see them through the glass of hospital or care home doors.

To see him smirking his way through the subsequent inquiry and all the questions about his behaviour as if the rules didn’t apply to him made my blood boil.

The government claimed there’s a precedent for supporting ex-minister with legal representation, but has anybody seen it?

Can anybody find it?

The SNP, LibDems and Labour all railed against Johnson having his legal bill paid, and we can only hope Westminster authorities eventually change their minds and admit there is no precedent and force the buffoon to pay for his own mess.

On another subject entirely, I am pleased that Sarah Bradley and her partner Youssef Mikhaiel have had something of a reprieve after he was locked up in Dungavel immigration detention centre and told he was being deported.

The couple are planning to marry this year, but the Home Office doesn’t recognise their relationship because they are not co-habiting – which goes against their religious beliefs.

Youssef – and aeronautical engineering graduate from Glasgow University – suffers from a rare condition Fabry Disease, and there is no treatment available for it in his home country Egypt.

His lawyer Usman Aslam managed to stop his removal after taking the case to the Court of Session, which will decide if the Home Office was right to try to remove him while there was an application to remain here pending.

Have you ever known the Home Office to be right about anything?

I thought not.

Bank holiday reflections from Clootie City

BANK holidays are a novelty to me after a lifetime on the media frontline, and while I am getting used to them I still find it a bit odd trying to plan something useful to do with the spare time.

Last weekend I decided to visit my home city of Dundee – or Clootie City as it’s sometimes known – and despite the fact that it’s a vast improvement on what it used to be, it is still sadly lacking.

After putting some flowers on my mum’s grave I went to Broughty Ferry, the scene of many shenanigans in my younger days and quite sad today. Amongst the main features of this posh suburb of Dundee are the many massive stone houses built for the jute barons back in the day and, of course, a smaller number of ultra-modern homes commanding similarly high  six- and seven-figure prices.

Many sit on elevated positions with fantastic views over the Tay to Fife, and the older examples would have had the same view of the rover as the Fifie (Tay Ferry) cross back and forth between Dundee and Newport-on-Tay.

I mention this because somebody told me while I was there that there was talk about bring back a ferry service to help cut congestion on the Tay Road Bridge and in the city itself.

While I think it’s a good opportunity to promote greener transport, I think Dundee has other priorities.

In downtown Brought Ferry I expected to see the same collection of niche boutiques, tailors and gift shops. What I didn’t expect was to see empty shops on its main thoroughfare. The Ferry doesn’t appear to have escaped the decay that has blighted towns and cities across Scotland, although the bookies seem to be doing a roaring trade, along with the many pubs, cafes and charity shops.

I walked around for a while, thinking how much it had changed in the decade or so since I was last a regular here.

Perhaps Dundee itself might be a bit more appealing, I thought as I got back into the car and headed for the city where I cut my teeth in journalism.

Alas, it was worse.

I parked at the Apex, where I was staying, and walked up Trades Lane into St Andrews Street, which brought me to the monstrosity that is the Wellgate. As a child I remember the Wellgate and its famous steps which we had to negotiate to get a bus home. It was a bustling, fun place, full of neat, cheery little shops, whose owners always seemed to be on first-name terms with my mum and my gran.

The Wellgate was usually the last street we visited in town after Cowgate, the Murraygate, Overgate and Reform Street – a sort of Saturday ritual that ended with us lugging bags of shopping up the Wellgate to the bus stop in Victoria Road.

When I was growing up, there were a few shops that were of interest, but now the Wellgate Centre – like many others across Scotland – is a charity shop empire, topped by the ubiquitous gym club.

I don’t know what the council has planned for the it, but demolition would be a blessing.

Moving on, it was sad to see the state of Reform Street and the Overgate, once home to several reputable tailors and menswear shops and at one time the Angus Hotel, where I worked part-time as a wine waiter and barman with one-time politician George Galloway (who was known as the man who ran the local Labour Party and therefore, the council).

Nothing much of interest in the Overgate now – unless you’re of an age when Primark is the go-to fashion shop.

I did the rounds of the Nethergate, Castle Street, Union Street, High Street and Crichton Street, which I remember because of The Pillars bar, where we hacks used to imbibe with local councillors.

I thought about going into the bar, but the site of a massive Union Jack in the window was enough to stop me.

Instead I headed up Reform Street to Meadowside, and was happy to see the D C Thomson building and The McManus Art Gallery and Museum both looking as magnificent as ever.

Memories of times spent in the DCT offices in Meadowside and Bank Street flashed through my mind as I walked back towards the Cowgate, where I was delighted to see that Caws Bar – my late dad’s local – was still doing brisk business.

I went in and could picture him leaning at the bar, eyes glued to the overhead telly as he spurred on his horses. I snapped out of it when a friendly barman asked me what I’d like. I ordered a pint (pity the pub’s now in the hands of the brewing giants) and nearly fell over when he asked me for less than three quid!

Other nearby hostelries owned by the same brewer are charging nearly double that. The interior has been cleaned up, perhaps even refurbished, but Caws has the same, friendly atmosphere as it had the last time I visited some 20 or so years ago.

When I later walked back to the Apex, I passed the now normal empty city-centre premises, doorways occupied by those with nowhere else to go sheltering from the awful weather, and reflected on various occasions over the years when I’ve been in Clootie City for work.

I covered the opening of V&A Dundee, witnessed the fireworks and the music and dance spectacular, and even interviewed the architect responsible for the building, Kengo Kuma.

On the night of the opening, various politicians – mostly of the SNP persuasion – were only too happy to talk about how the V&A would transform Dundee, how it would bring in tourists and new businesses and help the city’s economic development, perhaps bringing back a taste of its former glory days of Jute, Jam and Journalism.

Sure there are flashy new hotels, a new train station and a new road system that’s every bit as god-awful as the old one.

As far as I can see, Dundee is still one of the most deprived areas in Scotland, and its politicians appear to be doing nothing much to combat it.