Dundee and St Andrews hit the headlines last week for all the wrong reasons.
In Dundee a man was arrested for the murder of Paddy McDade, a Big Issue seller and irrepressibly cheery soul who used to stand at the back of M&S in Dundee’s Seagate. A few days after McDade’s death, a friend and fellow Big Issue seller Lisa Mitchell, 25, died of pneumonia.
Lisa -- another bright, cheery figure known to every rail traveller in Dundee -- continued to sell the Big Issue at the train station even though she was ill, fearing she would lose her pitch if she took time off.
Scores of wreaths, messages, flowers and cards bedeck railings at the station and the back of M&S. Their pitches stand vacant. Paddy and Lisa are missed.
Meanwhile across the silvery Tay in St Andrews, the new Principal of St Andrews University, Dr Louise Richardson was denied honorary membership of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, prompting Alex Salmond and Jim Murphy to agree on something – that Scotland’s oldest golf club should change its ways and celebrate 254 years in business by finally admitting a woman member.
It seems almost offensive to connect these two events. The “token” snub delivered to a University Principal by a bunch of crusty old golfers is nothing compared to the deaths of Big Issue sellers in Dundee.
And yet they are linked. To read more - click here.
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