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Locals have their say as President Donald Trump visits sleepy Scots seaside village
Locals have their say as President Donald Trump visits sleepy Scots seaside village

Scottish Sun

time5 days ago

  • Politics
  • Scottish Sun

Locals have their say as President Donald Trump visits sleepy Scots seaside village

The area is used to hosting big shots like Robert the Bruce MAKE AYRSHIRE GREAT AGAIN Locals have their say as President Donald Trump visits sleepy Scots seaside village THE sleepy seaside village of Maidens looked to be completely unaffected by the Presidential hullabaloo happening just along the coast — until two excited MAGA hat-wearing fans turned up. This was not a pair of US Trump supporters either as brother and sister Ben, 16, and Alicia Skilling, 15, had only travelled 30 miles from their home in Kilmarnock to try and catch a glimpse of their idol. 5 Brother and sister Ben, 16, and Alicia Skilling, 15, travelled 30 miles to try and catch a glimpse of Trump Credit: John Kirkby 5 Dave Carter, 86, reckons the US President has been a breath of fresh air for the area Credit: John Kirkby 5 Angela Bryce dreams of having an 'appointment' with the President one day Credit: John Kirkby Ben said: 'I would describe myself as a Trump fan for sure. I'm just back from Florida and wore my MAGA hat all the time. 'In Disney everyone kept saying to me 'nice hat'. I get a lot more stick over here for wearing it than I ever got in America.' However, sister Alicia is a less vocal Trump advocate, stretching only as far to say she thinks the US President is 'alright'. So why is she wearing a MAGA hat then? She sighs: 'Because he has four of them.' Their mum, student teacher Jacqueline Malone, 44, added: 'He even bought a Turnberry hat for £45 and Trump gold cufflinks, but he lost one of them at school.' The family head off with a long lens camera, desperate to snap a picture of Donald's arrival at his golf resort in Turnberry. But they were the only sign that in a few hours' time the leader of the free world would arrive by motorcade as the people of Maidens continued life at their normal laidback pace. Hosting big shots OAPs played bowls in the local bowling club, while kids squeals heard from the swing park as folk dined out on the balcony of Ropes Bistro. Then again historically this area has been used to hosting big shots. Donald Trump touches down in Scotland In 1307, Robert the Bruce landed in Maidens after sailing from Ireland — a stone's throw from his childhood home in Turnberry — accompanied by a small army of 300 men. No doubt The Bruce would have been impressed by the 6,000-strong battalion of officers drafted from across the country to protect The Donald. Strolling along the seafront I spotted a man with a Turnberry logo on his jacket, who turned out to be a caddie at the golf course. Not wishing to be named, he told me security had been ramped up since the last time Trump was President. He explained: 'Before you just had to show your work pass to get in, but since someone took a shot at him we've now got to go through airport scanners.' Chris Saunders, 61, from the charity Adventure Carrick, was also expecting to get the third degree as he arrived to take a class of disadvantaged kids paddleboarding on the Firth of Clyde. He added: 'There are roadblocks all around Turnberry but the way I heard it on the radio I was expecting to have a real problem getting here today — I even brought my ID in case I was asked. "Sure you see the odd police van about, but I just drove in no problem at all. There aren't even any protesters. It's pretty much as normal.' What also seems to be normal for these parts is the amount of dog walkers taking their pooches for a stroll. Retired sewage plant manager Dave Carter, 86, from Warrington, who has been holidaying here for the last 30 years, reckons the US President has been a breath of fresh air for the area. He says: 'Trump has been better than some of the daytrippers you get down here when the weather is nice. 'They leave a right mess behind. Turnberry was going to wrack and ruin until he took over. Play to his the gallery Commentary by Chris Musson, Associate Editor (Politics) KEIR Starmer and John Swinney will both meet Donald Trump in the next couple of days. But a chinwag with Trump can be a dangerous thing. Like trying to calm a temperamental toddler playing with the pin of a grenade. Just ask Volodymyr Zelensky. Though it bodes well for Starmer and Swinney that the Prez was full of cheer as he arrived in his ancestral homeland. And today he was out golfing at his beloved Turnberry — the biggest and bestest course in the universe. Frankly, given his troubles back home — not least the Jeffrey Epstein row — Trump would probably take a month in a leaky caravan in Saltcoats right now. The full-on UK-US diplomacy gets underway tomorrow when Starmer and Trump hold a TV press conference — the PM's moment of maximum danger. As for Swinney, well, Trump has said the 'Scottish leader is a good man'. But for Swinney's sake, let's hope the President didn't catch up with the papers as he tucked into his Full Scottish while gazing out at Ailsa Craig. If so, he may have spotted the First Minister virtue-signalling about Gaza and cultivating anti-Trump demos. But Trump isn't here for a row. He's here for a hol, to open his new course in Menie, Aberdeenshire, 'celebrate' a trade deal, and work out how to persuade R&A golf bosses to let Turnberry host The Open. I suspect all will be fine. Swinney has said some unwise things, but everyone in the world who's not Trump seems to have had a pop at him at some point. And the £180,000 Swinney magically announced for his Aberdeenshire course will certainly help oil the wheels of diplomacy. But a warning to Swin and Starm. When in the same room as The Donald, especially on camera, do NOT play to the gallery. If he gets an inkling you're challenging his authority or upstaging him, brace for a tantrum. Never bow down to a bully, it's said. But equally you could argue Swinney should choose his battles wisely. He should forget his grandstanding suggestion that he will confront Trump over 'war and peace, justice and democracy'. Just leave it, John. Instead, write 'don't turn Gaza into a golf resort' on a Post-it and stick it on Trump's jacket as you give him a friendly back slap. Trump will find it later, by which time Swinney will be back in Perthshire in his pyjamas. And the First Minister can stick out a half-honest press release saying he raised the big issues. One more thing. Should either UK leader end up on the golf course with Trump, then compliment his swing. And if he says it was a hole in one, then it was a hole in one. 'He has spent a fortune doing it up and now there are loads of Americans visiting here again.' Locals Jack Hannah, 65, and pal George Clark, 66, were also keen to have their views on their famous neighbour made known as they walked mutts Freddie and Tommy. George says: 'I don't want to get too political, but why do people object to him coming here? 'These protesters preach democracy yet Trump was democratically elected by millions of Americans. 'He's not done them any harm and puts money in the community, and employs a lot of people. So why can't he come here and play some golf without all the moaning. It's a free country after all.' Jack adds: 'I don't want to get into politics either but why don't the Green Party go and protest in countries like India and China who are among the worst polluters in the world. I'm all for Trump — drill baby, drill.' And that was them not being political? Just then Angela Bryce accosts me in the street as she wants to talk about Trump, along with her self-published book, show off her garden, oh, and she's also a healer to boot — even though she currently has a broken neck from a motorbike accident. She laughs: 'I've got to heal myself first.' 5 Chris Saunders was expecting the third degree he arrived to take a class of disadvantaged kids paddleboarding Credit: John Kirkby 5 George Clark and Jack Hannah don't understand why folk are protesting the President's visit Credit: John Kirkby But she dreams of having an 'appointment' with the President one day as she has '103 business ideas for him that are ready to go'. Right now though she just hopes the 79-year-old can be left in peace to enjoy some golf away from all the pressures of high office. Angela, 50, says: 'He is missing out on the simple joys of being able to just have a round of golf without all this fuss. But I really think he is a god or a king or a lord or a legend or something.' She's also enthusiastic about his wife Melania, adding: 'She is so beautiful — they are a beautiful match. And I bet she doesn't moan and do his f*****g head in while he's trying to get on with the great job he's doing.' Indeed. Surely if anyone is going to be miffed at all the road closures for The Donald it would be haulage worker Alex Hamilton, 77. But he insists: 'It's only a couple of days isn't it? The guy deserves to come here and play as he saved Turnberry.' The red MAGA hat-wearing Ben returns after being knocked back by cops while trying to make their way along the coastline towards Turnberry. He says: 'They told me they had sent Sky News packing as well. We're going to try and see him landing at Prestwick instead.' His patient mum Jacqueline adds: 'Ben is really into his politics. 'He always says that Trump would make a better Prime Minister than Keir Starmer — but I think anyone would.'

A composer whose remarkable works are very much his own
A composer whose remarkable works are very much his own

The Herald Scotland

time04-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • The Herald Scotland

A composer whose remarkable works are very much his own

City Halls, Glasgow Keith Bruce four stars AYRSHIRE composer Jay Capperauld may be at the start of his career, but he is already as old as Mozart was when he died and rather older than Schubert, which put an interesting perspective on a concert which featured a world premiere alongside two youthful works from earlier times. Capperauld is currently producing a remarkable sequence of works for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as its Associate Composer, and Carmina Gadelica, a five-movement suite commissioned by the SCO with the support of the Vaughan Williams Foundation, was another demonstration of his range. Written for a wind dectet – pairs of clarinets, bassoons, horns, oboes and flutes (one crucially doubling on piccolo) – it achieves a wide palette of sonic colour over its 20 minutes, the players adding some foot-stomping to the mix at the start and sounding uncannily like the pipes playing a reel at the end. Read More Things to do in Scotland this month, from gigs to book festivals The new guide to Glasgow's musical heroes and trailblazers Drama and excitement as guest conductor takes up the baton at BBC SSO There are some obvious influences to Capperauld's approach – mentor Sir James MacMillan, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Sally Beamish among them – but the result is very much his own. The vernacular of unaccompanied Gaelic Psalm singing and the work rhythms of the Waulking Songs of the Western Isles have inspired others, but Capperauld finds a kinship with New York minimalism in the former and builds a fascinating complexity on the framework of the latter. In the lament of the fourth movement and dance of the finale he has also written some of his most approachable music and this piece is surely likely to find other eager champions. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, a double concerto for violin and viola, must have challenged his Salzburg audience in 1779 because much of it – and especially the moving central slow movement – sounds of a century later. SCO leader Stephanie Gonley and principal viola Max Mandel were the soloists and co-directors for this performance, which brought out the operatic flavour of the work. If Mozart did not actually repurpose the music of the closing Presto in The Marriage of Figaro we are unmistakably listening to a rehearsal for that score. Schubert's Symphony No. 4 (not lumbered with its unfortunate 'Tragic' nickname in this programme) is often seen as a step back from its predecessor, too reliant on earlier models, but the SCO made it unfold with increasing fascination, the intensity of the low strings and bassoon in the Andante followed by sparky syncopated Scherzo and a finale that had a clarity in its impact larger orchestras struggle to match. Gonley's direction here was very light-touch, prompting an interesting question about what any conductor could have brought to the performance.

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