When Auntie says "Jump" - Colin Campbell
I have mentioned before the quasi-incestuous relationship between Scottish journalists who write or broadcast for our Unionist Media. If one wishes to be taken seriously as a commentator, by any of our limited number of journalistic outlets one doesn't have to be Scottish--but, with very few exceptions, one has to be white, of urban extraction and most certainly a Unionist. It is therefore not surprising to see the same names cropping up in different branches of this Media hothouse; for, with the possible exception of the Herald, the colours of opinion on offer could all fit into one posy of red, white and blue pansies. A more serious aspect of all this bum-chummery is that Media critics within the Scottish newspaper world find themselves in positions where genuine criticism of the BBC's political stance and activities, even where crying out for trenchant comment, is not a sensible option. The awesome might of BBC patronage also impacts on political parties' press officers--for they too know that their complaints over unfair treatment, or other perceived failings, will be judged and disposed of within the BBC--and that if, as a consequence, they are perceived as being a nuisance there treatment may become even less favourable than before.
Three instances of important BBC programming and production alterations, and the lack of critical response to them from our main newspaper critics, should suffice to illustrate the matter further.
The changes instituted by James Boyle as head of Radio Scotland included the downgrading and reduction of output from its outlying local stations--most notably perhaps Radio Highland in Inverness. The jargon used to justify this policy held that it would 'allow excellent local output to be carried on national Radio Scotland'. Not only has this vision failed to materialise but a wealth of local talent and much loved entertainment has been lost to the communities concerned. The distinctly Scottish input, on Radio Scotland itself, of the redoubtable and erudite Jimmy MacGregor was banished to the Arctic tundra on the grounds that 'Jimmy will still be employed doing what he does best'. this would not seem to have been coded speech for signifying that MacGregor's Gathering was too overtly Scottish for Unionist comfort. In place of these broadcasting treasures have come programmes of a genre that could as readily have emanated from Radio Tees or Solent--or musically from Radio 1 whose audience Radio Scotland so covets. The second change was dealt with in detail by Alasdair MacCaluim last month and I simply write to confirm that on travelling recently between Lewis and Islay, by way of west coast roads and townships Gaelic broadcasting has virtually become unobtainable since Radio Scotland abandoned that output on medium wave. Of course it's wonderful that emigre Gaels, and learners, in Edinburgh and Glasgow can now get a good measure of Gaelic on FM; but that is no justification for abandoning the language in its native heath. Here again the BBC's centralist stance has escaped serious criticism from the rest of Scotland's media. Finally there is the case of basking in the glory of new television funding-- given apparently because Scottish output is now so good that it is suitable for exhibition on 'network television'! But just a moment: isn't BBC Scotland primarily about broadcasting for, and to, the Scottish people? Not so, apparently: judging by the smug, self-congratulatory BBC hype so faithfully relayed to a wider audience by its grovelling press acolytes. BBC Scotland holds unique power to influence the future of Scotland for better or for worse. It continues to show itself unworthy of such trust.
The Curse of Culloden - Editorial
Whether or not we know on which side our forebears stood on that fateful day on Drumossie Moor in April 1746, the 250th anniversary of the Scottish tragedy of Culloden still haunts us, as a nation, with senses of despondency, continuing heather-hewing anger and bitter frustration. Its origins may have lain in spheres of tension that are of no more than peripheral political import to-day. The earlier Reformation, and the Act of Settlement which prevented Catholics from inheriting the throne, eventually opened up the Hanoverian succession which, apart from its inherent Protestantism, had little resonance north of the Tweed; and it was on this sense of natural alienation that the Stuarts, in their attempts to regain their ancient throne, contrived alternately such spectacular success and such calamitous disaster.
But Culloden's impact to-day still has the power to affect and disrupt the Scottish psyche--rather as the Union of Crowns upset Scotland's sense of national integrity just when other less ancient European states were busy consolidating their own. It brought to a culmination, in a most despicable manner, years of political intrigue in which Scot was deliberately set against Scot in the narrower interests of greed and personal power-mongering by a relatively small cabal in high places--including it must be said, a number of prominent churchmen of the time.
Culloden did much more than merely mark the end of the clan system and the highland way of life. It ushered in the years of mass exodus from Scotland's most populous area into the emerging cities of the industrial revolution and also, more memorably, into the British armed forces and into the emigrant ships provided alike by Government and ruthless landlords in clearing the land for more governable sheep.
Scotland's sense of loss of soul was underlined by the use of the term North Britain by Scots themselves; and it was only through the efforts of patriots like Rabbie Burns and Walter Scott that some sense of a proud historic Scottish past was steadily reborn--but very much clothed in trappings that did not threaten the British State. While Culloden certainly marked the end of Scotland as she had once been, it also marked the beginning of that greatly debilitating characteristic identifiable to-day as the Scottish cringe. Those of us who now comprise this ancient nation are still expected by the continuing Unionist establishment to display Scottishness only in suitable and designated directions --and certainly not in any meaningful political context. It is fine to go to Hampden and Wembley, or Murrayfield and Twickenham decked out in tartan and brandishing St Andrew. It is all right too to be proud of Scots "who do well in the English Cabinet", or pro- duce TV programmes in Scotland which are good enough to merit Network showing over the whole of the UK (Wow!). But try suggesting to them that Scotland might be mature enough to govern herself like any other self-respecting European nation--and just watch the Culloden cringe unnerve their demeanour!
We should genuinely mourn those of both sides who lost their lives at, or as a consequence of Culloden 250 years ago this month. We also share in the mourning of succeeding generations of Scots for the passing that day of Scotland's soul as a nation. But those of us who have now consciously shaken off the Culloden cringe are determined soon to reinstate that vibrant soul-- and no modern day Cumberland nor British prime minister (with or without his English Cabinet) is going to prevent us.
Knocking Down the Jericho Walls - Professor Christopher Harvie
I--We've now had six months of Michael Forsyth weaving and dodging on the gallows that his party has built for him, and the trap's creaking more than ever. In fact the poor wee patriot's got his kilt in a twist (is he, incidentally, the first Secretary of State ever to have worn one?) with the deviousness of his manoeuvres. Extend the hand of friendship to Labour toon cooncillors in the hope of detaching them from home rule? Fine, but don't think about putting the well-deserved boot into Monklands, Paisley, etc. Harness up the mighty St Andrew's House publicity machine for party propaganda, and get shopped by the bureaucrats. Go on about the Tartan Tax nightmares of Labour's halfway house? Yes but. Forsyth and Major are now doing the SNP's work by making independence seem positively attractive, and attainable.
After all this, Forsyth is as popular as 'Rat Sandwich' Redwood in Wales. And he's running out of time: a sentry left on the wrong side of the Wall, without a warm undemanding seat to return to, and no bright future for a PR man: ''An' for~,vard, tho' I canna see, I guess an' fear." That's enough Burns to make the point.
II--So it's good night from him. But where does this leave us? Back around boring old 25% in the current polls. But my spies tell me that the Labour vote is now softer than ever before: 'It'll be away like snaw affa dyke, after the Election.' So why not before? Under the Blair cult, Labour will ditch every principle to gain power, to the truly weird extent of embracing right-wing policies which polls show the electorate won't wear. When George Robertson flaunts a sheet of horrid future Tory measures, he must have the sinking feeling that his leader is up to enacting every one of them. Has this got through to the Scottish socialist rank-and-file? Is there a rank-and-file to be got through to? New Labour seems to be damaging Auld Labour enough to give us the chance of getting up to the vital 35 plus percent. Thereafter, anything's possible.
I can only go on hunches, but I don't find that friends from my Labour Party days are cutting me. Rather, when politics come up, there's a melancholy silence, implying (at least) 'What would John Smith have thought of this?' Do I see these folk stuffing envelopes, canvassing, addressing meetings? I do not. New Labour is probably sucking in the sort of unprincipled careerists who would have been down-the-line Thatcherite a decade ago, but the reservoir of these in Scotland isn't large. For many more, home rule increasingly offers the only manifesto commitment which gives a prospect of doing anything original.
III--Which brings us to Jericho: those one-party states where Labour still pulls in 60% of the vote for dim MPs and near-hereditary councillors: places far gone in social hopelessness where the old are fearful (of health service and transport breakdown as much as of violence) and the young alienated and without prospects. Drugs cost the Glasgow community £500 million a year, according to the Scottish Select Committee. This produces, bizarrely, a consensus of politicians that 'something-or-other' must be done, instead of the conviction that the mindlessness of the market, and the insensitivity of our wretched political system have done their dirty work only too well.
Sir Robert Grieve, President of the SNPs' 'think tank', the Scottish Centre for Economic and Social Research, was a Scottish patriot, a Catholic and a practical socialist in the tradition of Patrick Geddes and Tom Johnston. His recent death, with so many of his ideas unachieved, prompted thoughts of a real memorial in the form of a 'New Deal for Central Scotland': something necessary in itself, but which could also win for the SNP the 'multiplier' backing of people from town planning and welfare pressure groups. even if they're not overtly linked with us.
Why not the following agenda, wrapped in a package and bowled at the Jericho Walls?--supplement the single-tier authorities with decentralised administration of housing schemes and neighbourhoods, with one-stop local centres and elected community boards as bottom-run authorities. These would liaise with schools, social security, NHS, public transport, to create a proper grass-roots democracy.
--bring in proportional representation in local authority elections, lessening the prospect of rule by unending local oligarchies, and allowing new initiatives, by women, environmentalists, pen- sioners, to develop. Experiment with referenda and with electing 'executive provosts' with a long-term mandate, as in this part of Germany.
--represent the same groups in an advisory second chamber, with membership balanced to favour the elderly, women, youngsters. If we're going to have a lottery ('a tax on all the fools in creation', as Adam Smith wisely put it), then make it publicly- owned and have such a body determine the social priorities of its expenditure.
--get out of our car-fixation by investing in cheap publicly- controlled transport, dial-a-buses, delivery van systems instead of out-of-town supermarkets. Have free public transport for all children, pensioners and students, as in Holland.
--establish training and further education programmes based on a multi-campus 'people's high school' feeding a co-ordinated university. Aim for every library and school to be on the Internet and World-Wide Web.
--establish a job-creation programme based on (and partly funded by) energy and community conservation measures--insulation, local heating schemes, neighbourhood security (unsinister: people employed to supervise bike-parks, stations, etc.), and com- munity health care (weaning the voters off deep fried pizzas ...)
--get an active Euro-networking policy going, aimed at attracting high value-added sectors--marketing, product development, audit--of multinationals (internet plus golf, whisky, culture). Tout our (relative) lack of pollution, honesty in comparison with City of London, etc.
IV - We are in Central Scotland in Monklands Syndrome territory and must gang very warily. The SNP has in the past been charged with being a Protestant party, hostile to the Irish Catholic tradition of much of West Central Scotland. This was nonsense, but it was also the case that we tended to look to Scandinavia, not to Ireland, to see how well small nations could do. This wasn't just because of the Ulster troubles: the Republic wasn't an economic success story in the 1960s and 1970s, and its adjustment to industrialisation and to Europe was a difficult one. Something of this gloom tended to produce that Catholic variant of the Scottish cringe which marked Auld Labour.
In the 1970s Irish GNP per capita was only about 55% of the UK's. In 1995 it was 87%: roughly level-pegging with us, without oil or our natural resources. It was always a paradox that Irish- Scots politics were Labour Unionist; now it's a fantasy. Independence in Europe has worked for the republic, which has become a modern secular state, when Auld Labour offers only a unionist cul-de-sac, and New Labour offers something possibly worse than Lang or Forsyth. Why not a Scotland which is, like Ireland, in there, negotiating as a full member, not whining at the end of a Brussels lobby? When Motherwell and Monklands asl themselves this ....
Letters - The BBC replies to Colin Campbell
DUBIOUS INTEGRITY
Sir,--Colin Campbell's allegation of 'dubious integrity' levelled at Radio Scotland's Headlines programme has no foundation (Scots Independent, March). In the interests of accuracy let me restate the following facts which, through frequent exchanges, Mr Campbell has been aware of for some time:
the panel for Headlines is chosen to reflect broad Scottish opinion, not just that of political parties
over the 52-week series, the political parties receive a fair share of airtime
there is no political skulduggery being exercised by Radio Scotland'
the telephone number for the programme is 0500 929500, not the one published.
MARK LEISHMAN,
Head of Corporate Affairs,
BBC Scotland
Letters - If we Dared to Vote for Independence
Sir,--At the last General Election we Scots were conned by those Anglo-controlled ''Toriocialists''. Yet again, we were assured by both Tory and Labour politicians that independence for Scotland would be disastrous. They both insisted that Scotland would be better off being ruled by smother England from Westminster. Remember what they said would happen if we dared to vote for Independence? Ravenscraig would shut; Rosyth would close; unemployment would go up even further.
Look at what has happened since Scotland voted to remain within the UK under an English Tory Government. Our steel industry ruined--Ravenscraig has gone; Rosyth almost extinct; unemployment has rocketed ever higher. In the gas industry, 3,000 Scottish jobs stolen; Vat on domestic fuel.
It's not enough for us to moan and groan. We've got to get up off our knees and do something for Auld Scotia by voting for Independence in Europe.
ANDREW K MacMILLAN,
Motherwell.
Next Year ... In Jerusalem? - Ian Bayne
Tory Blair's trumpet sounded a curiously uncertain note at last month's ''Scottish'' Labour conference. With Labour riding high in the public opinion polls, and an Election pending possibly within months, the young Labour leader ought to have effortlessly attracted a rapturous response from grateful delegates.
But his opening crack at good old Dennis Canavan--for calling him 'autocratic' -- went down like a lead balloon. And despite his ritualistic affirmation of his commitment to include devo legislation in his first Queen's Speech, his 'standing ovation'--in which a 'significant minority' refused to join-- was somewhat forced and mercifully short, lasting a mere two minutes..
In subsequent sessions the conference even went on to defy their Leader by refusing to back shadow Chancellor Gordor Brown's notorious 'work-fare proposals, and by calling for the scrapping of Trident and the adoption of women-only short lists..
Trade union delegates were further incensed by Blair's talk of the 'hard choices'--involving possible further public spending cuts--which would face a Labour government, and by his conspicuous failure to emphasise or even mention the party's historic links with the Unions..
Against this background of growing disillusionment with comrade Blair it would be tempting to assume that the next Election will see a massive haemorrhage of trade union support in the direction of the SNP-- whose industrial and defence policies are clearly much more congenial from an STUC standpoint..
Regrettably, I fear I can make no such confident prediction, though if mere logic had anything to do with people's voting behaviour some such electoral upset might well be on the cards..
No doubt, as the Election looms, the appalling spectre of yet another Tory Government will be carefully resurrected by 'New Labour's' spin-doctors to ensure the loyalty of Old Labour voters..
But if this ruthless drive for power at all costs should ultimately succeed, the message from this latest 'Scottish' Labour conference is that trouble could be brewing for 'New Labour' in Old Labour's Scottish heartland--especially if 'Tone' is persuaded to ditch the proposed tax-raising powers of the devolved parliament in a nervous over-reaction to Forsyth's hypocritical 'tartan tax' jibes..
With Major meanwhile desperately striving at the recent Scottish Grand Committee meeting in Glasgow to improve his party's poll rating by hyping up his staunch defence of the Union, the constitutional issue is destined once again to rise to the top of the agenda. Our day will come.
Tha e Math a Nhith Bruidhinn - Alasdair MacCaluim
Tha e math a bhith bruidhinn a rèir Telecom B reatainn, ach dè an cànan a tha iad a' bruidhinn? Beurla chanainnsa! Is dòcha gum faca sibh na boc- saichean fòn ioma- chànanach ura a tha a' nochdadh air feadh na duthcha. Tha sgrin beag orra far a bheil stiuireadh ri fhaotainn ann am Fraingis, Spainnis, Gearmailtis, Eadailtis, Beurla agus Cuimris. Gu mi-fhortanach, chan eil sgeul air a' Ghàidhlig idir.
Ged a tha upraid air nochdadh mu dheidhinn seo, chan eil BT idir deònach Gàidhlig a chur anns na boc- saichean. Thòisich an str; seo an-uiridh nuair a thog BT dà bhocsa-fòn ur ann an Steòr- nabhagh. Mar a tha fios agaibh, tha Gàidhlig aig 70% de na daoine ann an Leodhas agus tha polasaidh dà chànanach aig Comhairle nan Eilean, an t-ughdarras ionadail. A dh'aindeoin seo, dhiult BT ronaichean a' gabhail a-steach Gàidhlig a chur anns an dà bhocsa. Tha an iomairt a-nis air fàs nas farsainge agus tha mòran dhaoine ag iarraidh Gàidhlig anns na bocsaichean ioma- chànanach air feadh na dùthcha.
Tha an argamaid aig BT mu àireamhean agus mu airgead. Tha BT ag ràdh nach eil iarr- tas ann airson na Gàidhlig. Ged a tha iad a' cleachdadh àireamhean mar leisgeul, chan eil na h-argamaidean aca buileach ceart agus tha mi cinnteach gu bheil adhbharan eile ann airson dithe na Gàidhlig. Gun teagamh, tha Cuimris aig 20% de na Cuimrich an taca ri 1.4% aig a bheil Gàidhlig ann an Alba ach carson a tha seo cudromach? Tha Cuimris anns na fònaichean Alban- nach ged nach bi fiu's 1.4% ga bruidhinn ann an Alba. Chan eil Cuimris fhèin ri fhaotainn (eadhon anns a' Chuimrigh) dìreach air sgàth's gu bheil i aig cha mhòr 1/5 de shluagh na Cuimrigh; tha i an làthair airson adhbharan cudro- mach eile.
Chan e àileamhn an luchd- labhairt an t-adhbhar as cudromaiche, 's e poileataigs. Tha Telecom Bhreatainn cho Breatannach 's a ghabhas agus chan eil uidh aca ann an Cuimris no Gàidhlig nas motha. Is fheàrr leotha airgead. Tha Cuimris nas fhortanaich na Gàidhlig oir tha inbhe oifigeil aice agus a choinn's gu bheil na Cuimrich nas deònaiche a bhith a' stri airson a' chànain aca, gu h- àraidh tro bhuidhnean mar Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Comann a' Chànan Chuimris).
Ged nach eil na boc- saichean fòn mèin air leth cudromach, tha an deasbad le BT air iomadh ceist cudromach a thogail. Ro thric bidh luchd na Gàidhlig a' smaoineachadh gum faigh sinn a h-uile rud a th'aig na Cuimrich uaireigin. Tha BT a' dearbhadh nach eil rudan cho simplidh sin. Tha feum againn air inbhe oifigeul air- son a dhèanamh cinnteach gum bi Gàidhlig ri fhaotinn anns na fònaichean, air an Telebhisean is Rèidio agus anns na sgoiltean, air feadh na h-Alba, mar chòir an àite mar thiodhlac sònraichte.
Ma tha sibh ag iarraidh Gàidhlig anns na boc- saichean BT, seo an sèoladh:
Mgr Eric Richardson,
Payphone Customer Services
Officer London, Home Counties & Scotland,
BT Payphones,
PPO5A32 Delta point,
35 Wellesely Road,
Croydon CR9 2YZ,
Sasainn.
Tha àireamh saor-fòn aige cuideachd: 0800 661610.
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