Recently I went to hear Lesley Riddoch speak in Stonehaven. She was promoting her new book “Blossom”. The meeting was promoted by the local YES campaign though the main thrust of Ms Riddoch’s talk was social rather than political.
Comparing social norms in the Nordic countries and Scotland Ms Riddoch makes a persuasive case as to the simple abnormality of social relations in Scotland as compared to countries in similar latitudes.
Highlighting the differences between thriving Hammerfest in Norway and depressed Wick in Scotland, Ms Riddoch makes the point well that communities in the Nordic countries have access to their local resources of land, water and environment. Access which is utterly and pointedly forbidden to communities in Scotland.
Developers of tidal power technology in Norway were able to get access to their local tidal stream without having to pay exorbitant rents to the Crown Estate. Communities in Norway have access to land for recreation and hutting in ways that are unimaginable in Scotland.
Scotland has the greatest concentration of land ownership in Europe. Less than 1000 people own 60% of Scotland. In a country with a population of 5.2 million that is a staggering statistic. The UN regularly refuses aid to countries where the concentration of ownership is far less than Scotland’s unless they introduce land reforms.
For years I thought that the question of land reform was of no consequence. Now after reading Andy Wightman's last book "The Poor Had No Lawyers" and listening Ms Riddoch I find myself seeing that land (specifically the ownership, control of and access to it) comprises one of the biggest stumbling blocks to community development everywhere in Scotland.
Not just rural communities either. Urban communities are blighted by the high price of land and the difficulty of access to it. Community spaces both rural and urban are at the whim of developers and landlords. Use of land is denied to the very people who need it so much.
Space that communities could use to build new enterprises and sustainable projects for recreation and improved quality of life is denied to them. Denied because they cannot afford the “commercial” rent demanded by even the supposedly local governments that they elected.
Local government of course that is not local and doesn’t govern. Another of Ms Riddoch’s observations is that Scotland is a freak in terms of the size of its units of local government.
We have 32 local authorities. If we were on the median size of local authority in these latitudes we should have more than 500. That is the scale of the problem.
Our local government is also not government. It scarcely has any power at all. Central government in Westminster or Holyrood controls just about everything through the council tax freeze. Our local “government” is simply a service provider.
We have no say over what services we get. We may be “consulted” from time to time on the fine detail of how they are provided but by and large nothing in the way of meaningful participation will allow us to make a change.
This brings about a great democratic deficit. One in 80-odd people in Norway will stand for election at some point. In Scotland, that figure is less than one in more than 2,000.
It s clear that people in Scotland don’t have much faith in their institutions of government. This is reflected in overall extremely low voter turnout. 38% turnout at the last general election is trumpeted as a great result compared with the 30% in England & Wales.
Compare this with the Nordic countries which regularly have turnouts in the region of 70%.
It is also worth noting that membership of a political party (of any flavour) is a total aberration in Scotland. More people suffer from Schizophrenia in Scotland than are members of a political party.
People have learned to be hopeless. That their opinion doesn’t matter, that decisions are made about them without them, that they shouldn’t get above themselves.
Yet our abnormal normality is accepted and certainly goes unchallenged from a media which is owned many miles away from where it is read or broadcast. You will not read anything in the mainstream media which will challenge the status quo. You will be kept in a state of ignorance.
More than any other in Europe, the UK is an unequal country. Scotland within that “UK” even more so. Our resources are used for the benefit of the rich. The country is run to make the rich richer.
That can only happen by making the poor poorer. Contrary to what they would have you believe, the rich don’t make anything. They steal from the labour of those who DO make things. They steal from those who toil and labour long and hard to make ends meet.
In the meantime change is needed. One fifth of our bairns live in poverty. Thousands of families eat from food banks. Elderly people freeze to death in an oil-rich country because they can’t afford to heat their home.
We’re better together? Aye, right.
Comments
Post a Comment