Go Lassie Go

Bringing it all back home - The message of Tom Devine's book on Scottish emigration is ultimately a postive one.

Professor Tom Devine's To the Ends of the Earth: Scotland's Global Diaspora
is one of the most important books written about Scotland in recent years. It debunks myths while at the same time demonstrating, through fact and statistic, that Scotland's mass migration was no fiction. The myth is that all migrants were victims, burned off their land. In fact, while the clearances were very real, many more migrants were positive, well qualified people, ambitious for a better life.

Scotland produced more migrants per head of population than almost any other country in Europe. We travelled further and continued leaving long after other restless natives had decided home was best. My own interpretation of Devine's book is the subject of my Scotsman column today.

While the reasons for the exodus were complex, its scale and longevity destroys another myth ie that Scotland prospered under the union. Clearly all Scots didn't see it that way. Much of the profit made from our raw materials and heavy industry was invested elsewhere in the empire, meaning that the domestic economy didn't diversify. Wages in Scotland were lower that elsewhere in the UK and housing and health much worse. Our people were the raw material that never ran out. Literate, skilled, hard working - they were willing to administer the empire, fight for it, and supplement its labour force elsewhere in the UK as well as around the world. It seemed like the best option available. But a domestic market failed to develop because of the articially low wages, and the flight of both capital and labour. It was a vicious cycle.

Continuing emigration, even when times were good such as after the Second World War, could be interpreted as an unconsious political act. Scots were frustrated in their own land, so sought fulfilment elsewhere. Now why might that be? One of the most striking facts uncovered by Devine was that Scotland, Ireland and Norway were the premier suppliers of emigrants from 19th century Europe. By the 20th century, Scotland had overtaken the other two, who by then had achieved political independence, and the optimism, self respect and confidence that accompanies such a change in status.

Recent political events suggest Scotland has changed utterly, and we recognise, at last, some of the forces that shaped us historically. We see more clearly what needs to be done to build a new Scotland here at home. Yet we also benefit from the shrinking of the world around which our people have been scattered. There is an upside to hundreds of years of saying goodbye - the 40 million of Scottish origin across the globe who want to reconnect. As people increasingly look to their roots for meaning and definition, Scotland, or more precisely Scottishness, emerges as a powerful force. There is also the phenomenon of affinity Scots: other migrants who have come to us from Ireland, Poland and Pakistan and find our identity inclusive enough to buy into and celebrate along with their own. The imagined community is real - and increasingly powerful. Diaspora isn't all about loss.

Prof Devine's book is available here on Amazon.

And here is a review of it by the Scottish Canadian academic Harry McGrath

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/books-and-poetry/reviews/tom-devine-to-the-ends-of-the-earth-scotland-s-global-diaspora-1750-2010-allen-lane-1.1116021

Reporting England's riots

Update 18.00: since posting this Sky and CNN have also dropped the reference to UK riots

First of all congratulations to the BBC News Channel for changing the headline “UK Riots” to “English Riots” on their coverage. I hope Sky and CNN follow the BBC’s example. The change undoubtedly came because of complaints from Scotland. I was involved in a twitter debate on this earlier (I am on holiday as of today and have space to tweet and blog for the first time in ages).

The violence in English cities is dreadful and one really feels for those affected. The killings in Birmingham, apparently of young men defending their community, are particularly sickening. But the solidarity of those organising clean ups is inspiring. It is absolutely right that Scots express support. That is why the Scottish Government is allowing police from our country to be sent south to help. When Northern Ireland last year had a water crisis we sent over supplies. We co-operated with the police authorities in England during the terrorist attacks of 2007. All fine examples of the different nations of these islands working together.

However misreporting of “UK Riots” is unhelpful and inaccurate and has offended many people in Scotland. Exclusively Scottish problems - for example football related sectarianism - are not reported as a UK issue.  That’s quite right. If the riots were exclusive to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, would they be reported as a UK problem? If they were only in Belfast and Derry would they be UK Riots? Nobody is pretending Scotland doesn’t have its share of social ills, with alcohol and knife violence for example. We are facing up to these and taking responsibility.  We don't have to be tarnished with violence that is not of our making.

Scotland has historically had better police-community relations than the big English cities. Not perfect, but better. The anti Poll Tax protests, for example, began in Scotland but turned into violent disorder in London. There are complex reasons for this, and we should not be complacent. In particular we do not want to encourage copycat violence, such as we saw in some Northern English towns after the London riots. It’s important to distinguish Scotland from this.

Why? Because at a time of severe economic contraction, with tourism a vital sector supporting many jobs, do we really want Americans and Europeans cancelling their planned trips to the Edinburgh Festival because “UK Riots” are leading the news on CNN? This is not a trivial point, it concerns people's jobs at a time of great economic uncertainty. At such a time, is it not right the Scottish Government does everything it can to encourage visitors by pointing out that we are a different country, with no riots, that remains open for business?

A few seem determined to deny Scotland’s distinctive identity as a nation, insisting we are part of the UK and just as responsible for the riots. That position has little traction. The campaign against Scottish self-determination that unites Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats is to be built around the virtues of being in the UK. But the riots, along with deep public spending cuts and welfare reforms that hurt the sick and vulnerable,  are not a great advertisment for the UK brand.  This morning David Cameron said the riots were “Britain” at its worse. If he means Britain as Greater England then fair enough. Count us out. We'll get on with the job of building something better.

Give them candy: local people want to reclaim Greenock's historic sugar sheds

I've driven by past these buildings all my life, but only yesterday did I learn that the Greenock Sugar Sheds anticipated the Bauhaus and reference John Ruskin's Italian medievalism. They are cathedrals of industry, an essential part of the historic James Watt Dock and the largest brick and cast iron warehouses surviving from Victorian Scotland. Greenock had scores of sugar refineries in the mid 19th century, and was the most important trading centre for the sweet stuff outside London. It is with some shame we remember that this industry was built on slavery, but it is also of some comfort to know that independent West Indian countries still sent sugar to Greenock until the late 20th century - until the subsidies to European sugar beet finally killed a Clydeside industry as well as damaging Caribbean economies.

The sugar sheds were saved from demolition by Historic Scotland and partner agencies after a fire in 2006. Local people got to experience the vast space themselves last month during the Tall Ships Race, when the sheds were opened up and transformed into a magical stage set for bands, theatre groups and artists. Audiences loved what they saw so much that they want to reclaim the sheds for community use - they had been earmarked as offices. They have launched a culturally savvy campaign on facebook together with a blog. It reminds you how much pride people take in their social history and the importance of a sense of place, and of the past, in urban regeneration. I write about the campaign today in my Scotsman column.

Scotland and the banking bailout - time for the truth

A quiet demolition has been taking place early on Saturday mornings. If you like to catch up on your sleep – or head out for a bracing weekend run at that time – you may have missed Newsweek Scotland’s myth-busting in the last fortnight.

It all started rather inauspiciously, when Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore answered a backbench question that was both predictable and planted. Philip Holloborne (Conservative, Kettering) suggested:  Isn’t it the case that a separate Scotland simply wouldn’t have been able to survive the global banking crisis on its own and, had it been separate, would now be heading the way of Ireland and Greece?

Moore replied in familiar fashion: “A very important point, because the scale of the financial disaster that befell both Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland would have placed a crippling burden upon Scotland.  By being part of the United Kingdom we shared the risks…”

Unionist politicians have used the banking collapse to trash Scotland many times before now. Brown, Murphy, Cameron…they’ve all had a go so often, the assertion has become received wisdom. But they are wrong.

The Newsweek team on BBC Radio Scotland have for the last two programmes lined up experts to prove just how wrong. First was Andrew Hughes Hallett, Professor of Economics at St Andrew’s University who described Moore’s answer as a nonsense.

“By international convention, when banks which operate in more than one country get into these sorts of conditions, the bailout is shared in proportion to the area of activities of those banks. In the case of the RBS…roughly speaking 90% of its operations are in England and 10% are in Scotland.”

The Federal Reserve stepped in to bail out US operations linked to RBS and HBOS. In Europe the governments of France, Belgium The Netherlands and Luxembourg joined forces to help the Fortis and Dexia Banks operating across their borders.

George Walker, Professor of International Finance Law at Queen Mary University, London and also Glasgow University, supported this position. So did Andrew Campbell, Professor of international and finance law at Leeds University.

Professor Walker said it was inconceivable that the Treasury would not have stepped in to save RBS’s English operations, even if Scotland was independent. “This decision was not taken to protect either RBS or HBOS, nor specifically the Scottish markets, but to protect the financial stability of the UK financial system as a whole.” he explained.

He went on: “Many of those (RBS) subsidiaries operate out of London and only out of London.  I don’t think you can, simply, look at it purely on the basis of where, as you point out, the brass plate of the holding company is.

Professor Campbell said HBOS’s operational head quarters were in Halifax, Yorkshire, so there was even less reason to assume Scots would be responsible for its rescue. But the indisputably Scottish RBS ran up most of its losses in the City of London where it was regulated: “It would be inconceivable that Edinburgh or Scotland as a whole could be held liable for that full bill.”

Moore refused to speak on the programme, so the government’s position was defended by the former Labour chancellor, Alastair Darling. Despite presiding over the meltdown of the UK economy, Darling insisted that he knew better that the professors - or for that matter Sir George Mathewson who used to run RBS and who has made similar comments in the past.

As the facts become understood, the received wisdom about Scotland's banking shame looks as shaky as Darling's economic management.  For example, the figure of £450billion is sometimes quoted as the cost of saving the banks. But this completely misleading because it states the banks’ entire liabilities. All banks have more out in lending than they reserve in capital so by this calculation all banks would be technically bankrupt all the time.

The bailout of RBS and HBOS actually cost £66bn in shares and loans. Given that Scottish GDP at the time was £145 billion and our remaining oil reserves, using the American Energy Departments cost calculations, are valued at a trillion pounds, we’d have been well placed to negotiate a good deal on the international money markets – which was how the UK, and other national governments, financed the banking rescue. Indeed given our valuable natural resources, we might have negotiated a better deal. Either way, it would come right in the end. The Office of Budget Responsibility calculate that the Treasury is set to make a profit of £3.4bn on the entire UK bailout, thanks to buying bank shares at the bottom of the market and getting a very attractive rate of return on its loans.

So an independent Scotland could easily have bailed out our banks, but we would not have had to, according to Professors Hughes Hallett, Cambell and Walker.

Having said that, the argument has always struck me as bizarrely hypothetical. How long would this independent Scotland have been in existence before the financial crisis? Long enough to accumulate the same oil fund as Norway? Long enough to swallow the billions of pounds worth of tax on the profits of RBS and HBOS (for if we are responsible for the bailout it follows that we must surely have been due the taxes on profits?) Long enough to establish an effective banking regulation system of our own, perhaps on the advice of our Nordic neighbours who rescued their own banks in the early 1990s?

There is a well established technique at work here.  
The term “Fear Uncertainty & Doubt” was first used in the computer hardware industry to describe the practise of spreading untruths about a rival product.  Successive generations of political strategists as well as the MAD men of the advertising industry have found the method useful too.  It is a strand of “perception management”, getting your message across by any means necessary, including mass deception.

Scotland has long been a battleground for Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt spread by political elites to preserve their own privileges. The May election result shows that the technique is beginning to fail as the country grows in confidence. The banking bailout myth was one of the last skirmishes in this conflict, because the complexity of international finance means that a crude falsehood is more easily assimilated than the inconvenient truth. Now the vaults of dishonesty are breached, the last lie is exposed.

This article appeared in The Scotsman last week.

 

You can read a full transcript here of Newsweek's interview with Andrew Hughes Hallett

And here is a full transcript of Derek Bateman's interview with Professors Walker and Campbell

Farming, globalization and fair St Boswells

Ninety per cent of the world's grain trade is controlled by four giant multinationals. The biggest, Cargills, is the largest private company in the world and has a turnover that dwarfs most government budgets.  These are the faceless people who, along with supermarkets, fix the price of food - producers and consumers are powerless by comparison.

This was one of the subjects raised today at a very interesting meeting I attended with the National Farmers Union of Scotland in the Buccleuch Arms, St Boswells.

Listening to Borders farmers explain to us politicians the complex array of online form filling the job now involves makes you wonder how they ever find time to produce our food. But somehow, they do.

The meeting brought home the unique needs of Scottish farmers and - in my view - the importance of having a clear voice to speak for Scotland in Europe.  The Common Agriculture Policy is currently being reformed, but there is concern that the London government's obsession with cutting costs and ending direct subsidies to farmers could really hurt Scotland.  This is why it is so important to have more influence in Brussels - which is why I favour independence.

Just one example. Scottish rural communities have been badly affected by the decline of sheep farming. It is now more worthwhile to plant trees - but forests are not labour intensive and the decline in agricultural work causes depopulation and its knock on effects - such as the threat to village schools. The ludicrous bureaucracy doesn't help. I heard today that those who still raise sheep are now required by law to put two tags on their ears even if the animals are not being moved.  Other issues raised were the rising cost of fertilizer, and world shortages. The Chinese are already wise to this and have begun to buy up potash mines in North Africa, to ensure their own supply. Farmers, even in the quietest corners of rural Scotland are more tuned than city dwellers to the real consequences of globalization.

It's not all bad news, though. In the Borders, most of the farms are tenanted, which is a good thing because the pressure from supermarkets and giant agri-business has resulted in the consolidation of farmland, squeezing out traditional farming families and making it difficult for young entrants. So in this case the presence of a large landowner can be positive - if he or she manage well and fairly. There is also a lot of approval of the Scottish Government's focus on growing the food and drink business and, of course, the Scottish Rural Development Programme. One of the big achievements of the SNP between 2007-2011 was increasing the value of produce by a third. St Boswells, where the NFUs meeting was held, has its own excellent example of added value - the top Scottish beef sausages of 2010, as produced by the village butcher, J C Douglas. I got some for tea and can personally recommend them, followed by Scottish strawberries and Cream of Galloway ice cream. Yum. I feel this commitment to Scottish produce allowed me to cheat a bit with Waitrose microwaveable mash and balsamic vinegar, not local I'm afraid...but great with the sausages.

St Boswells

The town is beautiful, with the prettiest cottage gardens behind grey stone walls. It's famous for the St Boswells Fair, of course, where gypsy travellers once traded horses. There were a few painted caravans opposite the hotel where we met, but, funnily enough, none of the politicians present took up the "genuine Romany" offer to have their fortunes told. Maybe because we are so confident!

St Boswell's Fair is still held each year on July 18. It was so popular in the 19th century that James Hogg refused Sir Walter Scott's invitation to George IV's infamous Edinburgh jaunt because he didn't want to miss it. St Boswell's Fair was, it seems, far more enticing than a glimpse of Hanoverian leg in flesh coloured stocking...

 

 

Make sure you back the right Dot.Scot

Column in this week's Scotsman. The .scot domain name could be with us by 2013 now that regulators are reforming internet names. But the country needs to get behind the not-for-profit bid, which will put any surplus from sales of the domain towards improving access and getting communities online.

Column begins as follows:

THE growth of broadband leads many of us to expect to access the internet anywhere, any time and quickly. We take instant information for granted. And as more of us live online, the pace of life accelerates.

But not everything connected to the internet is pursued at the speed of light. The organisations charged with developing and regulating the web seem to move very slowly indeed - an inevitable result, presumably, of trying to secure agreement on a global scale - after all there are now 1.6 billion internet users around the world.

It is now six years since the launch of DOTSCOT, the campaign for a distinctive Scottish "Top Level Domain", or TLD. Scotland is one of a number of countries and interest groups who want the number of TLDs expanded from the current 22. Others include .gay, .eco and .sport covering interest groups and .basque, .London and .welsh for national and city bids.

DOTSCOT has made considerable progress since its launch in 2005, in attracting support across the political spectrum - initially through Holyrood's cross-party petitions committee. The Scottish Government came on board in 2009 and research shows a majority of organisations, both commercial, cultural and public, believe .scot would help reinforce brand Scotland around the world.

read the rest in The Scotsman

The Oscars of Independence

I am fortunate in having a gorgeous teenage daughter, but Eleanor and I don't always agree. I am obsessed with Scotland's future. Her preoccupations are musical theatre, boys who look like Justin Bieber and the quest for the perfect black eyeliner. Despite these differences, (though we do share some common ground on the eyeliner issue), Ellie has developed a serene accomodation with her mother's politics, smiling through numerous meetings over the last couple of years. She'd rather be elsewhere... ie on facebook, jamming with her pals on guitar, or exploring the Boots make-up counter.

But this week Eleanor thought the SNP - or rather the Scots Independent newspaper - had come up trumps.They decided to give her mum an Oliver. Wow, an OIiver! She immediately perked up at the thought of attending this particular ceremony. Never mind the SNP majority at Holyrood, Ellie goes to Hollywood! Would there be red carpets, Valentino gowns and diamonds hired from Tiffany? Alas, though the Terraces Hotel in Stirling is beautifully appointed and serves a delicious Chicken Supreme with Stornoway black pudding, Brangelina stayed away. The only similarity with the Oscars was her mum's gushing acceptance speech.

Despite this disappointment, Eleanor had a marvellous time at the Oliver Brown Awards, and is now calling the hilarious after dinner speaker, Fergus Ewing MSP, the SNP's answer to Michael McIntyre. 

It was a marvellous day for both of us. It was wonderful to sit with so many lights of the national movement,  such as Jimmy Halliday, Jim Lynch and Oliver Brown's daugher Una, who gave a very amusing speech herself. I cannot quite believe I have been given the award, whose previous recipients include Winnie Ewing, Paul Scott, Billy Kay, Iain Anderson, Elspeth King, Murray Ritchie, George Rosie and so many more distinguished and cultured people.

Oliver Brown himself, who died in 1976, was a leading figure in the national movement, a fine orator and writer and a real individualist who was not hidebound by party lines. As someone whose roots lie in Antrim as well as Argyll, I was delighted to hear that he once stood as an anti partition candidate (ie against the partition of Ireland)

In advance of the ceremony today, I was lent original copies of his books by Jim Lynch, the editor of the Scots Independent. There was  the Wisdom of Oliver Brown, which contains many of his contributions to the paper. I also adored the 1953 book Witdom, a collection of his “essaygrams” - that to my very great excitement had a foreword by Hugh MacDiarmid.

 Oliver Brown’s work has been described as a cross between Eric Linklater and William Hickey. Having read the books, I would suggest a Scottish Benjamin Franklin - like the great polemicist for American independence, Brown was master of the aphorism, the pithy political pamphlet and the pointed epigram.

The thing that really struck me was how relevant much of his writing remains.

For example he had some very sobering advice to new politicians: “I have never heard a speech which would not have gained force had it been condensed into five minutes." Come to think of it, that's probably good advice for established politicians too...

In Witdom there is a paragraph that reads like it was an analysis of the May 2011 result:

 “The SNP is accused by poison-spitters of being separatist, greedy and narrow-minded," mused Brown, who then advised:"A positive policy is the only answer, and the best is an active advocacy of an Anglo-Scottish alliance which will follow the era of English domination.”

This has always been the primary aim of the Scottish national movement. We just want our country to be normal: not superior, nor dominating, just an equal partner.

Brown's commentary on a previous Secretary of State for Scotland could have been written last week, given the present incumbent's recent gaffes.

“The Emperor Caligula made his horse a Consul. One Russian Emperor made a flea chancellor.  Mr Wilson made Willie Ross Secretary of State for Scotland...."

What does this say about Michael Moore!

That one would probably breach the rules for positive campaigning in the new SNP - But as Hugh MacDiarmid said, the most brilliant minds contradict themselves.

Even when the quotes are very much of their time, they are useful. For example, Brown had a fantastic reference to Norman Buchan MP dismissing the idea that Switzerland was a country that Scotland could emulate.  “We would be making cuckoo clocks instead of steel,” said Mr Buchan.

Of course we no longer have a steel industry, despite electing Labour MPs for many years.

Something Jim Lynch said at the awards today made me think of Norman Buchan. Jim spoke of our shared admiration for the play, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil. It was performed at an SNP conference in the 1970s, he recalled, but he was perplexed by the fact that its producers, the 7:84 company, were not nationalists.

Norman Buchan, an honourable man, and 7:84, fall into the same category. They promulgated the story of the Scottish people. They believed Scotland could flourish inside the UK if socialism prevailed, and always put loyalty to Labour first. Buchan did so much to encourage interest in Scottish culture, particularly folk music, and played a leading role in its revival in the 50s and 60s. As a school teacher he nurtured folk talents such as Gordeanna McCulloch. I used to live opposite his widow Janey in Partick. Her home was crammed with the most amazing collection of Scots literature, including rare broadsheet ballads. She knew I was a nationalist but was not sectarian in any way, always keen to point out political writings in her collection that would be of interest to an SNP supporter. Donald Dewar falls into the same category - his personal collection was full of works about Scottish history and literature. 

But this category of Scottish Unionist died with Dewar and Buchan. The current generation see assertions of national identity as means of encouraging the SNP. They are therefore anti-Scottish, a magnification of the old cringe, dismissing our own history and culture as provincial and secondary. Today's youthful equivalents of Norman Buchan would not join the Communist Party or the Labour Party, they would be attracted instead to the SNP. Because as well and having Scottish self determination at its heart, the SNP also believe in the social justice that has long categorised popular Scottish politics.

This will be critical in the years ahead, as we work towards Oliver Brown's dearest wish. And as we reach out across Scottish society to those who have only recently been converted to the cause, let us not forget that earlier generation of activists, such as the publishers and readers of the Scots Independent, who kept the flame alight. 

 

 

 

 

Three wheels on their wagon. Are the fundie unionists retreating into a Laager?

 My Scotsman column today examines the rise of unionist fundamentalism - a trend first identified by Professor James Mitchell. 

If you doubted its existence before, Michael Moore's bizarre belief that Scotland needs a (historically unprecedented) two referendums to become independent proves unionists are retreating into a Laager of union jack covered wagons.  So even if people vote for independence in a referendum organised by the Scottish parliament, it doesn't count unless they vote again in a second referendum okayed by London.  And if that doesn't sound fundie enough, he claims London will oppose all the improvements the Scottish Government has promoted for the Scotland Bill. Moore's position suggests that he has been poisoned by his time in the Scotland Office. This has-been department considers the Scottish parliament a threat to its own position and will oppose anything that gives Holyrood enhanced power or status. It's a mentality dating back to the early days of the Labour administrations in Edinburgh, who found their Scotland Office colleagues resentful and territorial. Remember when the then First Minister Henry McLeish called his Labour colleague John Reid, the former Scottish Secretary, a "patronising bastard"? No love lost.

But it ceases to be a joke when it damages the country's future, in particular our ability to grow our economy. Moore's total lack of respect, not just for the Scottish parliament but the Scottish electorate, might please the control freaks at Dover House. However it will do nothing for his party north of Berwick.  Newsnight Scotland tonight had an extremely interesting piece by Ian Hamilton on the death Highland Liberalism. James Hunter and Michael Foxley were both pessimistic about its chances of recovery. But I was most struck by the comments of defeated candidate Alan MacRae. He noted that the Liberal Democrats lost because they ceased to be the party of Home Rule - just when real self-determination is within Scotland's grasp. Think of Tavish Scott's point blank refusal to even ask the people about the constitution, in case they gave the wrong answer, or his successor Willie Rennie's railing against "the nationalist bulldozer". It's not what Joe Grimond would have done.

All this can only boost the case for full Scottish sovereignty.  What other option is left if the British state is so determinedly intransigent? All nations have a right to chose independence if they wish - that's international law as well as moral law - whatever the Daily Telegraph, Vernon Bogdanor or Michael Moore claim about the vague workings of a UK constitution that doesn't actually exist.

Meanwhile Alan Trench suggests a tactical way forward -  the Scottish parliament vote for the amendments we wish to see to the Scotland Bill. Then there would be no room for doubt as to what the desire of the Scottish people was...and it would mean the media could stop talking about "Alex Salmond's wish list".  This is no wish list. It is something we took to the electorate, making it quite clear during the campaign that our priority was to get "economic teeth" into the Scotland Bill. All the improvements Alex Salmond promotes are policies supported by one or more opposition party.

If there is a vote in parliament, I hope principled politicians across the chamber will support it. Or will they succumb to the anti-Scottish rhetoric of the unionist fundamentalists and, consequently, political oblivion?

Legacy of Srebrenica

The headline on my Scotsman column today "Trying Mladic won't cure Bosnia's ills" perhaps gives the impression that I do not think the general should be tried for war crimes. Not true!  The column makes it clear that Ratko Mladic should face justice. But the wider point is reconciliation is a long way off and the west's failure to prevent Srebrenica's massacres had a profound effect on subsequent events. I visited Bosnia with an Edinburgh charity convoy shortly after the supposedly "safe haven" of Srebrenica was overrun and the column draws on that experience. War is a complicated, messy business and though in this case the Serbs were the main aggressors, there were atrocities on other sides too. Good Serbs deplored what was being done in their name. As an aside, one of the charity workers who went overland with us to Tuzla on that trip was a young Magnus Macfarlane Barrow, who subsequently established the very effective Mary's Meals.

Gil Scott Heron

 

I am saddened to hear of the death of Gil Scott Heron, the man who can claim to have inspired the first wave of rap musicians. Without "The Revolution will not be Televised" we might not have had "The Message".  He was of course a brilliant musician and lyricist with a Scottish connection - his dad once played for Celtic. This was the subject of a song by our own Michael Marra, Flight of the Heron.  Gerry Hassan met Gil Scott Heron in the US a few years before his death and presented him with Marra's song.  He wrote this piece for The Sunday Times Ecosse about the extraordinary encounter, also see his blog here

Maiden Speech

My maiden speech to the Scottish Parliament yesterday concerned the need to end the Crown Estate Commissioners writ in Scotland. The injustice of one remote organisation taxing and controlling the seabed is unjust and is preventing the proper development of our offshore renewables industry. The region I represent, the South of Scotland, has planned developments in both the Solway and the North Sea that  ought to benefit coastal communities, not an organisation based in Belgravia.  I hope we can build consensus on this issue with Labour and the Liberal Democrats, who have a track record in land reform. Perhaps when they have got over the shock of the election they will join us in demanding improvements to the Scotland Bill, including the devolution of Crown Estate administration that many of them supported in the past. It is clear that there are progressive people on the Labour benches, for example Neil Bibby and Kezia Dugdale both made good maiden speeches on child poverty and youth unemployment respectively. But as Nicola Sturgeon pointed out in her concluding remarks, you cannot separate such issues from the drive to gain real fiscal powers for the people of Scotland.  Then we can take the steps to effectively grow our economy and tackle poverty and inequality. I will spare you the youtube film of the speech. Here are the words from the parliament's official report:

• 12:24
• Joan McAlpine (South Scotland) (SNP): I congratulate Graeme Pearson on his election and his maiden speech. I am sure that he will make the same robust contribution to this chamber as he has made to the world of fighting crime. I intend to take a slightly different tone with my maiden speech, however. Five minutes after I was elected, one of my journalistic colleagues asked whether I was going to be a poacher turned gamekeeper. Of course, I completely denied the accusation, but what I have to say may vindicate that journalist, because I intend to break with the tradition of newspaper columnists by complimenting politicians on all sides.
  
  I will consider what the First Minister said today about devolving Crown estate administration to Scotland and show how that is a continuation of some of this Parliament’s achievements.
  
  In the long campaign to have this Parliament established in 1999, one argument was persuasive to unionists as well as to people from my own party. There was general agreement that large areas of Scotland’s governance were neglected, not out of malice or avarice—although some of us did think that—but simply because the UK Parliament did not have time to scrutinise and reform areas of Scottish life that were stuck in the past.
  
  One of those areas was land reform. Although feudalism was abolished elsewhere in Europe centuries ago, in Scotland we were still in the grip of a system that sounded as though it came from the days of Robin Hood, with vassals, sub-vassals, superiorities and burdens. While that sounds comic, it was not funny for those who faced arbitrary charges from absent overlords.
  
  I therefore pay tribute to the Labour and Liberal Democrat Administrations that passed—albeit with Scottish National Party support—the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act 2000. It is to the credit of those previous Administrations that they did not stop at abolishing feudalism, but went on to pass progressive land reform legislation. We now have public rights of access and provision for community ownership as a result.
  
  In Scotland, the ground beneath our feet is more than a mere commodity: it is part of who we are. To put it in the words of the old rousing crofting anthem beloved of Highland Liberals:
  
  “The land, the land,
  
  ’Twas God who made the land”
  
  —and so too with the sea. Most Scots find it offensive that the shoreline or the sea bed could be bought and sold, and they are quite right: it cannot be bought and sold. There is a lot of misunderstanding about that issue on all sides of the chamber.
  
  Our shoreline and continental shelf out to the 200-mile limit are public land. They are part of what is called the Crown estate, but that title is misleading and archaic. The Crown estate does not belong to the Queen or any other private individual or organisation: it is public land that falls within the jurisdiction of this Parliament and is subject to Scots law. That assertion does not come from me or the SNP Government: it is the conclusion of the Treasury Select Committee at Westminster, which it reached last year after a lengthy inquiry.
  
  However, by some quirk of history that precious public asset is administered by an unaccountable organisation that calls itself the Crown Estate Commissioners. It is an archaic quango that is based in London’s Belgravia, and it hoovers up the resources from our shores and seas and gives nothing in return.
  
  When the First Minister asserts our rights to the Crown estate, he is not asking for the land: we, the people, already own the land. He is asking that its administration and revenues be transferred back to Scotland, as was the case until 1832. Many of us of different political persuasions already agree on that.
  
  It is not often that you hear someone from the SNP sing the praises of the former Labour minister at Westminster, Brian Wilson MP, but he has been a stalwart campaigner on the Crown estate since the 1970s. He recently wrote in the Aberdeen Press and Journal that he first became interested when the Crown Estate decided to lease sea lochs to multinational salmon companies in the west of Scotland without consulting anyone, not least the affected communities. He said:
  
  “Quite literally, people whose families had lived and worked in these places for generations woke up to find that the entire rights to use of a loch had been flogged off”.
  
  Brian Wilson wants the administration of the Crown estate to be devolved to this Parliament, and so do many Highland Liberals—those that are left. In 2006 no fewer than five Highland Liberal Democrat MPs introduced a Westminster bill that called for the management of the Crown estate to be transferred to the Scottish Parliament. They included one Danny Alexander, who I understand now has some influence in another place.
  
  My favourite quote on the matter is from the member for Shetland, Tavish Scott—it is a shame that he is not here to hear it—who went into battle against the Crown Estate in 2007. He said:
  
  “They tax our aquaculture industry ... our harbours and marinas”,
  
  and that it is unacceptable. He went on to say:
  
  “And, with marine renewable projects in the offing, they will ... tax the wave and tidal power developments and the cables which bring the power ashore.”
  
  Mr Scott showed considerable foresight when he made those remarks back in 2007 because renewables hold the key to prosperity in our country for not just the coastal communities that gain revenue from direct access to the royalties, but Scotland’s cities and urban areas, which will benefit from the manufacturing jobs that, as Iain Gray mentioned earlier, are forecast to come in this sector. However, we need the powers to develop renewables as well as a democratically accountable body in charge of planning, not some unaccountable body based in Belgravia.
  
  I appeal to all sides of the chamber to recognise that the First Minister’s call for devolution of Crown estate management is no radical break; it is actually a continuation of the Parliament’s previous achievements. This is not just a financial issue—it is a moral imperative. This Parliament has, from the outset, paid attention to Scotland. For example, after centuries of stalemate, it abolished feudalism inside two years. Let us hold true to our record and rid Scotland of this relic of the past and impediment to our progress, the Crown Estate Commissioners, and remember instead the crofter’s clarion call that “the land, the land”—and the foreshore—belong to the people of Scotland.