Barra Gathering Blog by Iain MacKinnon
This years SCF Annual Gathering is taking place on the Island of Barra from the 6th to the 8th October 2008. Below is a daily blog of the conference.
Wednesday 7th of October - Shucksmith Responds to Critics
He reminded delegates to the gathering that the report was produced by a committee of eight – the majority of them either crofters themselves or very closely involved in crofting issues. The committee, said Professor Shucksmith, had engaged with more than 2,000 crofters and gathered "mountains of evidence". "Unfortunately very little notice of this evidence has been taken in some of the opinions voiced this summer," he added.
Some crofters, particularly in northwest Sutherland, have criticised the Committee's plans to decentralise regulation to a regional level. Professor Shucksmith said the responses to the report suggested this group did not represent the majority of crofters. He said: "Amongst 300 written submissions, four thought the Crofters Commission did a good job, but the remainder criticised the Commission or proposed changes.
"A recurring theme was that the composition of the Commission should change to permit greater area representation and to be more accountable. Many called for democratically elected representatives, including local area delegates."
Professor Shucksmith said it was ironic that in their survey – the most comprehensive survey of crofting opinion ever undertaken, covering 1,000 people and undertaken by a reputable survey company – the area which showed the highest level of support for local crofting boards was in the north west Highlands.
He said the survey showed that: 46 per cent thought that the appropriate level for regulation to occur was at the local community level; 34 per cent thought it should be at the local area level; 16 per cent thought it should be at the local authority level; and only 21 per cent thought it should be at the current national level.
Professor Shucksmith said: "I am discouraged by those who say that crofters can not be trusted to run their own affairs. If we really believe crofters are not up to the job of taking responsibility then we might as well go home now. But the evidence is clear – most crofters do want more local control and accountability."
He said there was also an overwhelming weight of evidence for more comprehensive regulation of the system. The survey showed that 57 per cent were opposed to croft sales to the highest bidder with only 24 per cent in favour.
Professor Shucksmith added that more than two thirds of survey respondents wanted restrictions on sales and transfers while a massive 88 per cent said crofts should only be available to those who work the croft. There was also overwhelming evidence of a desire to take action against absentee crofters and a general desire for more powers of regulation to be applied.
"All this evidence is available for anyone to read on our website, and it is rigourous and compelling," said Professor Shucksmith. "It gives the lie to those who say we didn't reflect what crofters told us."
He concluded: "The Committee of Inquiry was established to gather evidence and to propose a vision for the future of crofting: its proposals are based on strong evidence and a widely acccepted vision. Central to this is tackling neglect, absenteeism and land speculation.; and that crofters themselves should take control.
"It is claimed now by some that crofters do not want responsibility and accountability, and that they oppose measures to tackle these crucial issues, but you have seen the evidence that they very clearly did want these things last year. Have crofters' opinions reversed since last year? Or are some people now shouting louder than others?"
None of the prominent objectors to Professor Shucksmith's report attended the gathering which was also addressed by Scottish Government Environment Minister Michael Russell.
Mr Russell has responsibility for crofting matters and last month presented the Government's response to the Shucksmith Report. He used his speech at the gathering to attack the comments of one prominent Shucksmith critic, Ross Skye and Inverness West MSP John Farquhur Munro.
When it first came out Mr Munro said the report contained some "very positive ideas" and there was "no doubt" it had been broadly welcomed in the crofting counties. However, Mr Russell said that Mr Munro had now changed his tune and had recently told the media "we've saved the Crofters Commission, now let's bin the rest of Shucksmith".
"What is he talking about?" said Mr Russell. "Does he want to bin the idea that we need a register of crofts? Does he want to bin the idea that LFASS needs to be reformed?
Mr Russell offered little new information on the Government's plans for crofting but robustly defended them against criticism from delegates.
In his presentation Mr Russell said it was time to move forward constructively. "I think there is a good will and support among the public of Scotland – we need to get up and get on with this process now," he said. "If we have the sight of people tearing lumps out of each other then that good will might well be lost."
Nonetheless there was a good deal of concern among delegates at aspects of the government's response which changed some of Shucksmith's proposals – not the least of which was a lack of commitment to give greater financial support to crofting.
When discussing the make up of the area crofting boards Mr Russell said that "election is always better than appointment", a principle he has so far refused to extend to the election of the chair of the reformed Crofters Commission.
Defending this decision he said: "The legislative context is set nationally and that is why we have said there is to be an appointed chair. If the government can appoint them, the government can get rid of them."
SCF Skye delegate Donald MacDonald said that a Ministerial reshuffle could happen at any time and that crofters had not forgotten that it was not so very long ago they were dealing with a Minister who believed that "we could always build new crofts" or who could appoint Crofters Commissioners with little or no sympathy towards the crofting way of life.
"Michael Russell has shown great support for crofting but he will not be the Minister for Crofting for ever," he added.
"What will be the attitude of the next minister with responsibilty for crofting? Such uncertainty does not breed confidence, nor will it offer stability. Both the Minister and Professor Shucksmith talk a lot about empowering crofters and crofting communities. By having crofters elect their own chair to their own regulatory body, Mr Russell could at a stroke deliver a system that provides stability, confidence and empowerment.
"If it has the freedom to be able to act on behalf of crofters the new body will be able to offer the civil service a more accurate assessment of crofting's needs and give a more accurate assessment of how crofters can help Government meet other national policy objectives."
Another issue that was raised was of the future of crofting development – there had already been concern from crofters that Shucksmith proposed hiving off the development arm of crofting away from the new regulatory body and into Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
The Government's proposals have compounded these concerns, as they have ignored Shucksmith's recommendation for crofting development to be within a "powerful Crofting and Community Development body ideally within HIE".
Instead the government plan to drop crofting into the "mainstream" of HIE's economic development work.
There was criticism that this might lead to conflicts of interest within HIE and Mr Russell was asked if development funding for crofting would be 'ring fenced' under this proposal.
He replied: "I can't reassure you that they will be ring fenced but I can tell you that Sandy Cumming, the chief executive of HIE, is incredibly positive about this proposal. We believe in the relevance of small-scale land use in the modern age – it is an idea whose time has come.
"And I have spoken to Willie Roe, the HIE chairman, who said he was excited about the prospect of looking after crofting development."
Tuesday 6th of October - Evening - Unveiling the Crofting Mark
'Failte' – 'Welcome' – it said in large green letters on the wall, behind a stage swathed in the new SCF tartan. The Vatersay Hall was packed last night for the launch of the crofting mark. Islanders had turned out in force to find out more about the brand and had brought with them some impressive examples of the fruit and vegetables being grown locally – but for the meat produce delegates would have to wait until they returned to Castlebay and the SCF annual dinner.
Around the walls of the Vatersay Hall were pictures of islanders taken at the turn of the century, including a photo of her most famous sons – the Vatersay raiders. These were landless men from Barra and Mingulay who, as Crofting Minister Michael Russell reminded us, 100 years ago were imprisoned in Edinburgh for seizing land from Lady Cathcart's farm on the island. Mr Russell said: "The men who raided Vatersay did not do so from fond memories of the turf – they did so because they needed to produce food for themselves and their families."
He added that many places in Scotland have lost that link between the land and what it can produce. That link, the Minister emphasised, needs to be restored. Here, he felt, was a role for crofting – to help reestablish that link and be of "huge benefit" for Scotland. Mr Russell added that he had recently been in Canada meeting descendents of Scots there who would ask him 'What is it that Scotland is giving to the world today? "Scotland is giving plenty to the world today," he replied. "It is my hope that when we are giving things to the world it will be the crofters of the north and west who are producing those things and that it will be the crofters who are benefitting from that."With that, he launched the crofting mark.
Tuesday 6th of October -Outlining the Crofting Mark
Tuesday began and ended with a focus on the crofting mark.
David Lamb of the Scottish Agricultural College said that research suggested a market for the kind of local food produced by crofters with 44 per cent of UK consumers interested in buying locally and 30 per cent of tourists interested in eating local food on their holidays.
Another hopeful statistic is that the main motivators for buying local seem to be a desire to support communities and producers from that area.
Laurent Vernet, the head of marketing at Quality Meat Scotland, said that the identity and authenticity of crofting was something that crofters could capitalise on. However, he added that crofters also have responsibility to their part in a "European gastronomic culture".
For this reason the brand would hold crofters to produce of a very high standard. Laurent said: "The brand is a promise to the customer or consumer. You must protecct your promise or it will work against you. It is a moral contract."
However he added that this did not mean supplying a year round homogenous product. Taking the context of selling at a farmers' market he added: "If your lamb is a little darker this month, tell the customer this and explain why. They will love it – if they are having a dinner party they can explain that to their friends."
Donald Murdie, the SCF's crofting programme resources manager, argued that, with at least one-third of Scotland's land mass in crofting areas and 25 per cent of agricultural land in those areas in crofting tenure, crofting land is a vast, but underused resource for crofters. Training and education, he argued, will be an important part of the process of making sure more land is better used – and to that end he praised the work of two Uist folk, Mary Norton and Neil MacPherson, who set up and run a crofting module at the Sgoil Lionacleit as part of the national curriculum.
Tuesday 6th October - Wilting Minister ?
Among the unusual suggestions that have emerged from St Andrew's House in the Scottish Government's response to the Shucksmith Report is one that seems to fly in the face of the Government's commitment to 'increase the amount of land in crofting tenure'. In their response to Shucksmith's section 3.3.6, the Government proposes to 'reorient' Crofting County Agricultural Grant Scheme funding towards registered crofters - a good move if they plan to increase the number of croft holdings and make it possible for more smallholders to become crofters.
But hold on! In that regard, section 3.15.10 of Shucksmith says that "all holdings similar to crofts within defined crofting parishes should, if their owners or tenants wish, become subject to crofting regulation."
The importance of this statement goes beyond the potential to give additional support to the tenants concerned. It is a statement which, if enacted, would further weaken the grip that landed power holds over non-crofting users and occupiers of land in the Highlands and Islands it redraws the boundaries. What is the government's response to this radical suggestion? It says bluntly: "The Government considers that tenants of smallholdings…should not be able to convert to crofting without the landowner's agreement."
Given that they are also having CCAGS 'reoriented' away from them, this is a double slap in the face to the hopes of non-crofters wishing to be part of plans to extend and strengthen the crofting system.
And it begs the question of whether Michael Russell, the Minister for Crofting who has expressed strong support for the system and has, now, in his hands the potential to make the changes that could begin its revitalisation is wilting under the influence of landed power, and a hostile civil service still wanting rid of the "nuisance" of crofting tenure?
The government's response suggests that reactionary elements within the civil service have succeeded in sewing up the Shucksmith Report.
Such suspicions are only added to by the government's claim that they should have the power to name the chair of the new Crofters Commission.
The best argument that supporters of this continuation of the 'colonial administration' approach to the governance of crofting is that the chair will need to be someone who "understands" how the civil service works.
As well as supporting an extension of the "doctrine of trusteeship" that has been discredited in international law throughout civilised world, supporters of this view are falling into the trap that Professor Shucksmith set in the introduction to his report. There he quoted the Taylor report of 50 years ago. At the time Taylor remarked that his committee found few "reserves of knowledge, experience and leadership" among crofters.
The times are changing. Shucksmith added: "Today in sharp contrast many crofting communities have shown their ability and resolve to take charge of their own destiny there is no lack of leadership and ideas."
Michael Russell says he has "welcomed the vision that the Committee has set out for the future of crofting". Key to our future is the empowerment of crofting communities. That being the case does Michael Russell really believe that no crofter can be trusted to chair a body whose sole function will be to regulate and promote the crofting system of land tenure?
Tuesday Morning - 7th October
The hospitality at the gathering last night did Barra proud. There was a fine dinner at the Isle of Barra Hotel where local produce featured high on the menu. This was followed by singing, dancing, accordion playing and piping from four very talented young island folk.
Between them, Jessica Ferguson, Amy Dempster, Karen Elder and John James MacNeil took requests for songs (including a lovely piano accompanied version of 'Mar a tha mo Cridhe', which has been popularised by Julie Fowlis of Uist), played pipes and accordion, danced a hornpipe and then played for the rather less footsure dancers of the crofting delegation when they asked for an Orcadian Willow and Canadian Barn Dance, dances that were kept going by enthusiasm rather than virtuosity. Tom Grey offered an unorthodox Lowland version of the Barn Dance which led one crofter to comment with a shake of the head: "He looks like he's trying to shake barb-wire off his foot."
Monday Evening - 6th October
It was under a dark sky and in rain and howling winds that delegates began to gather on Monday for this year's annual gathering of the Scottish Crofting Foundation on the Isle of Barra in the Western Isles.
On a choppy ride on the boat from Skye to North Uist one East Sutherland crofter, obviously more used to rolling seas of heather than the rolling Minch, was heard calling for Hughie - and it wasn't the SCF's new vice chair he was asking for. Hughie's ears might have been burning too as heavy southerly waves shuddered on the bows of the ferry from Eriskay to Barra. A pod of dolphins followed the port side of the vessel, undaunted by the conditions.
A power cut in Castlebay meant that the opening session planned for the community hall there took place instead at Northbay Hall where hearty soup and delicious home baking, provided by the excellent hosts from the Barra Council for Voluntary Organisations, helped fill (and settle) stomachs.
The rain ceased and the wind dropped, so that the weather seemed to mirror SCF chair Neil MacLeod's opening call that the organisation's visit to Barra be a time of healing after a turbulent year when the organisation was faced by a small but determined band of critics "whose only aim was to destroy the SCF".
Having weathered that storm, chief executive Patrick Krause said that this conference was to try to chart a course towards crofters being recognised for providing "public goods". "Crofters deliver significant non-market goods, but if crofters can't make a livelihood from delivering either market or non-market goods then they just won't continue to do it," he added.
Neil MacLeod then introduced Pam Rodway, an organic farmer and cheesemaker from Morayshire who is heavily involved with both the organic certifier the Soil Association and the Slow Food Movement, and who has has worked with the SCF on the Planting to Plate project which encouraged schoolchildren to grow and cook their own food.
Pam said the simplest way to describe the Slow Food Movement is to contrast it with Fast Food: it stands for food that is rooted in a particular place and held dear by a particular culture; it stands for food that is produced in a way that supports and works in harmony with the earth's natural systems; and it stands for food that gives a fair return to the people who grow and rear it.
She said that the marginalisation of local food types in favour of more 'efficient' commoditised fast growing breeds was a worldwide concern, and the world over, she concluded, "communities need to take pride in their local food produce – and in their local food producers".
Following Pam was Perthshire farmer Tom Gray, who took the debate on the future of the bull hire scheme outwith the crofting counties.
Tom describes his approach to farming as being closer to the crofting ethos than to the principles of "agri-business" and despite being within a few miles of two of Scotland's big livestock markets he chooses cattle, in particular heifers, from Scotland's western islands.
He does this because they are more "healthy, hardy and prolific" than their mainland counterparts. They are also isolated, and therefore insulated, from mainland markets where cattle from all over the UK are exchanged, taking illness and disease with them.
"You are isloated over here and you should see that as an asset," he said. "Your distance from market actually makes your cattle more exclusive."
He said that if island cattle rearers could guarantee their herds disease free, then Lowland breeders would be willing to pay a premium for their beasts.
In answer to a question from Shetland crofter Norman Leask, Tom agreed that proposals in the Shucksmith report to remove the Government supported bull hire scheme might cause greater disease risk to Highland herds because department bulls were tested to a high degree as a matter of course – which might not be the case with privately hired bulls.
Tom agreed: "You're quite right - you are never going to get rid of the problem if you keep bringing it in."
In place of their own scheme, the Government have promised to "facilitate" private bull hire, but only to "support" community ownership in remoter areas where transport and overwintering might make the new arrangements more costly than at present.
That the legalistic distinction between "facilitate" and "support" might be a crucial one is exposed a sentence later when the government response admits: "Unfortunately, EU State Aid requirements rule out SRDP support for bull purchase or hire."
Mr Russell may want to explain to crofters how the government will be able to "support" crofters towards community ownership of bulls when "EU State Aid requirements rule out SRDP support for bull purchase or hire".
Norman described the proposal to remove the bull hire scheme as disastrous for the crofting system, thus setting the scene for Crofting Minister Mike Russell to try to explain on Wednesday his support for plans to abolish a scheme that has been a vital component in retaining a level of pastoral agricultural in Scottish islands.