Wednesday 5 December 2007

Trumped at the last?

The Botox taut face of American capitalism looks as though it might have got away with it again. Donald Trump and his plan for a massive golfing and residential scheme near Balmedie, Aberdeenshire will now head to the Scottish Parliament for a go-ahead decision to be made despite being thrown out by local planners.

Quite why Aberdeen needs another golf course given the number and quality that already exist in the region only the Scots Parliament will know. Better marketing of existing stand out courses such as Cruden Bay, Murcar and Royal Aberdeen makes far more sense, not some Identikit housing estate on the North Sea and a Disneyland style hotel with more pipers than one can shake a sporran at. This will be Trumpland, home of the egomaniacally rich, where for a small fortune rich golfers will be able to be waited on by lots of young people most of whom will be paid the minimum wage. These are the 'hundreds of new jobs' Trump and his henchmen will be delivering to the region. This is not North Sea oil this is just another golf course although one that will undoubtedly include the word Trump somewhere in the title and provide lots of seasonal trade.

Meanwhile an unspoilt stretch of Scottish coastland will be ruined forever and all the bird life and plants that go with it as Trump sends in the bulldozers to create dunes in more appropriate places. Let Scotland refurbish the hotels it already has- in Sutherland tycoon Peter DeSavary is about to start work re-vamping the empty Golf Hotel overlooking the historic Royal Dornoch links thus providing the town with something it desperately needs, namely quality hotel accommodation.

What the Aberdeen coast does not need is 1,000 extra holiday homes. Nor a wild coastline tamed and sanitised by an old man in a wig. No matter how wealthy.

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