Author: Megan MacInnes

As part of the ‘Scotland’s Land & Economy’ series exploring the fundamental role of land in achieving Scotland’s post-pandemic recovery and renewal, Scottish Land Commissioner Megan MacInnes explores the relationship between land reform and the delivery of our broader human rights, health and place-based ambitions.

An earlier blog in this series by our Chief Executive Hamish Trench and Dr Katherine Trebeck from the Wellbeing Economy Alliance outlined the influence our systems of land ownership and use have on our collective wellbeing. “The pattern of ownership and access to use of land” they wrote, “sets conditions that determine the distribution of wealth, decision making and everyday wellbeing that flow through many parts of our lives”. In delivering these changes to our underlying structures of power and value, land reform reflects much bigger societal changes underway in Scotland in terms of the relationship between our rights as individual citizens and our civic responsibilities.

The balance between rights and responsibilities has been enshrined in international law since 1948 and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Until recently, Scotland was unique, in terms of the human rights framework holding back rather than promoting land reform. This was due to an interpretation by some of the rights to privacy and property (in the European Convention of Human Rights) as being untouchable. But they are not and through the Community Empowerment Act of 2015 and the Land Reform Act of 2016, our Parliament has gained the confidence to balance these rights with the wider public interest, in particular what’s known as ‘economic, social and cultural rights’. This rebalancing and how it relates to land reform is most clearly outlined in the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement which has been supplemented by our own practical steps to help all types of landowners integrate this policy into their everyday operations.

But why does this change of approach to human rights matter? Firstly, privacy and property rights are no longer perceived to be a barrier to land reform. Secondly, it brings Scotland in line with the rest of the world in recognising that human rights can be a springboard for progressing land reform and that land reform itself can help fulfil our human rights obligations. Although human rights conversations can often be quite abstract, I think this has hugely important practical implications on the ground. For example, addressing inequality through tackling the blight of vacant and derelict land on some of our most disadvantaged communities, addressing imbalances of power through tackling concentrated monopoly land ownership, and addressing unfairness through removing land as a barrier to the provision of affordable housing.

Furthermore, research suggests that it’s not just the use, but the ownership model of land that is important for delivering these ambitions. In “Built-In Resilience,” Community Land Scotland and Community Woodlands Association highlight how community owners of land and assets were at the vanguard of the immediate response to the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering services that enabled everyone to ‘stay at home’ but still ensured those most vulnerable had access to food, medicine, money and human contact. Meanwhile research by Dr Bobby Macaulay at Glasgow Caledonian University broadens our understanding of the impact of land reform even further by investigating the connections between community land ownership and rural health.

From my perspective, lockdown and the restrictions we still face have brought even closer to home the importance of our local area, environment, and community. Whether it is the importance of green spaces in cities, the value of access rights in rural areas, or the benefit of local food growing, we have a greater appreciation of the best and the worst of our own ‘place’.

We are not the only country recognising these connections; the role of land reform in our recovery and renewal is an international conversation. There is a global focus on the need to improve resilience at every level of society; to shore up our ability to handle future pandemics and our response to the climate emergency. It is recognised that the communities best placed to be resilient are those with control; including control over the land and assets they depend on, control over decisions that will affect them, and fundamentally control over their own future. Control to determine their own place in this complex world.

Enabling this to happen is no mean feat. Although most communities in Scotland don’t face the fundamental challenges to their land tenure security experienced in other countries, a lot is still needed to be done in fragile areas like mine to help strengthen resilience. Part of the picture is communities having the confidence, time, and capacity to organise, and an equal part is about policies and support being accessible and barriers to local control being removed. And this, for me, is why the rebalancing of property and privacy rights with wider human rights is so important and why the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement rightly forms the fundamental basis of the Land Commission’s work.

Author: BBC

Author: Dave Watson

To read the full paper published by Jimmy Reid Foundation – click here

Executive Summary

• The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of strong communities, supporting and looking out for each other. This paper looks at how communities of place have been undermined by austerity and make the case for a comprehensive programme to rebuild communities as the building block of a more equal, democratic, healthier and sustainable society.
• Most of us have a vague notion of what we mean by our community. It is usually recognised as a community of place – our village, town or part of a city. There are also communities of interest or identity which join us by our hobbies, work, religion and other interests, which often have no territorial relationship. Communities demand a sense of shared obligation and commitment, something both emotional and practical.
• Austerity has undermined many of the local institutions that bind our communities together. Cuts to our libraries, community learning, youth work, day centres and grants to voluntary organisations have all contributed to a weakening of local communities. These cuts impact adversely and more acutely on the most disadvantaged individuals, communities and groups.
• A key concept in this paper is that of social infrastructure. The Scottish Government reports on a related concept, ‘social capital’. Social infrastructure relates to the physical conditions that determine whether personal relationships can flourish. When social infrastructure is robust, it fosters contact, mutual support, and collaboration among friends and neighbours. When degraded, it inhibits social activity, leaving families and individuals to fend for themselves. We look at a wide range of initiatives that can strengthen social infrastructure including, good housing, libraries, leisure facilities, voluntary organisations, community ownership and the role of planning.
• Communication technologies and social media, in particular, can strengthen and weaken social infrastructure. At its worse, it creates insular ‘echo chambers’. At its best, it directs us to physical spaces that everyone can access and enables ‘Groupsourcing’ fast responses to local need. This also depends on connectivity which can be limited and unequal in many communities.
• The governance of public services in Scotland is one of the most centralised in Europe. We make the case for national government to focus on setting frameworks, leaving the delivery of services to local democratic control. Local integrated services should be based around community hubs in recognisable communities of place. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of local services and the workers who deliver them – we should ‘Build Back Better’ based on the principle of subsidiarity.
• There is a wealth of evidence that place impacts on health and wellbeing and contributes to creating or reducing inequalities. Sufficient social infrastructure helps tackle isolation and improves physical and mental health. This includes how we design communities and create integrated local health and care services.
• Scotland’s high streets and town centres were struggling even before the pandemic with five stores a week closing. We look at the various initiatives to repurpose our town centres in Scotland and across the UK and the proposals from the retail employers and trade unions. Community Wealth Building should be at the core of the measures needed to rebuild local economies, based on wellbeing and inclusion. We need to rethink our town centres as places where people live and work, not just shop, although that will remain important. This requires a much larger regeneration programme that redevelops redundant retail spaces and car parks into homes, workplaces, community hubs and social spaces.

Author: Alison Campsie, The Scotsman

IT has lit the passage of vessels through some of the west coast’s most challenging waters for more than 170 years – now the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse is entering its very own bright spell.

The Ardnamurchan Lighthouse complex has been bought over by the local community after years of negotiations with hopes to develop further the landmark as a major attraction in this remote part of the Highlands.

Following years of negotiations, the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse complex, which sits on the most westerly point of the British mainland, has now been bought over by the surrounding community with plans to develop it further as one of the great heritage and wildlife attractions of the area.

In the hands of former Milwall FC owner and luxury hospitality entrepreneur Peter de Savaray, access to the lighthouse grounds was restricted to the public, with Highland Council buying it from the businessman in 1991.

It has been run by a community trust for the past 20 years, with a community asset transfer (CAT) recently concluded.

Ardnamurchan Lighthouse Trust now plans to carry out essential repairs and maintenance to the buildings routinely battered by water, wind and salt and invest in its holiday accommodation on the site to help draw more visitors to the area and drive economic growth in this part of the west Highlands.

Stephanie Cope, project manager for the trust, said: “We are all delighted and the feeling at the trust is highly positive. It has been a very challenging year to attempt to get ownership in terms of Covid but we feel now we are in a good position.

“The peninsula is so special and we have this wonderful natural environment to share. Its a fantastic experience for our guest to come here and enjoy everything the Highlands and Hebrides has to offer. People come to enjoy the history of the place and the marine wildlife and the eagles.

“It has taken tenacity, sleepless nights, strong partnerships, and a collective vision of the huge potential this attraction has for buttressing Ardnamurchan’s remote rural economy.”

Trust chairman Ritchie Dinnes added: “Local people have always felt a sense of ownership over this site. Now, with the completion of our community asset transfer, the focal role of the lighthouse complex in our community has been strengthened.”

The peninsula runs alongside Loch Sunart and the Sound of Mull on the south coast with views to islands of Skye, Muck, Eigg and Rhum from the north. The coastlines meet at Ardnamurchan Point, where the lighthouse was built by the Stevenson dynasty in 1849.

The lighthouse, a 39-metre tower built from Isle of Mull granite, was designed by Alan Stevenson, uncle of Robert Louis Stevenson. It is the only lighthouse in the world to be built in an “Egyptian“ style.

The lighthouse itself is still maintained by the Northern Lighthouse board, with the trust running holiday accommodation, a visitor centre and cafe in the surrounding buildings.

Priorities for the Grade A heritage site include upgrading the private water supply to and improving self-catering cottages and the foghorn viewing platform.

The CAT was completed after the trust was awarded £224,900 from the Scottish Land Fund last year to purchase the lighthouse complex and carry out essential repairs.

John Watt, chair of the Scottish Land Fund, commented: “It is good to see the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse Trust achieving its goal of taking this landmark into community hands, and ensuring its future as a local asset.”

The handover from Highland Council was completed on July 27, bringing to a conclusion a lengthy campaign to bring it into community hands which was started in 1996 by Dr Michael Foxley, then a councillor, who persuaded the local authority to buy the site from Mr de Savaray.

Councillor Allan Henderson, chair of the communities and place committee, said: “The council is delighted to complete the transfer of the ownership of the land and buildings surrounding the lighthouse to the local trust that has run it for many years. We wish them success in their future ventures.”

Author: Community Land Scotland

Artists and Landowners – telling the story of Scotland’s land in the hands of local people

Community Land Scotland, working in partnership with The Stove Network in Dumfries, has announced the results of a competitive bid to appoint three new commissions for artists to work with community land owners across Scotland to tell their story.

Artists and Community Landowners aims to raise awareness of community landownership both to communities and to Scotland by taking new approaches to telling the stories of post purchase community landowners, and the wider story of community ownership across Scotland.  This project will explore what happens when a community takes ownership of an estate, woodland or urban farm and how that affects the community itself and its relationship the land.

“We are bringing artists and community landowners together to work collaboratively over a period of four months finding creative and active ways to hear, learn and share their stories.”

“The relationship between people and the land inspired Scottish artists and musicians for hundreds of years, but the story of modern community landownership is yet to be fully explored. We wanted to work with artists to tell this important part of Scotland’s modern history“ says Linsay Chalmers, development manager at Community Land Scotland.

“We have had a terrific response from a wide variety of artists across Scotland working in very different mediums, and it has been a privilege to read their proposals and very hard to select the final successful three.  We hope the project will ultimately culminate in an exhibition of their works for everyone to see.”

Environmental artist and creative educator Richard Bracken from Drumnadrochit, has been appointed to work directly with the community landowners and tell the story of Abriachan Forest Trust by Loch Ness.  Like the Forest Trust, Richard Bracken has worked with young and marginalised people and so he will be able to draw out both the environmental and social benefits that come with community landownership. “ I’m delighted to have this opportunity to work closely with Abriachan Forest Trust and contribute to a wider conversation around community landownership. For me, creativity and the ability of people to access land are strongly connected, so I’m thrilled to be involved in a project that brings these things together and shines light on the potential being realised by more and more communities in Scotland,” said Richard.

This was the first project ever funded by the Scottish Land Fund in 1998. The community purchased 540 hectares of forest and open hill ground from Forest Enterprise. Since then the Trust has managed this land to create local employment, improve the environment, and encourage its enjoyment by the public through a network of spectacular paths, family suited mountain bike trails, innovative outdoor learning as well as health and well-being opportunities. Abriachan is a scattered rural community of about 130 people set high above the shores of Loch Ness.

Sculptor and printmaker Virginia Hutchison from Lewis will work with Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn (Galson Estate Trust) on the Isle of Lewis. Virginia will create an installation in the form of waymarkers representing personal and collective conversations about the community ownership of the estate.  She said: “”Countering a fractious history of private landownership in Scotland, community landowners like Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn have embarked on a strategic programme of development that involves the whole community in the processes of decision making. I’m delighted to be collaborating with the Urras to find creative methods of recounting the collective experiences of the buyout and the events that led up to it. How this narrative is developed alongside the Stove Network and Community Land Scotland, will be invaluable to the development of the Urras and to other communities who are about to embark on the process.”

The Galson Estate is community owned – some 56,000 acres of coast, agricultural land and moor in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It comprises 22 villages with a population of nearly 2,000 people. The estate passed into community ownership in 2007 to be managed on their behalf by the Trust.

The third commission is to award winning artist partnership Dr Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant, who develop projects through the lens of a camera, both film and still photography.  They will work with Community Land Scotland through a “Stories of Radical Landownership” commission that will focus on the journeys of another four communities. These are the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust, North Harris Trust, South West Mull and Iona Development and Bridgend Farmhouse in Edinburgh.

“We are delighted to have been selected for the Stories of Radical Landownership commission. This project means a lot to us both with regards to telling the wider story of community landownership in Scotland today and collaborating with individual Community Trusts to highlight their individual journeys.  We are excited to be working on a project of such significance in Scotland and one which we hope can have a real impact in the ongoing developments of community buy out initiatives across the country.” Saskia Coulson & Colin Tennant

The Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust is the community organisation which owns the Isle of Eigg and manages the island’s development. In 1997, after years of instability, neglect and lack of secure tenure, the Trust purchased the land largely due to the generosity of around ten thousand members of the general public.

The 25,900 hectares of North Harris make up one of the largest community owned estates in Scotland. The Trust aims to increase employment opportunities, address local housing needs, and protect and enhance North Harris wonderful cultural and natural heritage.

South West Mull and Iona Development (SWMID) is a community led organisation set up to tackle issues of deprivation including access to health services, lack of year round employment and a shortage of affordable housing on the islands of Mull and Iona. Their achievements are wide ranging – from providing space for a community gym, to owning and managing a 789 hectare commercial forest to generate local income.

Bridgend Farmhouse in Edinburgh was bought by the local community and brought back from dereliction to create a community kitchen and café, meeting spaces and workshops which house DIY, bike repair, wood and metal working and arts and crafts. Situated close to an area of multi deprivation it has an important role.

The artists were chosen from a competitive pitch – and their work over the next four months will explore the impact of community land ownership on the community. Their residencies will be interpreted as appropriate during COVID 19 restrictions and elements of it may be “virtual”.

Community Land Scotland is the representative body for Scotland’s aspiring and post-purchase community landowners. It promotes the sustainable development benefits of community landownership and works with communities to support and encourage community ownership of land and buildings throughout Scotland.     Their vision is of more communities reaping the benefits of community landownership and promoting a socially just Scotland through community landownership. Together their members are own some 560,000 acres of land, home to some 25,000 people.

The artists appointed

Coulson and Tennant – CT productions – Dr Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant are Fine Art Photography graduates from Glasgow School of Art. They are an award-winning artist partnership which develops projects through a lens-based practice, combining genres of documentary and fine art. Their work is underpinned by academic research and through visual storytelling. “We create artistic, documentary and environmental work for a wide range of organisations and for our own projects,” says Dr Saskia Coulson. “To do this we collaborate with very many different communities and individuals and draw inspiration from historical, creative and ecological references.”  The partnership is currently developing a project in Greenland which explores how climate change impacts craft makers and identifies links to the current landscape in Scotland. This project is funded by the British Council and is underpinned by the Scottish Government’s Arctic Connections Policy Framework.

Richard Bracken studied Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art. He has ten years of experience engaging with communities and collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams in Scotland and abroad. He is influenced by the exploration of the landscape, and designs and contributes to ecological and heritage focussed projects. Most recently as Lead Artist in Room 13 International he has been engaging with young people remotely during C19 crisis to enable continued creative development.

Virginia Hutchison – is a Sculptor and printmaker, graduate from The Royal College of Art London and Gray’s School of Art Aberdeen. Most recently she is completing a micro residency on ‘Life Under Lockdown’ examining the idea of touch within hospital environments, produced in collaboration with Tonic Arts and NHS Lothian in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Community Landowners

www.abriachan.org.uk

www.galsontrust.com

www.isleofeigg.org

www.north-harris.org

www.swmid.co.uk

www.bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk

Partners:

The Stove Network is an arts and community organisation based in the centre of Dumfries.  They hope from this project to foster some really meaningful connections between the Trusts and local artists, create some brilliant material that shares theses diverse stories of community land ownership, urban and rural, across Scotland and inspire others to work with creative people in this collaborative and co-developed as a way of having different and possibly more inclusive conversations about our places at every stage of their journey.

As a successful social enterprise, The Stove is the first artist-led Development Trust in Scotland, providing regular employment for 25 people.      A kitchen-table style of practice and developing work is one based on the values of risk-taking, collaboration, emotional openness, empowerment, positive disruptive change, innovation and inclusion. They are committed to finding locally led solutions as part of our place and community.

The practice is one that engages artists and creative people to co-develop work from regular conversational activity into large-scale strategic projects. It is a process-led practice that uses creative activity to facilitate community-led development, projects and decision-making grown from a foundation in community engagement.

Author: SCDC, Communities Channel

Forming a community group

Much of the advice on Communities Channel Scotland is aimed at community groups or organisations. But what if you are at an earlier stage than this? You may know others with the same interest or passion but don’t know what to do next. Or you may not have found others to join up with yet. This short guide explains the benefits of working as an organised group, and provides some advice and links to help you on your way.

Why form a group?

An example of where people have been forming community groups is in response to Covid-19Being an organised community group makes it easier to take action in your community for the following reasons:

You will know who is committed to taking action with you and find it easier to agree who will do different tasks.

It helps to have regular meetings in place in which your activities can be planned and you can check on progress.

The wider community will find a named, organised group more easy to relate to than if you are less organised.

Being an organised group with a name makes it easier to do other things that will help you, such as get funding and to influence decisions.

Where to start?

If you want to form a group it can be difficult to know where to begin.

Hopefully, you will know people in your community who have a similar interest. If you don’t, are there any existing groups or support organisations that might share your interest or have the same background? (A good way of finding out about support groups and organisations is to contact your local ‘third sector interface’ – see the advice and support section below).

If no existing groups or support exist locally, perhaps you could place an advert in the local library or other public venue. Social media is another useful way to find those who have similar concerns or ideas.

Once you have found likeminded people, you could arrange to meet informally at first and then start to think about how to take things forward. The sorts of things you might want to discuss at first are:

Who you are

You might know what you are trying to do, but others will want to know which community you represent, including people who aren’t in your group and anyone who makes decisions affecting you and your community.

Your community can be any of the following:

• a community of place (e.g. a neighbourhood, village);
• a community of identity (people who share similar experiences such as disabled people, minority communities, fathers); and/or
• a community of interest (people who have a common social, cultural, environmental or recreational interest).

It will also help to state clearly that you are open to other people joining from your community.

Your purpose

Although the people in your new group will likely share similar concerns and issues, it will be good to agree on a clear purpose that other people can understand and get behind.

Although the bus service is important to you, it is good to think about what you are trying to achieve in the long term, such as reducing social isolationIt will also be helpful to think in terms of the longer-term change you want to see. For instance, if your concern is to do with a bus service being stopped you might want to think about what it is that taking the service away might lead to, such as increased social isolation. Then, your group can be open to finding new ways of reducing isolation, such as a community meeting place, on top of any work to prevent the reduction of the bus service.

Finally, bear in mind that your group will be much more likely to find support if it aims to benefit the wider community, and not only the members of your group. This includes support from other community members, funders, decision makers or support organisations.

How you will be organised

This is where things get a bit trickier and some of the sources of support listed below will be useful. How you set yourself up as a group will depend on your community and purpose.

It might be fine to remain a relatively informal group, but in order to do some things you will need to be more formally organised. This includes being able to apply for some sources of support or funding and to carry out more ambitious activities such as taking over a local building using the Community Empowerment Act.

More formal options include becoming a registered charity and having a constitution. Some of the support listed below will help you get started.

Advice and Support

You could get in touch with your local organisation that supports voluntary organisations (sometimes called third sector interfaces) to ask if they support groups starting out. Click here for a list of local third sector interfaces. There may also be smaller local networks that could offer support.

Some third sector interfaces provide guidance you can download. For instance, Skye and Lochalsh Council for Voluntary Organisations produced the Community Toolkit, which contains advice on starting a group. It’s not being updated anymore, but can be downloaded here.

There’s also a national organisation, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). SCVO offers online advice about starting a group.

There may also be national ‘umbrella’ organisations or networks who work in the area you are interested in and who may offer support around setting up your group. SCVO has created a directory of such organisations.

The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) provides guides for becoming a charity. This takes you through the different stages, including considering whether or not your group should become a charity. OSCR also has a contact page.

Your local authority (or ‘council’) may provide support for community groups. This support is usually called ‘community development’, ‘community learning and development’ (CLD), or sometimes ‘community engagement’.

Many new groups have sprung up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in order to support vulnerarable people in their communities. Some advice on setting up a group can be found on Mutual-Aid UK’s website. Communities Channel Scotland has been compiling other resources for groups responding to Covid-19. Click here to take a look.

You can also find more guidance and information elsewhere on Communities Channel Scotland. For instance, see our Growing Your Group section.

Author: Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow

ALASTAIR McIntosh is one of the world’s leading environmental campaigners, an author, scholar, broadcaster, activist, shell-fish forager, Quaker, whisky connoisseur and Hon Professorial Fellow at the University of Glasgow.

Riders On The Storm was commissioned by the publishers, Birlinn as a prelude to COP26. Within its pages is the story of how the book adapted and changed through the maelstrom that is the present global pandemic, COP26 in Glasgow, Brexit, the Australian bush fires, Greta Thunberg’s Skolstrejk för Klimatet and Extinction Rebellion.

In the midst of this, and without the privilege of salaried, scholarly means, McIntosh found the concentration and the tenacity to draw together both science and the arts.

In addition, he has insisted on what some might say are the dark arts of starlit alchemy, gathering in old stories of faeries, West Papuan and Hebridean, and drawing out a wider and a deeper view of our common world and its torn mantle.

In so doing he offers a steady, gentle voice, counterbalancing the ones which shout denial and alarm in street protests or down our timelines.

Riders comprises nine chapters. The first – A Walk Along The Shore – takes Kenneth White’s poem and melds the West Papuan provincial climate dilemma with the western seaboard of McIntosh’s native Lewis.

Through stories of ruined blackhouses, the traumatised offspring of one Mary Anne MacLeod, Donald John and a common pot of beautiful green-lipped mussels, he explores the enduring and mutually binding experiences of the traumatic effects of colonisation and land theft.

The last two chapters are equally poetic – chapter 8, The Survival Of Being and chapter 9, The Rainmaker, where, without giving too much away, we discover the limits of our kith, kin and ken, and find ourselves riding on the storm by means of a call to humility and hospitable fostership to the stranger, and their strange, rain-making ways.

In between these chapters are three solidly scientific chapters and three depth psychological chapters considering the causes, in trauma and ego, of both denialism and alarmism.

The scientific chapters, which take on the statistics and data, consider the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s work and offer what is hailed as a comprehensive overview of the best that peer-reviewed science on climate has to offer.

Denialists and alarmists are given kind, but short shrift. McIntosh sees science as evolving, as certainly conservative by nature and imperfect in accuracy, but as providing a range within which there is a possible “centre” that can hold enough alarming certainty for action to be acutely necessary.

The chapter on climate change denialism, not least of the eye-wateringly well-endowed nature of its powerful proponents, also offers compassion for expert scientists and the scientific advisers to McIntosh’s own work, who find themselves and their families subjects of sustained attack.

The chapter on alarmism is a cautionary tale about leadership and the dangers of ecofascism.

He considers the contributions of Greta Thunberg and the tragic internal splittering that is occurring within Extinction Rebellion at present. Here it is that McIntosh moves into his stride as a liberation theologian, peace-maker, community activist and poet.

Some might see McIntosh’s faith as obscuring, or transcendentalising what is at stake, holding out hope for a saviour.

I must confess here, to being what might be termed a person who prays, uneasy with the Church these days, but formed in faith. What I see is not a transcendental argument but an incarnational one, a view of the world as shared and embodied and messy. Like birth. Like death. Like life on Earth.

McIntosh is strikingly optimistic about the power and possibility instantiated by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and he may not go so far as saying that local community, mutual aid and world-linking webs of entanglement and wisdom can ‘‘save us’’, but he sees in these answers to the old question: “How, then, given this, shall we live?”

COP26 comes to Glasgow in 2021 now, pandemic and all other things being equal. It could and probably will be a corporate, conferencing circus and competition for hot air – and at the same it probably will all be a community fringe festival of assorted artists and activists with a heart for change and a hope for co-operation. Just to meet will be a meal in itself.

How to arrive well at such a gathering, as the inhabitants of Leurbost on Lewis, and from the West Papua province in Riders do, needs, as McIntosh suggests, an acknowledgement that: “… in Scotland, there are traditionally two sacred duties to the guest: hospitality for the short term, and fostership for permanence. As a proverb has it: ‘The bonds of milk are stronger than the bonds of blood.’”

This book is published by Birlinn, one of the many small publishers struggling for their own survival in the world of pandemic collapse. If you want pathways for sustaining goodness, community, small, beautiful things, then buy direct. Read. Mark. And inwardly digest. It is milk. Fostership. Not ‘‘Doom but dharma’’.

Alison Phipps is Unesco Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow

Author: Scottish Land Commission

Two new protocols published by the Scottish Land Commission aim to help give communities a greater stake in how land is owned and used in Scotland.

The protocols set out expectations of landowners to assess use and ownership of their landholdings as part of their normal business and to work together with communities to explore negotiated transfer, lease and management of land and buildings to meet the community’s needs.

The protocols are the latest in a series produced by the Scottish Land Commission to encourage practical implementation of the Scottish Government’s Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement (LRRS).

The first of the two new protocols sets out how landowners can help achieve a more diverse pattern of land ownership and tenure. The protocol suggests landowners have an important part to play in promoting greater economic development and social wellbeing by helping to change the pattern of ownership and tenure of land.

The second protocol encourages landowners to take steps to facilitate greater community ownership, lease and use of land, supporting local people to meet community needs and to use land and buildings to provide housing, business opportunities, community facilities and greenspace to enhance their wellbeing.

Land commissioner Sally Reynolds said: “More diversity of land ownership is likely to unlock more innovation, economic activity and opportunities for communities, businesses and individuals. Owners and managers of land in Scotland have an important role to play in releasing these opportunities in the course of normal business, not only through statutory measures.

“These protocols help set out clear expectations for regularly reviewing opportunities to sell, lease or make available land for other productive purposes, and engaging proactively where community ownership is an option.

“While community ownership may not always be appropriate in every case, owning, or leasing land and buildings can give communities a much stronger voice in decisions made about priorities, at a local level.”

Author: Source Direct

There is a gap between what the Scottish Government claims it wants to do in its economic response to this crisis and its actions.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said on International Worker’s Day on Friday that: “If we’re to maximise the chance to renew our country, then we need to take a serious look at how we want to address inequalities of income and inequalities of advantage.” Correct, so why two days later did The Herald report that one of the Scottish Government’s most resolute policy measures to tackle inequality in this parliamentary term, the scrapping of charitable tax breaks for private schools, was being dropped? If the Scottish Government want to use this crisis as an opportunity to tackle inequality, you wouldn’t prop up private schools with savings on business rates which could be spent on tackling child poverty, or on paying social carers more. Private schools are the definition of entrenched inequality.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that she would like to introduce a Universal Basic Income, but does not have the necessary powers at Holyrood to do so. Fair enough, but what is the Scottish Government actually going to do with the powers it has got to tackle inequality and poverty? It could cancel rent payments in the short-term and in the long-term introduce rent controls, as tenants’ union Living Rent has suggested. It could cancel or re-negotiate PFI contracts and re-nationalise care homes, as public health physician Allyson Pollock has suggested. It could take advantage of the fact that EU state aid rules have been largely suspended to take over strategic sectors of the economy which are revenue raising, such as green energy production. It could use tax levers at local authority level to increase tax on property and land wealth by finally replacing the Council Tax. It could make Income Tax more progressive by increasing the burden on the top 10 per cent of income earners and using the money for a pay rise for key workers, as the STUC has called for.

The problem is that none of these measures will ever be lobbied for by those who tend to have the ear of Ministers. Take the property development lobby, for example. If any industry sector has done well in Scotland out of the last decade, it is the property developers. The Ferret reports that they have managed to utilise this crisis to bolster their control even further over the planning process. New emergency rules allowing more local authority planning decisions to be taken in private during the Covid-19 crisis will leave even less room for public scrutiny of planning decisions. The rules were introduced in consultation with the property developer lobby – Scottish Property Federation and Homes for Scotland – but without any input from community groups.

It’s not the only way in which the property lobby have done well out of this crisis. Housing Minister Kevin Stewart dropped enforcement measures on new home energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector, which were supposed to come into force 1 April. The reduced costs for landlords will mean higher electricity bills for tenants and poorer public health outcomes. The Scottish Government has also given short-term let flat owners access to the small business grant fund, meaning if AirBNB landlords all applied for the scheme they could be in for a collective £13 million windfall. Its anyone’s guess why the Scottish Government think at a time when families are going hungry, dishing out money to AirBNB landlords – which act to reduce the availability of residential housing – is a good use of public funds. As Scottish Greens MSP Andy Wightman has pointed out, these landlords are already getting 100 per cent business relief during this crisis.

AirBNB has successfully lobbied the Scottish Parliament before, to water down the Planning Bill last year. The short-term lets firm used Halogen Communications, a lobbying firm run by two ex-civil servants and senior Tory staffers. It helps to have people who know how the system works. Other Halogen clients include the notorious tobacco giant Philip Morris international, the real estate fund manager Frogmore Property and the supermarket Morrisons. I’m sure Halogen have been busy during this crisis.

At least we know who Halogen’s clients are. Charlotte Street Partners, run by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson, keeps its corporate clients secret. We know, however, that CSP worked for IHSL, the private finance consortium at the centre of the storm over the Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital, which has been delayed due to construction faults while IHSL continued to get millions in pay-outs from the taxpayer. And we know Wilson doesn’t like the idea of higher taxes on the rich during this crisis, because he told us. Writing on CSP’s blog, he said: “Taxing the rich rhetoric will see us through maybe one election, a satisfying, reckless, and ironic self-indulgence. The truth is that this is a burden all will have to bear.” One would think that Ministers would want to avoid association with secretive corporate lobbyists working for firms extracting cash from the NHS and openly opposing progressive taxation, but apparently not. Economy Minister Fiona Hyslop has happily tweeted Wilson’s ideas for economic recovery, published on another CSP blog, as an “interesting adaptation of my four point economic plan.”

The Scottish Government’s economic recovery group is laced with such conflicts of interest between the corporate world and government. We are not going to see proposals for radical land reform while the chairman of Buccleuch Estates, Benny Higgins, is on the recovery group. Neither are we going to see plans to cut the ludicrous salaries of university Principals as part of a package of measures to deal with financial shortfalls in higher education, when University of Glasgow Principal Anton Muscatelli is also on the group. People don’t tend to recommend that they should take a pay cut or see their own power curtailed.

Here’s the reality: you can’t do what the corporate lobby want and reduce inequality. It’s a contradiction in terms. The lobbyists work for the richest people and companies in Scotland. They are paid to protect their interests. If the Scottish Government want us to believe that they are going to back up their rhetoric on Scotland’s future with actions, they have to give the corporate lobby the cold shoulder.

Author: International Futures Forum

Understanding Scotland is a project of International Futures Forum inspired by the Glasgow Indicators Project ‘Understanding Glasgow’ with which we are also involved.

It takes as its basis the IFF World System Model – a framework of twelve nodes, each of which needs to be healthy to ensure the viability of the whole (see right). The framework operates at all levels of human community – the family, the village, the city, the nation, the world and so on.

The model can also act as a comprehensive scanning framework for the health of the system – in this case Scotland.

The database underpinning the site logs trends and possible discontinuities associated with each of the twelve nodes. A selection is now live: just click on a node to reveal a summary.

The database also records promising innovations in each domain that suggest a more viable and resilient future. The next phase of the project will make those visible too.

As the database builds over time it will also reveal information about the connections between nodes: most trends and innovative projects will have an impact on more than one node. As such it becomes both a diagnostic and a design tool for greater resilience.

The model is also the basis for the IFF World Game – in which a central issue is addressed in the context of the comprehensive framework provided by this kind of scanning. We have played a number of World Games about Scotland’s future. We hope that the Understanding Scotland project will become an open resource for more such activity… and we will be posting the results on this site.