Issue 36

Looking ahead, we can hardly see 2014 as a bowl of cherries, but it’s going to be interesting. This week’s poll showing the electorate to be angry rather than apathetic is extremely cheering, and though Westminster politics seem settled in shades of grey, it may be that we are going to find new ways to express opinion.

In September comes the biggest decision that Scotland has faced since the Union in 1707. After little more than three centuries of shared identity with England, Wales and Northern Ireland, will we choose to be Scotland again? Some see it as an uncertain and worrying idea, but for many others, the possibility shines with potential. Already, Scotland is making an international mark as a country brilliantly endowed with the means of harnessing its boundless energy, both human and ecological, and the matters that are already devolved to Scotland, such as the Health Service, show a quiet superiority to their Westminster equivalent. There are many people who shrink from a step into the unknown, but equally, a solid body of support holds that we have nothing to lose and much to gain.

On Arran, there are certainties that transcend all political questions. We have a togetherness that is in no way sentimental but provides strength and friendship, laced with a dollop of irreverent humour - and behind all that lies the constant, daily joy of waking up in a place that is friendly, interesting and stunningly beautiful.

At the Voice, we’d like to thank all our readers, on Arran and in many other countries, for your interest all through 2013 and for telling other people about us. We have grown a lot over the last twelve months, through your support. We’d like to wish all of you a happy and interesting New Year. In the old toast, ‘Here’s tae us - wha’s like us? Damn few.’

Most people will know by now that Arran’s two choirs will be combining to form a single one from January onwards, and the final concert by the Rowan Singers before Christmas was a fitting climax to a long and distinguished career. Teamed with Arran Brass, the choir put on a truly festive performance, looking like a snowy landscape themselves in their white, twig-patterned jackets. Well-deserved thanks were given to Maureen Oakes, who started the choir and developed it over the years to its present accomplished standing.

Performing in the Community Theatre brought the advantage of the lovely Kawai grand piano, superbly played by Douglas Hamilton while Diana, the other half of this talented and generously hard-working pair, directed the singers. The essentially festive programme provided a feast of show-biz music, though the first half included a classical section starring two excellent soloists. Ruth McEnaney sang Mozart’s Laudate Dominum with soaring intensity and Lillian Smith brought a lyrica, choirboy-likel purity to Cesar Franck’s lovely Panis Angelicus.

Christmas music had its fitting place, and the audience joined readily in the traditional carols. Other familiar songs had a fresh twist - notably a witty take on the Twelve Days After Christmas, in which the singer is crossly dealing with the inconvenient poultry wished on her by a maladroit swain. Throughout the long programme, the choir sang with precision and were admirably responsive to their conductor, Diana Hamilton, whose inspired direction and interpretation shone through every number.

Arran Brass goes from strength to strength, and it is good to see so many young players in the band. One of the beauties of the brass band tradition is its inclusive, open ability to include beginner players at quite an early stage of their learning, gradually enabling them to expand technique and reading skills until they achieve expertise. Without flaunting any claims to be ‘educational’, it does a wonderful teaching job, working in a hands-on, practical way that leaves a warm mark on the life of any child or adult who is lucky enough to have known it. Dave Payn, who has built on the foundation laid down by Ian Cargill, has expanded the musicality of the band beyond belief. The Troika Prokofiev in particular was an absolute delight, and the combination of band and choir gave the whole evening a joyous festivity

PS - We at the Voice would also like to thank Dave for providing us with a witty and just-tough-enough crossword every month. If you are not already bewitched by it, print it off and settle down with it and a nice glass of something over New Year. A treat.

On Sunday, January 12th Corrie Film Club shows an engaging 1973 American film called Scarecrow. It’s about a couple of bums who meet on the road in California and agree to become partners in a car wash business once they reach Pittsburgh. They are an ill-assorted pair. One of them is a short-tempered ex-convict called Max Millan, played by Gene Hackman, and Al Pacino plays his unlikely partner, Lionel Delbuchi, known as ‘Lion’. An ex-sailor, Lion is an unsophisticated man, knowing very little about anything. He is on his way to Detroit to see the child he has never met and make amends with his wife Annie, to whom he has been sending all the money he made while at sea. Max has been sending all his money to a bank in Pittsburgh, saving up to open the carwash business.

They visit Max’s sister in Denver, where they get into trouble and land in a prison farm for a month. Max blames Lion for this, but takes Lion’s part when he is assaulted by another inmate. Slowly, the pair of them begin to have a regard for each other that endures through absurd episodes and moments of profound disaster. It’s a film that combines comedy, toughness and moments of genuine emotion. Well worth seeing.

As usual, the showing starts at 8.00 pm in Corrie Hall, free of charge though donations towards hall heating costs would be gratefully received.

It is near the bleak midwinter and although the Arran Open Studios (AOS) are now a sunny memory, the organisers are keeping busy and preparing for the 2014 event. Several meetings have been held since the 2013 event and another will be held on Thursday 23rd January at Ardshiel in Whiting Bay. All participating artists are warmly invited to attend and share their views on the organisation and contribute ideas about the ways forward.

Already decisions have been taken about registration. To facilitate a more timely production of the brochure, which in 2014 will take the form of a booklet, a call will be made to artists wishing to take part, to return both their intention and their submission by the end of February; the fees for 2014 remain unchanged at £50 - watch the press for details. New participants are warmly welcome to register. And for artists who feel they do not have a studio worthy of a visit but art-works worthy of being seen, there are initiatives afoot to help those people without studios suitable for visitors who still want to exhibit.

Discussions have been had about the Art Bus which all agree was not used to its best effect this year. The Art Bus continues to be both a great idea for AOS and a work in progress; ideas are being floated about how it might better work. Meetings have also touched on the possibility of linking with other open studio events across Scotland to share information and aid in the distribution of booklets and provide that vital publicity to draw people to the island for the AOS weekend.

Some people might not know that the open studios has its own dedicated webpage www.arranopenstudios.com and participating artists are reminded that they have a free space on the website. All they have to do is email Josephine Broekhuizen with short biographical notes and a few images of themselves and the work they produce. AOS also has its own Facebook page.

The AOS organisers are hoping to recruit some shops and hotels to display the odd artwork in the run-up to the event. By so doing the event is publicised by the community at large which in itself is benefitted by being part of the event. This co-operation has been particularly successful in the likes of the Pittenweem Arts Festival. OS organisers hope that Visit Arran might also wish to be more closely associated with the growing event.

Contact Ruth Mae on 820373 or by email at ruthmae.nagare@gmail.com or Josephine on 600287 or email her at tim.pomeroy@onetel.net for more details.

P.C. Tony Collins, one of the police helicopter crew who died in the tragic Glasgow crash, was mourned by over five hundred people at his funeral in Lamlash Cemetery. Jim Henderson who, like the relatives of Tony’s wife, lives in Lamlash, sends us his photo of the sad event.

A meeting held in Whiting Bay hall, kicked off with an explanation by Malcolm Whitmore of the general idea, and quickly expanded into more detailed debate. The overall plan to use the area of high land west of Whiting Bay for community purposes was not in question, but the precise nature of this use brought some firm opinions. Sandy McGovern felt that the idea of establishing a ‘historic’ small farm, hand-worked in the traditional way, was a good one, but said it would have to run as a business and be overseen by someone ultimately responsible for it. Without that commitment, there was a danger that the scheme would disintegrate into a fog of general good intentions. There was general agreement that the scheme held great potential educational value, and support for it continues to be strong.

Just before Christmas, David Taylor-Robinson and colleagues at the University of Liverpool wrote to the British Medical Journal, pointing out that hospital admissions directly related to malnutrition have doubled since 2008-09. They said the situation has ‘all the signs of a public health emergency.’ They are concerned about the government’s holding back of research into the effects of the rising cost of living and increasingly austere welfare reforms. Maybe we need a new Dickens of our time.

More than a thousand local authorities in the US have taken over the running of their own utilities. They argue that public control creates three vital benefits. Power supply is not run for the benefit of absentee shareholders. Communities are free to decide whether to invest in renewable energy. The electricity is cheaper, and any profit goes to the community.

The shift away from the grid in the US means fewer customers are left to cover the costs of maintaining the infrastructure, so charges for them are going up. Despite this, the U.S. Department of Energy approves of the new movement, recognising the inexorable change that is happening. Solar energy is dropping in price as oil supplies become more expensive. People with solar panels send in their meter readings and wait happily for the cheque while those with oil tanks pay more for every refill. A transformation is beginning. Scotland, for sure, should be looking at a shift to democratic control by local communities of their power supplies. Independence from the tyranny of the quarterly bill and its fat profits would be an excellent thing.

The silos and ‘ponds’ at the Cumbrian nuclear plant are filled with old equipment and highly toxic waste. Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) are not sure exactly what is in there and are reported by the Guardian as saying, ‘Record-keeping in the past was not what it should have been.’

NMP is a private consortium that has awarded itself £230m in dividends - but shortly before Christmas, it was set to face the public accounts committee, chaired by Margaret Hodge. Among other questions, NMP will be asked why it has had to repay £100,000 for expenses wrongly claimed. Hodge has already remarked that the consortium has been spending cash ‘like confetti’.

But never mind the financial jiggery-pokery. From Arran’s point of view, we have a vast, leaking, radioactive dustbin full of toxic muck not very far south of us. And the Gulf Stream flows northward, from Sellafield to Arran. Does this not give a certain urgency to our views on the preferred ways to produce power? By contrast, wind-generated energy is now providing 40% of Britain’s needs. It uses free fuel, and it poisons nobody.

As if the Sellafield question were not enough, Cumbria (along with Wales and much of the Midlands) is now scheduled as a major fracking area. Michael Fallon, the energy minister, said last week that the search for shale gas was ‘stepping up’. The assessment produced by the consultancy firm, Amec, warns that the billions of litres of polluted wastewater produced by fracking ‘could place a significant burden on existing wastewater treatment facilities.’ Amec admits that between 58 and 144 billion litres of water will be needed to frack the envisaged 4,000 wells, and there is serious doubt whether the existing aquifers can supply so much and still maintain clean water supplies to houses.

Cameron’s government is scattering bribe money in an effort to persuade communities to accept drilling in the areas where they live. It offers £100,000 to any authority that accepts fracking, followed by 1% of resulting revenues. That tiny percentage may yield over two million pounds per site. This, of course, blows open the whole proposition. Never mind energy. Never mind pollution. This is a money-maker, boys. To hell with the health of the nation - grab the cash and run.

Last month, Standard & Poor downgraded France’s credit rating. The reasons for this are interesting. France is less indebted than Britain and has consistently done better. The IMF even expects this advantage to widen a bit. So why the downgrade? Because, S&P says, France hasn’t carried out ‘reforms that will enhance its medium-term growth prospects.’

What exactly are these reforms? Good question. They are in fact a shift towards the free market. The IMF is ruffled because François Hollande is raising taxes on the wealthy while preserving France’s welfare state as best he can. That is a serious step out of line. Getting money from the rich rather than slashing the safety net goes against all ruling orthodoxy.

The downgrading of France makes it very clear that the austerity drive has never been about fiscal responsibility. Its main concern has been to ensure the continued use of international economics as a profit mechanism. M. Hollande has been an obstinate laggard in this respect, so he is getting a slap on the wrist. Zut, alors.

The French Constitutional Council has just agreed with the new socialist government that it’s totally legal to raise the very top income tax rates on very wealthy individuals and hugely profitable corporations to 50 percent. Can this set a precedent? Over Westminster’s dead body, we feel.

Feeling a bit after the party-ish? Here’s just the thing to cheer you up. On Saturday 18th January at 1.30pm, when you might have been doing a little gentle shopping in Brodick, the Bill Fleming will be playing in Brodick Hall. They are a terrific group who have made Scottish jazz popular all over the world, and their musical credentials are high by any standards.

Bill himself has held the baritone sax chair in the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra since 2005, and drummer Scott Mackay was a finalist in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year. Paul Tracey, guitar, graduated from Strathclyde University with a First Class Honours in Jazz Performance. Double bassist James Lindsay has toured extensively in the US and Australia as well as all over the UK.

Their repertoire is extensive, and they offer a vast range of music from the well-loved classics of Cole Porter and Duke Ellington, through blues and Latin numbers to bebop and contemporary jazz. You’ll have time to get home in daylight, and tickets at £10 include a programme and a cup of tea or coffee, and even a Lucky Number spot prize. Tickets are on sale at Inspirations in Brodick, online from Arran Events or at the door. A wonderful mid-winter cheer-up.

Holly Richmond, who writes on the US site called Grist, was hugely excited just before Christmas when she heard that Scotland will be using only clean energy fuel by 2020. Scotland, she pointed out to her readers, is only the size of Arizona, but it was using 24% renewable energy as early as 2010. Last year it was up to 40%. By 2015, it’ll be 5%, and then by 2020, it aims to be running on 100% wind, solar, wave, and hydro. Arizona only gets 9% of its power from renewables, despite all that sunshine.

What’s more, our fan goes on excitedly, ‘Scotland shuns fracking and nukes.’ (The Scottish government has no plans to build new nuclear plants.) Holly is thrilled. ‘The Scottish public is on board with the government’s plans. Scots don’t mind dams or solar panels or wind turbines. They deeply dislike nuclear reactors and want nothing to do with hydraulic fracturing.’

But, she adds, it rains a lot and it’s hard to find good Mexican food. Holly says she ‘writes and edits things for fun and money.’ We’d love to know how she does it, but never mind. She’s on hollyrichmond.com and Twitter, which she says is ‘the entire basis of her self-esteem.’ Perhaps she really should come to Scotland.

The Debt Advisory Centre Scotland says one in 20 people in Scotland has debts of more than £10,000. One in ten owe between £5,000 and £10,000. This doesn’t mean long-term repayments such as mortgages, but short-term borrowing that somehow can’t get paid back. It’s a terrible worry, and such a hard thing to share that it is almost always kept secret.

Ian Williams of Debt Advisory Centre Scotland says that anyone keeping a debt secret probably couldn’t afford whatever the money bought in the first place, but added, ‘If you’ve done it once, you’re likely to do it again.’ The resulting stress on relationships where finances are shared is massive.

Mr Williams advises that being honest about the debt is the first step, and the hardest one. Taking control of a sensible and manageable household budget is the next step, and there is help available.

Perhaps we all groan a bit over those sites that ask you to sign petitions, and wonder if they really do any good - but Change.org really does seem to work. It has just sent out an e-mail detailing some of this year’s successes, all of them by private individuals.

Climate activists forced EDF Energy to drop its lawsuit against them following a petition started by one of the campaigners’ parents that got 64,454 signatures.

The Bank of England agreed to put Jane Austen on its new £10 note after receiving a petition from Caroline Criado-Perez with 36,161 signatures.

15 year old Esha Marwaha was so indignant about a proposal to drop climate change from the curriculum that she started a petition. To her amazement, It got 31,225 signatures and did the trick.

When a 13 year old survivor of sex abuse was called ‘predatory’ by the judge hearing her case, she launched a petition calling on the Crown Prosecution Service to take action. She got 55,783 signatures, and in less than 48 hours the judge and barrister were both censured by the authorities.

On a smaller scale, Bolton Wanderers pulled out of a sponsorship deal with a payday ‘loan-shark’ lending firm called QuickQuid after receiving a petition with just 4,469 signatures. Not a lot, but enough. There are dozens more. In 2013, over 3.5 million people in the UK alone used Change.org to join and win campaigns.

Bear it in mind. As we head into 2014, there may well be things you want to see changed. Change.org is a useful tool.

It’s hard for fire-fighters to strike. Even the most justified grievance doesn’t stand up if the alarm bells ring and pagers bleep in pockets. Men and women rush to don helmets and protective gear and get out there to save lives and property wherever they are needed. But new proposals on pensions strike deep.

From April 2014, the obligatory pension contribution will rise for the third year in a row - and, worse, new insurance standards insist that men and women aged 55 or over must pass the same fitness test as 20 year olds, or face dismissal.

FBU General Secretary, Matt Wrack, described it as a ‘ludicrous pretence’ that the fitness standards can be the same, and insisted that experienced men and women continued to play a vital part. Despite that, at least two thirds of the current workforce will face either dismissal or a reduction in their pensions of almost half if they cannot achieve the fitness standards of 20-year-olds.

So strikes are planned for 12.30am on Wednesday 1 January and 6.30am and 8.30am on Friday 3 January. Very small strikes. And of course, if there is a fire, they’ll be there.

It all seems very unfair.

South to make six spades and West leads a diamond. Can you see how?

November and December may not customarily be seen as campaigning months. However, Yes Arran volunteers scored a ‘first’ in the weeks running up to Christmas - by hand-delivering campaign literature to virtually all of the island’s doors. The Arran geography makes this a hard task, but enthusiasm is high. With hostile mass media, the BBC acting like a soviet-era state mouthpiece, and the Arran Banner’s official embargo on any referendum news, the intention is to take the Yes message directly to the community. The leaflet on Scotland’s vast potential in Renewable Energy was therefore the first of a number of leaflet deliveries. If you want to help with future distributions (and many hands make light work) contact us at yesarran2014@aol.co.uk or via Yes Scotland Arran on Facebook.

The ‘Big Picture’ prize draw, featuring ‘Lochranza Sunset’ by Len Hartley as well as photographs by Nigel Walker, Jim McCrae, Jim Gourlay, and Anna Downard , was drawn at the Yes Arran St Andrews Night at the Douglas Hotel on 30th November. Winner of the first prize was Tommy Gilmore, of the Ormidale Hotel, and we can expect to see it on the Ormidale Bar wall shortly. Over 80 punters contributed nearly £600 to local campaign funds. Thanks are due to the prize donors and ticket-buyers alike.

Fundraising is important for us. Potential ‘No’ voters may be interested to know the company they are keeping, and specifically, where the ‘No’ campaign gets its funding. This link gives some idea - and much food for thought.

Hello Arran

I've visited Isle of Arran several times it's a very beautiful wee haven.

It seems that you have a fantastic history of Arran potato varieties thanks to Donald McKelvie yet I haven't seen them being promoted much? There are many Arran potato varieties from 1st earlies to lates for eating right through the growing season and the winter.

I'd love to see a campaign to grow cook and eat Arran varieties - people could be growing them in gardens, plots, small areas of garden and field. Hotels and restaurants could be using and promoting them on their menus.

Bring the Arran potato legacy to life.

Liz Murray

Arran’s Theatre and Arts Trust members were delighted to hear that their bid for the £100,000 Creative Places award had been short-listed - but then came another request, this time for a ten-minute film or video about the island and its activities.

Edward O’Donnelly, a professional film-maker with a distinguished track record, has since then been extremely busy, shooting footage of people playing music and composing it, singing, painting, turning wood, sculpting, spinning, weaving, dancing and pinning poetry on lamp posts - among much else. The film has to be in by January 20th so there has not been much time. Whether or not Arran hits the jackpot, this visual record of the island and its multiple artistic activities will be a splendid asset to its publicity and tourism and will provide great pleasure both to those who live here and to the vast Arran diaspora. The final result of the competition will be announced at the end of January, at a ceremony in Kilmarnock.