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In
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In The News - September 2008 |
Niall Dickson (66-71) of the King's Fund was a 'witness' on Radio 4's Moral Maze on 17th September. The subject was whether NHS patients who top up their cancer treatments with drugs not available on the NHS should be denied NHS care. He put forward the Fund's view that a policy to prohibit people from privately purchasing drugs not available on the health service, while continuing a course of NHS care, is untenable.
Duncan Campbell (49-58) featured in September's edition of the magazine The Oldie. Duncan is a senior correspondent with the Guardian where he has worked since 1987, mainly on the crime desk. According to Melanie McFadyean, Duncan 'could be mistaken for an actor who plays thinking woman's crumpet'. Duncan featured here recently over his marriage to Julie Christie last year; his first novel, The Paradise Trail, was published earlier this year.
Letters from several Academicals have appeared in the newspapers. On 3rd, Ranald Coyne (44-46) had a letter in the Scotsman commenting on the increasing cost of electricity and asking why this was necessary when we 'are continually being told… that Scotland is a world leader in the use of renewable energy for electricity'. At the end of August, there was a letter from Chad McCail (78-79) defending himself over comments made by Scotsman reviewer Duncan Macmillan on his exhibition at the Printmakers Gallery. Chad prides himself on the research that he puts into the background to his social commentary.
Fishing Up The Moon, the latest CD by Nick Keir (58-70), was reviewed in Scotland on Sunday at the end of August. Reviewer Norman Chalmers says of Nick that he 'paints the emotional life of a musician in lyrics full of endless possibility and loneliness' and describes it as his 'most absorbing album to date'.
We turn to a little-visited subject in this column, motoring. On 6th September, the Evening News carried a piece on the sale of the car registration plate 'S1', which was to be auctioned at Bonhams. The number originally belonged to Sir John Macdonald (1845-52), one of the first owners of a motor car in Scotland. John also happens to be the great great great grandfather of Head Ephor Tomas Macdonald (7NA) and of Rory Macdonald (5A).
To sport and the latest highlight in the remarkable rugby career of Mike Blair (86-99) is his nomination for the International Rugby Board's Player of 2008 award. A half page feature in last Thursday's Daily Mail pictured the Scotland and Edinburgh captain alongside his distinguished fellow nominees – Dan Carter (NZ), Ryan Jones and Shane Williams (Wales) and Sergio Parisse (Italy). The second half of the page was devoted to the wider Blair family – brothers David (90-03) and Alex (95-08), and parents Rob (65-70) and Daphne. David is getting valuable game time with Edinburgh, and seventeen year-old Alex has been in exciting form for the Accies, and also played in an Edinburgh development game. The writer wondered 'what they put in the water down Trinity way'.
Phil Godman (90-95), who is the man keeping David Blair on the bench at Edinburgh, has been in fine form himself, building on his successful winning return to the Scotland side in Argentina in June. After Edinburgh's recent big win over Llanelli Scarlets he was described as 'the outstanding Phil Godman' by Bill Lothian in the Evening News, and his coach, Andy Robinson, said 'tactically that is the best game Phil Godman has played since I have been at Edinburgh'. The other Accies on the Edinburgh books, Dave Callam (87-91) and Ross Rennie (91-04) are still nursing injuries.
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