Issue 71

A number of people have commented on how much they would value the opportunity to choose a green, or woodland, burial on Arran. The Voice would support such a proposal, and we would like readers to email us with your views on this idea, so that we can estimate the level of support.

The name alone should attract the interest of Arran’s music lovers. This recently formed quartet, who will be performing in Brodick Hall on Saturday, 18th February, consists of four of Scotland’s sensational young string players, graduates of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Glasgow), Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester) and Royal College of Music (London).

They are: Ben Norris and Katrina Lee on violin, Liam Brolly on viola and Alice Allen on cello. All of them also play with distinguished groups such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Opera. They are passionate about attracting audiences who might not normally approach a classical concert and each have their own broad musical tastes outside the classical genre.

And their name? They hail from different parts of Scotland (and one from Yorkshire), but they are all agreed that they have a special love for Arran, having spent time here on trips from family holidays to hillwalking and geology expeditions. With such fond memories, they all agreed on the name “Brodick Quartet”. They can’t wait to see the island again, and say: “It would be fantastic to build a relationship with the Arran community over the years to come”. Their programme on the 18th includes music by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Webern. Apart from their enthusiasm for Arran, there are plenty of good musical reasons to come and hear these first class young musicians.

The concert starts at 7.30, the seating will be in café style, and you can bring a bottle if you like. Tickets will be available on the door on the night, in advance from Inspirations of Arran in Brodick, or online from www.arranevents.com.

According to a report in the Guardian, salmon prices are set to soar further in 2017 as salmon farmers from Scotland to Norway and Chile try to tackle parasite problems.

You may never have heard of Lepeophtheirus salmonis, and you’re unlikely to have spotted one, because they are usually less than 1.5cm long, but the humble sea louse is creating waves that are about to wash on to your dinner plate.

Nicola Sturgeon has challenged voters in Scotland to decide whether they are content to have the country’s fate decided by rightwing Tories in London or vote for independence.

The first minister again raised the prospect of a snap referendum on independence after the UK Supreme Court unanimously rejected her argument that Holyrood had to be consulted about triggering article 50.

In an angry attack on the UK government’s approach to Scotland’s pro-EU stance, Sturgeon said the ruling meant all Westminster assurances that Scotland was an equal partner in the union were worthless.

“This raises fundamental issues above and beyond that of EU membership. Is Scotland content for our future to be dictated by an increasingly right-wing Westminster government with just one MP here, or is it better that we take our future into our own hands?” she said.

The rise of the machines isn’t the biggest threat to humanity. It is climate change, extreme weather and other environmental factors.

The World Economic Forum surveyed 750 experts on what the most likely and impactful risks facing humanity are in 2017. In a report released last month, they ranked extreme weather as the most likely risk and the second-most impactful, trailing only the use of weapons of mass destruction. Climate change is responsible for driving an increase in the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather events, notably heat waves.

Failing to adapt to or mitigate climate change and a host of other climate-connected risks including water and food crises and involuntary migration also rank in the top 10.

Corrie Film Club has two events this month:

Saturday 4th February - A Day in the Dark - Corrie’s Very Own (Free) Film Festival

Binge all day on classic films, or just pop in for as long as suits you!

• Scottish shorts at 10.30
• Coffee at 11.00
• The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor) - 1940 romantic comedy with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, from 11.15 - 1.15
• Lunch at 1.15
• Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock) - 1940 thriller-mystery with Joan Fontaine and Lawrence Olivier, from 2.00 - 4.00
• Tea and cake at 4.00
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks) - 1953 musical with Marilyn Monroe, from 4.15 - 5.45
• Supper at 5.45
• Dr Zhivago (David Lean) - 1965 epic drama with Alec Guinness and Rita Tushingham, from 7.00 - 10.00

All day Saturday 4th February in Corrie Hall from 10.30 a.m. with coffee, soup lunch, tea and cake, and supper.

The Scottish Greens have secured agreement from the Scottish Government that a Glasgow scheme to reduce child poverty will be rolled-out across Scotland.

The Healthier Wealthier Children project in Glasgow has helped vulnerable families gain an average of over £1,000, with some families gaining as much as £3,400. Rolling this scheme out across Scotland was in the Scottish Green manifesto. There are more than 5,000 financially vulnerable families across the country, who could gain more than £2.3m.

Selected by David Underdown who also writes the commentary.

COAST staff and volunteers have been hard at work clearing undergrowth from around the Lamlash tennis courts, prior to work beginning on the new Marine Discovery Centre.

On Friday 20th January there was a Celebration Event at the tennis pavilion. All were welcome for tea, coffee and cakes, and to hear about the plans and to share ideas. A goodly crowd heard Andrew and Manuela describe the proposed development and discussed a variety of ways of raising funds and providing practical help.

Later in January, on Sunday 29th, there was a volunteer work party with work both outside on the tennis courts and inside the old pavilion. The work outside involved clearing scrub, cutting back hedges and removing old fencing. Inside the pavilion a lot of effort has gone into removing old, damaged plaster from the walls and clearing out old fiittings from the changing rooms.

The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt. Vintage paperback.

I was listening to The Book Programme on Radio 4 recently when I heard Terry Waite say that the most treasured book on his shelves was The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt. I was aware of Judt as a historian of twentieth century Europe but this book sounded rather different from his other writings. The jacket blurb describes it thus:

“In 2008, historian Tony Judt learnt that he was suffering from a disease that would eventually trap his extraordinary mind in a declining and immobile body. At night, sleepless in his motionless state, he revisited the past in an effort to keep himself sane, and his dictated essays form a memoir unlike any you have read before.

Each one charts some experience or remembrance of the past through the sieve of Tony Judt's prodigious mind. His youthful love of a particular London bus route evolves into a reflection on public civility and interwar urban planning. Memories of the 1968 student riots of Paris meander through the sexual politics of Europe, a series of roadtrips across America lead not just to an appreciation of American history, but to an eventual acquisition of citizenship.

And everything is as simply and beautifully arranged as a Swiss chalet - a reassuring refuge deep in the mountains of memory.”

From Patricia Gibson MP

As we begin 2017, many of us will be breathing a collective sigh of relief that one of the most turbulent and challenging years of recent times has finally ended.

What is clear is that Scotland must continue to be the outward looking, modern, hopeful country it has always been. If there was too much fear in 2016, it is time to shape our future with hope. These hopes, naturally, rest on the younger generations and how we can build a better world, a better Scotland, for them.

Our First Minister pledged both before and after the Scottish Parliament elections last May, that creating better opportunities for children and young people would be the key priority of her government. To that end, 2017 will see that commitment pursued with determination.

From next summer, all children born in Scotland will receive a Baby Box – a gift with lots of useful items for parents of new-born babies – from body suits and beanie hats to thermometers, reusable nappies and baby books. The Box itself doubles as a sleeping space and comes complete with a mattress and bedding. Other countries, such as Sweden, have provided similar Boxes for many years, to help achieve one of the best records for infant and maternal health. The Baby Box will make a real and tangible difference to babies’ lives.

Baby Boxes symbolise the SNP Government’s commitment to ensuring that every single child in Scotland gets the best possible start in life. By the end of the current Scottish Parliamentary term, all three and four year old children and around a quarter of two year olds, will be eligible for 1,140 hours each year of free early learning and childcare – almost double the current levels of provision. The babies born in 2017 will be amongst the first to benefit from that expansion.

There will also be a £750m investment over this Scottish Parliamentary term in School Attainment Funds. The aim is to improve educational outcomes for all children while closing the gap in attainment between children in more challenging socio-economic circumstances and those in more affluent communities. In North Ayrshire we see this commitment in action with the SNP Government funding of the Professional Learning Academy which I was delighted to attend with Depute First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education, John Swinney MSP, at Auchenharvie Academy, Stevenston.

And for young people leaving school, it is also important that they continue to benefit from free higher education and have opportunities to pursue modern apprenticeships, college places and fulfilling employment.

2017 will see ongoing local challenges in North Ayrshire & Arran such as ensuring that the Ardrossan to Brodick Ferry is retained; that the fight for women born in the 1950s – 4,800 in this constituency alone – goes on until the UK Government does the right thing and gives these women access to the pensions they have earned.

I am delighted that in the spring my Ten Minute Rule Bill entitled ‘Unsolicited Marketing Communications (Company Directors) Bill’ will be adopted by the UK Government, ensuring managing directors will be held personally liable for any unscrupulous behaviour that their company participates in with respect to nuisance calls, which will help to improve the situation for thousands of people across the country who are blighted by this problem.

I wish all readers a very happy New Year and you may be sure that I and my SNP colleagues will continue to provide a voice for Scotland in Westminster. There is no doubt that 2017 will bring a whole new set of challenges. We are ready to face them.

Community projects in Arran are invited to enter an awards programme which could see them share a funding boost of £75,000 to make a real difference in their local area. Now in their fifth year, the Clydesdale Bank Spirit of the Community Awards 2017 is open for applications.

Clydesdale Bank will make donations to recognise and support community projects which are going the extra mile. Registered charities and not for profit organisations are invited to enter their projects into the awards scheme under one of three categories: projects which help people to have a healthy  relationship with money, projects which help people to improve their local environment and projects which help people into employment.

The awards are open to a range of initiatives across the third sector which can demonstrate support for the local community. This could include projects helping to upskill people for the workplace, ventures promoting healthy relationships with money, or schemes aiming to protect the environment. Five projects will be selected in each of the three categories and all 15 winners will be awarded £5,000 each.

Debbie Crosbie, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks Chief Operating Officer and Chair of the Yorkshire and Clydesdale Bank Foundation, said: “Clydesdale Bank’s Spirit of the Community Awards aim to recognise and support the vital contribution that voluntary and charitable projects make to their local communities. “There has been so much fantastic work carried out across hundreds of organisations who provide such vital resources for local communities over the past four years. It is hugely inspiring to see just how much of a difference these awards have made at grass roots level.”

For further information about the Clydesdale Bank Foundation’s Spirit of the Community Awards or to enter, people can visit www.cbonline.co.uk/foundation or go into their local Clydesdale Bank branch to receive an application form. The closing date for applications is Monday 6 March 2017 and the winners will be announced in summer 2017.

from John Kinsman

Memorial Service for sub crew

The crew of a submarine that sank one hundred years ago is to be honoured in a memorial service. HMS K13 sank in the Gare Loch, Argyll, during her sea trails. 32 submariners drowned after water flooded the engine room on January 29th, 1917.

A new report has found that tourists spend £8.2 million in Dumfries and Galloway after travelling to see Red Kites, according to Birdguides.com.

These raptor species was reintroduced to an area north of Castle Douglas from 2001 and two years later the Galloway Kite Trail — a self-guided tour circling Loch Ken — was launched as a partnership project led by RSPB Scotland.

An economic survey carried out by the conservation organisation found that between 2004 and 2015 the trail attracted more than 100,000 visitors to the area and that £8.2m of spending was directly attributable to people who came to the region to see Red Kites. On average, the trail also supported the equivalent of 19 full-time jobs each year; that figure rose to 21 in 2015.

Calum Murray, RSPB Scotland Community Liaison Officer, said: "The re-introduction of Red Kite has been a massive conservation success story and we now have over 100 pairs breeding in Dumfries and Galloway, but this survey clearly demonstrates how nature can bring economic benefits to areas as well.

"Tourists are visiting the Galloway Kite Trail from all over the UK and many are coming here especially to see our amazing Red Kites. The report also shows the fantastic support that is being given to the trail by local businesses and many of our visitors are now making repeat trips."

THE GREEN MEP running for the new president of the European Union parliament has called for Scotland’s voice to “be heard” in the upcoming negotiations on the UK’s expected exit from the EU.

Jean Lambert, an English MEP for London, said that “those voices should be heard” from pro-European nations like Scotland and Northern Ireland during future talks.

Lambert is the nominee from the Green-European Free Alliance, one of eight major groups in the parliament.

Giving a briefing to European media in Brussels, Lambert told CommonSpace: “I think within the parliament we are very keen that those voices should be heard - that we find a way of doing that within the process that we’ll be using within the European Parliament. It obviously has implications for cross border working, free movement rights, questions about borders in general. Certainly the questions for Ireland - north and south - have to be there and heard.

“I know that the current person fronting the Brexit process for us, Guy Verhofstadt, has also had meetings with the Scottish administration, representation from Northern Ireland, and Ireland is in the European Union anyway. “I think it’s important that they are heard within this.”

The Green-EFA group have been consistent in supporting Scotland’s right to remain in the European Union following every area of the nation voting remain last June. The European Greens held its major conference in Glasgow late last year, in a show of solidarity to Scotland’s democratic vote to remain in the EU.

Lambert is the second of the main candidates to express support for the Scottish Government’s aim of being involved in the negotiations, and seeking its own position in relation to the EU institutions.

Guy Verhofstadt MEP, the former Belgian prime minister, official parliament negotiator for Brexit and candidate for the liberal group, has already met with Scottish Government ministers twice - and said Scotland should remain in the EU.

Argyll College UHI in Lamlash is now offering a part-time horticulture course which will commence on Monday 6th February. The college, which already provides access to a wide range of further and higher education courses in the dedicated Arran campus, is working closely with the Community Land Initiative in Whiting Bay and Brodick Castle Gardens to offer the part-time NPA Rural Skills course.

The NPA is a part-time course which will take place every Monday for 15 weeks and consists of the following three core units:

• Horticulture Skills
• Soft Landscaping – general plantings
• Rural Business Investigation

This course will be highly practical in nature and will appeal to anyone with a keen interest in horticulture and/or gardening. The knowledge and skills which are taught during the course will be a benefit to a wide range of people from amateur gardeners to those wishing to develop a possible career in this field.

Full course information can be accessed at the Argyll College website.

If you think you may be interested in applying or if you would like any further information on other courses available at the Arran centre please don’t hesitate to contact the centre staff on 01770 600152 or email Judi Worthington.

from Geoffrey Botterill

John Inglis calls for radical change in the world economic order (see previous Voice) and tells us that he voted for Brexit because of a democratic deficit in the EU. In doing so,  he helped usher into power an unelected Prime Minister, who has fought  to sidestep Parliament like a medieval monarch, and who failed to immediately condemn the kind of attacks on our independent judiciary previously emanating only from corrupt dictatorships. Not, I would have thought, a great step forward for democracy. Since then, we have heard the threat to turn the UK into a tax haven if the other 27 countries of the EU fail to bow to May's demands. Not, I would have thought, a great leap forward in changing the world economic order. The answer to John's question about what is to happen next, is for those who, like him, voted out of conviction, but have now been shown to have been deceived, to concede that they made a terrible mistake and join the "Remoaners" in the fight against this nasty and destructive tide.