On Saturday morning, Ian Smith MSP chaired a panel of Ian Small Head of BBC Public Policy, Thomas Prague of Oftcom and myself. For an hour we discussed the state of broadcasting in Scotland and everyone had a square go. As an independent radio producer, I had a lot to put on the table. It was streamed over at the BBC and the debate is still available by clicking here. It was a very interesting morning and I think we all made sense ...given the early hour of the morning and Saturday .
Current Affairs
March 04, 2008
February 15, 2008
The Sunday Post and Eigg
The Sunday Post called me to ask about Eigg and the 'switch on'. I sat down and tried to recall what I remember about generators and how things used to be - not so long ago. Click on the image to read the article.
February 03, 2008
December 04, 2007
Yo ho ho
I spent Monday in the Morar Hotel near Mallaig chairing the Rum summit. Nope -- not that kinda rum and no drink was taken. But with luck and hard work, a shift of control from SNH to the community should be a cause for minor celebration in a year's time.
Rum has been owned and managed by Government conservation agencies since 1957, with SNH hands on the tiller since 1992. Rum is the mountainous "Small Isle" neighbour of Eigg (where I was a Trustee during their campaign to buy the island a decade ago.) It has only 31 inhabitants -- the majority are SNH staff who've only been there for a couple of years. SNH control the land, housing and employment on Rum and that's made it hard for an independent island community to develop. Meantime the cost of renewing facilities (including Kinloch Castle made famous by the BBC's Restoration programme) has strained SNH budgets. So the nature agency has taken a bold decision. It'll concentrate on what it does best -- nature conservation -- and allow the community to take over control and day to day management of the village and glen around Kinloch. That will not be an overnight shift. There are no vacant houses for new folk to move into, the current power supply is iffy and arrangements for secondary age children so awkward, families have left rather than send their teenage kids to Mallaig. Happily that last problem is getting ironed out -- a new hostel will open in Mallaig early in the New Year so the island kids can stick together and have one place to call home. Kinloch Castle needs millions spent soon -- and its not clear if the Princes Regenration Trust's ambitious plans will attract enough government cash.So figuring out how to transfer land and management responsibilities from SNH control will not be a doddle. Thats why Environment Minister, Mike Russell, and 20 folk from SNH, the Scottish government, local agencies and the Small Isles communities pitched up in the hotel on Monday, to plan a better future for Rum.
Mike was hugely upbeat about the island's future: "Rum has tremendous potential. It is unique in its geology and nature conservation interest and has untapped potential for sympathetic economic development, especially around tourism and land management. So how could I refuse his invitation to chair a taskforce to push these good intentions forward with a view to standing in some new community owned housing on Rum next year? This Minister doesn't mess about! The day ended with SNH heid bummers Ian Jardine and Andrew Thin in agreement with the Rum community reps about the urgent things to tackle. And that's a brilliant start. I dont say this often, but it's an honour to be helping direct the effort of people who've been faced change squarely. And after almost 8- trips to Eigg in the 1990's during the buyout, I look forward to sailing with Ronnie and the Sheerwater again!
November 19, 2007
November 06, 2007
A lecture ends with a call to action
On Monday night , I delivered the Naomi Mitchison
lecture on Women in Rural Society at Glasgow University. Earlier that day, I had written an opinion piece for the Scotsman, reproduced below, calling for the establishment of a celebration of women in Scottish national life. The lecture was well received and the audience comments were very articulate and robust in supporting the vital role of women in developing rural life. Never one to miss an opportunity, later that evening, with members of the Scottish Pen group in the Left Bank, a wee plan was hatched. Could we get a national holiday to celebrate one of 'the big Women'; Bride.The call to action is read the article and join the Facebook Group - Bride Day Action Group.
The Scotsman opinion piece;
Am I the only Scot who doesn’t want a holiday on Saint Andrews Day?
Papers and politicians are aghast that only 22 per cent of Scots could name the day Scotland’s patron saint is celebrated.
Actually this percentage makes sense – it roughly coincides with the proportion of Scots who regularly attend Christian worship. For this minority, saints may be accorded automatic status. For the rest of us, Saint Andrew is a big unknown.
So the question must be asked. With a history as rich and varied as that of Scotland, and with the values of 2007 not 1207, should St Andrew be celebrated above all other possible candidates as the figurehead of modern Scotland?
According to the National Archives, “Andrew was a fisherman from Galilee and the first disciple of Christ believed to have been martyred by crucifixion in Patras (now part of Greece) on 30 November in the year AD 60.”
The Scottish connection rests on the claim that the monastery of Kilrymont (later St Andrews) acquired three fingers of the saint's right hand, a part of one of his arms, one kneecap, and one of his teeth when the Bishop of Patras fled Greece with the relics in AD345, and was shipwrecked off Fife.
Is this a good enough reason to set up St Andrew as the embodiment of the modern Scottish state?
Admittedly the saint’s Scottish connection helped Scottish kings, nobles and churchmen ward off English challenges to Scotland’s independence since medieval times. Thanks to the alleged possession of St Andrew’s relics, the Scots acquired a top-rank patron saint, a separate identity from England, and a Scottish Church founded centuries before the English converted to Christianity. The connection persuaded Pope Boniface to demand that Edward I end war against Scotland in 1299, and decades later the saint was referred to in the Declaration of Arbroath.
Clearly St Andrew has been helpful to Scotland in the past – and the 'saltire' of our national flag derives from the diagonal cross used to crucify him.
But if nationalists question the continuing tradition of the monarchy in a modern Scotland, surely the continuing tradition of St Andrew merits re-consideration too? Devolution of power gives Scots the ability to choose what’s right for Scotland in 2007 – not the requirement to rubberstamp what seemed right a thousand years ago.
There’s no doubt Scots have been irritated at the relative obscurity of all things Scottish compared with all things Irish. St Patrick’s Day is a worldwide source of fun and pride for the Irish diaspora – surely Scotland could have the same fun and profile with St Andrew?
Probably not.
Just as the Irish with their impressive array of celebrated writers have not managed to create an equivalent of Burns’ Night, so the Scots will struggle to create more than a pale imitation of Paddy’s Day for a whole host of reasons.
The Irish have loved, pilloried and employed St Patrick in their culture for centuries. His myth is embedded in the Irish psyche because it embodies the country’s transition from a Catholic to a secular state. Is that true of St Andrew in Scotland?
Some will say the choice of saint is largely symbolic – the aim is to have a national day that celebrates Scottish not British history.
And that’s fine, because it means Scotland’s glorious mythical canon can be examined in its entirety before a figure-head is selected.
Someone, perhaps, whose choice would say something new about Scotland. Someone like Brigid or St Bride.
Yip, a woman whose festival day on February 1, heralds the return of the life-giving forces of spring.
Free Church going gaels will doubtless cavil but the Hebrides were named after the pre-Christian fire goddess Brigid -- adapted by early Christians to St Bride, the midwife of Christ.
The choice of such a powerful female figurehead would remind Scots that the absence of women from public life is neither “natural” nor “traditional.” And it would be timely. Without a resurgence of girl power, rural areas like the Outer Hebrides face depopulation and stagnation. Twice as many young women as young men are peeling away from traditional crofting areas and 71% of Hebridean incomers are men. Without native women, more schools will close, fewer caring jobs will be filled and fewer island children will speak Gaelic. The same fears of a mass exodus were voiced last week by the Shetland Islands Council.
It’s time to embrace the discovery made by the Norwegian government a decade ago that the departure of women not men hastens the depopulation of an island, county or country.
So if it’s time for Scotland to embrace a “Big Woman”, Bride -- whose name means “The Exalted One” – is the Mummy of them all. Kilbride and Brechin bear her name, as does Bregenz in Austria -- once the capital of the Brigantii, the most powerful tribe and political unit in Celtic Britain. But Bride was no warrior – she was revered for powers of poetry, healing, and smithcraft. The celebrated Gaelic folklorist Alexander Carmichael wrote of her:
Bride with her white wand is said to breathe life into the mouth of the dead Winter and to bring him to open his eyes to the tears and the smiles, the sighs and the laughter of Spring. The venom of the cold is said to tremble for its safety on Bride’s Day.
Scotland needs a radical change in the status of women and an empowering figurehead from our own past – not an artificial holiday celebrating a character from another time and place.
The final choice might belong to “our national conversation.” But then history is written by the winners. Not the people, poets, feminists or folklorists.
Shame.
November 05, 2007
Alexander and the Groove Armada
I’ve been having Alexander Technique lessons for the
past month – and the effect has been low key and yet quite amazing. Like
most folk who’ve reached 47 after a fairly active and perhaps careless
physical existence, I've a gammy knee, dodgy back and a right foot that someone
stood on with stiletto heels when I was 19. It hurts! But after the gentlest of
repeated re-direction – so undemanding you can hardly believe there could
be a benefit – I’ve started carrying myself differently and had the
most wonderful moments of tweak/crick/painfree movement.
It’s also just very interesting – my teacher gave me a book by Pedro de Alcantara on the technique. And keen to find out more, I hit Glasgow Borders trying to find more on AT. 5 books were apparently available but I couldn’t find any of them in the un-staffed Health and Sports department. Hey ho. Off to Amazon. Meantime Chris and I were the oldest swingers at the Groove Armada gig in the Barrowlands on Saturday night. And the grumpiest! I know their music relies heavily on machines and sampling etc but why didn’t the singers -- who were present -- do live versions of “I see you baby”? The lightshow was great but I was left a bit unmoved. Which is a famous first cos the Barrowlands has got to be Scotland’s best live venue
November 04, 2007
You want to say something ?
I am a fairly approachable person and I am always interested in what people have to say. When I am out and about, it is always amazing to meet people who say "I was going to write or ring" but didn't. On this blog and my main website, I have made sure there is a facility for everyone to be able to leave a comment or pose a question. The wee graphic to the left, my husband put together, subtlety itself, should reveal the location of the wee comment button. Please feel free to use it...I do read all comments.
October 24, 2007
October 23, 2007
Beyond Faslane
What might Scotland look like without Trident on the Clyde? I was chairing this part of Alex Salmond's National Conversation at the Oran Mor in Glasgow Monday, but to be honest I had no idea what to expect. Like many of the folk present, I've been anti Trident for years. But I've never been in an"official" environment where that was taken as read. Perhaps it's my BBC training, but it seemed odd to be focusing on just one side. Four hours later, though, we'd gone through every imaginable "side" of the nuclear debate -- except that well rehearsed status quo. Should Faslane remain a naval base post Trident? What about the non-Trident submarines based there? Local councillors want to keep a naval base but some pacifists want the MOD out of the Clyde altogether. Could tourism fill the jobs gap, or could a highly trained work force attract some kind of construction industry -- like renewable energy turbine manufacture? I'm sure the Arnish yard in Lewis (amongst others) would be mildly peeved to see"their" work waltzing south. But perhaps there is enough work to go round. Should "anti-Trident" planning authorities throw spanners in the works of Westminster's work to renew Trident? Is it sufficient to invoke public opinion polls and anti-Trident Holyrood votes when the Commons voted solidly to go ahead with a new generation of Trident missiles? And what are the chances for a new bill at Holyrood that seeks to argue Trident is a weapon of mass destruction and a breach of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty? It's amazing. As soon as the dull business of cliché is pushed aside there's still a world of argument over Trident. Bruce Crawford (the SNP Minister who promised this summit during a June debate on nuclear weapons) and John Mayer the lawyer who drafted the Holyrood bill look mightily relieved at the end!
