aberdeen
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Beware the Beat of the Culture War Drums
With every passing week brings another bloody battle in the so-called Culture War that seems to have gripped Britain. In the red corner we have the lefties, supposedly baying for anarchy and hellbent on destroying our traditional way of life. In the blue, the Tories: their puffed-up outrage about such a threat on full display…
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Aberdeen Finds Community Spirit Down by the Beach
It’s the first sunrise of a new week, and I’m in my swim trunks down by Fittie Beach. In days gone past the only reason I or anyone else my age would have for being up at this time would be because we haven’t slept yet from the night before, and yet looking around me…
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Aberdeen’s Retail Crisis
With the latest of the shop closures in Aberdeen hitting John Lewis, 265 jobs will be lost. In the wider picture of years of decline in the city centre and the huge impact on businesses from COVID, it is starkly clear that something needs to be done immediately. Representatives from the likes of Aberdeen City…
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A North Sea Love Lilt
There’s a curious Scottish myth about selkies, shapeshifting creatures who can transform from seals to humans with the shedding of their skin. It’s a story I can recall my mum reading to me when I was a child. I was, and still am, a bookworm; the type of person who will go happily to bed…
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Stuck in the House: Charlie
Hello there and welcome to a new feature, Stuck in the House, where we share personal insights and tales from our contributors about their time during lockdown and their reflections about the past year and concerns for the future. We want to create a safe space where young people can discuss life under lockdown and…
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(We need to talk about) flights.
It seems like a lifetime ago now, but there was a time back in January of this year where coronavirus was merely a distant blip on our radars: subject to only a passing, casual mention on the nightly news. Instead of images of face masks and microscopic pathogens our attention was turned toward the Land…
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Aberdeen: Post-COVID Homelessness
After months of isolation and varying lockdowns the recent news of a vaccine with almost 95% effective that could be rolled out relatively soon came as a welcome sign that things may just get better. Life has changed incalculably for billions of people all over the planet. The pandemic has undoubtably been the largest worldwide…
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Aberdeen’s high street is withering on the vine.
On my last count walking down the length of Union Street, I tallied 30 empty retail units. With their whitewashed windows and big, imposing ‘TO LET’ signs protruding above them, taken together they tell a story of a high street that has taken a proper hammering. Junk mail collects behind their dusty glass doors. ‘MAY…
inertia 