Latest news with #ExeterCityFC
BBC News
5 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Recycling scheme raises £25,000 for Exeter City Football Club
A scheme which encourages football supporters to recycle aluminium cans is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The Cans4City scheme is run in partnership by Exeter City FC and Exeter City Council with proceeds used to support the club and it's community projects. The volunteer-led initiative has raised more than £25,000 since 2019 and helped recycle more than two million cans - over 29 tonnes (29,000kg) - which if laid end-to-end at the St James Park pitch, would go around it more than 16 Hulland, Exeter City Council's resource recovery manager, said the scheme is "unique" and "a great way of showing how you can turn waste back into funds that can support the community". Mr Hulland said: "All the money raised goes to the club to support lots of its vital projects, purchases and charitable causes."Proceeds have been used to fund holiday clubs and matchday packages for underprivileged children. The scheme has also helped pay for Christmas toys for children at Royal Devon and & Exeter Hospital as well as benches in fan zones, which have been made out of the recycled plastic from old seats. Other purchases have included planting trees in the club's memorial garden and equipment for club staff including line painters and pressure washers. Mr Hulland said "supporters can drop cans off any day of the week" in one of it's holding areas located around the ground and wider city. He explained the cans are condensed into large aluminium blocks at a council facility before being recycled back into new initiative has been backed by supporters and the wider community."It has lots of different reach," said Mr Hulland."Businesses, pubs, local community groups, even a beach cleaning organisation in Cornwall."The cans have not been incinerated or gone to landfill or damaging the environment. They've been collected from the community and it all goes back to the community."
The Guardian
01-04-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Is my Scottish accent really the problem – or is it just your English ears?
The worst job I had was in a bank in Sydney, dealing with a life insurance policy called Lite Life Direct. It was tedious, repetitive and oddly stressful, and involved a lot of time on the phone. What made the situation particularly frustrating was that almost no one could understand my Scottish accent. 'Lite Life Direct,' I would say, three, sometimes four times down the line to no avail. Then I would cave: 'Loight Loif Direct.' With my faux-Australian pronunciation, suddenly me and the caller would be simpatico. This was all the more enraging because I am Australian. I was born in Sydney and spent the early part of my childhood there. My mother and I emigrated from Sydney to Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire. As a child, living in a strange country and desperate to fit in with new schoolmates, I changed my accent unwittingly. But when I returned to my home town as an adult, my adopted accent made me a stranger. Accents are curious and fascinating things. To the listener, they say everything about us and yet absolutely nothing; change some vowel sounds and you can masquerade as an entirely different person. So I feel some sympathy for Gary Caldwell, manager of Exeter City FC, who was sent from the dugout for his behaviour towards the fourth official. The referee found him to be aggressive and showed him a red card. Caldwell, a former Scotland defender and Celtic captain, was not known for such pugnacity when playing north of the border. He puts his newfound rough reputation down to one thing: his Scottish accent. 'I didn't swear, I didn't run, in my opinion I wasn't aggressive,' he told the BBC. 'My accent and my Scottishness is aggressive.' However, Caldwell suggests his disciplinary record will improve if he endeavours to sound a little bit more 'Englified'. I'd like to know what Caldwell means, exactly, by 'Englified'. Soft, seems to be the assertion. Relatable, maybe. To a fellow Scot, Caldwell's excuse is a nonsense. He's from douce Stirling. It's hardly the cut-throat razor tones of a Glasgow East End accent or a guttural Lanarkshire growl, in which a sincere 'I love you' sounds more threat than declaration. But it is true that English-to-Scottish accent bias is a problem. Edinburgh University is shortly to hold a conference on 'linguistic discrimination' to tackle anti-Scottish accent prejudice on campus. The majority of Edinburgh undergraduates – more than 70% – either come from England, the rest of the UK or overseas, while those who went to private school make up 40% of the intake from UK institutions. Scots students report routine snobbery and ridicule from classmates. Perceived aggression may be Caldwell's concern, but it is only one trope. A study last year found that Scots are used in television adverts to depict working-class characters or those tight with money. Though it could be worse. 'If you want somebody to be a little bit thick, West Country accents,' one advertising exec told researchers. 'If you want to signify dirty-handed working class, stick a Brummie in it.' This anti-Scots bias in England extends to the arts. One of the all-time great case studies is that of Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd. The Dundee college students had designs on becoming hip-hop stars but found their fledgling musical career stymied by their Scottish accents. The lads, mocked by London record company executives, decided to pretend to be from California and restyled themselves as hip-hop duo Silibil N' Brains. The quick death of their Scottish accents resulted in a £100,000 record deal, an MTV appearance and a support slot for Eminem. Sadly, the ruse went awry when Bain and Boyd found keeping up their California twang too onerous and they returned to their Dundonian speech patterns. The English arts scene is, according to many a Scottish creative, a generally hostile space for our accents. Actor Alan Cumming complained of 'insidious and subliminal racism' faced by Scots who work in London, particularly in comparison to the warm welcome afforded in the US. Similarly, the Scottish director Lynne Ramsay reflected: 'I always feel as soon as [the English] hear a Scottish accent, they're backing away.' Caldwell has not done the situation any favours. It's one thing for others to claim his Scottish accent is perceived as aggressive, but the football manager has gone two steps further by saying his accent is aggressive. Maybe he's internalised the negative perceptions the English feel against a Scots brogue, but he should set an example and refuse to modify his speech. It's self-defeating to tackle prejudice by removing the target for discrimination. A Scottish accent's melody and charm is a beautiful thing. It's not incumbent on us to change our tongue; it's on English ears to change the way they listen. Catriona Stewart is a Glasgow-based journalist and broadcaster specialising in politics and home affairs
