maxque
Non-Aligned
Posts: 9,312 
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Post by maxque on Dec 15, 2018 0:38:01 GMT
Wigtown was designated as Scotland's official booktown in 1998. There are at least fourteen bookshops. Wigtown is an extraordinary place by-passed by road and rail and the 20thC. It is virtually a one street small village that was semi-important when a main road went to a ferry at the bottom of a hill. It must have been one of the smallest county towns in Britain and an odd place to have chosen to name an area. On a busy day in book fair in can still look shut. The pubs are poor to bad. There are only a couple of good bookshops with one containing an excellent cafe. But most of the time it is very quiet indeed and rather depressing and of no consequence to anything at all, unlike the much larger Kirkcudbright. It is a bit arty crafty but Kirkcudbright isn't at all unless viewed on a cursory visit as a tourist and certainly one of the last places I would deem to be non-conformist. Wigtown District was originally supposed to be called Merrick. |
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Post by Adam in Stroud on Dec 15, 2018 8:57:28 GMT
Bookshops seems a strange thing even for a Conservative to moan about. Would you prefer bookies, charity shops or barbers? The problem is that as the rest of the town has died, these bloody things have continued to flourish like an invasive weed. The bank, one of the grocers, the butchers, the chip shop are all gone, while about 20 sodding bookshops, which do nothing for the real locals fill their places. But it's a bit like complaining about betting shops all over the High Street - the problem isn't them taking over, it's that there's no other way to make money and pay the rents. Book (or betting) shops don't seize control of the butcher's, hurl the meat into the street and fill the place up with remaindered stock, they move into empty properties. "Invasive weeds" is a good analogy - weeds are the invariable result of producing an area of tilth and then not planting anything else in it. |
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Post by yellowperil on Dec 15, 2018 9:19:12 GMT
I have a feeling that in the case of Wigtown there was a bit more intent than that implies, to make it into a book town, setting out to be the Scottish version of Hay on Wye, which was the conscious model? I don't think in this case it was the purely accidental result of a lot of shops becoming vacant?
There seems to have become some overlap in this discussion between bookshops and bookmakers. I take the view that the former are less socially damaging than the latter.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2018 10:28:31 GMT
The problem is that as the rest of the town has died, these bloody things have continued to flourish like an invasive weed. The bank, one of the grocers, the butchers, the chip shop are all gone, while about 20 sodding bookshops, which do nothing for the real locals fill their places. But it's a bit like complaining about betting shops all over the High Street - the problem isn't them taking over, it's that there's no other way to make money and pay the rents. Book (or betting) shops don't seize control of the butcher's, hurl the meat into the street and fill the place up with remaindered stock, they move into empty properties. "Invasive weeds" is a good analogy - weeds are the invariable result of producing an area of tilth and then not planting anything else in it. is correct, the presence of the bookshops was planned. However, they do little for the local people and despite their presence the town continues to die. The Main Street is beginning to look dilipated again. Therefore in my view the project has failed. |
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Post by carlton43 on Dec 15, 2018 11:02:05 GMT
But it's a bit like complaining about betting shops all over the High Street - the problem isn't them taking over, it's that there's no other way to make money and pay the rents. Book (or betting) shops don't seize control of the butcher's, hurl the meat into the street and fill the place up with remaindered stock, they move into empty properties. "Invasive weeds" is a good analogy - weeds are the invariable result of producing an area of tilth and then not planting anything else in it. is correct, the presence of the bookshops was planned. However, they do little for the local people and despite their presence the town continues to die. The Main Street is beginning to look dilipated again. Therefore in my view the project has failed. I am not so sure that it was 'planned' more a case of there being some there because it was the sort of place such people gravitate to (quiet, declining, remote, fairly cheap) and then a live wire organizes a book festival and then a local authority jobsworth gives it an 'official' designation. Nothing more than that. I hardly think that an official researched the whole region and latched upon Wigtown before there was a single bookshop and 'designated' it as a book town causing willing people to go there because of the the designation. It was no project just a follow up to what was happening. In fact such a designation means nothing at all in reality. |
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Post by froome on Dec 15, 2018 12:53:21 GMT
I spent a very pleasant afternoon several years ago exploring Wigtown's book shops, and I'm sure I will have spent a bit of money in other shops while there. I thought it was a lovely town, and intend returning there one day.
If you want to see a failing book town, I suggest visiting Blaenavon, which really hasn't benefited at all from its designation.
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J.G.Harston
Lib Dem
Leave-voting Brexit-supporting Liberal Democrat
Posts: 14,784
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Post by J.G.Harston on Dec 15, 2018 13:05:26 GMT
yellowperil is correct, the presence of the bookshops was planned. However, they do little for the local people and despite their presence the town continues to die. The Main Street is beginning to look dilipated again. Therefore in my view the project has failed. Wigtown's also one of those odd small towns where the main road TOTSO's down an annonymous side street not once, but twice. |
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Post by Adam in Stroud on Dec 15, 2018 14:50:04 GMT
yellowperil is correct, the presence of the bookshops was planned. However, they do little for the local people and despite their presence the town continues to die. The Main Street is beginning to look dilipated again. Therefore in my view the project has failed. Wigtown's also one of those odd small towns where the main road TOTSO's down an annonymous side street not once, but twice. Never heard the term TOTSO before, I'm obscurely pleased to see the illustration photo in the link is a TOTSO I make even time I visit my mother-in-law. |
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Foggy
Non-Aligned
Yn Ennill Yma
Posts: 6,137
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Post by Foggy on Dec 15, 2018 23:16:56 GMT
Wigtown's also one of those odd small towns where the main road TOTSO's down an annonymous side street not once, but twice. Never heard the term TOTSO before, I'm obscurely pleased to see the illustration photo in the link is a TOTSO I make even time I visit my mother-in-law. Ah, that's where you'll have been going wrong. What you want to do when heading in the direction of your mother-in-law's place is to make a U-turn.  |
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Post by Arthur Figgis on Dec 15, 2018 23:47:52 GMT
Never heard the term TOTSO before, I'm obscurely pleased to see the illustration photo in the link is a TOTSO I make even time I visit my mother-in-law. Ah, that's where you'll have been going wrong. What you want to do when heading in the direction of your mother-in-law's place is to make a U-turn. Never enter into polyamorous relationships, one mother-in-law is more than enough. |
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Post by middleenglander on Dec 16, 2018 10:03:29 GMT
Ashfield, Sutton Junction & Harlow Wood - Ashfield Independent gain from Labour, sitting as Ashfield Independent| Party | 2018 votes | 2018 share | since 2015 | | Ashfield Independent | 856 | 81.9% | from nowhere | Labour | 97 | 9.3% | -28.6% | Conservative | 48 | 4.6% | -20.0% | Democrats & Veterans
| 26 | 2.5% | from nowhere | UKIP | 13 | 1.2% | from nowhere | Liberal Democrat | 5 | 0.5% | -37.0% | Total votes | 1,045 |
| 60% |
Swing not meaningful Council now 14 Labour, 12 Ashfield Independent, 5 Conservative, 4 Independent Dumfries & Galloway - Dee & Glenkens - Conservative hold based on First Preference votes | Party | 2018 votes | 2018 share | since 2017 | | Conservative | 1,682 | 45.9% | +12.4% | SNP | 1,024 | 28.0% | +8.4% | Independent Wyper | 569 | 15.5% | from nowhere | Green | 342 | 9.3% | +3.0% | UKIP | 46 | 1.3% | from nowhere | Independent not elected |
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| -15.8% | Elected Independent |
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| -14.4% | Labour |
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| -4.7% | Independent |
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| -2.6% | Liberal Democrat |
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| -1.8% | No Description |
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| -1.3% | Total votes | 3,663 |
| 79% |
Swing SNP to Conservative 2% since 2017 Council now 16 Conservative, 11 Labour, 11 SNP, 3 Independent, 1 Liberal Democrat, 1 Non-Aligned Haringey, West Green - Labour hold | Party | 2018 B votes | 2018 B share | since 2018 "top" | since 2018 "average" | since 2014 "top" | since 2014 "average" | | Labour | 1,273 | 56.6% | -7.4% | -10.2% | -1.0% | -4.6% | Liberal Democrat | 621 | 27.6% | +19.1% | +19.4% | +19.9% | +20.3% | Green | 243 | 10.8% | -2.7% | +0.0% | -7.3% | -2.5% | Conservative | 114 | 5.1% | -3.9% | -3.6% | -3.9% | -6.6% | Independent |
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| -5.1% | -5.5% |
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| TUSC |
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| -7.7% | -6.6% | Total votes | 2,251 |
| 69% | 75% | 73% | 79% |
Swing Labour to Liberal Democrat ~ 13¼% / 14¾% since 2018 and 10½% / 12½% since 2014 Council now 42 Labour, 15 Liberal Democrat
Harlow, Toddbrook - Labour hold | Party | 2018 B votes | 2018 B share | since 2018 | since 2017 B | since 2016 | since 2015 | since 2014 | | Labour | 464 | 51.1% | -2.6% | -1.1% | +0.6% | +5.4% | +12.6% | Conservative | 311 | 34.3% | -0.3% | -1.9% | +9.4% | +0.9% | +9.6% | UKIP | 89 | 9.8% | +3.3% | +2.5% | -14.9% | -11.2% | -27.1% | Liberal Democrat | 44 | 4.8% | from nowhere | +3.4% | from nowhere | from nowhere | from nowhere | Harlow Alliance |
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| -5.3% |
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| Green |
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| -3.0% |
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| Total votes | 908 |
| 57% | 67% | 55% | 27% | 49% |
Swing Labour to Conservative ~1¼% since May and 4½% since 2016 but Conservative to Labour ½% since 2017 by-election, 2¼% since 2015 and 1½% since 2014 Council now 20 Labour, 13 Conservative Middlesbrough, Brambles & Thorntree - Labour hold | Party | 2018 votes | 2018 share | since 2015 "top" | since 2015 "average" | | Labour | 321 | 58.4% | +11.2% | +9.7% | Independent | 158 | 28.7% | from nowhere | from nowhere | Conservative | 44 | 8.0% | -0.0% | -0.5% | Liberal Democrat | 27 | 4.9% | from nowhere | from nowhere | Previous Independents |
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| -22.5% | -19.1% | UKIP |
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| -22.3% | -23.7% | Total votes | 550 |
| 26% | 27% |
Swing, if meaningful, Independent to Labour ~ 2½% / 0% since 2015 Council now 31 Labour + elected Mayor, 5 Conservative, 5 Middlesbrough Independent, 3 Independent, 2 Marton Independent
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