The managing director of the St Boswells and Wooler livestock marts says a pre-tax profit of nearly £125,000 last year, up from a £23,000 loss in 2012, is due to more animals through the ring and cost cutting.

John Swan Ltd MD Steven Wilson welcomed the change in fortune during his first year in the top job, saying: “It’s very much been a team effort. We’ve had extra animals coming through which is down to hard work and everybody working well together.”

Two sales staff who left were not replaced, which additionally meant savings on the costs of two cars. The marts gained too from cattle making record prices, and in September and October 2012 cattle were averaging about £1,000, up roughly £200 on the same time the previous year.

But with generally falling livestock numbers, how did the market increase throughput?

The company’s former finance director said: “I think it’s been down to us making sure we get our share. We have had to go and visit people. I have made a lot more face to face contact and attended more farming events.

“We have continued to keep a tight control of administration costs while continuing to maintain strict credit control.

“We have a lot of competition but we provide a transparent and competitive service. We have many more people looking for cattle than farmers have to sell. Animals going through the ring have been making record prices and we have no reason to think that’s going to change in the short term.”

The council has re-affirmed its backing for the creative business sector, after concerns over the future of the Creative Arts Business Network (CABN).

At a meeting of the economic development group last week members agreed to continue to support the sector through Business Gateway and continued funding of the CABN project for 2014, while seeking medium and long term funding sources for the project.

CABN supports individuals and organisations working in visual arts, craft, literature, film, music and performing arts.

Support for the wider creative sector has come through Business Gateway and the ‘Creative Clusters’ project.

The value of the creative sector in the Borders is estimated to be £21m, with some 375 businesses employing over 700 people.

The council have agreed to put £14,000 into the CABN project, which matches the first year of Creative Scotland funding totalling £44,000.

Councillor Vicky Davidson said: “It was very tricky not knowing how CABN was going to be funded and it caused a lot of upset, so it is great that Creative Scotland have come up with an offer, but we have only managed to match the first year of the offer, so there must be a question mark for Creative Scotland that we have not managed to fully match it, and some concern from CABN that it is only fully funded for a year.”

She added: “It has proven to be a very useful organisantion and has been praised by anyone who has had contact with it.”

Councillor Davidson said that as well as encouraging networking within the sector, bigger Borders businesses need to be encouraged to look within the region when they are requiring creative services, such as website design and marketing.

She added that the wider impact of a strong creative sector in the Borders was hard to measure, but it was an important factor in the area’s tourism offer alone.

Graham Bell, chairman of the Borders branch of the Federation of Small Businesses added that such firms helped buld up the ‘Borders brand’.

A Galashiels councillor has called part of the town a disaster area in terms of empty shops and has urged more to be done to attract new firms.

Bill White made the comment at a meeting of the council’s economic development group last week, when he asked what incentives were available to retailers to get vacant shops filled before the railway opens.

Mr White was supported by Selkirk councillor Michelle Ballantyne, who said: “If we are creating the hub point at Galashiels we have to get Gala right in order to get the rest of the Borders right, because that will be the entry point.”

Mrs Ballantyne added: “Once people arrive and can touch the tourist information screens that are going to be there they are much more likely to stay, and move outwards. We need to be less parochial in order to get the benefits for everybody.”

Speaking to The Southern this week, Mr White said: “My fear is that big retailers are going to sit and wait until the railway arrives to see if people will come to Gala, and if people come to Gala and wander through there as it is now are they ever going to come back?

“Is there some incentive to get the retailers here earlier so they are established when the first trippers come off the train?”

Mr White also called for discussions to be held with landlords to investigate if rents are prohibitively high for some retailers.

He added: “It was good to get encouragement from other members that yes, we need to do something in Gala because if we don’t people will never come back again.”

An SBC spokesman said: “The council is aware of the number of vacant shops in local town centres, including Galashiels and Hawick.

“Smaller shops can benefit from discounted rates bills through the Small Business Bonus Scheme, but this incentive is not available to larger businesses.

“In anticipation of the opening of the Borders Railway, the council will work with Galashiels Chamber of Trade and local businesses to develop a range of initiatives that can support the town centre.”

He added: “The opening of the railway will provide major opportunities for new business activity in Galashiels and the council wants to help local businesses take advantage of those.”

Weekends. Don’t you just love them? To be honest, because I don’t do proper work and we have livestock (animals and kids), one day is much like another.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not like Maggie Smith’s dowager in Downton Abbey, who said, when one of The Little People discussed their weekend plans: “What is a weekend?”

Even though I don’t work per se, I still look forward to weekends. With chickens, turkeys, quail, European eagle owls (so you are paying attention ... yes, that’s right, we don’t have any quail) already cleaned out on a Saturday, that leaves us free to ‘do something’ on Sundays.

Well, the dogs are needing a nice long walk. They are doing that thing that dog owners the world over are familiar with when dogs decide they need a nice, long walk - they haunt you, looking for signs of you picking up a lead or putting on the jacket you usually wear to walk them in.

You open a kitchen cupboard and they appear at the door, peering round at you. Was that the creak of the cupboard where you usually keep the dog treats opening?

Your hand is on the front door handle – are you going for your wellies in the porch? Or just out to the freezer? Dog detectives.

And once you actually stand in that porch – dog coat on, treats in pocket, leads in hand – they become an excited, swirling mass of dog, whipping at your legs with their wagging tails.

But I am tired of walking dogs in mud, tired of dropping leads in gloop, tired of climbing over wet, slippery gates. And I am bone weary of almost having my wellies sucked off my feet in the deep muddy potholes left by stock at every gateway.

So today it is decided we will go to the beach. At the end of January. As the owners of three dogs, we have probably been to the beach many more times in autumn, winter and spring than we ever have in summer.

Having a Big Brown Dog bounding about barking his head off in the surf doesn’t always go down well with other beach users.

The BBD tends to occupy the same bit of the beach/sea as nervous paddlers, kids on body boards and toddlers taking a dip with mum. So we are better off out of season – and so are the paddlers/body board kids/toddlers.

We were even on the beach at Hogmanay.

Wet, without the mud. Love it.

After a lovely wind/rain/sea spray facial, we head for home, tired dugs and kids.

We are wet and sandy – but not muddy ... bliss.

As we head home, a wrong turning takes us past the largest number of free-range pigs I have ever seen in the Borders.

So, that sentence constitutes the entire smallholding element of this column.

And, yes, you were right. We do have quail, it’s the eagle owls we’re lacking.

This week’s front page story about Scottish churches trying to help cut the number of young homeless Borderers, could easily have been written to paint Scottish Borders Council in a poor light as having to rely on outside help to tackle this worrying problem.

Yet that would have been unfair. For the initiative between the Scottish Churches Housing Action (SCHA) and the local authority is truly a joint effort aimed at helping some of the most vulnerable people in Borders society.

It is highly worrying that an area with such a small population as the Borders last year saw more than 200 people aged under 25 approach the council for help because they were homeless.

But it is also reassuring to know that the last few years have seen the SCHA and the council working together, with the result that the Borders is now to pilot the scheme which sees an appeal to local people with a spare room to consider giving lodging to a young person in need.

The reasons behind someone’s homelessness can be many and varied.

And many of those affected – last year 45 were aged just 16 or 17 – are too old to remain in care, but perhaps too young to live on their own.

So being able to join a family household, not only gives them a vital roof over their heads, but also provides the much-needed support and safety that too often the rest of us take for granted.

Realistic view would serve Nats better

Eric Falconer states in his latest letter that I acknowledge the difficulties that would result in the EU trying to expel the Scots. I did not acknowledge it would be the case, I said: “The assertion that an independent Scotland would not be expelled from the EU because the chaos from the unravelling of the 40-year-old EU union would be a nightmare ( is this scare mongering?) is surely an even stronger endorsement that the 300 year-old union within the UK should be retained”.

I was merely stating that if he used such an argument for retaining an EU union then it would apply even more so to retaining the UK union, which is much more entwined in the fabric of our everyday activities and everything we do.

I’m also afraid that Peter Heald was right, Mr Falconer did imply that oil from an independent Scotland was so critical to the EU they would not be expelled for fear of an embargo. I note he did not acknowledge my comments on the pretty low key impact of UK energy on the EU or respond how Independence would improve air travel as he stated in an earlier letter.

I am no expert on EU law so made no comment on Mr Falconer’s earlier assertions on the legal aspects of EU membership in my last letter. It now appears that he is no expert either, as he was only repeating the views of someone else in support of his Nationalist views.

Overall, the responses from Mr Falconer re-enforce my view, and that of many others, that the Nationalists make assertions using fairly loose information that supports their cause and ignore any facts and views, many from respected independent experts, that indicate an Independent Scotland may not find the going as easy as they make out.

Perhaps the Nationalists would get more support if they did acknowledge the difficulties in a real world, rather that saying an Independent Scotland will be Eutopia.

Malcolm Donald

Cavers, Hawick

Raising ones head above the parapet

As a Yorkshireman making comments on the Independence debate, perhaps I may be treading on dangerous ground.

However, having lived here for 20 years, I thought it’s about time I raised my head above the parapet in offering some thoughts on the matter.

Experience has shown me that the people who shout the loudest often get heard but are not always right in what they say.

The views I have heard and read tend to be polarised. Those, often from the heart, tend to be in the Yes camp, the more thoughtful in the No camp.

I brought my family to the Scottish Borders because it was different but still had many of the assets associated with being part of a much larger United Kingdom. Any party that has National in its title has only one objective, it’s thinking and policies are all based around achieving self governance .

September 18 is not a general election where we vote a party in or out, if ‘Yes’, it is permanent, then Mr Salmond won’t be too concerned if he fails at a future Scottish general election, for it’s job done.

As for the Yorkshireman, well, we didn’t move to a foreign country and certainly wouldn’t want to live in one. Even if we moved back down to Yorkshire I have no doubt we would still hear Mr Salmond blaming the English for the problems being experienced in a Independent Scotland.

David Spence

Ashkirk

Yes vote is the best answer for Scotland

After huffing and puffing for near half a page, Mr Falconer (letters – January 23) declares himself to be bored with the question of Scotland and the EU and invites us instead to think about what kind of Scotland we would like to see develop.

I, for one, would like to see a Scotland that stopped being obsessed with the notion that for something to be done well it had to be done differently and got back to being a full contributor to and beneficiary from a vibrant United Kingdom, as it was in the past and as many individual Scots continue to be.

Neil Stratton

Heiton

Borderers with spare rooms are being sought in an effort to help hundreds of local homeless under-25-year-olds.

Scottish Churches Housing Action (SCHA), the charity bringing together the country’s churches to help tackle homelessness issues, this week announced a search for hosts in the Borders for the innovative project aimed at young people.

Working with Scottish Borders Council, the organisation is looking for people who have a spare room, and are willing to host a young person for six to nine months at a time.

SCHA chief executive, Alastair Cameron, told The Southern: “Last year, over 200 people under 25 turned to Scottish Borders Council for help because they were homeless.

“We know there are others on the edge. The housing options are very limited; we’re seeking special people who will open their homes to a young person, and provide a bridge to independent living.”

Mr Cameron said for an area with the size of population of the Borders, last year’s figure of 228 young people aged under 25 who were deemed homeless was, in his opinion, high.

He said: “And for each of those individuals it is a major challenge. Of those 228 who were seeking help, 45 were in the 16/17-years age group.”

Mr Cameron stressed it is very much a joint initiative with SBC and if successful in the Borders, will look to be rolled out across Scotland.

And he added there were a variety of reasons why young people ended up homeless.

He said: “The key thing is poverty – that makes homlessness more likely to happen because there is less room for manoeuvre.”

Hosts will be trained, and will receive support from local authority staff. In addition to rent, an allowance is paid to offset costs and there will be criminal records checks and risk assessments carried out.

An SBC spokesperson told us the joint working initiative had been ongoing since 2011.

“The pilot project should be in a position to go live in the spring. In the first year of the project, the management and administration of the project will be undertaken by staff within the homeless prevention team and will thereafter be the subject of review,” he confirmed.

MEMBERS of the council’s economic development group have agreed a wish list of priority strategic developments.

The aim is for the list to be included in a rural regional economic development programme, developed by the council and other local authority partners in the South of Scotland Alliance.

The move follows a recent meeting of the alliance with John Swinney MSP, cabinet secretary for finance and sustainable growth, who proposed that the alliance bring forward a programme by the end of March.

Bryan McGrath, the council’s head of economic development and regeneration, told last week’s meeting that the programme needed to persuade Scottish Enterprise and the cabinet secretary to commit resources to the projects.

Members of the group agreed that a business park in the central Borders should be included, as well as the AIMUp project at Innerleithen for mountain bikers.

A economic development programme based around the arrival of the railway has also been made a priority.

Mr McGrath said there was a commitment from Scottish Enterprise to support economic growth in the south of Scotland, and that now they had been ‘brought to the table’ the opportunity was there to persuade them of the opportunities that exist in the Borders.

Councillor Michelle Ballantyne said the programme had to be “very clear about the return on investment” if it was to be successful in attracting support.

We’ve been inundated with your fantastic photos of our beuatiful Borderland over January ... and we’re loving it.

In fact, we’ve had so many we have simply been unable to fit them all in the paper.

So just for you, our readers, here’s a sample of them in a slideshow.

If you would like to see your photos appear in the paper and on this website next month, send them to southern.pictures@tweeddalepress.co.uk

THE FASHIONfor prequels goes on. Tom Clancy wrote 11 Jack Ryan thrillers, but not this one.

Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck played Jack on screen (Clancy’s fave was Affleck) and now Chris Pine, last seen as the young Capt Kirk in the Star Trek prequels, joins them.

First off, credit where credit is due. Pine does an excellent job, as the marine, wounded in Afghanistan, who is hand picked for the CIA by a cool-under-fire man of mystery, called Harper (Kevin Costner).

Keira Knightley plays his doctor and later his love interest. She has that rare ability of appearing completely natural. The chemistry between her Cathy and Pine’s Jack fizzes.

The problems lie elsewhere. The script is clunky (Jack: “I’m in the CIA.” Cathy: “Thank God! I thought you were having an affair”) and the plot cannot be taken seriously.

What gave the Bourne films an edge was credibility, not that you believed they could have happened exactly the way they did, but –here’s the important bit – they might.

Shadow Recruit is about a Russian plan to blow up half of Manhattan and crash the New York stock exchange. It makes absolutely no sense and what’s worse, by using sophisticated computer gadgetry, you haven’t a clue what is going on.

Kenneth Branagh directs rather well and plays the Moscow villain rather badly.

The effects and the car chases offer a pale imitation of other films when it is the characters and their predicament that should be ratcheting up the tension.

Amongst the Internet’s field of magic (“They will register”) hypersmart surveillance equipment can lose a thriller’s objective by intimating a storyline to an audience who may not be techno literate.

Would access to an iPad have saved Harry Lime?

WAR is beautiful. Cinematically speaking, perhaps, but otherwise it destroys everything you hold dear.

Lone Survivor looks great. You can’t go wrong accompanying helicopters into the dawn sunrise, especially against the fierce grandeur of anAfghan mountainscape.

The film is based on a true story. The title and opening sequence, in which an almost dead Mark Wahlberg is stretchered into the medical centre at Bagram Air Base, followed by the legend Three Days Earlier, tells you everything you don’t want to know about what happens next.

As an introduction to the Special Forces op to take out an al Qaeda leader, you must endure a Navy Seals training sesh, which, to the outsider, looks like mental and physical abuse, coupled with some undiluted propaganda (“There’s a storm inside of us, a drive to push yourself further than anyone thought possible”), mainlining on buddy machismo designed to make the folks back home feel proud of their over-equipped, expensively protected brave soldier boys.

The operation goes wrong and an elite commando unit is pinned down on forest crags by men in nightshirts. If it wasn’t so bloody it would be straight out of Carry On Taliban.

The film becomes a furious firefight, lasting longer than you would like. As in those Seventies slasher flicks in which a psycho with an axe disposes of a cabin full of teenagers, you watch these men being shot to pieces – slowly, mind – by mountain savvy peasants.

What the war machines of the West have done to Iraq and Afghanistan does not need the John Wayne treatment. In a scene where the murder of two young boys and an old man is contemplated the only thing stopping it appears to be a fear of CNN.

However well made – director Peter Berg deserves credit – laying on the sentiment (“Tell Cindy how much I Ioved her and that I died with my brothers”), wrapped in the stars and stripes, does not feel comfortable anymore.

This is the one to beat in the 2014 Oscar ceremony as irony slides effortlessly into overdrive.

A black British director and lead actor. An African-American scriptwriter. An autobiographical memoir by an ex-slave.

And the US award forecasters are standing up to be counted for a film that exposes the nation’s ugly past. Funny peculiar?

In 1841, Solomon Northup was living with his family in upstate New York, an educated freed slave with a valuable musical talent. A year later, having been tricked, kidnapped and sold back into slavery, he is suffering deprivation and torture in the Deep South, with no rights and little hope.

If it wasn’t for Steve McQueen’s inspired rendition of a long-forgotten book and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s committed performance as Solomon, this might have been the flipside of Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

There were good slave owners and bad ones. Take your pick from the cast list.

As it turns out, a sadist by the name of Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) is given preference. His attitude, not dissimilar to Leonardo DiCaprio’s in Django, is “a man does what he likes with his property.”

What he likes is raping young girls and handing out 100 lashes to any slave foolish enough to answer back.

If there is a flaw in this beautifully made film it is the relentless nature of evil.

“I will not fall into despair,” Solomon tells himself and yet the agony awaits the ecstasy in vain. There is no escape except suicide.

As in the Nazi death camps, survival is ruthless. King Cotton rules with a rod of steel. Humanity, like Elvis, has left the plantation.

Borders MSP John Lamont says he is concerned over the rising number of incidents involving dogs in the region.

Mr Lamont was commenting on figures released by the Scottish Government, showing the number of investigations carried out into alleged dangerous dogs in the Borders had doubled in a year.

A total of 35 investigations were carried out between February 2012, and February 2013, resulting in eight control notices being served on owners – also more than double than the year before.

Investigations are carried out into any dogs which are considered to be dangerous or a threat to local residents.

The notices handed out often include control measures which vary from getting the dog micro-chipped to keeping it on a lead in public places. Although the number of notices issued is lower than many other local authorities, Mr Lamont says the figures give weight to the argument that the problem involving dogs in this area is worsening.

“The fact that more Borders residents have asked for investigations to be carried out shows they are worried about problem dogs in their area,” he told us.

“It shows we still have a lot of work to do in order to get a grip on this issue and ensure people feel safer in their communities.”

Mr Lamont added he was glad SBC was taking the issue seriously: “Hopefully these notices will help ensure owners continue to enjoy owning their pet, but in a safer manner.”

The next Scottish Borders Business Forum event will be held on Friday, February 7 at Scottish Borders Council HQ in Newtown St. Boswells, starting at 11 am.

This meeting will be chaired by Graham Bell from the Federation of Small Businesses and provides an opportunity for individuals, businesses and organisations to focus on housing and construction challenges and opportunities in the Borders.

The meeting will be addressed by Allan Lundmark, director of planning, Homes for Scotland, who will speak about the challenges and opportunities facing housing development in the Borders.

David Cressey, director of strategy and policy, Scottish Borders Council, will speak about affordable housing.

Participants will have the opportunity to question both speakers.

Mr Bell said: “We hope that all businesses will feel welcome to join us to explore how revitalising our house building and construction initiatives will add to the recovery from the recession and how they can play a part in that.”

If you are interested in attending this meeting please confirm your attendance before February 6 by emailng Margaret Blacklock: mblacklock@scotborders.gov.uk or 01835 824000 Ext 5806.

The managing director of the St Boswells and Wooler livestock marts says a pre-tax profit of nearly £125,000 last year, up from a £23,000 loss in 2012, is due to more animals through the ring and cost cutting.

John Swan Ltd MD Steven Wilson welcomed the change in fortune during his first year in the top job, saying: “It’s very much been a team effort. We’ve had extra animals coming through which is down to hard work and everybody working well together.”

Two sales staff who left were not replaced, which additionally meant savings on the costs of two cars. The marts gained too from cattle making record prices, and in September and October 2012 cattle were averaging about £1,000, up roughly £200 on the same time the previous year.

But with generally falling livestock numbers, how did the market increase throughput?

The company’s former finance director said: “I think it’s been down to us making sure we get our share. We have had to go and visit people. I have made a lot more face to face contact and attended more farming events.

“We have continued to keep a tight control of administration costs while continuing to maintain strict credit control.

“We have a lot of competition but we provide a transparent and competitive service. We have many more people looking for cattle than farmers have to sell. Animals going through the ring have been making record prices and we have no reason to think that’s going to change in the short term.”

Knowepark Primary School’s ‘super scientists’ will be in action for one day only at the town’s pop-up shop at 1 Tower Street on Wednesday.

The P5/6 pupils have been experimenting and investigating in science classes, and will showcase their newly-acquired skills and knowledge in the pop-up shop as part of their enterprise topic.

Their class teacher, Arlene Bannerman, said: “Enjoy the experience of a lifetime with our young scientists!

“See the wonder of a lava lamp, the power of a water wheel, buy a brilliant bath bomb, and play with some magic putty. Try our challenge – blow up a balloon with a bottle!”

The children will be showing off their science skills in the pop-up shop on Wednesday, February 5, from 10am-noon and 12.30-2.30pm.

Entry is by donation and the pupils are fundraising to go on a trip to the Glasgow Science Centre.

This week, The Southern’s Afghanistan columnist, Union Jack, recounts how remembrance services helped forge closer links between troops.

Having started with ISAF Joint Command (IJC) at the beginning of November, one of my first tasks was to acquire a poppy.

The second was to explain the significance of it to colleagues from other nations.

But in a generous show of solidarity, it wasn’t long before soldiers and airmen of many of these nations were sporting them on their uniforms.

On the morning of the 11th, we had a simple but moving ceremony paying tribute to the 3,361 international coalition casualties killed in Afghanistan between 2001 and November 11, 2013.

Of these, 2,260 were Americans, 446 British, 158 Canadians and the remainder from 26 other countries as diverse as South Korea, Jordan, New Zealand and France.

Having remembered those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nations, November also sees the US hold Thanksgiving celebrations.

Although I have previously experienced the US enthusiasm for Thanksgiving, I was still rather surprised to find the US dining facility, (DFAC, pronounced ‘deefac’ by troops across Afghanistan), fully decorated with giant polystyrene models of a church and a replica ‘Mayflower’ ship.

The food was pretty spectacular, too, and with so much to squeeze onto one’s plate, the subsequent slow progression down the serving line meant the queue was out the door and alongside the building.

We had hardly digested Thanksgiving when the Christmas parcels started to arrive.

Personally, I was very 
fortunate to be well looked after by family, friends and relations.

However, thanks to the organisation of our US Army master sergeant and the US Boxes for Troops campaign, our team of 15 also received half-a-dozen boxes of goodies from well-wishing Americans each week in the run-up to December 25.

Christmas away from your family is never easy, especially when there are young children at home.

However, video calls and the ability to instantly email photographs helps to ease the distance and capture children’s excitement.

As is traditional for UK troops, all the officers served the soldiers their meal at reserved tables decorated with crackers and party hats.

Sadly, the season of goodwill didn’t extend to the insurgents and we continued to mourn the loss of Coalition and Afghan forces throughout the festive period, thinking especially of their families for whom Christmas will be forever associated with such tragic news.

Michael Moore MP opened Selkirk’s new post office at Scottish Borders Housing Association (SBHA) on Monday. He’s pictured with SBHA chairman Ray Licence and chief executive Julia Molloy.

The ‘Post Office Local’ is one of a new breed of branches sited in shops and businesses, to replace the thousands closed to stem the Post Office’s losses – including the town’s Station Road Post Office. “We need to modernise and adapt to remain effective,” the Post Office’s Connie Hewitt said.

The first customer, SBHA’s chief executive Julia Molloy, said the profits would be reinvested in tenant services. Mr Moore pledged to keep campaigning to retain and expand local post offices.

THE Scottish Borders Brewery is building a new £500,000 visitor centre called ‘Born in the Borders’, creating up to 10 new jobs.

John Henderson, owner of the brewery and the Chesters Estate site, told us: “Born in the Borders will showcase the very best of Borders products, from cashmere to cheese and from beer to boutique accessories.

“Two retail shops and a restaurant/cafe will form the heart of this ambitious development, and building work is already well under way.

He explained: “This project is a natural extension of the brewery’s whole plough-to-pint ethos. People always asked if we’d ever build a brewery visitor centre, but we wanted to go one step further.

“There is so much to celebrate about everything that gets made here in the Borders, but no one single place where locals or tourists can go to discover it. In effect, we want to create a one-stop shop for everything that the region has to offer.”

The Teviot Valley centre is due to open to the public in May. The half million pound investment will see the conversion of an old farm steading and dairy buildings at Lanton Mill Farm, the home of the brewery, on the road between Jedburgh and Hawick.

The whole farm will be dedicated to the new project, and the centre will also feature riverside walks and picnic areas along the banks of the River Teviot. Jobs will be created in both retail and catering.

“We are very proud to be a Borders-based company,” Mr Henderson emphasised, “and we want people to share that same pride in the area’s landscape, natural resources, agriculture and producers, be they weavers, glass-makers, or cup-cake bakers. It’s really their stories that we want to tell.”

Cheer up they said – things could be worse. So I cheered up and sure enough – things got worse

I must confess to being somewhat confused these days when I hear any mention of standards of living or quality of life in the UK.

OK, much of it stems from the prattle of minor politicians who use such terms to castigate the current government and its policies in an effort to whip up a few votes.

For such people time is running out as they attempt to capitalise on a belief the good ol’ general public has already forgotten about the pigs ear they made of the national economy a few years ago. There are many defects in the economic strategies of the current coalition government but at least the country is reasonably solvent and leading other European countries in the escape from recession.

What is this thing called a standard of living? To believe the experts it all depends on how much ‘disposable income’ you happen to have, a term which approximates to how much dosh you have left after the vital bills are paid. Until comparatively recently with notable exceptions, the working population of the UK not only had enough to get by on, with a surplus for holidays, luxury goods, a bit of quality living and so on; but that has to a degree changed and many belts have been tightened up a few more notches. In simple terms, more of us have found a need to live within our means.

I am maybe a lot more fortunate than many others in that my needs are fairly simple. My nicotine and alcohol budget stands at nil, I grow a useful amount of my own food, spend frugally on the rest, and try to avoid expensive processed foods for health reasons. Fair enough, I sometimes yield to temptation and indulge myself with a fish supper from Tony’s Tower, or a Chinese takeaway, but mainly I stick to the basic stuff.

Anyone observing The Pilgrim on his vague wanderings will soon realise that he is not a snappy dresser, so although I am not at the charity shop clothing level (nothing would fit me), I do away just fine in workaday kit. I do have a weakness for footwear which stems back to past times when getting stuff that fitted my large and oddly shaped plates of meat was a constant battle.

To get a proper handle on this quality of living lark, I think I should take a look at how it was in my early years – this was in the latter days of food rationing, less than 10 years after the war, and at times subject to the period of austerity that always accompanies a Labour government foul-up.

Wages were low, so there was little or no disposable income for us. There was no television, but radio was good and with a choice of excellent programmes, including soap operas such as The Archers, Mrs Dale’s Diary and so on. As kids we had school dinners at a reasonable price, although I suspect that sometimes we would have qualified for freebies, a prospect my Mum would have viewed with complete horror.

Dad did not own a motorcar until he was in his late fifties and after a few years of scary motoring he was happy to go back to his bike. I have two vehicles, one an economical wee van for daily running about, and I keep an ancient Land Rover as a hobby vehicle, something I have done for the last 35 years. I did have a home converted housetruck until last year, but that had to go mainly for money reasons, and I suspect that soon my cherished Fergie tractor will take the same exit route. Now that is not hardship, merely an adjustment to my means, and to a certain extent my physical ability to keep them going.

I do not follow the current obsession with electronics for everything, or the constant chase to upgrade what I have in order to satisfy modern trends. The computer on which this piece is written is dead slow, erratic and more than a little obsolete. It will eventually need to be replaced. More damned expense!

As kids we did not take holidays other than an occasional day trip to the seaside. We did not have the hassle of planning our air travel. If a summer Saturday was a nice day, the trip was on and we caught the bus to the seaside at Deal from the front gate.

Now my housetruck is gone I tend not to go anywhere much, although the prospect of day trips to Beadnell or similar places might well be the case for 2014. So that is one part of my living style that has more or less turned full circle.

I hope I have sensibly sketched out my view of living standards, I appreciate mine are obviously a lot better than some folks in some ways but not in others, but there is one small point on which I wish to conclude. It is still considered essential to peg standards of living solely to money, and to do that is to lose out on a lot.

In the fifties of my childhood, we did not have a lot but what we didn’t have we didn’t miss, but were grateful when improvements came along. Above all we found contentment more valuable than wealth or possessions. A little of that nowadays would do no harm.