It’s Thursday the 11th of February. Welcome to Porty News from the Porty Podcast.
Firstly, thanks to local MP Tommy Sheppard for pointing out the call by Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) for the £20 a week uplift in Universal Credit to be made permanent. In its latest briefing document, it describes the extra £20 a week, introduced at the start of the pandemic, as vital in improving the adequacy of the payment. It points out that, if the extra cash is removed, the value of the Allowance will drop by as much as a quarter, just when people need this money the most. In fact, they point out that removing that £20 would leave the Standard Allowance worth less in real terms now than it did when first introduced 8 years ago. People affected can get more information and help from the local CAB in Bath Street.
I’m not sure how many of you have spotted that ‘Living Streets’ is running quite an interesting photographic competition. It started on Twitter and Instagram (#WalkingFromHome) but, as they put it, they’ve have decided to get serious. So between now and the end of March, if you post your photos on the theme of the week, you could win a £25 shopping voucher. It’s important that you tag both #Living Streets and #WalkingFromHome with your entry in your post. The themes of the week are all colours – so last week’s was red, the current one is orange, the next after that will be Yellow, and so on. The competition will run from Monday to Sunday and all entries must be posted as specified by midnight of the Sunday. There’s a link as usual in the transcript of this bulletin. https://bit.ly/2Z3E2RH
There’s an appeal from BBN Portobello, the local netball team, for us all to get behind the sport – if not by playing then at least by watching on television (which, at the moment, means Sky Sports) or by streaming on YouTube. And the reason they’re so keen to show us their sport? It’s the return of the Vitality Netball Superleague whose 2021 season starts this Friday. The first match pits Celtic Dragons (a Welsh netball team based in Cardiff) against Leeds Rhinos – and all of the matches will be broadcast or streamed live. There are details on BBN Portobello’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/BBNPortobello
Finally back to the weather – that was quite come d ump of snow we had – but one thing that continues to amaze me is the resilience of our open-water swimmers. Not only was it snowing yesterday (well, at least for part of the day) but the swimmers braved not just the snow-covered beach but also really large breakers to enjoy their daily dip in the sea. I get cold just thinking about it!
That’s it for today – more tomorrow.