THESE pages have posed questions about whether the Borders Railway is value for money, but now that it is finally going to open, Agenda's inner trainspotter, like HMQ herself, is looking forward to a maiden ride along pristine new tracks into one of Scotland's most scenically stunning heartlands. On one thing we are in complete agreement with the avidly pro-Borders Railway local notable Lord Steel of Aikwood, that a trick was seriously missed by calling the terminus near Melrose "Tweedbank" instead of "Abbotsford". The latter name would have drawn attention to the pot of cultural gold at the end of this line. As anyone who has been will attest, the superb new presentation of Sir Walter Scott's house, complete with new visitor centre, gift shop, and excellent restaurant is one of Scotland's touristic gems. Only 20 minutes walk from that station, Abbotsford certainly deserves to be advertised in the name of the station, given that Scott is commemorated vaguely in the name of the Waverley Line itself. Too late to change? Probably, as schedules will have been printed and the platform signs already translated into Gaelic.
Raise a glass to Ho Chi Minh's heirs
WHO would have thought, even 10 years ago, that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (as it is still called) would be signing a free trade agreement with the EU, the second Southeast Asian country to do so after Singapore in 2014. This deal, a major coup for the hard-working Swedish Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem, is also a blessing for Scotch Whisky, as the SWA's chief executive David Frost acknowledged last week: "Last year direct exports of Scotch to Vietnam totalled £3.5 million, up more than 9% on the previous year. However, there were issues to be addressed in the market, including the 45% import tariff on spirits. The FTA will help as it will gradually phase out the tariff and it will tackle other trade restrictions.”
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