There is a new Aftermath available and we do follow up on the theme of our new home in Glenrothes.
« December 2008 | Main | February 2009 »
January 2009
January 31, 2009
January 29, 2009
GLENROTHES HERE WE COME
It's the start of a new era for Feisty as we start broadcasting this week from the radio studio at Adam Smith in Glenrothes in sunny Fife. It's a purpose built studio for AC's sound production students but we're very aware (this being the week of the Bard's 250th birthday) that the best laid plans of mice and men can aft agley (astray)!
Many thanks to Don and Graham from AS, and our sound man Sean (pictured here with producers Julianne and Laura.) plus Max Watson. The chaps have spent many hours on their knees re-routing cables to new feeds, phones and codecs to allow our studio to broadcast via Pacific Quay in Glasgow on 30th January. 
Fridays programme should be a stoater with three outspoken folk I've known for some time – Bruce Crawford is the local SNP MSP andf Minister for Parliament – he asked me to chair the National Conversation on a Future without Trident last year and with the credit crunch that future may be closer than many imagine. Margaret Curran is Labour MSP for Glasgow Baillieston and stood unsusccessfully for the Westminster seat of Glasgow East last summer. Right woman, right place, wrong time in the view of many.
And finally the outspoken Telegraph columnist Alan Cochrane – never knowingly in agreement with any prominent politician in the same studio. All three have been sitting through the SNP's budget debate and have their views about what went wrong this week and who should shoulder blame. Did John Swinney bungle talks with Patrick Harvie? Should an almost solitary Green have more sway over the budget of Scotland than the massed ranks of Labour? Or have the parties who made up the last Scottish government failed to learn the new game of give and take in opposition? 
We'll also discuss the controversial payments for victims families in Northern Ireland – and the allegations about cash for amendments in the Lords. As well as the latest gloomy IMF forecast that predicts Britain's recession will be the worst in Europe. After 1pm on Friday do call 0500 92 95 00. Text 80295 or email anytime riddoch@bbc.co.uk.
Finally, thanks to Helen "Sonachan" for a great few days in Ardnamurchan at her excellent hotel beside the beautiful sands of Sanna (pictured above).
January 26, 2009
Caged Baby Party
Great fun at the Highland Hospice Burns Supper at the Drumossie Hotel near Inverness on Saturday night. Donnie Munro of Sabhal Mor Ostaig and ex lead singer of Runrig was giving the Toast to the 
Lassies – part of which he sang! – I thought I was dead meat sitting there waiting to give the reply.
The schedule of a Burns Supper must be Tam o Shanter's revenge. Only a man whose wife supposedly nursed her wrath to keep it warm could leave the sole speech by a woman till midnight when drink's been taken and everyone's ready to go home! Unfortunately, I may have maligned the good people of Wick (my mother's home town) by suggesting that few of them made a previous Drumossie gig because they couldn't negotiate the Longman roundabout. Hey – in its time it was the first roundabout anyone from the Highlands encountered and always under pressure --late for a wedding, hospital appointment or whatever!
Anyway, keen to make sure teuchters still face a road-based obstacle course before entering the Highland capital, and since Longman is no longer the challenge it used to be, the city fathers have turned the Inshes roundabout into hell on wheels. In town I was shocked to see adverts for a Caged Baby party. Minutes later circling the Inshes roundabout by the new Tesco -- I was in it. Caged babies, parents, dogs, grandparents, circus performers – you name it, every section of society was spinning round that roundabout desperately trying to read the signs to exit. I spotted a Model T Ford, a few horses and some escapes from Culloden all trying to read each sign before they whipped past to make another hopeless circuit. Eventually, spotting something that appeared to say dual carriageway I made my move. Only to end up in the Tesco carpark. Someone has to break it to the roads department sign-writers at Highland Council and that someone may have to be me. Guys, an entrance lane to a supermarket divided from the exit lane by a row of trees does NOT constitute a dual carriageway as the rest of us understand the word.
Still, the craic at the Burns Supper was great – and how amazing to have a run of programmes about Burns on BBC Scotland last night. Can you imagine what it would be like if we that kind of programming all the time?
January 24, 2009
January 20, 2009
January 16, 2009
January 14, 2009
Rum says 'yes'
Stop press! Rum islanders have voted 15-2 in favour of transferring land from Scottish Natural Heritage to a Community Trust. It's a big result for all the people and agencies involved, but I can see it's possible to be underwhelmed by the small numbers involved.
There's another way of looking at it. Of all the community buyouts I've been involved with, this is the tiniest but also one of the bravest. Rum has none of the security in numbers that encouraged the 2,700 islanders in the South Uist buyout. There's been none of the ten year build-up that happened on neighbouring Eigg. There was no new owner round the corner – the prospect which encouraged action in Assynt. There was no need -- if Rum people had said no, SNH would have been obliged to keep running the show. And there was nae luck with timing – no previous buyout was launched in the middle of a recession.
My job as Taskforce Chair continues till the end of February – to make sure SNH and the government deliver the support they've promised and that Rum loses that "Forbidden Island" tag in 2009 to become a new kind of people-focussed National Nature Reserve.
And if there isn't a party on Rum on Feb 28th when the land's transferred and the lottery application is finally submitted, I'll be cooking hamburgers on the beach! Anyone else want to come?
January 11, 2009
RUM’S BIG DAY
Wednesday 14th January 2009 will be Rum's wee Apollo landing moment – one small step in the transfer process but a giant leap for ALL of the Small Isles. What are Rummachs voting on? Well, SNH have owned and run Rum as a National Nature Reserve for fifty years. But they've realized their expertise is wildlife and conservation – not housing, drains and tea-room opening hours. Or community development. Hence the plan, hatched by Environment Minister Mike Russell, 
to transfer the assets of Kinloch – the only place on Rum where people live – to community control. Hence my involvement at his behest as the Chair of the Rum Taskforce to focus minds on the task. Hence all the pictures of basking sharks that've been appearing en route to Rum from Arisaig over the last year!
Anyway, the complex business of transferring government owned land to a community was moving at a glacial pace. Until minds were focused wonderfully by the February 28th deadline for an £800k Growing Community Assets (GCA) application to build chalets, a tearoom and upgrade the village hall (amongst other things). To qualify, the Isle of Rum Community Trust (IRCT) would have to own the land upon which their projects would be built. So IRCT and SNH agreed a phased transfer, with the lottery-connected land transferred by Feb 28th and land containing other assets (like roads, housing, electricity and other infrastructure) transferred in a second phase -- date to be agreed before Feb 28th.
And that's what folk are voting on this Wednesday.
People might be surprised at just how few people are eligible to vote – just 17. There are only 29 people on Rum including 6 children – so just 23 adults. Six of them didn't register – some sent the forms in too late, some are seasonal staff who don't live on Rum all year round and some are registered to vote elsewhere.
But despite the small numbers, if Rum residents vote yes on Wednesday it'll be recognition of tremendous co-operation, joint effort and dexterous thinking by everyone involved – SNH, islanders, the government and local agencies.
And recognition of the fact that in these straitened times, quangos like SNH and private landowners can't access cash set aside for community development. Only perky, dynamic communities can do that. And hopefully this week, Rum residents will take the first step.
January 07, 2009
Hogmanay
A few folk have asked me about the precise location of the Hogmanay ceilidh mentioned in my first Scotsman column of 2009 where I waxed lyrical thus;
"I spent New Year amongst the mountains of North-west Scotland and didn't want to leave this Hogmanay land of calm and clarity – where the virus of worry was temporarily frozen in minus five degrees, crisp clear quiet skies, icicles on waterfalls, and sharp conical peaks silhouetted against iridescent skies. I didn't want to return to the land of thaw, yellowed grass, blunted mountains, urban orange glow, out-of-town clutter and credit crunch that is home.
I wasn't depressed to be re-entering civilisation. Quite the opposite. I was depressed to be leaving it. Depressed to be leaving a time of year and a part of Scotland that still values the human touch above the pre-packaged product. Upset to be repatriating myself to a world where too often stories are cut short, people are dismissed, and communities struggle to survive as governments put competitiveness first and connectedness second.
Culture, companionship and confidence are the qualities in life that sustain us – even more so now. The ceilidh isn't a party, drinking session or even a musical session – it's a gathering. And a gathering demands that each person knows how to amuse, sustain or surprise the others. Who wouldn't prefer possession of Delia-like cooking capabilities to the latest Finest meal from Tesco? Or green fingers, dulcet tones, or musical skills to a complete boxed set of The Wire (with its 43 pence VAT discount?)"
Well, twas Ullapool and the Ceilidh Place Hotel where my old pal Jean Urquhart was bouncing round like the veritable teenager she is to the 14-piece Treacherous Orchestra – the biggest folk-funk ensemble ever to grace the hotel stage-ette. Next day was a walk on Achmelvich and First Coast beaches. Lovely.
