Grey Skies Over Kilmarnock
East Ayrshire Economics
I've spent more "quality" time in Kilmarnock recently and my suspicions about the place have more or less been confirmed. I don't know much about the towns history but a think I can hazard a guess...
Kilmarnock was once a quiet, unsuspecting town in North Ayrshire in which there was probably a decent sense of community. From the eighties onwards, probably due to its central location, within easy reach of most surrounding towns and villages, large corporations and chains decided to open many stores there. There was probably a lot of farmland which could be bulldozed to make way for the likes of McDonalds (or "Maccy-Dee's" as it's called locally) to set up camp. Over several years, numerous retail parks sprung up, as if out of nowhere. Thousands of large pylons were put in place in the surrounding area to ensure there was enough power to supply these retail parks. Unfortunately, due to the large corporations taking over, many local shops which had once been fundamental to the community were forced to close, leaving behind derelict buildings, empty shells.In summary I think Kilmarnock is what you'd call a functional town, serving the almost sole purpose of being a site for some of the largest corporations in the world to ply their trade. This weekend, I decided to explore the town centre, and during this expedition I was looking out for a coffee shop to go to. I couldn't find a single one (heck, even Ayr has Beanscene, Costa, Caffe Nero etc). I ended up going to the cafe in the Morrison's across the road from the flat (which was ok, but that's beside the point). It dawned on me that perhaps the reason why there are no such venues where you can go to chill out and relax is because the intention is that people come in by car, do their shopping then leave. If there is no stopping off points per se, then this will increase overall throughput and hence profit. It's a theory, but who knows for sure?
Clearly all these retail outlets needed plenty staff and so it was important to keep a satisfied local population. Henceforth, a lot of pubs and a football team were established, to distract the locals and plenty alcohol was provided to numb the pain of living in such a place. As the majority of shoppers would come from outside of town, it was ensured that a sizeable road network was put in place and many petrol garages were built to ensure the happy shoppers had plenty fuel. Thus, the Kilmarnock that we know today was established.
Despite all this, the people seem quite friendly - I admire them, to put on such a brave face despite living there. Am I being harsh on the place? Maybe; perhaps I'm a bit of a snob, looking down at such a place, but my overall impression is that Kilmarnock has sacrificed culture for commerce, and it's not just happening here, but across the board.
Personal Best
...equals 19.5 weeks and counting. I'm talking of course about the length of time I've been in this job. I've now broken my previous record for continuous time in employment. 19.5 weeks isn't very good for someone of my age, but personally it's an achievement.
AES7
This week at the Power League I didn't play particularly well, compared to the rest. There were one or two good passes, and some reasonable first touches, but otherwise uneventful for me. I just didn't feel particularly energetic on the night. The personal highlight was when I dispossessed someone in midfield then advanced on goal, hitting a reasonable shot from quite far out, and it was just inches above the crossbar. That got some "oohs" from some of my teammates but overall I wasn't very good. I know it's a lot down to stamina. I tend to have a really good first 5 minutes or so, when I do some good passes, skills etc, but after that, I get quickly tired - I think so long as your overall fitness is decent then you can do so much more throughout the game, otherwise you spend most of the time chasing the ball and tiring yourself out more. I've a long way to go fitness-wise.
BEB3 - POSTPONED!
Flipping rail strikes meant I didn't make it to Irvine in time for my Evolution Badminton session!! Hopefully next week I'll be able to pick up the evolution where it left off.
posted by Duncan @ 11:56 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Kilmarnock doesn't suffer because of retailing, retailing is the only good thing about it as I'd imagine retail provides about 80% of the jobs in Ayrshire thesedays, a by-product of depression rather than the root cause.
Ayrshire, particularly Kilmarnock, suffers from a mini version of what we see in Scotland as a whole. People upping sticks for the bright lights. You yourself Duncan want to flee to Glasgow and there are plenty there who want to flee to foreign lands. I don't agree with it and its all very depressing.
All I'll say is this. Scotland's problems have only got worse in 30 years and now we have a decreasing population. Of the 4 main political parties, only 1 has never been in power during that time and only 1 has Scotland overwhelmingly voted for each and EVERY time.
So WAKE UP Scotland as you obviously aint doing something right, use yer noggin'.
Iain I hope you are being ironic.. I personally hope the SNP win in the next election and we take a big step to becoming an independent nation. Of course Tony Bliar et al will inevitably say we need the union, but to me that's bollocks. I think we would prosper as a nation going it alone. Apparently if they win they'll propose to abolish student debt, so that alone will secure my vote.
Apparently Kilmarnock was once prosperous for industry but for whatever reason it's only really Ronald McDonald, Colonel Whatever-the-fuck-his-name-is et al who prosper there.
Personally I've always been drawn to the big city. Fair enough, I can see why people see Glasgow as a grey, depressing place, a total scumhole etc, that's what I once thought, but there to me the nicer areas alone are better than the whole of Ayrshire put together times 10. I think if you're retired, or raising a family etc, somewhere like Ayrshire is probably a great place to live. However, being young and single, I feel much more at home in Glasgow, with its great variety of pubs, clubs and restaurants, not to mention beautiful women.
I'm sure you're absolutely spot on when you say that by comparison, Glasgow is to London what Ayr Utd is to Arsenal, but I've always felt an affinity for the place, and fully understand why people leave certain areas for what is likely to be a better quality of life.
Phew - rant over.
Where will our cash come from? Tunnock's teacakes and tourism of course!
I think you've been listening too much to Tony Bliar. It's in the interests of the London government to tell Scots independence will be disastrous, because as far as I know they get a big cut on all our resources. Maybe it would be disastrous, personally I don't know at all, but I'd be willing to give it a try.
Given that the BBC etc control most of our media, inevitably we will hear most of the "against" arguments and negative press regarding independence. However, Scotland could potentially become one of the richest nations in the world. Industry may well boom after separation from the Britain.
FREEEDOOMMMMMM....................
The best businesses, not to mention the best people, will naturally be drawn to the centre of power. If that becomes Edinburgh rather than London then I don't see why the economy won't benefit greatly. Then, there would be a knock-on effect and possible exponential growth (the theory anyway). Also here we have the added benefits of the scenery etc (another alluring factor).
I'm no politician or obsessive nationalist but it is frustrating when more people aren't willing to take such chances. Personally I'd rather gamble on independence than do nothing and let affairs south of the border prosper while here, things pretty much languish in mediocrity (generalisation).
Listen to that true Scot, Mel Gibson, he knew what he was talking about.
I heard somewhere that big businesses etc tend to flock to where the big, crucial decisions are made (e.g. to the place of government). Despite my limited knowledge I think this makes sense.
Personally I've no idea whether or not we're better or worse off than down south.
Yes, that whole cynical thing has become part of the nation's identity, unfortunately. It would be nice to shed that "sick man of Europe" tag for good.
You will never get me to agree that London dollars subsidise Scotland nor will I argue that Scottish Oil subsidises England ... both arguments are extremist and real truth will always be .... we can manage ourselves quite capably, as can England.
The amount of Scottish people living in England because of work is astonishing and is a clear sign of a problem ... and if we are all one big happy family UK then Scotland certainly miss the gravy boat time and again, we clearly get the short straw .... equally so do certain parts of England.
If Labour were to back independence you could sit back and watch Scotland overwhelming vote for it ... thats the problem with Scottish politics, public full of suckers. The biggest reason why we will be put off Independence is self-interest. The Scots in government don't want to be big fish in a small pond up here when they can play with the big boys down in London. Brown, for example, couldn't be PM with Independence, so expect an almighty scaremongering election campaign from Labour which, regretfully, will probably be successful.
Bottom line is this, we would be richer if we became the 51st state of America but we wouldn't do it for the sake of it would we? Scotland is a country and we should be big and smart enough to govern ourselves and make our own decisions ..... and If we are not then there is not a lot of hope left!!!
I knew I could rely on a true patriot like Martin to speak the truth! I pretty much agree with all that, and also think that there's no right or wrong answer as to whether Scotland would be better off alone. It would really be down to the people and the self-belief. If we are indeed a nation of Buckfast-drinking, chip-eating, chain-smoking, Tesco-shopping telly addicts, lining the pockets of Mr R. McDonald and co then there probably isn't a lot of hope. Otherwise if there's enough people with the same sort of pride and belief in the nation as Mr Gibson and Mr Tocker, then who knows what could be possible in terms of prosperity?
If the majority of the population is anything like my neighbours in Kilmarnock then we're fucked!
Also on the question of industry - I think you underestimate the value of oil as a commodity. Just ask Saddam and friends with regards to that. Oh wait, too late. But there's not just oil, you've got fishing, tourism, whisky, Irn Bru, emmm, Tunnocks Caramel Logs, Tunnocks Tea Cakes, Tunnocks Wafers... ok I'm sure there's more.
How can the man that apparently didn't know what the Budget was at age 20 even think about commenting on politics?
How indeed... who, by the way?
...and I forgot to mention Scotland has a booming banking and IT industry - possibly the biggest money spinners after oil and David Beckham.
I'm just adding more comments to make myself look popular.
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