Issue 47

Today, if you are reading this on Monday, December 1st, the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee, of which Arran’s Kenneth Gibson MSP is Convener, will meet on Arran for the first time.

Mr Gibson explains: ‘Every year we examine the Scottish Government’s draft budget, which for 2015-16 totals over £30 billion. We look carefully at how the Scottish Government proposes to spend its money and what that spending is meant to achieve. As part of our scrutiny process we believe it is vital to hear from islanders, which is why we have invited local businesses and community groups along to take part in workshops with committee members in the morning.’

This is the first time the Finance Committee has met on Arran. Public workshops will take place at the High School in the morning and the formal committee with John Swinney begins at 1pm. Mr Gibson said, ‘If Voice for Arran readers would like to come along and hear more about how taxpayers’ money will be spent in Scotland, they should call the Parliament’s Visitor Services office on 0131 348 5200 or email sp.bookings@scottish.parliament.uk to book a seat’.

Further details are available on the Scottish Parliament’s website here.

On Sunday, December 14th, the club meets in Corrie Hall at 6.00 pm, earlier that usual so as to show the wonderfully funny and touching French/Belgian film, Ernest and Celestine, then break for supper and go on with Chimes at Midnight, ending with the now traditional showing of the classic silent comedy, Dinner for One.

Ernest is a suitably named bear, who takes life seriously. Celestine is a mouse, currently occupied as a dental student. She’s a smart little number, always two or three jumps ahead - but this film inhabits much more sophisticated territory than Tom and Jerry. She, like all the mice, lives underground, but chums up with unfortunate Ernest, who is trying to make a living as a street musician. Their friendship is such a taboo relationship that both find themselves rejected by their ‘proper’ worlds, and the authorities track them down and try to part them - uselessly, for they have fallen deeply in love.

Bring a contribution for supper if you want to stay on for the whole evening. Revived, we’ll watch Chimes at Midnight, a Shakespearian romp directed by and starring Orson Welles. Its UK release was titled: Falstaff, but it returned to the title of its Spanish release: Campanadas a medianoche. The film centres round Falstaff’s almost paternal relationship with Prince Hal, who must choose between loyalty to Falstaff or to his actual father, King Henry IV. With Welles himself as Falstaff, John Gielgud as Henry IV, Jeanne Moreau as Doll Tearsheet and Margaret Rutherford as Mistress Quickly, it’s a romp through the time of the classic stars, seldom glimpsed now. The script contains text from five of Shakespeare’s plays; and the narrator is none other than Ralph Richardson. Truly a plum pudding of a film, packed with nuggets of richness. To round the evening off, the silent comedy, Dinner For One sees a solitary diner waited on by his impeccably serious man-servant - who, however, has been rashly partaking of swigs from the brandy bottle. Watch out for - too late. He’s tripped over the tiger’s head rug yet again.

No charge for any of these delights, but contributions to running costs are welcome.

Sue Weaver from Kildonan is at the moment in mid-Atlantic with an all-female crew on the sailing ship Seadragon. They are there to take samples of the sea-water and analyse its contents and degree of pollution, but storms made it impossible to get the trawl net out until they were 780 miles from land. Sue writes:

Sadly, a lot of people were away and missed the splendid concert by the five young players of Total Brass. A detailed and meticulous ensemble, they played a dazzling variety of works, including a jazzy number that had their brilliant trumpeter parading down the centre of the hall. It is hardly surprising that this group won the coveted Tunnell Trust Award - they left their audience thrilled and excited, and regrets are still coming in from those who were off the island and missed it. If you see them advertised anywhere, buy a ticket and dive in at once! They are fabulous players.

On the afternoon of Sunday 7th December, the Arran Choir, together with Arran Brass, will be giving a Christmas concert in Brodick Hall. It starts at 2:00 pm, and there’s a glorious mixture of music planned, with some cheeky new interpretations mixed in with the time-honoured favourites.

The combined chorus, comprised of what used to be the Lochranza choir and the Rowan Singers, has been working throughout the autumn on this Christmas music, and the result should be a delight to everyone.

Click here to see the advert for this concert.

Alan Riach, Professor of Poetry at Glasgow University, was the guest of the Saltire Society on Wednesday, 19th November, at the Ormidale Pavilion. He gave a fluent lecture on Scotland’s poets, to the great interest of those present, many of whom play an active part in Arran’s poetry scene, and handed out samples of work by the classic writers such as Hugh McDiarmid and Iain Crichton Smith. He made particular mention, too, of the women who have brought a new dimension to Scottish poetry, and read work by Liz Lochhead and Kathleen Jamie. A very thought-provoking evening.

If anyone can revitalise the Labour Party in Scotland, it is probably Katy Clark, currently our Westminster MP, who is now looking to add her formidable talents to the Scottish political scene. She has no doubt that Labour’s flagging fortunes are due to its Blairite, blue-rinsed policies and is looking now to become its deputy leader. She pointed out that a poll released a fortnight ago showed that up to 37% of SNP voters could come back to Labour - but only, she said, “by abandoning New Labour for good.”

Katy’s colours are nailed firmly to the mast, and there is nothing blue about them. She will be campaigning for a Living Wage backed by the full force of the law, the decommissioning of Trident, permanent abolition of tuition fees and renationalisation of the railways . She also wants to see free childcare from the age of 12 months. Laying it on the line - and perhaps hinting at some difficult times behind her - Katy said, “Throughout my life I’ve always spoken up for Scotland and for real Labour values even when that’s meant disagreeing with the UK leadership of Labour. I’m not a political insider, nor do I want to be. The next Leader of Scottish Labour should be an MSP - that’s only right - but if we’re going to get real change and a fair deal for Scotland we need someone who won’t just accept the status quo in Westminster. I’ve never done that and I never will.”

www.katyclark.org.uk

An e-mail from Margaret McDougall MSP to a member of the Arran Greens follows up the question of whether ‘mineral access rights’ may allow gas drilling to take place underneath homes in Scotland. Sarah Boyack MSP has written to both Fergus Ewing MSP and Matthew Hancock MP regarding plans from the UK Government to allow fracking to take place underneath private houses without written permission.

Planning permission for ‘unconventional gas development’ rests with the Scottish planning authorities and ultimately with the Scottish government - but an anomaly over mineral access rights exists, and this needs to be clarified. Shadow Energy Minister Tom Greatrex MP has made a submission to the Smith Commission, and intends to submit amendments to the Infrastructure Bill this week calling for the question of fracking under Scottish homes to be devolved to the Scottish parliament.

On 2nd November, the Strathclyde Suite in the Glasgow Concert Hall was packed with 400 women of all ages, listening to Lesley Riddoch, Susan Stewart, Jeane Freeman and Natalie McGarry as they reflected on ways to move forward after the Independence debate. They discussed the importance of broadcast and print media, and Philippa Whitford spoke passionately about our NHS and about the alarming implications of TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Anyone keen to be kept informed and receive regular newsletters and updates should sign up here.

A meeting in Troon Town Hall on 23rd November was chaired by Kate Higgins (of the Burdz Eye View blog) and there was lots of open mic discussion from the 200 participants. Jean Freeman encouraged us all to be ‘active, energetic and organised’, backing campaigns from that range from fracking to TTIP and from foodbanks to Trident. It was pointed out that we still live in a Scotland where one child in five is growing up in poverty. We still have the lowest old age pension in Europe, and the growing privatisation of care is a major concern. Scotland must make its voice heard, and women have to be at the forefront of the movement for change.

The Margaret Cuthbert workshop on Economics on 17th January is sold out, but you can put your name on the waiting list here. If you are interested in media training and help with campaigning and canvassing skills, help is available. Contact Anne Bruce, Margaret Gray or see our Facebook page.

Starbucks doesn’t think its customers have the right to know what’s in their coffee. People in the small state of Vermont disagree - they want to know if Starbucks coffee (or anything else) is made from genetically modified (GM) ingredients, so they have asked for labelling that makes this clear. It seems a harmless request, but it has set Starbuckian nerves trembling, and they have teamed up with the chemical giant Monsanto to sue Vermont and prevent them from finding the truth.

Sumofus is running a petition aiming to induce Starbucks to withdraw its support for the lawsuit. Click on the blue paragraph to support them, bearing in mind that Starbucks is with us here in Scotland.

Sign the petition to tell Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee to withdraw their support for the lawsuit against Vermont, and stop fighting accurate food labeling.

From December 5th, the permitted blood alcohol limit will be more strict, dropping from 80mg in every 100ml of blood to 50mg in every 100ml of blood. This brings the UK into line with most of Europe.

Arran’s MSP Kenneth Gibson said: ‘This is about changing people’s behaviour. All the evidence from countries such as Ireland show that a lower limit reduces the number of convictions, as more people get the message that you should never drink and drive.’ He added that the current legal limit of alcohol in the blood is six times more likely to result in a fatal accident than it will be at the new lower level. While agreeing that there has been a huge decline in drink-related road deaths since drinking and driving have become socially unacceptable, he points out that ‘around one in 10 deaths on our roads still involve drivers over the legal limit,’ and adds, ‘This new order will reduce fatalities and injuries even further.’

South to make three hearts. West leads the ♥10.

Jan McGregor writes about her recent trip, organised by Traidcraft.

These tours are organised by Saddle Skedaddle in partnership with Traidcraft, and take you to meet the people producing fair trade products in the developing world. I have previously been to India and Peru, but this time it was Ghana.

I was in Ghana for 12 days and visited several projects as well as seeing some sights including the Independence Arch (Ghana was the first African country to gain independence in 1957) and the castle where 50 million slaves were held before being shipped to the West Indies.

We visited

• Serendipalm, where palm oil is grown and processed.
• Kuapa Kokoo where the cocoa beans that are used to make Divine Chocolate are grown.
• New Koforidua , Africa’s first Fair Trade town.
• VREL (Volta River Estates Ltd) where the first Fair trade Bananas sold in the UK are grown.

The Serendipalm company works with more than 300 small farmers who enjoy a higher than market rate for their fresh fruit bunches from which the palm oil is extracted, better working conditions as well as a small premium. They often used this premium to plant other crops on their farms for their own consumption. Palm Oil trees originated in West Africa, so there is not the devastating effect on the rain forest, as seen in the Far East.

Jim Henderson continues his account of a summer trip

The hotel in Barra is a refurbished church building, and one of the customers enjoying a meal was the parish priest who featured in the TV programme about Barra and Vatersay. The island's airport is a hut on the cockleshell beach at Eoligarry, where we waited to see the arrival of the noon flight. The little aeroplane came over the hill and dipped towards us then landed neatly beside the hut - but flight times have to suit the tides, as there are often times when the beach is under water.

The link road to Vatersay passes the scene where an aircraft crashed . Parts of the fuselage were left in memory of the crew who perished. Vatersay used to be a separate island, but a causeway was built in 1990, to help its tiny population survive. Despite this, it is a desolate place, with many white sand dunes and beautiful beaches. The ruins of several old houses stand there, an indication of how impossible life must have been in a tiny place, cut off from Barra by a stretch of sea that, though short, would not have been navigable in the winter storms.

A cheerful group of women (and some men, too) met in the High School last Friday with the redoubtable Philippa Whitford, who doubles her NHS job as a surgeon with constant campaigning. Her passion for the new Scotland that is emerging from the referendum is infectious, and her vision is clear and logical. By the end of the evening, we were in deep conversation rather than being speaker and audience, and ideas were buzzing about. There is a lot of excitement about the National (the new newspaper that has just started up) and despite the defeat of the Yes vote for independence, it’s very evident that the idea is still alive and kicking. In sharp contrast to the meeting held in May, when Philippa addressed an audience of conflicted opinion, this Friday meeting was energetic, amicable and entirely practical.

Lucy Cartledge writes the first part of an account of her Indian journey

Behind closed doors, the corporate power-grab known as TTIP is being negotiated. The Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership could mean further privatisation of our NHS in Scotland, and the privatisation of other public services. It would also give big US corporations the power to sue national governments.

Can you sign the petition to Nicola Sturgeon? Click here to add your name.

We received a press release from the National Trust for Scotland early last month, which we reproduce here verbatim. Whilst it is sad to lose a favourite animal, it does seem strange that it took the staff at Culzean two years to notice!

Culzean’s most pictured deer dies at 21

One of the most popular (and pictured) deer at the National Trust for Scotland’s Culzean Castle and Country Park has died at the ripe old age of 21.

Suzie was born into the herd at the Ayrshire estate in June 1991 and had to be hand reared after being rejected by her mother. Head Forrester Ian Cornelius took on the onerous task, beginning a friendship that would last decades.

Ian remembers the early days well. He said:

“Suzie particularly enjoyed going out walks with the dogs and followed along faithfully building her muscles up and romping around in the garden. We took to walking dogs, cats (they came of their own volition) and deer in the woods and we made a strange sight indeed.” At six months old, Suzie was introduced into the twenty-five strong herd of red deer which have been kept at Culzean for decades.

She quickly became a firm favourite with visitors, allowing people to pet her and feed her favourite treats of apples and pears. She happily posed with visitors and was much photographed - there are pictures of her all over the world.

Suzie died peacefully earlier this month at the astonishing age of 21. She has been buried on the estate where she spent her entire life. Her two offspring Sandie and Suki are still part of the herd at Culzean.