26th Aug '20

Some years back, Alastair McIntosh gave a memorable keynote address to a gathering of Scotland’s community sector held in the main chamber of the Scottish Parliament (still not quite sure how we got permission to use the Parliament as the feat has proved impossible to repeat). He’s a man of many talents not least of which is his writing as an environmental activist. His most recent book was commissioned to coincide with the big climate conference – COP26 – now delayed by the pandemic until next November. What could have been a publishing setback became neatly woven into the narrative.

Given our histories, it’s perhaps not entirely surprising that Scotland and England have pursued different paths on land reform but the differences are stark nonetheless. George Monbiot paints a very grim picture of landed privilege in England with little obvious appetite for reforms any time soon. But change can happen surprisingly quickly. Who would have thought, 20 years ago, that Scotland’s landowners would be presented with these latest protocols from Scottish Land Commission which clearly set out new expectations as to how ownership of land should be diversified and transferred into community ownership? 

Scotland’s lobbying laws passed in 2016, came into force two years later and now serious concerns are being voiced by civic groups that the existing rules are way too lax and out of step with other western democracies. Access to Ministers is supposed to be recorded but many loopholes exist – for instance Zoom calls don’t have to be registered. The Covid crisis has thrown up some revealing evidence of how hard the lobbyists have been working behind the scenes to promote their clients’ interests – with apparent shifts in Scottish Government policy that contradict many of its public pronouncements.

If we’re ever to make a positive difference in terms of improving a community’s well being we need to understand how the multiple indicators of wellbeing interact and impact on one another. Understanding Glasgow is based on the idea that there are twelve such indicators – each of which needs to be in good shape if the city as a whole is to be viable. These principles can be applied from the smallest family unit up to a whole country and even more widely. The indicators for Understanding Glasgow have been incorporated into a model for Understanding Scotland. A word of warning – it’s complicated.