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With forest leasing and Royal Mail privatisation polarising opinion, Mike MacKenzie offers some balanced thinking
‘Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.’ (William Shakespeare)
The recent Scottish Government consultation on the forestry provisions within the Climate Change Bill have been largely welcomed except for some fears expressed about the proposals to lease around 25% of the forest estate to private companies. Understandably some people have reservations because the term ‘privatisation’ has earned such negative connotations although what is intended is to sell off leases rather than outright privatisation.
The Westminster Government’s plans to part privatise the Post Office again touch this raw nerve although here the worst fears of both politicians and people are merited. Privatisation of public utilities has been very profitable for some, at the expense of the public and of quality of service, and most people see this as the start of a slippery slope where the Post Office is cherry picked for profitable activities.
Both of these issues are important for Argyll and Bute but they are also part of a wider debate about public versus private. In Scotland the PFI flagship was the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. This should have cost £180million but under PFI will end up costing the taxpayer more than £1 billion. It is important that we find alternative funding methods for such projects that offer better value.
Private procurement of public projects and of service delivery seems to be characterised by inordinate profits and greed whereas public procurement is often beset by delays, cost over-runs and inefficiencies. In truth neither one is good nor bad, although for Scottish sensibilities, public provision of monopolistic services somehow sits more comfortably.
This is reflected in Professor Allyson Pollack, the leading campaigner against NHS privatisation, having moved from England to Scotland where the creeping privatisation of the NHS has not progressed so far. She feels the battle has been lost in England but may yet be won in Scotland.
The emerging ethos of ethical business has been given fresh impetus as we have seen what damage a banking system bent on inordinate profits has done, both to themselves and to the economy. Private business can at times be more innovative and less risk averse than the public sector but a place remains for public provision and procurement especially where a monopoly exists or where the democratic ideals of equality of service are otherwise impossible to provide.
This is why public sector reform is so important. If we are to continue to afford public services they must be modern, streamlined, efficient and customer focussed.
Allyson Pollack is quite correct to discern a different set of values in Scotland, forged as they were by both Adam Smith and Robert Burns. First Minister, Alex Salmond, expresses this as ‘soft hearts and hard heads’ and having both, we know just where, in this middle ground between public and private, we ought to be.
Mike Mackenzie is one of the Prospective Westminster Parliamentary Candidates for Argyll and Bute
Put your Burns Supper on the map – your village, Mount Aconcagua or Ben Nevis
A new website – BurnsSupper2009 – has been created to capture everyone’s plans for celebrating this landmark Burns Night and establish a new World Record for the greatest number of Burns suppers ever held. So far more than 670 suppers have been registered so if you have not recorded your event – now is the time to do it.
Every supper registered will be flagged on an interactive world map – demonstrating the global reach of Burns today. The site provides a range of Burns material: a step by step guide to hosting a Burns supper complete with menu ideas from some of Scotland’s leading chefs, invitation templates, poems, songs, film clips and music downloads.
Paul Bush, of Event Scotland says they are also looking for some zany responses: ‘We hope to hear of a vast array of different celebrations including the largest ever Burns supper and perhaps the highest, such as one held on the top of Mount Aconcagua in Argentina last year.” This odd record was created by Chris Dunlop from Paisley (pictured), who will eat his haggis on the top of Ben Nevis this year.
Haggis sales world-wide have soared as an unexpected by-product of Homecoming 2009, as a record number of sometimes weird and wonderful Burns suppers are taking place. Haggis producers Stahley’s and Macsween have benefited from the launch of a Homecoming campaign to create the world’s biggest Burns Supper Celebration, and the launch of a new website. Ken Stahley says: ‘We are seeing record sales of our Burns supper pack, particularly in Canada’.
If you are involved in a Burns Supper anywhere this one is for you. The World Famous Burns Supper Celebration intends to unite both experienced Burnsians and Burns novices around the world encouraging them to come together online, registering their celebrations – big, small, traditional or unusual. The aim is to show the world that Burns’ legacy is still alive and kicking today and that his message of friendship and Auld Lang Syne lives on, joining people all over the world.
Reporter: Mark Morpurgo
Carradale 250th Anniversary Burns Supper
At 7.00pm on 17th January 2009 Carradale on the Kintyre peninsula is holding its 250th Anniversary Burns Supper in the Village Hall. As well as the traditiopnal supper itself, there will be live music, a licensed bar, a free dram on arrival to get spirits high and complimentary souvenirs for all present.
Tickets cost £12.50. For information and tickets: phone 01583 431316 or 01583 431626
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National Trust for Scotland sets up online site for Robert Burns’ letters
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has created an online site to display letters from Robert Burns until the Burns Birthplace Museum opens in July 2010.
The letters will appear on the site on the dates they were originally written. They were sent to friends, colleagues, other companions and literary magazines and the NTS say that they will give readers an insight into the ‘colourful life’ Burns led. Site visitors can post comments on each letter.
Shonaig Macpherson, NTS’s chairman, says: ‘In the period from 1787 to 1789 we see many sides of Burns in his letters. The great love poet can seem cold in his correspondence with friend Robert Ainslie, but he is then flowery in his love letters to Mrs Agnes McLehose – codename ‘Clarinda’ – while a more factual and reflective side is seen in other letters.
‘One of the aims of the new museum is to show every side to Burns and these letters are an early way of people seeing how complex a character he truly was’.
And 2009 Highland Year of Homecoming is almost on us
The Scottish Government has announced a grant of £60,000 to support a major conference during 2009 Highland year of Homecoming. The Director of the initiative, Fiona Hampton, was also Director of Highland 2007, whose recently published evaluation report has just been discussed by For Argyll.
The 2009 festival will last for ten months, running from Burns Night, on 25th January until St Andrew’s Day on 30th November. It has five main themes – Robert Burns, whisky, golf, great Scottish minds and innovations and Scotland’s culture and heritage.
How will Argyll fare in these five categories?
- Argyll may not be able to lay claim to Burns but one of his celebrated loves, Highland Mary (Campbell) was from Dunoon and there is a statue to her near the Pier.
- Whisky and golf are two big strengths throughout Argyll and the Islands. The distilleries should be well to the fore in May, which is being marketed as ‘Whisky Month’ within the festival. And whatever the ownership position of Loch Lomond Golf Club wil be by then, it is hosting the Barclays Scottish Open in July 2009.
- We have our share of great minds and achievers, some unsung. For Argyll will brining some of these to local, national and international attention during the festival.
- For culture and heritage Argyll is right up there as the birthplace of modern Scotland through Dunadd, also a significant site in the Kingdom of Dal Riata; with Kilmartin Glen the second most significant cluster of archaelological remains in the UK; the Isle of Iona, with its links to St Columba through its Abbey and to the Book of Kells; Finlaggan on Islay the seat of the Lords of the Isles; and the isles of Mull and Islay two of the UK’s best wildlife resources.
A key piece of evidence in the report on Highland 2007 was that residents and non-residents of Scotland alike made their top three strengths of the country its landscape and environment, its historic places and buildings and its traditional music. Argyll has a wealth of all of these. It needs to get moving, strategically and purposefully, to nail its identity to these major parts of everyone’s expectations of Scotland.
Among the 2009 Highland Year of Homecoming events will be a show at the Clyde Auditorium, celebrating the songs of Burns; and the whisky month in May, with participation from distillers across the country and the major, innovative Spirit of the West food and drink event – in Argyll – hosted at Inveraray Castle. (Do they know that there’s a Canadian folk rock band, Spirit of the West; and that there’s a cowboy festival with the same name at Sioux Falls, South Dakota? There’s a few good prompts to cement the event into the Year of Homecoming.)
The biggest clan gathering in 200 years will be in Edinburgh in July and a flotilla of boats will travel the length of the Caledonian Canal, from Fort William to Inverness.
The Edinburgh International Science Festival will be showcasing the contributions made to innovation by Scots, and an exhibition of contemporary art inspired by Burns will be hosted at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library.
These are keystone events in the programme. Argyll has its own programme which For Argyll will highlight throughout the ten month festival.
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Celtic Connections 2009 reveals programme and discount card
Celtic Connections, sixteen years old in 2009 will be underway on Burns night in that year, the official start of Homecoming 2009 – and intends to mark the occasion with a twelve-hour marathon of singing. The Festival is now beginning to reveal some of the 1500 musicians who will perform in the 300 events across 14 Glasgow venues.
Youssou N’Dour, the Senegalese singer/percussionist is to be one of the headline acts. He will be joined by Michael Nyman, the English pianist and composer best known for his collaborations with film-maker Peter Greenaway and for his multi-platinum winning score for Jane Campion’s film, The Piano.
With them will be Nanci Griffith, American Grammy Award winning singer and Richard Thomson, Ivor Novello Award winning singer/guitarist. And then there will be Cerys Matthews, Eddi Reader and Edwyn Collins.
It’s obviously going to be a festival to remember and one of which Culture Minister Linda Fabiani has just said: ‘I cannot think of a better atmosphere to welcome Scots returning home from all over the world’.
The festival’s new discount scheme offers great value with 15% off ALL Celtic Connections events. You can buy a discount card which is valid for either one or two tickets per event and if you buy and use it before Christmas – the savings are even better. Details are on the Celtic Connections website.