There are two good new articles on the role of gender in the selection of guests asked to discuss politics on Scottish TV & the preponderance of usual suspects (including me) on the small screen. Jane Devine in the Scotsman http://ow.ly/1m2Nyd is talking about the use of twitter to "crowd-source" names of outspoken women available for interview on TV which I tidied into the list further down on this site (another update coming soon! )
And David Torrance http://tinyurl.com/8e9748n suggests I said Gordon Brown only gets media attention because he's a man. I didn't think I quite said that at the Scottish Six but I may not have made myself clear. I asked why it's still important to hear Gordon Brown speak -- because of great, thought-provoking speech content or reverence for his past status? And what exactly is that past status anyway? It's the undue importance paid to status over interest and past credentials over current relevance that are my main beef. Citing status alone as a reason to hear anyone is a very male and old-fashioned way of thinking. Meanwhile my Scotsman column today asks the new euromillion lottery winners to protect Scots in huts & caravans because the Scottish Parliament hasn't managed to give them legal protection in 13 years. As if to prove how hard it is for the little guys to stand up to landowners I've been emailed today by folk battling to retain a beach café on Coldingham Sands – I've just signed their petition at http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/keep-the-coldingham-sands-beach-cafe# and in the Scotsman there's a story about islanders on Lewis fighting to buy Little Bernera instead of seeing it transferred to the National Trust – at one point the late Count Robin Mirrlees planned to leave the uninhabited island to Prince Harry. Would he ever have turned up to see his plaything? -
More at http://www.lesleyriddoch.com Finally, Im getting ready for tonight's Edinburgh Fringe Scottish Six event with Andy Wightman – tickets on the door at St John's Kirk 6pm and more info on www.scottishsix.com. It's about land, control governance and tonight's special subject by me -- loving our frozen north. As my mother would say, it's all go!
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